Liber Martis - Chapter 3

Verses

Father Mars, keeper of the boundary stone, walk before us where the road becomes uncertain.

We do not ask that battle be sweet. Let it remain bitter enough that fools do not crave it.

Guard the field behind the shield, for wheat is the reason the shield was lifted.

Teach the strong man that a city is not preserved by strength alone, but by knowing when to sheath it.

Let every spear remember the hand that forged it, every hand the home that fed it, and every home the peace it hopes to keep.

If victory makes us crueler than the enemy, then write our triumph among our defeats.

Mars, father of founders, keep us from founding only graves.

May the sentry who stays awake be praised before the hero who arrives after the wall has fallen.

The coward fears pain; the madman loves it; the soldier measures it and continues.

Give us iron in the arm, but leave bread in the heart.

When the trumpet sounds, let discipline answer before anger.

The best campaign is the one whose grandchildren remember the harvest more clearly than the war.