The Savior Generals

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Mark Moyar, The Tough Who Got Going; Instead of punishing them, the Byzantine general Belisarius recruited conquered peoples as allies to help defeat Germanic barbarians. Wall Street Journal, May 23, 2013
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 95153395458508.html
(book review on Victor Davis Hanson, The Savior Generals; How five great commanders saved wars that were lost-from ancient Greece to Iraq. Bloomsbury, 2013)

Note:
(a) "Although his [Mr Hanson's] portraits come from the military realm—ranging from the classical period to the current day--they illustrate eternal verities that arise in all types of endeavor"
(i)
(A) classical (adj):
"of or relating to the ancient Greek and Roman world and especially to its literature, art, architecture, or ideals <classical civilization>"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/classical
(B) Classical period
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_period
(can refer to the following: Classical Greece, specifically of the 5th and 4th centuries BC; Classical antiquity, in the Greco-Roman world; others)
(ii) verity (n):
"something (as a statement) that is true; especially : a fundamental and inevitably true value <such eternal verities as honor, love, and patriotism>"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/verity

(b) "In 480 BC, as massive Persian armies tore through Greece, the Athenian general Themistocles crafted an ingenious plan to turn back the invaders, whereby Athens and the other Greek city-states would concentrate their naval vessels at the straits of Salamis. If they could lure Persia's far larger fleet into the narrow straits, they would mire the Persian ships in currents known only to the Greeks. The leaders of other Greek city-states derided the plan as too unorthodox and risky, Mr Hanson tells us, going along only after Themistocles employed another cunning maneuver—a threat to withdraw the entire Athenian fleet and population to Sicily, which would leave land-bound Greeks at Persia's mercy. On the day the Persians arrived at Salamis, the Greeks sank half their fleet, notching one of history's greatest naval victories.
(i) Themistocles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themistocles
(c 524–459 BC)
(ii) Second Persian invasion of Greece (480-479 BC)
(iii) Battle of Salamis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Salamis
(September 480 BC; in the straits between the mainland and [island of]Salamis; In the cramped conditions of the Straits the great Persian numbers were an active hindrance, as ships struggled to maneuver and became disorganized)

(d) "In another of Mr. Hanson's examples, the Byzantine general Belisarius, in the sixth century, broke with tradition and refrained from plundering newly conquered territories. The standard operating procedures of the time, he recognized, made enemies of peoples who could be converted into allies. Through benevolence, he enlisted the help of local allies in ousting Germanic barbarians from their conquests in Italy and northern Africa, reversing the sliding fortunes of the Byzantine Empire."

Belisarius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belisarius
(full name: Flavius Belisarius; c 500-565 AD; a general of the Byzantine Empire; instrumental to Emperor Justinian's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Mediterranean territory of the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century previously; view the last map showing territories gained)

(e) "Mr Hanson cites in particular Matthew Ridgway's assumption of command of the 8th US Army during its retreat from northern Korea in December 1950[, over]the dispirited troops * * * Within three months of taking command, Ridgway had pushed the Chinese back to the original dividing line between the two Koreas.

Matthew Ridgway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Ridgway
(1895-1993)