Literary notes about warlike (AI summary)
The adjective "warlike" has been employed across genres and eras to evoke a sense of martial vigor, strategic acumen, and heroic intensity. In historical narratives, authors like Tacitus and Livy use it to characterize entire peoples or notable leaders who exhibit resolute martial spirit [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Literary works also imbue characters with a warlike demeanor; for instance, Dumas’s characters adopt a deliberately warlike tone [6, 7, 8], while Homer and Milton invoke warlike imagery to heighten the dramatic essence of battle and valor [9, 10, 11, 12]. Moreover, treatises on military strategy by Sunzi and Clausewitz reveal how the term can articulate qualities essential to leadership in combat [13, 14, 15, 16]. Thus, whether describing a tone, a people’s disposition, or the ethos of a conflict, "warlike" consistently serves as a powerful emblem of martial strength in literature.
- an unbought victory over this warlike people, may be conjectured from the resistance he met with even from their women.
— from The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus by Cornelius Tacitus - [48] The Lucumones were a class of persons among the Etrurians of a warlike sacerdotal character, patricians, not kings.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy - [ It was a wise provision, that among this fierce and warlike people, revenge should be commuted for a payment.
— from The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus by Cornelius Tacitus - Valerius prudently deferred all warlike operations against the armies of the Æquans and the Volscians, which had now formed a junction at Algidum.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy - He was not only unlike the preceding king, but was even of a more warlike disposition than Romulus.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy - “This day will be a warm one,” said Planchet, in a warlike tone.
— from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - Anne of Austria looked with wonderment on the warlike countenance of D’Artagnan, which betrayed a singular expression of deep feeling.
— from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - “Oh, no, dear count!” cried Aramis, “is it not a warlike encounter that we are going to?”
— from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - The warlike bands that distant Lycia yields, Where gulfy Xanthus foams along the fields.
— from The Iliad by Homer - The warlike Angel mov’d, Disdainfully half smiling thus repli’d.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - Twice twenty ships transport the warlike bands, Which bold Elphenor, fierce in arms, commands.
— from The Iliad by Homer - To thir night watches in warlike Parade, When Gabriel to his next in power thus spake.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - To be ignored of any one of the following four or five principles does not befit a warlike prince. 54.
— from The Art of War by active 6th century B.C. Sunzi - When a warlike prince attacks a powerful state, his generalship shows itself in preventing the concentration of the enemy's forces.
— from The Art of War by active 6th century B.C. Sunzi - THE Combat is the real warlike activity, everything else is only its auxiliary; let us therefore take an attentive look at its nature.
— from On War by Carl von Clausewitz - The natural qualities of a warlike people play just this part: BRAVERY, APTITUDE, POWERS OF ENDURANCE and ENTHUSIASM.
— from On War by Carl von Clausewitz
