divided by a Street fifty foot broad from the Allies who constantly quartered on their right hand You will remember that in my Discourse of the Allies I told you that the third part of their Horse and fifth part of their Foot were taken out to wait on the Consul and were called Extraordinaries whom accordingly I have quartered in the upper part of the Camp near the Consul Their Horse at first were six hundred for every Legion whereof two hundred being lodged in the upper part we have but four hundred to quarter in the lower part of the Camp These being by one third stronger than the Roman Cavalry had of ground a Horse of the Allies first Legion lodged third more in breadth allowed but alike length the quarter then for the Horse of the first Legion of the Allies was a thousand foot in length and 13â—½ foot in breadth which contained them well enough this quarter was equally divided into ten parts for ten Troops each consisting of forty Riders Upon the right hand of these Horse were quartered the Foot of the Allies first Legion remember every one of their Legions at their first coming forth was three thousand heavy armed as the Romans were but the fifth part of that number to wit six hundred being taken away by the Consul and lodged besides him we have now but two thousand four hundred to quarter for whom as much ground was allowed as to both the Principes and Hastati as to the breadth so they had a thousand foot in length and two hundred in breadth multiply the one by the And their Foot all in one Row other the product is two hundred thousand foot which superficial measure of ground contain'd them well enough I must tell you of an oversight I have observed in my Lord Preissack's Roman Castrametation which is that he allows to the Allies Foot as much ground as I have done now but no more ground to their Horse than to the Roman Cavalry which was not fair being the one was stronger by one third than the other It is of little or no consequence to us to know nor is it worth our curiosity whether the Allies quarter'd their Foot by Maniples or by Cohorts concerning which Lipsius to me seems to be very needlesly solicitous Upon the right hand of the Allies Foot was the alarm-place constantly two hundred foot broad and next to it was the Rampart We are in the next place to quarter the second Roman Legion and the second Legion of the Allies which is soon done by allowing to every part and member of them the like quantity of ground for length and breadth as we did to those of the two Legions on the right hand as thus On the left hand of that Street which I told you run from the Decuman to the Prâ—tâ—rian Port and intersecteth The other two Legions quartered the Via principalis were the ten Troops of Horse belonging to the second Roman Legion lodged all in a Row next them the Triarii upon their left hand a Street fifty foot broad on the left hand of which lodged the Principes next them the Hastati on their left hand another Street of fifty foot broad upon the left hand whereof were quarter'd the Horse of the Allies and on the left hand of them their Foot on whose left hand was the Alarm-place and next to it the Rampart and Ditch And now we have our whole Consular Army very formally quarter'd in a Camp of an aequilateral square figure as Lipsâ—â—â— du Prâ—issack and Terduzâ—â— The figure of the Roman Camp will needs have it to be though hereafter upon strict examination we shall find it not to be exactly so And what needs the whole be so where all the parts neither are or can be aequilateral In the upper part of the Camp the Prâ—toâ—â—â—â— and the Tribunes quarters with those of the Prafecti of the Allies were â—quilateral square but so were not the quarters allotted to the Questor Legates Evocati or Extraordinarii In the lower part of the Camp the quatters ordain'd for the several Troops of Horse and for the Maniples of the Roman Hastati and Principes were aequilateral but so were neither the quarters of the Triarii nor of the Allies Horse and Foot In the next place before I go further I shall tell you that in this Camp there were four Ports these were the Praetorian Decuman and the right hand principal Port and the left hand principal Port. The two first were at the two ends of the Camp and the other two at the two sides The first had its name because it was nearest the Praetorium and out of it the Consul marched The Decuman serv'd for bringing in provisions and â—odder for taking Beasts out to Four Ports in the Roman Camp water as also out of it were carried the Soldiers that were ordain'd to be punished from whence some think it hath the name Decumana from the Decimating Soldiers alike guilty and punishing the tenth But we read in Livies thirty fourth Book that the Gauls assaulted Consul Sempronius his Camp and enter'd it at the Port Quâ—storia and committed great slaughter till they were beat out We read also oâ— a Port called Quintana which some think was all one with that called Quâ—storia and had this name from the Questor or Treasurer who lodged neer it and the other from the Street Quintana near which that Port was but the Questors quarters being afterward remov'd to the superior part of the Camp to be near the Consul that Port was shut up Observe next that in the Roman Camp there were eight Streets five whereof went in the length of the Camp from the one end of it to the other and were Eight Streets in the Roman Camp called Viâ— Directâ— or direct and straight Streets the other three traverst or crost the Camp in the breadth of it and were called Viâ— transversâ— or cross Streets Of the five direct Streets one divided the length of the Camp equally into two halves and on each side of it as I told you lay the half of the Consular Army Encamped Between the Triarii and Principes of the first Roman Legion was the second direct Five direct ones Street between the Roman Hastati of the first Legion and the Allies first Legion was the third direct Street Between the Triarii and Principes of the second Roman Legion was the fourth direct Street and between the Roman Hastati of the second Legion and the Allies second Legion was the fifth direct Street All these five Streets were each of them fifty foot broad But all five of them Three â—raverse Streets either never had names or have lost them The three cross Streets traversed the latitude of the Camp The one of them was in the upper part of the Camp and divided the Praetorium from the quarters of the Extraordinaries and was of one hundred foot broad and hath lost its name The second cross
shot as some say Balist Darts Lances yea Spears of thirty foot long but others say that it threw only great Weights and Stones Vegetius gives it only power to throw Darts nor doth he at all mention the Catapult which some Authors say shot Catapult very great Stones and of it all other Ancient Writers take notice And they are by them clearly distinguished the one from the other Philip the last King of Macedon except one at the Siege of Echinum had Ambulatory Towers and upon them saith Polybius in his Ninth Book he had Catapults and a platform besides for Balists And in his Fourth Book he says that the Sinopians being destitute of all necessaries got abundance of rich gifts sent to them by several and that particularly the Rhodians sent them besides many other necessaries four Catapults with Engineers to manage them and more clearly in his fifth Book he says that at the Siege of Palâ— Philip had both Catapults and Balists The diversity of Judgements of Authors concerning these two great Engines was this Vegetius saith the Balist threw only Darts and Lances Ammianus who was Vegetius his Contemporary and both a great Souldier and a great Engineer speaks only of Stones for that Engine Valerius Maximus and Vitruvius both of them great Architectors affirm that Stones were the proper missiles of Difference among Authors concerning these two Machines Balists and that Catapults threw Darts Lances and Spears Polybius a great Captain in that cited place at Palae says Philips Balists and Catapults threw Stones and so confoundeth them yet in another place he distinguisheth for he saith In that Battel at Mantinea which Mechanidas the Tyrant of Lacedâ—mon fought against Philopoemon the Achâ—an the first had Catapults which he plac'd in the Van of his Army and Waggons laden with Darts for them therefore they shot no Stones But this is downright against a greater Captain than any I have yet mention'd and that was Julius Caesar who besides his other perfections was an excellent Engineer he saith in the First Book of his Civil War that the Catapult threw great Stones In such a diversity of opinions I think Achilles Terduzzi offers a fair expedient of agreement which is that it is An expedient of reconciliation probable in the times of the Emperours the names of Catapult and Balist were confounded so that the one was taken for the other or that by a new Invention not heard of before both the one and the other threw both Darts and Stones The Balist and the Catapult were made and fram'd according to the weight of the Stone and the length of the Dart or other missiles which they were ordain'd to shoot as our Ordnance are founded according to the weight of the Bullet intended for them from whence many of them have their denomination as a three four or six pounder I made mention of Balists and Catapults in the fourth Chapter of the Grecian Militia the Invention of which Of their Invention some would bestow upon Dionysius one of the Tyrants of Syracusa but I have prov'd in that Chapter from Holy Writ that they were used many ages before Syracusa was forc'd to submit to Tyranny Lipsius seems to give it to the Syrians which may be true and though I told you Oziah one of the Kings of Judah had them on the Walls of Jerusalem yet it was no such shame for the two Tribes to borrow the Invention of Military Machines from Heathen Nations as it was sin for the ten Tribes to borrow and follow the pattern of the Altar of Damascus from their Idolatrous Neighbours There were if you will believe Authors some of these Machines which could shoot Stones of one hundred some two hundred and some of them three hundred and sixty pound and those that cast one hundred pound threw their Stones the length of two Stadia or Furlongs and these make the fourth part of an English Mile It was a custome also to cast into Besieged Towns burning Iron Vessels with molten Lead dead Horses and Tubs and Barrels full of excrements or any thing else that could infest annoy or vex the Besieged And some write that out of a Catapult was shot a long Spear or A strange story Lance from one Bank of the River Danubius where it is broadest over to the other This I dare not believe for I suppose that mighty River before he dischargeth himself may be more than two Italian Miles broad and I will suppose likewise that Gunners will confess that no piece of Ordnance will shoot a Bullet so far point-blank especially over a River Vegetius in the fourteenth Chapter of his Third Book allows Carrobalists Carrobalist to march with the Roman Army Terduzzi thinks they were Arcobalists they shot as our Author saith botâ— Darts and Stones Vegetius saith they had many Conductors but in the last Chapter of his Book he says every Century had a Carrobalist this was a Balist mounted on a Carriage and he allows Mules to draw it and eleven Souldiers of the Century to manage it Now observe that in Vegetius his Legion there were five and fifty Centuries and therefore fifty five Carrobalists every one of which had eleven men to manage them Multiply fifty five by eleven the product is six hundred and five and so many of every Legion Vegetius allows for these Engines And A File eleven deep I pray you observe here in passing that Vegetius expressly allows eleven Souldiers for every Tent or Contubernium by which he doth not obscurely insinuate that the Files of the Roman Foot were eleven deep The greater these Carrobalists were the further they carried their Darts neither saith our Author could any Corsâ—et resist their blow The Onager saith Vegetius shoots Stones like Thunder bolts greater or Onager lesser according to the bigness or thickness of its Cords so it is a kind of Catapult or Balist It hath its name as Steuechius says from the Greek word which signifieth a Wild Ass for those Animals when they are hunted fling Stones with their heels at those who pursue them The Scorpion saith Vegetius shoots small and subtile Darts whereby present Scorpion death was procur'd But Animian makes the Onager and the Scorpion to be all one thing and he avers the Onager to be a new word brought in the room of the old one which was Scorpio and in the description he gives of it cited by Steuechius he makes it only to cast great Stones and no Darts so great a difference there is between him and Vegetius who liv'd both at one time Yet several are of Vegetius his opinion and say the Scorpion threw Darts and Arrows and poyson'd ones too and that from thence that Engine had its name But on the other hand this seems not probable if iâ— be true as iâ— seems to be that all or most Nations have with a tacite assent made it their constant practice and custome and so
ill that these sixteen hundred sixty six Files took no more ground up in Front but one thousand paces that is five thousand foot A thing purely impossible for three foot of Distance is allowed by himself between File and File and next sixteen hundred sixty six Files require sixteen hundred sixty five distances multiply sixteen hundred sixty five by three the product is four thousand nine hundred ninety five these want but 5 foot of Vegetius his one thousand paces Where shall then the sixteen hundred sixty six Combatants stand certainly they had sixteen hundred sixty six foot of ground to stand on add sixteen hundred sixty six to four thousand nine hundred ninety five the aggregate is six thousand six hundred sixty one foot a third more than Vegetius allow'd to sixteen hundred sixty six Files In imitation of him Terduzzi commits the very same errour in his fifth and sixth Chapters In the next place Vegetius allows six foot of distance between The second of Ranks Ranks because men must run when they throw their Darts and Javelines for so they cast them with greater â—orce Vehementius saith he I think he speaks reason but not at all sense when he avers that six Ranks of men having one foot of ground allow'd for every Rank to stand on and six foot between one Rank and another took up forty two foot of ground from the Van to the Rear that is as I think from the toes of the Leaders to the heels of the Bringers up for by his own account and allowance six Ranks can take up no more from Van to the Rear than thirty six foot as thus six foot for the six Ranks to stand on and thirty foot for the five distances The error seems to have proceeded from a fancy he hath had that six Ranks must have six Intervals which is not only false but ridiculously childish In regard in six Ranks there is one distance between the first and second Rank the second between the second Rank and the third the third between the third and fourth Rank the fourth between the fourth and fifth rank and the fifth distance between the fifth and sixth Rank And for his first error that sixteen hundred sixty six Files take no more ground in Front than five thousand foot it will be a folly to defend him by â—aying three Foot were but allowed both for Files to stand on and distance between them for a distance as Lieutenant-Colonel Eltâ—n Definition of a Distance in his compleat Body of the Military Art discribes it well is a place or Interval of ground between every particular File and File and Rank and Rank and therefore no part of that ground on which the Files oâ— Ranks stand When I look'd upon these places of Vegetius and consider'd them I could not but approve of Lipsâ—â—s for qualifying him but on another account with the Titles of Solutus negligens The same Lipsius in the fourth Book of his Commentary quarrels with Polybius for not informing us what distances the several Maniples kept one from another nor what Intervals were kept between the three great Classes and if that piece of Polybius be not lost with others of his works assuredly it was an inexcusable oversight I dare not accuse Vegetius of this neglect though Lipsius seems to do it for I am apt to believe that what he speaks of Vegetius 〈…〉 to be understood the distances between Ranks as I have understood him it is in the fourteenth and fifteenth Chapters of his third Book he may have meant Intervals between the greater Bodies for in these places he useth the words Ordâ— and Acies indifferently and though Ordo be sometimes taken for a Rank sometimes for a Band or Company yet Acies is ever taken for a Battel or Batallion And to me it is clear enough that in the mentâ—â—n'd places he takes Ordo for Batallion and makes six of them the first of Principes the second of Hastati the third â—ourth and fifth of light armed the sixth of Triarii Now it is palpable these great Bodies were not Ranks for every one of them if I mistake not consisted of ten Ranks but were all several Batallions whereof as I told you before he composed his Legion But whether he meant Ranks or Batallions the error I mention'd was still the same in making six several Bodies be they Ranks Files Squadrons or Batallions to have six distances for they cannot possibly have more than five But if in these places he allow'd but six foot of Interval between these Classes and great Bodies it speaks him to have been almost out of his wits when he wrote it as the Reader may collect from the insuing Discourse But being neither Polybius nor Vegetius help us much in the matter of Intervals Lipsius in his fourth Book comforts us and tells us he will not suffer so profitable Lipsius undertakes much a business as is the knowledge of Intervals to remain in darkness In finibus noctis are his words In the Borders of Night and therefore promiseth out of the plentiful Magazine of his own reading to clear the whole matter to us But I am afraid he will not be a man of his word for the greatest undertakers are seldome the best performers However it is fit we hear him for he deserves it First He tells us that he conceives that the Interval between the Hastati But performâ—â—â—ttle and the Principes was fifty foot and between the Principes and the Triarii one hundred Next concerning the Intervals between the Maniples of any of the three Classes which the Romans call'd Via Directa he saith if the Velites were to stand in them the Interval might be of twenty or thirty foot if not ten foot was enough This is briefly all he says on the matter But assuredly if this learned man could convenlently have left the University of Louvaine and followed the Spanish Armies but one Summer or as we call it one Campagne he would have seen under the conduct of the famous Dukes of Alva and Parma the greatest Captains of that age who liv'd at the time that he was writing his Books how pitifully simple that School-speculation of his was I must confirm my opinion with Reason for authority of Writers I have no more than he and that is none at all Each of the two Classes of the Hastati and Principes consisted of twelve hundred men which being marshall'd ten deep made one hundred and twenty Files Vegetius allows three foot distance between Files these make three hundred and sixty foot in Front add one hundred and twenty foot for the Files to stand on the ground that either of these Batallions stood on was four hundred and eighty foot in Longitude but to shun debate I shall be content to allow but one foot for every File to stand on and two foot of Interval between Files and so the Front of the Hastati though they had been all marshall'd
yet is he not at the pains to give us so perfect a description of them as other Authors have done He tells us of Shields and that all the heavy armed Foot had Shields but speaks not of their form nor bigness A nice distinction There be some and among them Achilles Terduzzi who make a difference between a Shield and a Target and it is this the first was of a round figure and the second of a long angular or oval If so we must conclude those used by the Romans to have been Targets and no Shields in regard they were ordinarily four foot long and two foot and a half broad But notwithstanding this nice distinction I shall use the word promiscuously and call the Roman Target a Shield If we consider that there was an allowance of three foot of ground between the Roman Files and that the breadth of their Shields covered two foot and a half of that ground we must conclude there was but one half foot left for them first to throw their Javelines or Darts and then to present the points of their Swords against their Enemies and their Shields being so near each other and their Bodies so strongly defended by them and their other Armour it is no wonder they either gave or received a charge couragiously For Vegetius saith well in the twentieth Chapter of his First Book that those who are exposed naked to receive Wounds must think more of flying than fighting And in the end of that same Chapter he saith that he who hath his Head and Breast well arm'd is not afraid of Wounds and therefore needs not fear to fight As first the Roman Shields were made of Timber Bulls-hides or other Leather The Roman Shield artificially interwoven and wrought together the Timber being ordinarily of the Fig or Willow-tree cut in small pieces and all well cover'd with the strongest Leather But Camillus having to do with the Gauls who carried heavy slashing Swords caused them to put a Margin or Border of Iron on the upper part of the Shield thereby to resist the force of their furious blows and after Camillus his time there was a strong-pointed piece of Iron put to the lower part of the Shield upon which they fix'd it in the ground either when they stood Centinel or when they stood in Battel aray expecting an Enemy as Aeâ—ilius his Legions did when they were to fight with Perseus and his Macedonian Phalange for at those times they lean'd and rested themselves on their Shields They made also good use of those points by pushing and thrusting with them at an Enemy when they came to any close medley Many and almost all Nations besides the Grecians and Romans made use of Shields especially the Gauls and Germans who peradventure had the use of them before the Romans were a Nation Of Shields either in Battel or at the taking of Towns and Forts was A Tortoise oâ— Shields compos'd that Figure which the Romans called Testudo or Tortoise because it resembled that Animal which covers it self within its shell and there were two kinds of it The first was framed thus The first Ranks cover'd their First kind faces with their Shields and all the rest kept their Targets above their heads thereby making such a Wall of Defence that they were not only able say Authors to despise all Darts Stones and Arrows but to resist a furious charge of either Horse or Foot But I wonder why any Tactick will call Not Invincible this figure of Battel Invincible even against missile Weapons since the Romans themselves were oftner than once beaten by the Parthian Archers And Lâ—vius tells us in his Tenth Book that in the great Battel fought by the Romans against the Samnites Vmbrians and Gauls when both the Hastati and Principes were well near routed some Tribunes coming with the Triarii to the rescue found the Gauls serr'd together in a Testudo covering themselves with their great Shields in such a manner that the Roman Triarii who were heavy arm'd durst not hazard on them till first with Darts Javelines and other Missiles they put them in disorder and then they routed them Livius Second kind of a Tortoise tells us of the second kind of the Testudo made of Shields at the assaulting of Towns the manner this So many Centuries Maniples or Cohorts as the Consul or General pleas'd stood near the Walls or Ports with their Shields over their heads the first Rank stood streight the second bowed a little the third bowed a little more than the second the fourth more than the third so still declining till the last Rank suppose the tenth kneel'd Up their Backs as up stairs did those who were ordain'd to storm run to the assault and so either enter'd or broke down places for others to enter This I believe was practis'd often in their Plays on the Amphitheatres and indeed it was more to be used in jest than in earnest for great Stones thrown down by the Defendants would easily have broken the Tortoise-shell and then molten Lead boyling Oyl or scalding Water all ordinarily practis'd on such occasions by the Ancients would to my sense either soon have kill'd or chac'd away the Tortoise it self It is my opinion that when the Romans march'd and no Enemy in sight of them they carried their Head-pieces at their girdles and their Shields within covers on their Backs my reason is Caesar in the Second Book of the Gallick War saith that the Nervians gave him so brisk and sudden a a charge that his Souldiers had not time enough to put on their Head-pieces or pull their Shields out of their covers And it was necessary they should have been covered for the preservation of those Devices and Coats of Arms that were Painted on them a custome used by several Nations before Romulus laid the foundation of Rome But both before and long after the Romans had over-master'd the habitable World or most of it men used to Coats of Arms. put on their Shields what fancies or devices they liked best some Birds some Beasts of several kinds some the noble actions of their Ancestors some the Sun some the Moon and some a lesser Star This I suppose gave the rise to many of our Romance Writers to give several denominations to all their Knights Errant by the devices of their Shields and to make them distinguishable thereby when their faces were undiscernable with the Beavors of their Helmets But in after ages Princes thought fit to restrain men from the vanity of taking Coats of Arms as they pleas'd till they were given them by authority Hence have the Heraulds their rise and if they were permitted to exercise their office strictly it is to be thought we should not see so many extravagant Coats in the World I was acquainted long ago with a German and there be many good Heraulds of that Nation who had assum'd for his Coat the French Kings Arms I ask'd
he knew best but the old Romans darted their â—avelines as they were advancing towards the Enemy and were commanded by their Generals to make haste to come to dint of Sword esteemed by them the Prince of Weapons So Caesars Legionaries at Pharsalia were order'd after each man had cast his Javeline to run to the shock which accordingly they did The manner of throwing their Pila was that the first Rank threw first and immediately How they were thrown bowed down that the second Rank might cast over their heads so did the third and fourth and the rest till all the Ranks had thrown When they stood in order of Battel they us'd to stick their Javelines in the ground till the sign was given so it seems they were sharp at both ends and no doubt in time of Battel they might have made a Pallisado of them against Horse as Suedish Feathers have been used in our time yet we read not in History that any such use was ever made of the Roman Pilum Being now to speak of the Roman light armed foot I shall desire my Reader once for all to take notice that Vegetius was desir'd by the Emperour Valentinian to give him the Constitutions Laws and Practice of the Ancient Roman Art of War and not of any customs lately crept in Notwithstanding which he reckons among the light armed Foot Plumbati whom he likewise calls Martiobarbuli and Fustubularii whom I cannot English otherwise than the first to be Lead-casters and the second to be Slingers with Battoons He reckons also Archers but in Ancient History we do not read of any of those three for the old Romans acknowledg'd no other light arm'd or Velites but Slingers Roman Velites and Darters Both these were armed Defensively with Head-pieces of Raw-Hides and a Target four handful long and of an oval form For Offence How arm'd the Darter had a Sword and seven Darts the Slinger had a Sling a Sword and a number of Stones Some allow also to both of them a little Javeline of three or four foot long The Spanish Darts being wing'd at the point could hardly be pull'd out of a Shield or the Body of a man such Arrows are common and are called Barbed But the Sagumine Dart which was called Falarica deserves The Saguntine Falarica to be taken notice of Livius describes it thus in his twenty first Book Falarica was a kind of Dart used by the Saguntines when Hannibal besieg'd their City perhaps they invented it at that siege it had a long shaft round and even every where except toward the end of it and that was headed with Iron three foot long Tow being wrapp'd about it smear'd with Pitch this Tow they fired when they were to lance the Dart the violent motion increased the fire insomuch as when it could not pierce the Body it forc'd the Souldier to cast away his Shield or Corslet and so expos'd him disarm'd to the Darts or Arrows which were shot afterward The Timber of the Roman Dart Roman Darters might be two foot long and the bigness of a mans finger the point of it of Iron one foot long sharp small and subtile that it might pierce and in piercing bow that so an Enemy might not make use of it by throwing it back again but this was the practice of other Nations as well as the Romans yet I pray observe what Livy saith in contradiction of this In that Battel which I mention'd but a little before the Triarii gather'd up all the Darts for they were allow'd to carry none of their own which were strayed all over the field and no doubt had been all cast before and with these they disorder'd the Gauls who had made a Pent-house of their Shields and so put them to flight What shall we then believe And is it not strange too that these Darters would throw their Darts four hundred foot for my part I dare not believe it and if it be true certainly the blow could not be mortal The Roman Slingers used to cast Stones out of ordinary Slings which they Roman Slingers wheel'd about their heads and would hit at the distance of six hundred Foot for no less as Vegetius affirms was allow'd them at their exercise Other Slingers the Ancient Romans had not The Inhabitants of the Balearick Islands which now are called Majorca and Minorca were Balearâ—ans esteemed both the best and the first exercisers of the Sling the Mothers refus'd to give their children meat till they had hit the mark was given them to throw at Livy in his thirty eighth Book crys up the Aegean Slingers of whom one hundred â—â—â—ans not only beat back the stout Samians when they sallied out of their Town but also never missing to â—it them when they appear'd on the Parapets of their Walls forc'd them to render their City to Marcus Fâ—lvius the Roman Consul And yet it is more than probable that neither the one nor the other were skilful â—enjamites or so ancient practicers of the Sling as the Israelites for there were 700 of one Tribe who could hit within an hair-breadth With this Weapon did David obtain the Victory over Goliah of which I shall speak in another place Vegetius hath reason to prefer the Sling to the Bow in this regard that an Arrow cannot wound unless it pierce but a Stone bruiseth though it pierce not and if it be of any weight it killeth notwithstanding the resistance of any Head-piece or Corslet In the times of the Emperours or a little before came the Plumbati or Martioâ—arbuli in fashion with the Romans Vegetius tells us what great services Lead-casters they did in the reigns of Dioclesian and Maximian but doth us not the favour to describe the thing it self They threw Bullets of Lead of one pound weight I do not remember whether Livy mentions any of them to have been among those Roman Slingers who beat the Gallo-Greciant at Olympâ—â— The Fustibalus Battoon-Slingers or Battoon-Sling was a Sling of Leather tyed to a Battoon of four foot long which the Slinger manag'd with both his hands and out of which saith Vegetius he threw Stones as out of an Onagra with so great force that neither Target Head-piece or Corslet could resist it But these expressions are ordinary with him I am of the opinion there was no difference between the Plumbati or Lead-casters and the Fustibalarii or Battoon-Slingers but that the first cast Lead and the last great Stones but how far our Author tells us not Archers were not reckon'd among the Velites till the second Punick War Archers Auxiliaries and even then they were rather Auxiliaries than either Romans or Allies They were however made good use of after Hannibal invaded Italy Vegetius in the fifteenth Chapter of his First Book affirms for which he hath no authority of History that the fourth part of the youth of Rome was train'd to the use of the Bow for
in a Maniple the oldest Centurion stood on the right hand of the Maniple and the youngest on the left It is there also where the same Author tells us of some who were called Augustales that were joyned to these Ordinarii but he makes it not Augustals what clear to us what duty they did nor could they at all belong to the Ancient Roman Militia having been but ordain'd by Augustus from whom they had their Denomination The Flaviales he saith were tanquam secundi Augustales Flavials what the second Augustals being Instituted by the Emperour Flavius Vespasian from whom they had their name What shall I say of these Augustals and Flavials but that these two Emperours have bestow'd it may be a little more allowance of Pay or Bread upon some common Souldiers than upon others and as a mark of their favour have perhaps appointed the second or third Rank to be next in honour to the Front or the Rear and those who march'd in them to be call'd by their names Augustals and Flavials Vegetius his Torquati Torquati what Simplares and Duplares were such as had received gold Chains or Bracelets single or double as rewards of their Valour Vertue and good service who besides had many times given them a double allowance of Bread Flesh and Wine All these were nothing but common Souldiers who enjoy'd such benefits as these we have spoke of and perhaps were not priviledged All of them common Souldiers from the Duties of those Souldiers who were called Munifices whereof I spoke formerly As to Vegetius his Trumpeters and Horn-winders whereof he speaks in that same place I shall have a Discourse of them in a Chapter apart It is there likewise where Vegetius speaks of the Creation of Tribunes Tribunes who he saith were chosen by the Emperors after they were vested with the Soveraign Power and had their authority given them per Epistolam sacram which I may english by an Imperial Patent or Commission But in my Discourse of Election I have shown you who used to chuse the Tribunes after the Ancient Roman way And in the same Chapter it is that our Author qualifies those whom Livy calls Subcenturiones and Casaubon out of Polybius Agminis Coactores with the name of Optiones they signifie all one thing and I think Options what Bringers up yet among these Rear-men there was one who was chosen by the Centurion to assist him and this was the Sub-Centurion our Lancespesate if he was so much But I pray you take notice how Vegetius describes these Persons Optiones ab optando appellati quod antecedentibus agritudine prapeditis Vegetius his description of them tanquam adoptati eorum atque Vicarii solent universa curare Options saith he they were called from wishing or adopting because those who marched before them being hindred by sickness they as their adopted and Vicars used to have a care of all things By this description they were nothing but Bringers up and all Bringers up could not be Sub-centurions And at best the Sub-Centurion had all his power from his Centurion and was as his adopted Child to succeed him in his charge after his death whether that happen'd by a natural or a violent way But so far as I can yet perceive this Sub-Centurion this Agminis Coactor this Optio this adopted Child signified nothing nor could officiate any way till his Father the Centurion dyed or at least till he either fell sick or chanced to be wounded and then this Adopted Son of his might supply his place as his Deputy I find in some Authors that every Legion had a Physician but whether every Physicians Chirurgions Centuriate Maniple or Cohort had a Chirurgion I know not for I find nothing of it in any Author I have read But since nothing is more certain than that the Roman Souldiers and Officers were frequently wounded and that we read of Consuls and Dictators who have made it a part of their work as indeed it was to visit comfort and cherish the sick and hurt in their Tents and Hutts I think we need not doubt but their Armies were well provided of these Artists without whose help the comfortable words of a General nay of a Prince to a heavily diseased Person could signifie but little The Eagle was the Ensign or Banner of every Legion it being the Arms The Eagle of the Roman State as it continues to be to the German Roman Emperours to this day It was carried on the top of a long Pole or Spear and was entrusted to the care and keeping of the first Centurion of the Legion and that was he who commanded on the Right hand of the Triarii but whether he carried it himself or had only the inspection of it and was to answer By whom carried for the loss of it I have read no Author who clears me nor doth Lipsius offer me any help And therefore I shall be of the opinion that the Centurion who had the Command of the Legion next to the Tribunes ought not to have been hinder'd in the exercise of his function especially when he was both to fight himself and teach others how to fight with so great a burthen as was the Eagle with its long Pole and till I get better information I shall think that he had some other strong lusty fellow to bear it for the defence whereof many Centurions at several occasions lost their lives I told you before that in ancient times the whole Batallion of the Triarii was called Pilus and themselves Pilani hence it is that the first Centurion of that Class to whom the Eagle was recommended was called Primipilus and Primipilus and his priviledges was the first of the whole Legion to which degree of honour as being then capable to be a Tribune he ascended by many steps as having been a Centurion of and in all the other two Classes before He had some priviledges more than other Centurions had one whereof was that he might sit in Council with the Consul Legates and Tribunes He who carried the Eagle was called Aquilifer or Eagle-bearer who still I think could not be the Primipilus of whom Vegetius in the eighth Chapter of his second Book says only Aquilae praecrat He had the care of the Eagle The other Ensigns or Banners of which I said every Centuriate had one Ensigns and consequently every Maniple two were called Signa Signs or Ensigns for anciently Vexillum belong'd properly to the Horse and was that which we now call a Standard though some Authors in later times have confounded Vexillum and Signum and make them both signifie one thing In these Ensigns of old were drawn the Pictures of their Heathenish Gods as likewise of some Beasts and Birds as of a Lion a Tyger or a Dragon to stir them up to courage fury revenge and bloodshed particularly the Wolf was not forgot in their Colours to denote I think that the
the Grecians desir'd liberty to bury their dead it was a tacite acknowledgement that they were overcome But Vegetius will have these Bags to be kept by the Signiferi the Ensign-bearers whom therefore he will have not only to be faithful and trusty men but learned that they might perfectly keep the accounts of all that was consign'd in their hands And here indeed he is as Lipsius in another place calls him solutus negligens having forgot that in the seventh Chapter of his second Book he told us that the Romans had Librarii Notaries or Scriveners who kept the account of all that belong'd to the Souldiery therefore not the Signiferi or Ensigns whose imployment was to attend their Colours Julius Caesar after all his Victories doubled the wages of the Roman Souldiers Roman Pay augmented for ever The succeeding Emperours according as they stood in need of the help of the Sword-men especially of the Praetorian Cohorts augmented their Pay and some of them for their bounty were degraded and murther'd by those very same Souldiers CHAP. X. Of a Roman Legion Marshall'd according to Titus Livius with Lipsius his amendments THe word Legiâ— hath its name ab â—ligendo from electing It was a great Body of men divided not only into several small Bands but into three distinct Classes Hastati Principes and Triarii embattell'd one behind another as I have shown you in my discourse of the Roman Infantry A Legion was not always of a like strength for sometimes it consisted of three thousand sometimes four thousand or four thousand two hundred sometimes five thousand or five thousand two hundred and twice I find it was of six thousand or six thousand two hundred once with Scipio in Africk and the second time with Aemilius in the Macedonian War Titus Livius that famous Historian in his eighth Book giving a particular Livy his vicious description of a Legion account of the great Battel fought between the Romans and their old Allies the Latines marshals the Roman Legion in such a confused way that he is not at all intelligible and hath given just reason to both Learned and Military men to think that place is corrupt and a sense made of it never intended by the Author To avoid prolixity and that I be not at the trouble to give you Livy's words first in Latine and then in English I shall give you the story as it is translated by Philemon Holland except where he mistakes and then shew the errours of that description of a Legion In former times saith Livy the Roman Batallions stood thick and close together like the Macedonian Phalanx but afterwards they were ranged into Bands more distinctly and last of all they were divided into thinner Squadrons each of them containing threescore Souldiers two Centurions and one Portensign The Van-guard were Hastati Javelineers in fifteen Maniples distant a little way from one another such a Squadron had twenty light armed who carried a light Javeline and some Darts to cast afar all the rest were Targeteers This first front contained the flower of the youth who grew up as Apprentices in War-service Then follow'd after them of men of stronger and riper years as many Maniples and these were called Principes These were follow'd not hard at heels as the Translator adds by all the Targeteers in gallant Armour That Batallion of thirty Maniples was called Antepilani because the other fifteen Orders were placed under the Ensigns not hard before them as Philemon very viciously translates it and of these every Order consisted of three parts and every one of them was called Primum Pilum It consisted of three Ensigns and every one of these had one hundred eighty six men The first Colours had with it the Triarii old Souldiers and of approved valour The second had the Râ—râ—rii men of less experience and younger years The third was of the Accensi of whom they had least confidence and therefore cast them in the Rear Thus far Livius and Mr. Holland who put him in English And indeed we have enough and too much of this stuff Let us now observe the errors of this discourse First It is questionable if ever the Romans used the Macedonian Phalange The errors of â—t a Body compos'd purely of Pike-men it is spoke of by none and that this great Body in after times was cast in Maniples to me is fabulous for certainly Maniples were used by Romulus and though this were true we must not for all that grant that every Maniple had but sixty men that being only true of the Triarii or if that were granted too sure we will not acknowledge that every band of sixty except still the Triarii had two Centurions and one Ensign Secondly That every Class of the Hastati Principes and Triarii had fiftten Maniples is against all Antiquity and the current of most if not all Authors who allow no more Maniples to a Legion but thirty nor Centuriates but threescore except Vegetius who reduceth the number of the Centuries to fifty five Now Livy's description of a Legion makes it contain forty five Maniples and ninety Centuriates and all this is point blank against himself in other places Thirdly We are told that each of the fifteen last Orders was divided into three parts and every part was called Primum Pilum Is there any thing more ridiculous than to call that first which was but second or third And if these forty five parts for so many if multiplied by three it extends to be all first which of the forty five shall be last Fourthly Every one of these parts had its Colours and so in the third Class there were forty five Ensigns and but fifteen in each of the other two a thing nothing probable Fifthly Every one of these Ensigns had one hundred eighty six men Assuredly this is so extravagant that it cannot plead for any shew of truth for multiply one hundred eighty six by forty five the product will be eight thousand three hundred and seventy and so strong by this account must the Triarii have been joyn'd with the Rorarii and Accensi a thing so notoriously and palpably false that it deserves no refutation This passage of Titus Livius hath been no doubt observ'd by many of his All occasion'd by the first Printers Readers long before Justus Lipsius was born yet for any thing I know he is the first man that offer'd him help and indeed he hath done gallantly to vindicate so renowned an Author from these injuries the first Printers of his Decads have done him For Lipsius saith that assuredly this rhapsody of nonsence proceeded from the little understanding they had of the true Text. And Steuechius on another subject says that Printers in the printing old Manuscripts have committed such gross faults that he knows not whether that admirable Art of Printing hath done more hurt or good to the Common-wealth of Learning But to our purpose Lipsius helps the matter thus Where
Officer'd Marshall'd Encamped and Disciplin'd according to the Roman custom only with this difference that those who commanded Roman Legions were called Tribunes but those who commanded the Legions of the Allies were called Prafecti I conceive the reason of the difference of the title was this the Tribune was elected for most part by the Tribes whence he had his name Tribunus but those of the Roman Consuls power over the Allies Allies were nominated by the Roman Consuls for the Allies had no power to appoint or Commissionate their own Praefecti that had intrencht too much upon the Lordly power the Romans still kept in their own hands and were bound most strongly to obey that Consul with whom they join'd So we see how little difference the haughty Romans made between their Confederated friends and their vassals which I hinted in the beginning of this Chapter and in this point the Consuls had more power over the Allies than over the Romans themselves for the Roman people for most part chose the Roman Tribunes and not the Consuls CHAP. XVI Of a Roman Consular army and some Mistakes concerning it I Know not from whence this denomination of a Consular Army is come unless it be that Polybius in his Sixth Book saith that ordinarily every year four Legions were levied for the States service two for every Consul and this Livy doth witness to have been done often But neither the one nor the other hath asserted that a Consul never had more or fewer Legions in his Army than two Polybius means that a Consular Army consisted for most part of two Roman Legions six hundred Horse with two Legions of Allies and twelve hundred Horse But he never said that it was constantly so for then he had contradicted his own History in many places But I rather conceive Authors call that a Consular Army which had in it the above specified number of Horse and Foot by the authority and upon the word of Vegetius who describes both a Pretorian and a Consular Army in the first Chapter of his Third Book I shall Vegetius describes a Pretorian and a Consular army faithfully English his words thus The Ancients saith he having by exrerience learned to obviate difficulties chused rather to have skilful than numerous Armies â— therefore they thought in Wars of lesser moment one Legion with the Auxiliaries that is ten thousand Foot and two thousand Horse might suffice which the Praetors as lesser Chieftans often led in Expeditions But if the enemy was reported to be strong then a Consular power with twenty thousand Foot and four thousand Horse was sent with a greater Captain But if an infinite multitude of the fiercest Nations did rebell then too great necessity forcing them two Chieftans with two Armies were sent with this command that either the one Consul or both should look to it that the Commonwealth should receive no damage In fine saith he since the Roman people was to make War almost And contradicts himself every year in several Countries against divers enemies they thought these forces might suffice because they judged it was not so profitable to entertain great Armies as those that were well exercised and trained in Armes Thus far Vegetius let us take his Discourse in pieces and examine it according to his own writings and no mans else First In the sixth Chapter of his second Book he avers there should be no First in the Pretorian army fewer in a Legion than six thousand one hundred Foot and seven hundred twenty six Horse in this place he saith a Praetorian Army wherein there should be a Legion of Romans and another of Allies should have ten thousand Foot and two thousand Horse the Foot two thousand two hundred fewer than in his own account there should be in two Legions and the Horse five hundred forty eight more than himself allows to the Cavalry of two Legions And to let us see that he will keep a proportionable way in contradicting Secondly in a Consular army himself he says against a strong Enemy a Consul was sent with twenty thousand Foot and four thousand Horse and that is as he explains himself in the fourth Chapter of his second Book two Legions of Romans with the help of the Allies now I beseech you hear him speak for himself and first in the sixth Chapter of his second Book he says that the Legion must consist of six thousand one hundred Foot and seven hundred twenty six Horse Secondly In this first Chapter of his third Book he makes four Legions of the Roman and Allies Foot to be but twenty thousand which by his own rule should have been twenty four thousand four hundred for his words formerly were that no Legion should be under six thousand one hundred and those heavy armed too and whereas by his own appointment in the sixth Chapter of his second Book every Legion should have had seven hundred twenty six Horse more than any other Author allow'd In this Chapter he increased their number to one thousand for he orders the Horse of four Legions to be full four thousand the Foot of a Consular Army four thousand four hundred below and the Horse one thousand ninety six above his own allowance You see how Vegetius clasheth with Vegetius it is not I that quarrel with him In the second place he saith if an infinite multitude of fierce Nations rebelled Rebelled against whom Certainly he means against the Romans but how could they rebel before they profest to be subject Assuredly these fierce Nations he speaks of swore neither fealty nor homage to Romulus nor Rome when His inadvertency he first founded it If they defended themselves so long as they could from the dominion of strangers they did what nature commanded them and were no Rebels He will find Spain it self after long and bloody Wars never reduced to a Province till Augustus's time You see what words his Inadvertency prompts him to utter In this case of a great Rebellion he says two Consuls with the Armies were joyn'd together with a command to look to it that the Common-wealth suffer'd no damage But this command was given many times when two Consuls did not nor needed not bring their forces together Thirdly You have heard him aver that in the great wars which the Roman State manag'd their greatest Army consisted of twenty thousand Foot and four thousand Horse twenty four thousand in all and that two of those Armies joyn'd together making of both forty eight thousand Combatants did suffice in the greatest danger Truly Vegetius if Hannibal had been alive His contradiction of Roman story when you wrote this he could have inform'd you that he forc'd your Masters the Romans to joyn two such Armies and more before ever they had to do with those fierce Nations you speak of except a few Spaniards and the Cisalpine or Italian Gauls unless you take the Sicilians and Carthaginians to be those fierce Nations with the
likewise but with this difference that in every Troop of the Allies there were forty Riders but in the Roman Troops there were only thirty Thus was the gross or bulk of the Roman armies Marshalled As to the Evocati of the Romans and the Extraordinarii of the Allies Polybius hath told us no more than Station of the Extraordinaries uncertain what I have told you in my Discourse of the Allies that they were Encamped besides the Consul and were to be near him in the field and to wait on the Treasurer also But we are left by him and others to conjecture how in what particular place or places they were ordain'd to fight And truly I shall be easily induced to believe that sometimes the Consul placed three hundred of the Allies Extraordinary Horse on the right hand of the Roman Horse in the right wing and so made that wing stronger by one hundred than the other for otherwise the left wing had been two hundred stronger than the right The fourth hundred of the Extraordinary Horse Terduzzi will have to stay with the Consul and probably they did so The Allies Extraordinary Foot were divided into two great Squadrons one whereof stood between the first Legion of the Allies and the first Legion of the Romans on the right-hand of the Battel the second Squadron stood on the left-hand of the second Roman Legion between it and the second Legion of the Allies Thus Lipsius and Terduzzi will have it to be and I think it may be probable enough that it was so yet I doubt none of these two can tell me who told them that it was so In another place Lipsius thinks that both the Evocati and Extraordinarii at the Consuls command join'd with the Triarii to reinforce the Battel and truly this is not improbable but the question is where they stood before they were commanded to join with the Triarii for as Lipsius Marshals them in the Intervals of the Triarii they would hinder the Principes and Hastati to join with the Triarii What Terduzzi saith on this subject I suppose he hath out of Lipsius for though they were coetaneous yet I find Lipsius often cited by Terduzzi But I shall wrong none of them if I say that neither of them in this particular had more warrant than their own Leves conjecturâ— fallacia vestigia as Lipsius calls them If you will believe Vegetius in the eighteenth Chapter of his Third Book the Consul should have made use of the Extraordinarii both Horse and Foot to environ and surround the Enemies left wing if you ask me why the Consul might not as well have surrounded the enemies right wing as his left I must answer you that Vegetius hath kept up the reason from us as a secret In that same Chapter Vegetius says that the Commander in chief should stand between the right wing of the Horse and the Foot as a fit place from whence he might take up his measures and encourage and relieve both his Horse and Foot Lipsius and Terduzzi fix him to the Aquila or the Eagle on the right Station of a Roman Consul in Battel hand of the Roman Legion But Polybius saith in that Battel I just now spoke of Scipio gave the right wing to Masanissa and the left to Lâ—lius to command It would seem then that himself staid with the Foot and so indeed he did for he caused a retreat to be sounded to the Hastati that he might advance with the Principes But since I may guess as well as others I suppose he stood between the two Roman Legions and consequently besides the Eagle of the second Legion and assuredly that part being directly the Center of the army it was in my opinion the only proper place for a Captain-General but when two Consuls were joined together it was not so for ordinarily the one commanded the right wing of the Horse and the other the left So it was at Cannae where the Romans were beaten by Hannibal so it was at Vesuvius where Manlius got the Victory over the Latins after the death of his Colleague Decius so it was at Metaurus where Nero and Livy defeated and kill'd Asdrubal But indeed where there was but one Consul or General he seldom tyed himself to one place but rode where he saw his Presence was most needful So did that Manlius I just now mentioned so did Caesar and so did many others of the ancient Roman Captains And it had been no prejudice either to Lipsius or Terduzzi to have suffer'd a Consul in a Consular army to have stood where he pleased either besides the first Eagle or the second or besides none of them Vegetius in the ninth tenth and eleventh Chapters of his Second Book speaks of some more Offices in a Consular army than Polybius doth and these were three Praefectus Legionis Praefâ—ctus Castrorum and Praefectus Fabrorum It is strange we do not read of these three great Commanders among the ancient Romans and yet in my opinion they had the two last as by the description of their Officers the Reader will quickly conceive As to the first Polybius makes no mention of Other General Officers in a Consular Army him and if there had been any such Officer in his time he neither could or would have past him when he gave us the particular description of a Legion and all its Officers and more especially when he tells us that the Tribunes received the word or Tessera from the Consul and gave it to the Centurions and that the said Tribunes took on them to judg and give definitive sentence in their Legions which they could not have done if there had been a Praefectus above them So it seems he hath been a new Officer created after the Emperours came in play This Fraefectus Legionis this Brigadier or this Legionary Colonel for I Praefectus Legionâ— know not how to English it according to Vegetius his description in the ninth Chapter of his Second Book was an Officer of great experience was obey'd by all the Tribunes Centurions and Soldiers the care of Men Horses Clothes Colonel of the Legion and Arms belong'd to him By his order they were drill'd and train'd and by his authority the Soldiers were punisht for their misdemeanors by the Tribunes But mark it he had only this power in the absence of the Legate and as his Deputy Legato absente tanquam ejus Vicario saith Vegetiuâ— Now if every Legion had a Legate I should believe the Legate was Colonel the Praefectus Lieutenant Colonel the Tribunes were Captains and the Centurions Corporals as I observed before in my Discourse of the Infantry Polybius indeed speaks of Legates but of no Praefecti except among the Allies The Praefectus Castrorum saith Vegetius had the care of the Position of the Praefectus Castrorum Camp the ordering the depth and breadth of both Ditch and Rampart the care of the Sick and of the
how to do it First saith he let the front of your Army be Marshal'd equal with that of your Second enemy then says he let your front retire by little and little and your flanks standing still shall environ your enemy I doubt not but Machiavel thought this a squint device but it is a fancy only beseeming a Gentleman of the long robe If he had said let your Battel stand and your wings extend themselves he had spoke some sense but a front to retire is an improper speech and unintelligible in the Art of War for in strict and proper language a Front and a Reer consists but each of them of one rank whether that be of ten a hundred a thousand ten thousand or twenry thousand Men or Horse so the first rank which is the Front cannot retire further than six or three foot allowed to be between it and the second rank unless all the ranks and consequently the whole Batallion retire I grant there be some who will have the half of the ranks to be the Front and the other half the Reer as in our Foot Batallions which are six deep the three first ranks make the Front the other three the Reer but this as I think is not proper language neither will it help Machiavel for his Front of the three first ranks cannot retire till the three last ranks that are behind them retire first Besides all this I doubt if in Machiavels time Captains might well hazard more Third than now to command a Batallion of men to retire for fear they could not get them to advance again at least not so readily Justus Lipsius had reason to accuse Machiavel of gross ignorance for denying the right ordering of a Militia to be an Art and certainly his conceit to do so Fourth was very extravagant â—esides he contradicts himself for he calls his Treatise of War I sette libri del'arte della guerra di Nicolo Machiavelli Seven Books of the Art of War of Nicol Machiavell Indeed Soldiers are very little bound to him for he says neither Prince nor State should suffer any of those who profess to live by the Art of War to dwell under them nor doth saith he any vertuous or good man use it as an art and adds that those who do so must of necessity be false fraudulent treacherous and violent for they must saith this Doctor either obstruct all peace that the War continuing they may thereby be maintained or they must pill plunder and make spoil of other mens goods in the time of War that thereby they may maintain themselves in the time of peace This is bad enough if it be all true These are his goodly arguments which are but his own idle dreams for it is Fifth Observation no difficil matter to keep men who make profession of Arms within the bounds of their duty even when they but seldom receive their wages and this in this age is visible to the whole world Nor can many Instances be given where men of War obstructed that peace which their Masters desir'd or which both parties were contented to make And if after the conclusion of a peace and disbanding of Armies any exorbitancies chance to be committed by the Soldiers as seldom any such thing falls out they have been occasion'd by too great a defalcation of their pay with the half or moity whereof all Modern Soldiers will be heartily well contented so perfectly have they learn'd the Baptists Lesson in the Gospel to be content with their wages But to conclude I know not whether I shall more cry up the lowliness of spirit of those great Statesmen who are pleased to descend from their high Corollary Spheres to learn their Politicks from Machiavell or commend the generosity of those Captains who disdain to stoop so low as to receive their Lessons of the Military Art from the Town Clerk of Florence I suppose all that can be expected from me in the following Discourses is in some places to set down wherein the ordinances and customs of War in all or What the Author promiseth to do most of the several points or parts of it in divers Countries agree or disagree with the practice of the present times and when I give my own opinion it shall be sparingly and with submission neither shall I decline to go as far back in the â—nvestigation of the Customs and Constitutions of War in former times as I have either probable grounds for conjecture or any glimpse of light to conduct me Since I wrote this Chapter I have seen some Frenchmen who having been Soldiers themselves have given us an account of the present French art and order of War as De la Valiere Monsieur Louis de la Saya and some others CHAP. II. Of Levies the manner of several Nations in making them Duties of Soldiers when they are levied their age and how long they are bound to serve ARmies are properly the members of the great Body of War and men are the sinews of Armies The best choice election or levy of men is of Voluntary Levy the subjects of that Prince or State who maketh the War where the Law of the Land imposeth a necessity on men â—it for service to enroll themselves according to their several ranks and qualities And this Levy alters its nature according to the nature of the War for if that be a Defensive one the Levy is Voluntary for ordinarily men rise willingly in arms for the defence of their Country Lives Wives and Children But if the War be an Offensive one intended to invade a stranger and such as leads Natives from their Countries and Homes and carries them to foreign lands it is not universally voluntary and very oft gets the name of a Press In this kind of Levy most Nations followed the custom of Press the Grecians and Romans and chose most of their Cavalry out of the Gentlemen or the better sort and the Infantry out of the Commons but the substance of that custom is now vanished and we have scarce the shadow of it left with us The Emperours of the High Dutch Nation the German Princes and Imperial Towns by the old Constitutions of the Empire made an Election or Levy of their Subjects according to their Laws sometimes the tenth sometimes the sixth or fifth man or according to their Estates in all their Wars both since Manner of the ancient Levy in Germany the Turk became their unwelcome neighbour and before he had footing in Europe It is not above fourscore and ten years since in the raign of Maximilian the Second all that were Enrolled in the German Cavalry were by birth Gentlemen it is true they brought some of them one some two and some three with them who waited on them well horsed and armed for whom they receiv'd wages and were subject to articles of War but these were called in their language Einspanneers to distinguish them from the Masters who
Commission when this Book was writ for the Author gives him not that Title in his Epistle Dedicatory This Author doth not seem to condemn the use of the Pike before the invention of Fire guns but only since and magisterially takes upon him to pass sentence against all Princes or States who in later times have composed the Bodies of their Infantries of Pikemen I shall relate to you the strongest of his Arguguments as they lye in order whereby he endeavours to get Proselytes to this new fancy and shall give such answers to them as I conceive to be pertinent but shall not flatter my self with an opinion that they will be satisfactory to all In the first place he says Officers chuse the tallest and ablest men to carry His first Argument Pikes because they must be strong to carry both them and their defensive Arms and this says he is a loss to the Army to give useless Arms to men who could use the Musket with more advantage for Pikemen says he can only receive the messengers of death Bullets he means but Musquetiers can send them First I answer he begs the question he declares the Pike useless and that Answered was the thing he undertook to prove Secondly I have already complain'd that Officers chuse not so oft as they should the ablest men for Pikes and so they are very ill used by Mr. Lupton and me for he complains of them for doing it and I complain of them for omitting it Thirdly whereas he says Pikemen can only receive but not send the messengers of Death it seems he thinks when Pikemen fight they are to stand fixed in one place but he should have remember'd that in time of action they are no more obliged to stand still than Musquetiers who are ever in action and motion for let us suppose that in Battel a Body of Musquetiers is to fight with a Batallion of Pikes he will grant me that both the one and the other advanceth Now he saith a Musquet kills at the distance of four hundred yards so doth not the Pike let it be so what then I will grant him more that in the advance many Pâ—kemen fall and no Musquetiers yet I hope he will grant me that these four hundred yards if so many may be soon traced by men who make haste to come to the Charge and even before ten ranks can orderly and successively one after another give fire and after that I aver If the Musquetiers stand to endure the push of the Pike they are inevitably ruin'd and if they fly then the Pikemen have the victory I still suppose that which cannot be deny'd me that is that the Pikemen and Musquetiers are of equal courage now in a close encounter what can a Musquet do against a Pike or a naked man with a Sword against one in Armour If then the Pikemen fly before they come up to the Musquetiers they are Cowards and the fault is in their courage not their weapons if they lose the Field and if the Musquetiers stay till the Pikemen come to them they will find that points of Pikes bring as inexorable messengers of Death as Bullets do Secondly he tells us that nothing more disheartens Soldiers than the certain Second Argument knowledg of disproportionable and unequal Arms this I grant to be true but from hence he and I draw two very different Inferences mine is that Musquetiers will be sore afraid to buckle with armed Pikemen if the Pikemen have the courage to stand out a Volley or two and it is like the Musquetiers will be afraid that the Pikemen will stand it out But he makes another Inference and it is this that the Pikemen will be afraid because they know their Pikes are of no effect and can do no execution Certainly he tells me news for I thought the Grecian German and Switz Answered Batallions of Pikes had very frequently born down all before them and so had done execution and is not this again to beg the question for he is bound to prove that the Pike can do no execution I assure him I will not take his word for it But if he mean when an enemy is put to the rout the Pikemen being heavly armed cannot follow the execution I shall readily grant it to him and Vegetius will tell him that the heavy armed are like an Iron wall which can neither run away from a Victorious enemy nor pursue a flying one for that is left to the Horse and light armed Foot But he offers to prove that Pikes can do no execution by an instance which I pray you hear and observe There happen'd a tumult between the English and Switzers in the Prince of Orange his Leaguer when he lay before Schencksconce the Switzers went to arms and being in Battel presented their Pikes here our Author is not asham'd to say that two English men with Swords only enter'd among the Switzers Pikes and cut off saith he several of their heads of the Pikes I hope not of the Switzers and brought them away with them the two English unhurt If this be all true what will it evince but the great modesty and patience of the Switzers and the prudence of the Officers of both Nations in appeasing the tumult for our Author was mad if he thought that any rational Creature would be perswaded by him to believe that two men with Swords could affront a Body of Pikemen in such a manner and go away so easily if the others had been pleased to resent it Thirdly he says only three ranks of Pikes can do hurt the rest are useless Third Argument then he adds that what with the terror of the alarm the confusion of ranks by the death of some of their number the time of night when the enemy may fall on the hazard of wounding their own Commanders and Camerades it appears sufficiently that the Pike can do no feats I must take this argument in pieces and answer it so And first I say if only three ranks of Pikes can do hurt then Pikes can do hurt and this contradicts his second argument Next his assertion cannot be true if what I have said at length in another Answered place be true that six ranks of Pikes can do hurt or as he call it execution His argument if true would be strong against the Grecian Embattelling sixteen deep and against his Masters too for I find by his Book he hath had his breeding in Holland and Denmark where in his time the Foot were Marshal'd ten deep As to what he speaks of the terror of an Alarm I ask if that must frighten a Pikeman more than either a Horseman or a Musqueteer I think less because he is better arm'd but he speaks still of Pikemen as of Cowards for what reason I cannot imagin For his confusion of ranks occasion'd by those who fall dead he knows those behind them should fill up their places and this Musqueteers are bound to
learn'd and practis'd his Art of Souldiery so happily against the Enemies of Gods people for so Deodati interprets it that his Countrey-men by a solemn Embassie invited him to be their Captain General against the Ammonites which he accepted and wrought their deliverance Here have you a Souldier who knew no other Art or profession but that of Souldiery approved of by the Lord and elected by him and the people at Mispa to fight the Lords Battels against the Enemies of his people and this very Souldier is reckon'd among the elect and faithful by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. 2. v. 32. In the Gospel we read that the Souldiers ask'd the Baptist what they should do to he sav'd Be contented with your wages said he and do violence to no man Here he bids them not learn other trades and I am bound to believe that most of those who ask'd him the question if not all of them were Romans who knew no other livelihood but to be Souldiers and were then quarter'd in Judea to keep the Jews under the subjection of the Roman Emperours and whether this was a lawful employment or not shall be spoke to hereafter The Apostle Paul moves the question Who goes to War on his own charges meaning none is bound to do it Hence it will follow that a Souldier may serve for wages or if any will serve without wages as some Volunteers do it is not forbidden them however in these two places nothing being spoke against the profession of Souldiery I may safely conclude that the profession of a Souldier without any other trade is allow'd and authoriz'd by those two great Saints Our blessed Lord bore witness That the Centurion who said he was not worthy that our Saviour should come under his roof had more Faith than he had found in Israel and I make no doubt but if the profession of Souldiery had been unlawful he would have bid him learn some other Art wherewith to gain his livelihood The like may be said of that Centurion who sent to Joppa for St. Peter to come to Caesarea for we find not that the Apostle when he instructed that Captain and his Friends of the means of their Salvation gave him either advice or command to learn any other trade than that of Souldiery and it may not only be probably conjectured but asserted that these two Centurions had learn'd no other trade but that of Souldiery as much may be said of a third Centurion who confess'd our Saviour to be the Son of God even when he saw him suffer on the Cross as a Man who as Church Histories mention dyed a Martyr for the Christian Faith These of whom I speak who know no Art or way of livelihood but by the trade of Souldiery are ordinarily called Souldiers of Fortune though most of them might rather be call'd the Sons of Misfortune From what I have said this argument may be fram'd that That Profession Art or Trade that is neither directly indirectly or consequentially condemned by any Divine Law or Ordidinance mention'd in Holy Scripture is in it self lawful but the Profession or Art of Souldiery without any relation to any other Art is neither directly indirectly nor consequentially discharged in Scripture Ergo the profession of meer Souldiery is lawful If it be objected here That the Apostle writing to the Corinthians orders every man that would eat to work with his hands I answer first That the Corinthians being a people conquer'd by the Romans were not permitted to be Souldiers and next if the command be general for all Nations and in all Ages then Souldiers are included for they work with their hands and very oft a bloody work And if no Divine Law be against this profession as little can it be alledged That any positive Law of man hath forbid it and daily experience teaches us That all Princes and States make use of men who know no other trade but that of Souldiery which they could not do without sin if that profession were unlawful in it self Nay I have known the time thirty years ago when I serv'd in Germany That Princes and States though they bestow'd Levy-shoney very plentifully could not get half so many of that profession as they desired and at this very time when I write this those European Princes who are hot in War with others cannot get men enough of that trade and yet I shall easily grant they get more than they pay well But Hugh de Grot commonly call'd Grotius a very learned and grave Author Grotius's opinion examined towards the end of the Twenty fifth Chapter of his Second Book De fare Belli ac Pacis is a heavy Enemy to the trade of Souldiery for there he says Nullum vitae genus est improbius quam eorum qui sine causa respectu mercede conducti militant No kind of life says he is so godless as of those who without regard to the cause fight for wages and he subjoyns Et quibus ibifas ubi plurima merces And with whom it is a Rule That War is most lawful where greatest Pay is to be got For answer What if I grant all this it will make just nothing against my assertion The abuse of a thing cannot make the thing unlawful I shall confess it is so as he says with very many Souldiers who have another false Maxime which De Grot mentions not and that is It is all one with them whom they serve so they serve faithfully These are great faults in too many Souldiers but all Souldiers not being guilty of them all should not be charged with them nor should the profession suffer for the fault of some of its professors De Grot would have taken it unkindly if I should have argued thus with him No such a Godless kind of life as of those who without any regard to the justice of the cause embrace the quarrels though never so unjust of such Clients who are best able to reward them for though this be true enough in thesi yet Grotius would have thought that by such an expression I reflected on all Lawyers and Advocates and their profession too for it is certain that too many Lawyers do so which Grotius who profess'd Law knew but too well and perhaps practis'd it too much And as Grotius must confess that it is a sin in an Advocate to plead for a Fee in a Clients cause which he knows to be unjust so I shall acknowledge all Souldiers to be sinners who fight in a cause which they know to be unjust But I must tell you there is a great difference between Souldiers and Lawyers in this case for there be but few Advocates â—ho cannot discern between the justice and unjustice of the cause they undertake to defend whereas on the other hand there be but few and very few Souldiers who can discern between a just and an unjust cause for which they are to fight I knew a person abroad who