The enemy is weaker when plunged into what the statesman Demosthenes described as a “welter of confusion and folly.” A single attack allows resistance to be concentrated, but two or three or four put the enemy between the horns of a dilemma, choosing between equally subpar options. Or, blindly hoping to avoid one attack, he falls headfirst into the other without even knowing. Nero poisoned a suspicious, paranoid rival not by putting poison in his food, because each dish was tested by an attendant. Instead, he arranged for the man to be served a harmless but very hot bowl of soup. It was in the
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