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My object in this paper is to examine how Plato, Aristotle, and Thucydides consider the role of courage in the military field before the Peloponnesian War. Courage is nothing without knowledge and experience. Such is the thesis developed by these three authors. Plato examines the intellectual dimension of courage, Thucidydes establishes the complementarity between courage and experience, and Aristotle asserts that experience as knowledge of particulars is the first criterion in the designation of military strategists.