the Velites of the third and fourth Batallions since they were all light armed and if it be said the Slingers could cast their stones over the heads of the two Batallions of heavy armed I answer first their stones would do less hurt at that distance Secondly the Archers in the third and fourth rank could have done as much Thirdly the keeping their station and place in the fifth Batallion hinder'd the Triarii to advance Now if these of Vegetius his third and fourth Batallions were obliged to go to the Van and fight or skirmish there why did he not appoint the light armed of his fifth Batallion to do so too since they were all lyable to one Duty But I hinder him to Marshall his sixth Batallion The sixth order or body saith he consisted of and now welcome Triarii Warriors furnisht with all manner of Triarii Arms and Weapons whom the Ancients called Triarii These saith he used to sit then they kneeled not behind all the other Batallions that being whole and sound and in breath they might with more vigour attack the enemy for if any thing fell out otherwise than well with the Batallions that stood before them all hopes of recovery depended on them Now if our Author hath spoken well of the ancient Roman Legion I am sure he hath spoken enough of it He hath been at much pains to make up that Legion but that you may the better see the defects of it I shall be at the trouble to take it down in pieces in the ensuing Chapter CHAP. XII Vegetius his Legion reviewed and examined WHoever hath read or shall be pleased to read Vegetius his Treatise De re Militari will believe with me that he intended nothing less than to write the Military constitutions and customs of Levies Arms Exercising Marshalling Embattelling Marching or other Laws and Points of the Art of War used in his own days but in the contrary the Roman way and method of War of the ancient times And this he professeth all along not only in his Prologues to his Master the Emperour Valentinian but almost in every Book of his Treatise In the Prologue of his second Book he says the Emperour had commanded him to set down the Antiqua the ancient customs In the Prologue to Vegetius obligeth himself to write of the old Roman Militia his third Book he avers that the Emperour had commanded him to abbreviate in one Piece all the ancient Military Customs and Constitutions which were dispersed and scattered in several Books and Authors And in one word he Entitles his Epitome Institutions of Military matters out of the Commentaries of Cato Celsus Trajan Adrian and Frontinus Now none of these wrote or could write of any Military Customs practised in Vegetius his time as having liv'd several ages before him and he acknowledgeth himself that the Art of War of his days was but a shadow and scarce that of the ancient one But by the way I must tell you that Steuechius thinks Adrian wrote no Military Constitutions since at his desire Aelian had composed that Piece de Instruendiâ— Aciebus whereof we have spoken But his reason is exceedingly weak for Adrian might very well have written the Roman Military Art and yet have de-desired Aelian to write the Grecian one But to return Vegetius in the twentieth Chapter of his first Book having given us an account of the ancient Roman Not that of his own time Arms acknowledgeth that they were wholly worn out and that in comparison of them the Foot of his time were naked which had given so great an advantage to the Barbarous Nations of the Goths Huns and Allans To the Eighth Chapter of his second Book he gives this title Of those who were leaders of the ancient Centuries and Files And the Seventh Chapter of that Book he begins with these words Having expounded saith he the ancient ordering of a Legion And in many other places he witnesseth that it is the ancient Roman Militia that he is to open to us and no new one which had deviated from that old one This being premised by me to anticipate objections I make bold to charge Vegetius with seven gross Errours in the description of his Legion yet all seven Seven Errors in the Descrition of his Legion will not amount to one mortal sin which they say be likewise seven nay nor to one capital crime But if he be guilty of all these or any of these then I say he is not so good as his word in the fourth Chapter of his Second Book where he promiseth Ordinationem Legionis antiquae secundum norman Militaris Juris exponore To expound to us the right ordering of an ancient Legion according to the Rule of Military Law But I shall endeavour to justifie my charge in this following order First I question the number of his Legionary Foot which he makes to be First Error six thousand one hundred and all heavy armed mark that I read once of six thousand and once more of six thousand and two hundred and in that number were comprehended the Velites but never of six thousand and one hun-hundred The truth is Romulus made his Legion three thousand after him it was augmented and diminished according to the King Senate or peoples pleasure or the necessities of the State to 4000 to 4200 to 5000 to 5200 and sometimes but very seldom to 6000 or 6200 as Regiments are now made stronger and weaker in our modern Levies according to the pleasure of the Prince or State who makes them but for most part the ancient Roman Legion was 4000 or 4200. Livy in his Sixth Book says four Legions were levied against the Gauls each of 4000 Foot In his Seventh Book he says that in the Consulship of young Camillus four Legions were raised each of 4200 Foot In his Eighth Book he tells us that in the War against the Latins every Legion consisted of 5000 Foot In his Ninth Book he makes the Legion to be 4000 Foot in the War against the Samnites In his 21 Book he speaks of six Legions each of them 4000 Foot And not to spend more time in Instances the same Historian out of whom and Polybius I suppose Vegetius borrowed his greatest light of History says in his 22 Book that every Roman Legion was 5000 Foot in the time of their dangerous War with their redoubted enemy Hannibal but after that was ended they were reduced to 4000 till the Macedonian War except that some of them were made 6200 by Scipio Unless then once in Africk and once in Greece we never find a Legion 6000 strong but never at all to be 6100 as Vegetius would have it to be constantly He would have done himself much right and his Reader a great favour to have told who levied these Legions of 6100. if it was so in his own time or yet in the decadency of both the Roman Empire and Militia that makes nothing to his purpose it
covers made of white Iron like extinguishers purposely for that end but that some of them will be seen by a vigilant enemy and thereby many secret enterprizes are lost It were therefore good that for the half of the Muskets if not for them all flint-locks were made and kept carefully by the Captain of Arms of each Company that upon any such occasion or party the half or more of the other Locks might be immediately taken off and the flint-ones clapt on by the Gunsmith of the Company and then there would be no danger of seeing burning Matches the sight whereof hath ruin'd many good designs I shall give you but one instance for all Not long after the invention of the Musket some Spaniards were almost starved to death in Instanced Coron by a Blockade of the Turks they hazarded desperately and sallied out and though they had some miles to march yet they did it with great courage and all imaginable industry and silence and had assuredly taken the Infidels â—â—pping if their burning Matches had not bewray'd their approach and this only marr'd the atchievement of a noble exploit It is true they made a handsome retreat but with great loss and with the death of their chief Commander one Machichao a Noble and stout Gentleman I should have told you that all the Muskets of one Army yea under one Prince or State should be of one Calibre or bore There are besides these I have mention'd other Weapons for the Foot such Other Weapons for Foot as long Rapiers and Touks Shables two handed Swords Hangmens Swords Javelins Morning stars but most of these are rather for the defence of Towns Forts Trenches Batteries and Approaches than for the Field And as our light armed Foot are now for most part armed with Sword and Musket so our heavy arm'd offensively are with Sword and Pike As I told you of the Musket so I tell you of the Pike the longer it is so it be manageable the more advantage it hath In our Modern Wars it is order'd by most Princes and States to be eighteen foot long yet few exceed fifteen and if Officers be not careful to prevent it many base Soldiers will cut some off the length of that as I have oft seen it done It were fit therefore that every Pike had the Captains name or mark at each end of it The Grecians knew very A Pike well what advantage the longest Pike had the Macedonians as I said before made their Pikes three foot longer than the other Grecians did Nor hath this advantage been unknown in our Modern Wars whereof Giovio gives us a remarkable instance Pope Alexander the Sixth waged a War with a Veteran Army conducted by experimented Captains his Foot consisted of Germans arm'd offensively with Pikes The Vrsines levy new and raw Soldiers most consisting of their own Vassals and Peasants these they arm with Pâ—kes but each of them two Foot at least longer than those the Popes Germans carried The two Armies meet The longer the better in a plain Field at Suriano in the Papacy and fight the Vrsine Peasants led by stout Commanders kill'd most of the first ranks of the Popish Pikemen by the length of their Pikes and immediately after routed the whole Body not suffering one German to escape upon this the Popes Cavalry fled and the Vrsiâ—â—s keeping the Field forc'd his Holiness to grant them against his will an advantageous Peace I shall not here speak of the number of Pikemen allow'd to each Company I shall do that in its due place but it seems strange to me there should be so little esteem made of the Pike in most places it being so useful and so necessary a weapon Thirty years ago when the War was very hot in the German Empire between the Emperour Ferdinand and the Catholick League as it was called on the one part and the Swede and the Evangelick Union as they call'd it on the other I saw such an universal contempt of the Pike that I could not admire The Pike very much neglected it enough for though after Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden entred Germany Squadrons and Batallions of Pikes were to be seen in all Regiments and Brigades of both parties and that Pikemen were still accounted the Body of the Infantry yet after his Victory at Leipsick over the Imperial forces under Tily the Kings Marches were so quick in pursuance of his successes which followed one In Germany on the heels of another and the retreats also of other Armies from him were so speedy that first the Pikemans defensive Arms were cast away and after them the Pike it self insomuch that all who hereafter were levied and enrolled called for Muskets But notwithstanding this when new Regiments were levied after that great Kings death Colonels and Captains were ever order'd to levy and arm Pikemen proportionably to the Musquetiers yet after they had endur'd some fatigue the Pike was again cast away and no Soldiers but Musquetiers were to be seen Whether this was done by the supine negligence of the Officers especially the Colonels or for the contempt they had of the Pike I know not But I am sure that for some years together I have seen many weak Regiments composed meerly of Musquetiers without one Pikeman in any of them and surely they were so much the weaker for that Nor did I find long after that that the Pike got better entertainment in other places than in Germany for in the year 1657 after the late King of Denmark had lost his best Army he gave In Denmark as I said in this same Chapter Commissions to five of us to raise each of us a Regiment of men of one thousand apiece all strangers We were bound by the Capitulation to arm our Regiments our selves out of the moneys we had agreed for and expresly with Musquets neither would those of the Privy Council who were order'd to treat with us suffer one word to be mention'd of a Pike in our Commissions though the conveniency and sometimes the necessity of that weapon was sufficiently remonstrated by us But there are two who write down right against the use of the Pike these are Declar'd useless by Two an Italian and an Englishman Brancatio an Italian Commander and one Master Daniel Lupton an Englishman who I think traceth Brancatio his steps for though I have not seen that Italian piece yet I have seen a Countryman of the Authors Achilles Terduzzi who tells me he hath read it every word Master Luptons Book I have seen and will presume by his leave in the next Chapter to examine his arguments and reasons CHAP. VI. Master Lupton's Book against the use of the Pike examined THIS Gentleman Printed his Book in the year 1642 and presented it to The Book Dedicated to the Earl of Essex the Earl of Essex who was declar'd General of the Parliaments forces that very year but it seems he had not got his
not seen Brancatio but Terduzzi his Countrey-man for they were both Italians in his Book of Machines says he hath read him Now if he value neither his opinion nor his reasons I think none should for Tâ—rduzzi himself was so little a friend to the Pike that he writes he would have it broken if he knew what better Weapon to put in its room Out of him I shall give you this short description of Brancatio and his Book His Book describ'd The Title of his Book is this Of the true Art of War whereby any Prince may not only resist another in the Field only with his own forces and with little charge but also overcome any Nation A very gloâ—ious Title I think we need expect small performances from so vain promises This man Himself a great undertaker will prove an Alchimist who promiseth to give us mountains of Gold and hath not a six-pence to buy his own dinner His Preface makes up the fourth part of his Book wherein he tells oftner than once that he studied the Theory of the Military Art fifteen years and practis'd it forty so he hath been no young man when he wrote his Book But he concludes and I pray you mark it that in all these fifteen years he had read no Authors but Casar's Commentaries And thereafter he laughs and scoffs at all those Roman Authors and Histories which mention distinct Maniples in the Roman Legions because he had read no such thing in Câ—sar Not only in this Preface of his but all along in his Book he despiseth the Pike and calls it the enervation the weakening and ruine of War I shall for a while leave Brancatio and return to Mr. Lupton's citations out of this great Italian Tactick that I may answer them And in the first place as it was a reflection on Brancatio Mr. Lupton's citations out of Brancatio first to cite Histories which he had either not read or not understood and next not to be acquainted with the customes of War in his own time so Mr. Lupton's credulity is inexcusable for taking things on Brancatio his report the truth whereof he might have found in Books of which many private Answered Gentlemen are Masters I shall very briefly run through the quotations he cites out of this Italian man of War The King of Portugal says he was ruin'd and overthrown in Africk because First he had Squadrons of Pikes But by his favour he was overthrown because neither his Pike-men nor Harquebusiers were rightly Order'd Train'd nor Commanded Next he says Charles the Eighth of France was the first that brought Pikes Second into Italy Indeed there were Pikes in Italy before France was called France and if that French King brought them first there what lost he by it He travers'd it took and conquer'd the Kingdome of Naples and return'd to France and made his passage good at Fornuovo in spite of all Italy then bandied against him and no doubt his Switzers did him good service and Brancatio knew they were armed with Pikes as to their Offensive Arms. Thirdly he says The Turk these forty years by past reckon them to begin Third at the year 1540 and to continue till 1580 hath been Victorious over the Christians Sempre in Ongaria so writes Mr. Lupton only because great Batallions of Pikes both of the Switzer and High Dutch Nation were oppos'd to the Turkish Troops of Horse well arm'd with Pistol and Harquebuss I answer first Brancatio his assertion is false for the Turk was sometimes beaten in Hungary in the time of these forty years and this Mr. Lupton might have learned by perusing Knolles his History if he could light upon no better Next I say If Pikes could not resist the Turks Cavalry Harqâ—ebusiers on foot of which Brancatio would have all his Infantry to consist would have done it much less But what a ridiculous thing is it to impute the loss of all Battels to one cause since Armies may be undone and overthrown by a thousand several occasions What can either Brancatio or Mr. Lupton say against it if I aver that when ever the Turks were beaten and beaten sometimes they were it was because they had no Pike men to resist the charge of a stout and hardy Cavalry Fourthly he avers That John Frederick Duke of Saxe in Germany and Piter Fourth Strozzi in Tuscany were both beaten because of the multitude of their Pikemen To the first I answer I do not remember that Sleidan gives any such reason for his misfortune neither did ever that Prince fight a just Battel with the Emperour Charles the fifth most of whose Infantry consisted of Pike-men as well as that of the Elector of Saxe did To the second of Strozzi I say he was routed because he made his Retreat in the day time in view of a powerful Enemy contrary to the advice given him by Marshal Monluc Finally he says The Battel of Ceresole gives a good proof of the weakness Fifth of the Pike-mens service and the Battels of Dreux and Moncounter prov'd fatal says he to their Leaders who were despis'd by their Enemies because their Foot consisted most of Pikes Here Mr. Lupton does himself an injury to insert such three ignorant and unadvised citations out of Brancatio which I will clear At Ceresole the famous Alphonso Davalo Marquess of Guast commanded Battel of Cerâ—solâ— the Imperial Army and the Duke of Anguien the French The Imperialists were beaten by the cowardise of a Batallion of their own Horse which fled without fighting which a great Batallion of Imperial Pikes seeing open'd and gave them way the French follow the chace through that same lane they being past the Pikes who were no â—ewer than five thousand closed again and kept their ground Another Imperial Batallion of Pikes some Spaniards some Germans fought with a great Body of Grisons belonging to the French and beat it out of the Field and thereafter fought with the Gascone Batallion of Pikes where both parties stood to it valiantly insomuch that the Duc d'Anguien the French General seeing his Grisons overthrown and his Gascons so shrewdly put to it despair'd of the Victory In this charge of the Imperial Pikes and the Gascons almost all the Leaders fell at the first shock but in the mean time there came a Batallion of Switzer Pikes and charged the Imperial Pikes in the flank and notwithstanding they had to do with two stout and redoubted Enemies one in the Van and another in the Flank yet did they keep their Ranks and the Field too after all the Harquebusiers on foot and all their Cavalry with Guast himself wounded as he was had fled and then and not till then they cast down their Arms and cry'd for Quarter which the Switzers gave them sparingly enough At this Charge was Marshal Monluc on foot in the Head of the Gascons with a Pike in his hand and he it is that gives us this relation Will
thought Castrametation a subject pertinent to his Castrametation Treatise for he speaks nothing of it and yet it is a very considerable part of the Art of War I find the Grecians did not put their Souldiers to so much fatigue as to fortifie their Camp every night as the Romans did They chose their Castrametation to be in places of advantage on Heights Hills or Rising grounds or where they might have a River or Water as their Back or one of their Flanks and if they had these or any of these they used to cast up but a slight Retrenchment unless they were to encamp some long time Sometimes the Figure of the Grecian Camp was Oval sometimes equilateral Square sometimes Oblong and I have read that Lycurgus appointed his Spartan Camps to be round if they could have none of those advantages I spoke of the defect of that Figure is that it wants Flanks which should not be wanting in any Fortification but it had the advantage of other Figures that it could contain more than any of them because Rotunda est omnium Figurarum capacissima If it be true what some say that the Romans learn'd their Art of Encamping from Pyrrhus King of Epirus then we shall know what his or the Grecian manner was when I come to speak of the Castrametation of the Romans where we shall see if he was their Master he needed not be asham'd of such Scholars This Pyrrhus was Brother-in-law to Demetrius Son to Antigonus who was a great Captain under a far greater Captain the famous Alexander who no question understood the Art of Encamping very well We read that the very day he fought his last Battel with Darius at Arbela upon sight of that numerous Alexanders Camp at Arbela Army he had to deal with he became doubtful how to carry himself in so great an exigent and therefore withdrew his Army to an Hill which Mazeus the Persian had deserted plac'd his Camp on it and order'd it to be fortified which was immediately done for we read in Curtius that after he had caus'd to put up his Pavillion review'd the Enemies Forces and resolv'd to give Battel he commanded the Retrenchment to be cast down that his Batallions might march out in Breast All this being done in a very short time shows that his Army was well acquainted with both Castrametation and Fortifidation To know how the Grecians kept their Watches and Guards we must expect no light from Aelian who speaks nothing at all of that affair Perhaps he hath been of one opinion with that Anabaptist Minister who preaching on that Text Watch and Pray told his Audience He would not trouble them with the various Interpretations of the word Watch for he would assure them in few words that Watch was as much as to say Watch. But because I have not read of any essential differences between the Roman Guards and Watches and those of the ancient Grecians I shall refer my Reader to my discourse of both in the twenty second Chapter of my Essays of the Roman Art of War where I shall inform him of any observable thing concerning them mention'd by Aeneas in those fragments of his which all-devouring time hath left us and those are but few Before the Grecians began their Battels they sung their Paean which was Paean a Hymn to Apollo a Hymn to Apollo after which they had their shout or cry which the Romans with a barbarous word called Baritus If they gain'd the Victory they sung another Paean or Hymn to that same Deity Then they loudly cryed to the God Mars Alala Alala doubling and re-doubling that word Alalâ— â— cry to Mars very often Neither was this custome peculiar to the Greeks for we read in the First Chapter of the Seventh Book of Xenophon that Cyrus the Persian used the very same thing when he fought that great Battel with Croesus wherein he was Victorious for we read not of any Paean any of them sung if they were beaten thinking belike they were not oblig'd to thank their Gods for any misfortune that befel them By what I have said you may easily perceive how little I think we have learn'd of the most essential points of the Ancient Grecian Militia from this great and so much talk'd of Master of the Art of War Aelian And if any say he only undertook to acquaint the Emperour Adrian with the marshalling Grecian Battels I shall say first that he hath but very ill acquitted himself of that undertaking and next that he might have done that great Prince as great a favour to have inform'd hiâ—â—â—â—f all those points of War which he hath neglected as of the manner how to marshal a Phalange and all the several parts of it CHAP. X. One of our Modern Armies compared with the Macedonian Phalanx OUR Batallions of Pikes in the Modern Wars would resemble the Grecian heavy armed Phalange of Foot if they were as well arm'd for the defensive as they should be and as they were one hundred years ago Our Modern Infantry resembles the Grecian one Musquets Harquebusses Fire-locks and Fusees give us an uncontroverted advantage over their light armed or yet the Roman Velites whatever Lipsius say to the contrary as shall be shown in the last Chapter of my Essays of the Modern Art of War A Swedish Company as it was in the time of the Great Gustavus and since being of one hundred twenty six men resembled the Grecian Centuriate which consisted of one hundred twenty eight men And a Swedish Regiment wherein are one thousand and eight men comes very near to the Grecian Chiliarchy wherein according to Aelian there were one thousand twenty four men Since the time that the Switzer Cantons confederated so strongly and Switzers fought with their Masters so fortunately that they got themselves declar'd Free States their great Batallions of ten sometimes twelve sometimes sixteen thousand all arm'd for the Offensive with long and strong Pikes and having their Heads Necks Backs Breasts Bellies and Arms and Thighs well defended with Iron and Steel resembled perfectly a Macedonian Phalange of heavy armed Foot And what great Victories they gain'd with those Batallions shall be spoke of hereafter en passant But one hundred years ago and before that they came short of the Grecians for their Velites for we read not that then they made use of any Musqueâ— or Harquebuâ—s though other Nations did But not long after that time they began to follow the custome of the Germans who then and long after made up their Bodies of Foot of two thirds of Pikes and one third of Fire-men For to arm two parts of a Company of Foot with Musquets and one part with Pikes is a custome of a far later date But of this more in another place Upon the whole matter I say that our Infantry of Musqueteers and Pike-men if they be well arm'd for the Defensive resembles the Grecian heavy and light armed Foot and so
power to appeal from the Tribune to the Consul Observe here that no man could be chosen to be an Officer but he who had serv'd out half his time which was this The Horse-men were oblig'd to serve ten years and the Foot twenty suppose still that they were not mutilated or made unserviceable in the Wars after that they were Emeriti Milites and were to get their Dimissions How long a Roman Souldier was bound to serve and this sometimes occasion'd Mutinies when the State could not conveniently spare them The members elected for the War were not to be under seventeen years old nor above forty seven But it is strange how Vegetius in the fourteenth Chapter of his First Book against the current of all Writers affirms that those of fourteen years old should be brought to the election if the ancient custome saith he were observ'd But these Dimissions were sometimes dispenced with when Reason of State required it And Livy saith that in the Macedonian War there was no Cessation from Arms nor Dimissions granted but to those who were past the fiftieth year of their age If any absented themselves from the time and place ordain'd for election they were punish'd but how neither Polybius nor Vegetius tell us But Lipsius Absents from elections how punish'd that great Investigator of Antiquity out of History informs us that sometimes they were fin'd in Money or Bestial sometimes they had all or most of their goods taken from them some of them were corporally punish'd by bonds and imprisonment some of them had whipping with Rods and some had their Fingers and Thumbs cut off and many of them were sold for Slaves He saith also that some persons were appointed whom he calls Conquisitores to search out and find such Delinquents But in process of time especially after the Roman State was converted into a Monarchy this laudable and strict way of election wore out and decay'd and instead of free born and of the lustiest and ablest Plebeians Soujats Slaves Drudges and the Servants of Vintners and Cooks were elected and enroll'd to the disgrace of the Roman Militia and subversion of the Empire whereof Vegetius hath just reason to complain Two things my Reader must observe here first that besides this formal Tumultuary levies election there was a sudden and tumultuary levy which was made when the danger was great the Enemy prevail'd or other Emergencies or Reasons of State required expedition In these cases no respect was had to Age or Dimissions but all young and old provided they were fit for service were enroll'd and forc'd to take Arms in defence of the Common-wealth The second thing to be observed is that though most Authors say that so long as the Roman State kept up its Ancient and strict discipline this some will have to have been done till the time of the Emperours all the Roman levies whether formal or tumultuary were all made of Freemen notwithstanding I say this assertion History tells us that that noble Nation did not tye it self so strictly to that point of Honour but both could and did dispence with it when the Senators thought fit For after the defeat at Cannae they bought eight thousand Slaves from their Masters and enroll'd and armed them who thereafter for their good service done at Beneventum were manumitted Nor was this all the Dictator Junius Brutus by open Proclamation invited all who were condemn'd for capital A strange Proclamation crimes or who were banish'd and fled and all who were imprison'd for debt to come and take Arms exempting the first from all punishment and the last from all payment An action which seems not to relish much of Justice but Dura mater Necessitaâ— Necessity will be tyed by no Law And the like was practis'd afterward in the times of most of their Civil Wars CHAP. III. Of their Arms Offensive and Defensive and their Military Oath NAture teacheth us to defend our selves before we offend our Enemies Defensive Armour most necessary and indeed if we consider it right all the offence we should intend is our own preservation or reparation for injuries done For this cause all the Ancients had an especial care to provide themselves with such Armour as might defend their Bodies from the stroaks pushes or thrusts of those with whom they were to fight and there is no question but the confidence and opinion a Souldier hath that his Body is well guarded from danger doth much animate and encourage him to attack his Enemy The Roman Horse-men as Vâ—gâ—ce hath it carried for the Defensive a Roman Horsemens Defensive Armour Corslet call'd a Cataphract and from this both heavy armed Horse and Foot were called Cataphracti a Head-piece and a Target which he saith was short and round He speaks not of Greeves Bâ—lly-pieces or Taslets perhaps he is defective here for other Authors allow them Nor doth he mention Boots though there be reason to think that every Horse-man should have had two Boots since as we shall see presently one Boot was allow'd to every Foot-man For the Roman Horse-mens Weapons or Offensive Arms we must consult Polybius who gives them a Sword and a Lance the Sword longer than that a Foot Souldier carried It is strange that Vegetâ—â—s speaks nothing of this Some Authors say the Horse-men carried like wise some Darts Offensive Weapons which may be probable Josephus informs us that they carried Lances Long Swords and two or three Darts within their Shields the points whereof he saith were as long as that of a Lance and the Lance had two points one at each end It might be so in Josephus's time but the Ancient Roman Horse-men made use of no Darts How the light Horse-men were arm'd I cannot tell you many very probably say that no light horse were made use of till the time of the Emperours and but a few of them at first and if this be true Vegece might have told us how they were arm'd since he liv'd under an Emperour The Roman heavy armed Foot wore Head-pieces Back and Belly-pieces Foot heavy armed and Taslets all these of Iron or Brass They had likewise Iron Boots but how many is a question Polybius seems to allow them two for he speaks of Boots in the plural number Vegetius saith they had each but one Boot Their Defensive Armour which he affirms they wore on their Right Legs His words are Dexâ—ris cruribus because as some imagine their Targets defended their Left Legs when they came to the shock Yet for all this Livy in the Fourth Book of his first Decad saith The Samnites wore their Iron Boots on their Left Legs perhaps so did the Romans their Neighbours but we shall meet with greater uncertainties I shall now speak particularly of some of these Arms and Weapons Though Vegeiâ—â—s doth much commend the Ancient Roman Arms and layeth the blame of the losses the Empire suffer'd by the Goths and Huns on the want of these Arms
certainly the Romans had their Military Exercises the whole time of the Reigns of their seven Kings Secondly I say as Swimming is fit to be learned by all young men especially Souldiers so I think an Army is in a desperate condition when the men who compose it are put to swim for their safety from a pursuing Enemy for by that shift hardly will the tenth man escape nor needs a retiring Army fear much hurt from an Enemy who cannot overtake it but by Swimming over Lakes and Rivers But our Author proceeds and tells us that an Army must be taught to march in Rank and File that an Enemy may take no advantage by finding it in disorder The Romans had two kinds of a March the Ambulatory Two kinds of March and the Cursory By the first they were if so required to march twenty Italian miles in five hours and by the second twenty five in four hours with their full Arms Baggage and Burthens Thirdly He informs us that the Foot Souldier was Train'd at a Stake or Pallisado of Wood six foot long Exercises of the Foot fixed fast in the ground he had a Target of Oâ—â—ers and a Club or Battoon of Wood both of them double the weight of the Shield and Sword he was to make use of in earnest With these he was taught to strike aâ— the Pale or Stake as if it had been an Enemy to make sents and foynâ— at several parts of it as if it had had Head Body Legs and Arms but more especially the Roman Souldier was taught to thrust and stab with hiâ— Sword for they found that by that manner of fence they had the advantage of those Enemies who used â—lashing and cutting Swords And at the same stake they were to cast their Pilâ— or Javelines But at other marks namely Sheaves of Corn or Grass the Velites were taught to shoot and cast their missile Weapons whether these were Stones or Lead out of Slings and Baâ—â—oon-Slings Arrows out of Bows or Darts out of their Hands Fourthly The Foot were taught at these Exercises to carry burthens of sixty pound that being habituated they might thereafter more easily carry their own Arms Provisions Baggage or what else they were commanded to bear Fifthly The Horse men were taught to mount Wooden Horses in the Fields if it Of the Horse was Summer but in Winter in Houses made purposely for that use and thereafter to mount living Horses at first without Arms but after they were expert they were to get on Horse back with full Arms either at the Right or Left side of the Horse and as you will find hereafter without Stirrups and with drawn Swords or Maces in their hands Thrice a month saith Vegetius by the constitutions of Augustus and Adrian the Veteran Armies were to be Exercised and to march ten miles out of their Camp and back again that day And he saith that Souldiers were taught to run leap Ditches and to make Ditches and Ramparts This is the substance of all that Vegâ—tius delivers to us in those mention'd eleven Chapters of his First Book Now in the twenty third Chapter of his Second Book he troubles himself and his Reader with the repetition of most of this only he adds that the young Souldiers or Tyrones were Exercised twice a day morning and evening the Veterans once a day and this was done without intermission So it seems what he speaks here is meant of Training particular Souldiers or Companies once or twice a day and what he said before was of Exercising the whole Army once a month Thus far and no further we have the help of Vegetius in the matter of Training drilling or Exercising Before I inform you further of the several kinds of the Roman Exercises I Burthens must see what Burthens the Roman Souldiers were obliged to carry in their Marches whether those were Ambulatory or Cursory And first I believe that the weight of sixty pound which Vegetius saith they were bound to carry was meant only of their Arms Defensive and Offensive And I suppose you may be of my opinion if you consider their heavy Head Back and Breast-pieces their Greeves Taslets Target and an Iron Boot a Javeline or two and a Sword and it may be a Dagger too And if these weighed sixty pound what shall we say of their Fardles their Provisions the Stakes and Pallisadoes they were bound to carry and of some utensils to make ready their meat and these perhaps were carried alternatively by those that belong'd to one Contubernium for if I conjecture right Beasts of Carriage were only allowed for carrying their Tents and Hand-mills Quintiâ—â— Cincinnatus being chosen Dictator to lead an Army against the Aequiaâ—s caus'd every Legionary of his Army besides his Arms and Baggage to carry five Exceedingly heavy days meat and twelve Pallisadoes It is true his march was but short the Territory of Rome being then of no great extent And yet you will think the Romans have been but at that time raw Boys if you observe what follows Scipio Africanus the Younger who destroy'd Carthage caus'd every one of his Foot Souldiers to carry provisions for thirty days and seven Stakes wherewith to Pallisado his Camp Câ—sar saith that Afranius Poâ—pâ—ys Legat in Spain caus'd his Souldiers to carry meat for twenty five days besides Stakes The Famous Consul Marius intending a Reformation of the Roman Discipline in his time corrupted thereby to make himself more able to overcome the Cimbrians and Teutones who had invaded the Roman Empire with a Deluge of men made his Souldiers march with such excessive Burthens as if they had been Asses and thereby got them the name of Marius his Mules Muli Mâ—riâ—nâ— To march at a running pace or trot twenty five miles in four hours so heavily loaded is truly admirable and if you will consider what I have said in the Ninth Chapter of the Grecian Militia what Burthens Philip's Macedonians carried and how far they marched and observe what I say here of the Romans you cannot but be ready to suspend your belief And such marches under such heavy burthens not being now practis'd I shall not blame you to think them well near incredible as Louis dâ— Montgomery seem'd to do when Louis de Montgomery he saith in his French Militia that such Souldiers not being now to be found any where he thinks according to Pythagoras his Transmigration they were converted into the Mules and Asses of Aâ—vâ—rgne And indeed our Modern Armies whose heavy arm'd are scarce so well arm'd for Defence as the Roman Velites were do not march twenty Italian miles in one day but with a very great loss in the Rear whereas the Romans march'd further in five hours Marches almost incredible which was practis'd by Câ—sar when he march'd after and overtook the Eduans who had deserted them He march'd with all his Cavalry and four Legions of his Foot It is true his Souldiers carried no Baggage with them
others were fighting the Triarii rested themselves till the Consul or General gave Triarii rest them either an Order or a Sign to rise But in what posture they rested whether they kneel'd or sate or if they kneel'd whether they did it on one knee or both or if on one knee whether on the Right or the Left is not to me very clear Vegetius in the twentieth Chapter of his first Book seems to say on But how is a question both knees genibus posuâ—s are his words and indeed this was the easiest way In the sixteenth Chapter of his second Book he makes them kneel but on one knee and this I believe is the truest But in the fourteenth Chapter of his third Book to my thinking he makes them fit which I suppose could not be true at all for at that posture they could not with any conveniency make a Pent-house of their Shields which both he and Polybius say and which Reason teacheth they were bound to do to save themselves from the Enemies missiles There is no doubt the Triarii did often recover the honour of the day when it was well near lost When Lucius Furius was well beaten by the Volscians Ordinarily the Triarii kept for the last Reserve at Satricum Livy tells us in his sixth Book that Furius â—amillus advanc'd seasonably with his Triarii charg'd gallantly and obtain'd the Victory The Latines after an obstinate fight at Vâ—suvius had fair hopes of Victory when they had wholly defeated the Lest Wing of the Roman Army and in it kill'd the Conâ—ul Decius and forc'd both the Hastaâ—â— and Principes to give ground on the Right hand But Manlius with his Triarii fell freshly upon them and recover'd the Battel Polybius in his Second Book says The Triarii were not only kept for the last Reserve on the Land but at Sea likewise in their Naval Battels Yet were they not always left for the last for at or near Capua the Consul Petilius perceiving by the extent of the Samnites Army that they intended to out-wing him a danger to which most of the Roman Armies were obnoxious did not stay till the Hastati and Principes had fought but presently call'd up both the Principes and Triarii to the Van and of them making a large But not always Front by a furions charge of all his three Bodies marshall'd in Breast routed his Enemy Neither do I make any doubt but those six Cohorts which Caesar call'd up to the Front of his Army at Pharsalia were Triarii for he says he call'd them ex terâ—iâ— agmine out of the third Batallion He did it to assist his Horse against Pompey's Cavalry which far surpass'd his in number and to these Cohorts himself attributeth the Victory And if he had nor call'd them up before the fight begun but delay'd according to the ordinary custome till his Hastati and Principes had retir'd perhaps he should have made use of them too late but he fore-saw the danger of that well enough and prevented it Since the Hastati when over-power'd were to retire to the Principes and both of them when over-master'd to the Triarii there is no question but in each of these Bodies there were distances and intervals prepar'd wherein to receive one another whether by the Retreat of the first to the second or of both first and second to the third or by the advance of the second and the third to the first That these Intervals were is granted by all but what measure or podisme of ground for any of them is not at all punctually set down by any for any thing I know an inexcusable oversight tâ— but I shall speak of them all in my Discourse of Intervals Here I shall only take notice of two things First That Machiavel errs when he says in the Third Book of his Aâ—t of War that the Error of Machiavelli Hastati had no Interval but fought in one Body Spossi fâ—rmi Thick and close For if so the Principel could not advance to their assistance or yet conveniently and feasibly receive them when they retir'd within their Intervals if they had not been marshaâ—l'd in smaller Bodies I suppose this fancy had its birth only in Machiavel's Brain whose Head no doubt was full of more hurtful notions The second thing I am to acquâ—int you with in this place is that whatever distance was allow'd between the Maniples or Cohorts of the Principes for receiving the Haâ—â—â—ti the double proportion of distance must have been given between the Maniples or Cohorts of the Triarii in regard they were to receive both the Hastati and Principes Polyâ—â—â—s in his fifth Book avers that though the number of the Hastati and Principes might vary and be greater or lesser according to the strength or weakness of the Legion yet the number of the Triarii never alter'd but they were constantly six hundred Now in his time the number of the Principes was twelve hâ—ndred and that of the Hastati as many Achilleâ— Terâ—â—â—zzi not adverting to what I have said of A mistake of Terduzzi distances concludes first that the two formost Batellions were marshall'd twelve deep which I will not grant him and next that the Triarii were drawn up but six deep which I would not fail to deny him though I had granted him the first His reason for the last assertion is that the Triarii being but half the number of the other two Batallions could not make an equal Front with the other two unless they were drawn up but half their depth But he doth not take heed that if they had made an equal Front of men with the other two they could not have receiv'd both the other two in their Intervals but only one of them and then they had not done that for which purposely they stood in the third Batallion And if he had adverted that the Intervals between the Maniples of the Triarii must have been double that which was allow'd to the other two Classes that stood before them he would have marshall'd six hundred as deep as he did twelve hundred for the double distance between the several Bodies of six hundred made six hundred of equal Front of ground with the twelve hundred before them so you may easily consider that notwithstanding the disparity of their numbers the difference of the several Intervals made the Front equal as to the ground of all the three Batallions of Hastati Principes and Triarii The Reason and the only Reason why we must believe that the Triarii Triarii but 600 in every Legion were constantly six hundred is because Polybius said it was so but I shall suppose it was neither so before his time nor yet after his time nor doth he offer to give any reason why it was so in his time Lipsius who is very ready for such things offers to give two Reasons for it the first whereof is stark naught and it is this That the
founder of their City was nursed by one of them After the State was changed into a Monarchy ordinarily they had in their Banners the Pictures and Images of their Emperours And Vegetius speaking of them in the seventh Chapter of Images his second Book calls them that carry'd them Imaginiferi qui Imagines Imperatorum portare solebant Image-bearers who used to carry the Images of the Emperours The Images of those proud and ambitious Princes had a reverend kind of Worship paid to them So we read in Cornelius Tacitus that Tiridates a Parthian Prince when he had left his own and came to Corbulo's Army ador'd Nero's Image There was a great Banner not heard of in Labarum the Imperial Standard ancient times that they called Labarum which was never carried into the Field but when the Emperour was personally with the Army this resembled our Royal Standard But here is a question Since all the Centuries in all the three Classes had Antesignani Colours why the Hastati in several Histories are called Antesignani as those who march'd before the Colours and the Principes Subsignani as those which And Postsignani march'd under the Colours and the Triarii Postsignani as those who march'd after the Colours which seems to import that none of them had Ensigns but the Principes To which is answer'd The Colours of the Hastati and Principes Subsignani being before the Triarii and their own Colours in the first Ranks the Triarii were properly enough called Postsignani The Principes were Subsignani because with them say some were the principal Colours and by this same Why so called Reason they will have the Hastati to be Antesignani because though they had Ensigns of their own yet they march'd before the Principal Colours Indeed we must be satisfied with this Reason for lack of a better and truly it is better than that of some who say the Hastati were call'd Antesignani because in time of fight they sent back their Ensigns to the Principes This cannot hold if it be true what we read very often in History that in time of Battel or Assault the Ensigns sometimes the Eagle it self was cast into the Batallion or Camp of the Enemy to animate the Souldiers to advance and charge with greater courage and fury to recover their Banners This differ'd far from sending them back to the next Class of heavy armed Vegetius speaks of a Praefectus Legionis the Colonel Brigadeer or Major A Commander of the whole Legion General of the whole Legion who had the command over the Tribunes but though it be undeniable that such an Officer should have been yet since neither Polybius or any Ancient History mentions him we must conclude he hath come in request long after the Emperours had possess'd themselves of the Soveraignty of Rome If any think the Legates were these Prâ—fecti I will tell them it was not so from the beginning as I shall shew in my Discourse of a Consular Army Upon the whole matter I cannot find that in the Ancient Roman Militia there were any other Officers in a Legion but the Tribunes and Centurions No Foot Officers but Tribunes and Centurions I still except the Decurions of Horse whereof I shall speak in the next Chapter All others were but Temporary Deputies without Office or Pay or else priviledged Souldiers made free from some duties or beneficed with some Donatives for some particular pieces of good service performed by them which did not at all make them Officers and to aver they were Officers without Pay is something ridiculous Now that none had Pay as Officers but only Tribunes and Centurions I speak still of the Foot and that all others had Pay and Donatives only as Common Souldiers shall be I hope clear'd by me in my Discourse of the Roman Pay That which indeed stumbles me most is that the Ensign-bearers were not reckon'd to be Officers and I conceive this hath been a neglect in both Vegetius and Polybius that they have not given us right information of that matter For I cannot but suppose the Romans did assuredly give to their Ensigns some more than ordinary allowance for carrying the Colours especially since the third part of the Souldiers Pay and Booty and of their Largesses and Donatives too was deposited in the Ensigns hands or at the Colours till the time of the Souldiers Dismission of which hereafter Yet on the other hand to my best understanding Casar doth not acknowledge any Foot Officer or Commander in a Legion or in the Army but Tribunes and Centurions Hear himself in two several places The first is in his first Book of the Civil War where he says The Chieftain swore first after him the Tribunes after them the Centurions and then saith he the Souldiers by Centuries Not â—ne word here of Sub-Centurions Options Ensign-bearers Tesseraries Measurers Clerks and the rest of that crew who indeed were all of them but Souldiers in these Centuries The second place is in his third Book of the Civil War there he tells us how an Oath was sworn not to desert Pompey very ill kept first says he Labiâ—nus as Chief swore then the Legates whereof Labienus himself was one then the Tribunes next them the Centurions and then the whole Army CHAP. VII Of the Roman Cavalry and all its Officers WE have but a slender account given us of the Roman Horse by Vegetius The sum of what Vegetius saith of the Horse All he saith on that Subject amounts to this In the fourteenth Chapter of his Second Book he says As a Band of Foot is called a Century or a Maniple so a Company of Horse is called a Turma that is a Troop That every one of these Troops consisted of thirty two Riders whereof the Commander was called a Decurion and he describes him to have been a person not only well Arm'd and Hors'd and active and expert in all feats of Horsemanship but able to teach his Troopers to be so likewise and to keep their Arms bright and clean and their Horses in good case In the twenty third Chapter of his third Book he informs us that the Cataphract Horse-men or Cuirassiers arm'd at all pieces are free from Wounds how could this be when their Faces were not covered but were not able saith he to do great matters because of the heaviness of their Armour yet good at close fight either before the Foot or mixed with them to beat a Batallion of an Enemy This is all So we remain ignorant till he come to marshal his Legion of Omissions of Vegetius the strength of the Cavalry and even then for him we know not how the Horse-men were levied oâ— elected how they were paid how they watched or what other duties they were bound to do how deep they were marshall'd when and where they marched or fought what distances were between their Ranks and Files and what Intervals between their Turmes or
the worst of it This story you may read in Livy's twenty fifth Book Though this practice succeeded well sometimes yet was it unfortunately attempted by the Consul Aemilius at the Battel of Cannae for after Asdrubal had routed him and his Horse on the Right Wing he made his Horse-men alight and fight on foot among the Legionaries as Livy tells us in that twenty fifth Book And it would seem that Hannibal that great Captain did not approve this custome for the same Author says when it was told him what the Roman Consul had done he should have smil'd and said He might as well have deliver'd them to me bound hand and foot I know not if in our Modern Militia this could be advantageously practis'd being the Arms of our Horse and Foot differ very much whereas those of the Romans were almost all one I have indeed seen at the assaults of Towns Horse-men commanded to alight and storm with the Foot And this hath reason for it in regard that with their Pistols Carabines and Swords they were as able for that service as the Infantry Yet Machiavelli who will needs Machiavelli reform the Modern Militia and cast it in his own Mould gives us an instance that it was practis'd in the Field a very little before his own time and long after that Gun-powder had mightily alter'd the face of War In the second Book of his Art of War The Count of Carmignola General for the Duke of Milan had six thousand Men of Arms and but a few Foot with these he fought a Battel against the Switzers arm'd with long and strong Pikes and is by them worsted and forced to quit the Field The Earl finding what advantage a Pike had against Horse presented them once more Battel but coming near he order'd his Cuirassiers to alight in imitation belike of Julius Caesar fighting against the same Nation and fighting on foot then saith he the Switzers â—â—â—es not being able to pierce the Corslets of the men of Arms they were totally routed by Carmignola Was it not well that the strong Pikes of the Switzers push'd by their robust Arms and Bodies did not overthrow the Earls Cuirassiers though the points of them could not pierce their Armour Philip de Comines tells us that at the confus'd Battel of Montleberry between Lewis the Eleventh King of France and Charles the Warlike Duke of Burgundy The said Charles commanded many of his Gentlemen who were Men at Arms to alight from their Horses and joyn in fight with his Archers of Foot Which action says the Author was honourable and encourag'd others and this custome says the same Philip the Burgundians had learn'd from the English when both of them being Confederates waged War together against France for the space of thirty two years without any truce The custome which the Romans had to mix Foot with Horse begun at the Horse and Foot mix'd together Siege of Capua was so frequent afterward that I need not give many instances of it Caesar seldome fail'd to do it When Vercingentorix had rais'd all Gaule about his ears he sent for German Horse and Foot who were accustom'd to fight one in company of the other as he tells us in the seventh Book of his Gallick War In Thessaly finding himself far inferiour in Horse to Pompey he constantly mixed some of his Antesignani who were Legionaries and heavy practis'd by Caesar armed and of the youngest sort and so more able to march and run with his Horse who became so expert in that manner of fight that as himself witnesseth in his third Book of the Civil War two hundred of his Horse joyn'd with the like number of these Foot were not afraid to buckle with thousands of his Enemies Cavalry And it was with that manner of fight that he made that honourable retreat of his from Dirrachium in spite of Pompey's whole Army that pursu'd him And it was with the assistance of six Cohorts of his Triarian Foot that his Horse beat his Competitors Cavalry at Pharsalia and got him the Victory as himself both confess'd and foretold At Vzita in Africk when he offer'd to fight against Scipio Pompey's Father-in-law he drew up all his Cavalry on his Left Wing and with them mixed all his light armed Foot who it seems were Auxiliaries The German Horse-men And by the ancient Germans used every one of them to chuse a Foot-man whom they knew to be stout strong and swift These Foot-men either skirmish'd before the Horse as the Romans did at Capua or fought in company with them or stood at a distance behind them that the Horse might retire to them and if both were forc'd to quit the Field then the Foot-men laid hold on the Manes of the Horses and with that help run as fast as the Horse gallopp'd till both came to their main Body of all which Caesar informs us in the first Book of the Gallick War And this manner of fight was practis'd by Ariovistus King of Germany and by Vercingentorix We find in History that when the Romans were to give Battel assisted by Roman Cavalry how marshall'd their Allies for most part their Cavalry was marshall'd on the Right Wing of their Army and the Allies on the Left So at Cannae Paulus Aemilius stood on the Right Wing with the Roman Horse and the Consul Varro on the Left with the Horse of the Allies Once Scipio at Zama gave the Right Wing to Masanissa King of the Numidians and appointed Lelius to command the Left Wing compos'd of Roman Horse But when they fought without Allies then their Horse were drawn up on both Wings and sometimes as I have said interlin'd with Foot but scarce or rather never did I read in any ancient History that they were marshall'd by Troops among the Legionary Foot whereof I shall tell you more hereafter when I come to speak of Vegetius his Legion And how the same Vegetius contradicts Polybius in the matter of the Roman Horse-mens Guards shall be spoke of in my Discourse of Guards and Rounds CHAP. VIII Of their Trumpeters Horn-winders and of the Classicum SInce we have now spoke of both Foot and Horse it is fit we know to what Martial Instrument or Sound both should hearken I find Tubicines these were Trumpeters Cornicines these were Horn-winders and Buccinatores who I think used the Horns of Cows and Oxen and the Classicuâ— All these were common to both Horse and Foot neither had the one any title to pretend to either of these more than the other had nor were any of them peculiar to the one more than to the other though now the Horse Troops appropriate the Trumpet to themselves as the Foot do the Drum The Trumpet is an ancient Instrument of War at first and I believe for Trumpeters many ages made of Brass hence the Poet Aere ciere Virâ—s though the luxury of after-ages made their composition of Silver We find they were common to
sold by the Treasurer and then proportionably divided among all according to every A good order mans quality a Centurion receiving double that which a Souldier got a Horse-man triple and a Tribune quadruple So that they who fought in the Field and they who stay'd for the defence of the Camp they who storm'd a Town and they who stood in Reserve shared all alike in the Booty The Romans gave all their Proviant to their Armies in Corn and did not trouble themselves to make it either into Meal or Bread and in their strict discipline Bakers were all banish'd from their Camps and the Souldiers order'd to grind their Corn themselves Hand mills or Querns being allow'd them for that use and thereafter to bake their own Bread Many times they took not the pains to do either the one nor the other but boil'd their Wheat with a little Salt and so eat it up for Pottage They used to carry with them Their ordinary Meat And Drink Lard or Bacon or some other fat wherewith they smear'd their Bread A little Bottle with Vinegar they bore also about with them with a very small quantity whereof they gave a rellish to their Water which was their ordinary drink though Wine was not forbidden them for Mahomet had then not intoxicated the World with his Doctrine nor discharged the use of the juice of the Grape which cherisheth the heart of God and Man The Roman Souldiers then drank Wine for it was allow'd them when conveniently it could be got though Drunkenness was a crime seldome heard of among them There were also sometimes Oxen Sheep and Beeves divided among them for preparing and making ready whereof in the strictest time of their Discipline the Souldiers were permitted to carry a Brass Pot a Spit and a Drinking Cup but I suppose one of every kind of these utensils were not allowed to every one of the Souldiers but to a Contubernium Utensils or Tent-full of them whether that consisted of ten eleven or twelve It was not permitted to them to dine or sup when they pleased but it being known by the Classicum when the Consul went to Table the Tribunes went to theirs and so both Centurions and common Souldiers went to dinner with sound of Trumpet May not a man say that here was a great deal of more state than good fare Those Generals who exercis'd strict discipline appointed their Souldiers to take their dinner standing marry They Dâ—n'd standing and Supp'd sitting they permitted them to sit at Supper and I conceive this was but a very sober courtesie to suffer a man who was weary with toil the whole day to sit down to his Supper at night Besides all this the Roman Souldiery had reason to expect a Donative from Donatives at Triumphs their Victorious Generals when they enter'd the Imperial City in Triumph This custome was very commendable for the Largess given to them incited others to carry themselves gallantly against an Enemy since they saw that in some measure they would be sharers with the chief Commander both in Honour and Profit What was given at that time to the common Souldier was a rule to the Officer for a Centurion got double a Horse-man triple and a Tribune quadruple Scipio the African at his magnificent entry into Rome gave four hundred Asses to every Souldier some say but forty if the first it was noble enough and no more neither for it would have amounted but to twenty five shillings Sterling if the last it was contemptible for it signified but half a Crown Lucius Aemilius who subverted the Macedonian Monarchy gave at his Triumph to every Souldier one hundred Sesterces which might be about fifteen or sixteen shillings Sterling and proportionably to the Centurions Horse-men and Tribunes But besides the evil effects which many of the Consuls avarice produc'd their ambition to bring in great summs of Gold and Silver to the Treasury and their vanity to give their Armies Donatives at their Triumphs set them on to the committing many Insolencies perfidious unjust and disavowable Plunders and Cruelties which makes the names of some of the bravest of them infamous to posterity Take one instance instar omnium of that same Aemilius I just now spake of The desire he had to bring the vast Treasure of King Perseus and all he had scrap'd together in Macedon into the Roman Treasury and withal to give a Donative to his Army at A detestable action his Triumph tempted him and the temptation prevail'd with him to plunder the whole Towns of Epirus the people whereof were no Enemies nor ever had wrong'd the Roman State And this execrable act he did under trust the Inhabitants imagining no such usage nor was plundering all the mischief he did them for he sold their persons to the number of one hundred and fifty thousand of both Sexes for Slaves and with the Money of that sale he gave the Donative we spake of to his Army An action so full of baseness inhumanity persidy and injustice that Sir Walter Raleigh saith If any History spoke but one word to the contrary no man would believe it could be true You may read the story of it in the last Book of Titus Livius The half of the Donatives were ordinarily deposited at the Standards Half of Donatives deposited and Ensigns to be kept there for the use of the Souldiers till their dismission lest they should idly or vainly spend it This reason was sufficient and strong enough but there was another and it was this that the Souldiers knowing a part of their stock and substance to be beside the Colours they should never desert them but manfully fight for the defence of that in the preservation whereof they were so deeply concern'd Though this was certainly a very prudent order yet I cannot consent to what Vegetius saith of it in the twentieth Chapter of his second Book that it was ab Antiquis divinitus institutum For he should have remember'd that he wrote of the Heathen Romans and himself having the knowledge of the true God he knew likewise that the best of their Ordinances were but of Humane and not Divine Institution In that same Chapter Vegetius says that every Legion had ten bags for the keeping this moyety of the Donatives that is a bag for every Cohort and an eleventh bag there was in which every Souldier cast something once a month and that was reserv'd for the Burial of those Souldiers who were able to leave nothing for their Interment A very laudable custome for the Burial of the Dead was ever in all Nations in high request Burial of the Dead Truce for some days or hours to Inter the slain was seldome or never refus'd by the most imbitter'd Enemy Hannibal bestow'd Burial on his Enemy Marcellus And his Brother Asdrubal at the desire of Scipio buried those Roman Tribunes whom he had kill'd in Battel And Justin in his sixth Book tells us that when
Legion 300 Horse yet must not that be so understood as that these 300 horse were to be reckoned to be a member or part of that Legion nay most Authors disjoin them and say so many Legions and so many Horse were raised Let Caesar an Author beyond all exception be Judg. In the Seventh Book of the French War he says he gave to his Legate Labienus the same who afterward deserted him four Legions and kept six with himself and that you may be sure he meant only Foot he subjoins that he ordered him to take a part of the Cavalry with him how many he tells not but if every Legion was to have a set number of horses that great Captain who loseth no words in his Commentaries needed not have mentioned Horse for Proved from Caesar when he said he sent four Legions we should have known that 2004 horse were sent according to Vegetius his account of 726 Horse for every Legion or 1200 according to the true account of 300 for every Legion In his Third Book of the Civil War he sent Cassius Longinus to Thessaly with one Legion and two hundred Horse not with â—26 nor yet with 300. He senâ— Calvisiâ—s Sabinus to Aetolia with five Cohorts and a few Horse He sent Câ—eias Domitius to Macedon with three Legions and 500 Horse Hear him speak once more for he deserves to be heard he tells us in that same Book that Sâ—ipio Pompey's Father-in-law brought out of Syria to Greece Omnes Legiones Equitesque All the Legions and the Horsemen If Horse belonged properly to Legions why did he distinguish them who knew â—he Military Art and the words of the Art best of any But Vegetius shall be invincible for me unless he beat himself which he will presently do For notwithstanding all he hath said in the sixth Chapter of his Second Book yet in the 15 Chapter of that same Book he confesseth that Equites locantur in cornibus Horsemen are placed in the wings And in the 17 Chapter he says Equites ponuniur in cornibus it a ui loricaâ—â— amnes juncti sint peditibus The Horsemen are placed in the wings so that all the heavy arm'd horse join with the Foot What means that join with the Foot It is that one part of them joined with the Foot on the right hand and the other on the left and so himself clears it in that very Chapter where he saith If Horsemen be too weak according to the custom of the Ancients Footmen who And out of Vegetius himself are swift arm'd with light Targets and exercised in that manner of fight are to be mixed with them for Foot mixed with the Horse and Horse joined to the Foot are two several things And in the first Chapter of the same Book he saith the Horse are called the wings because they protect the foot ad similitudinem alarnm to the similitude of wings Let now any man reconcile Vegetius to himself and he and I shall be very soon good friends But the Hastati make a terrible clamour and cry they have wrong done them Fourth Error by Vegetius in Marshalling the Principes before them They say that being the youngest and least experienced it was some honour done to them to place them in the first Battalion for thereby they were exposed to the first fury of an enemy which many times they valianâ—ly repell'd if not they served at least as the Great Turk's Asapi to blunt both the Enemies Courage and Swords The Principes cry as loud that Vegetius hath rob'd them of the dignity they always had to stand in the middle between the Hastati and the Triarii and to be look'd on as the restorers of the Battel when the Hastati were worsted But neither of them hath so good reason to complain as the Triarii whom we shall hear anon And assuredly to me it seems very strange that not only in the mentioned places but all along in his whole Treatise our Author Marshals the Principes before the Hastati against the universal consent of all History Livy in his Seventh Book tells how Lenus the Consul drew up his Hastati in the Van the Principes in the middle and the Triarii in the Reer against the Gauls and then was the Roman Discipline strictly observed So were the Hastati in the Van when Marcellus fought at Canusium with Hannibal Liv. lib. 27. And in his 37 Book he informs us that Scipio Asiaâ—icus in the battel he fought with Antiochus ordered his Hastati in the Van the Principes in the middle and the Triarii in the Reer And that I may not weary my Reader with instances I believe and upon good grounds that in all Livies Decads that are extant Vegetius nor any for him shall not read that the Hastati were placed behind the Principes except once that it is written I suppose not by himself in his Thirtieth Book that Scipiâ— in his battel against Sip 〈…〉 Asarubal Marshall'd the Principes before the Hastati And Lipsius hath good reason to think that this place is falsified since Polybius out of whom it is like Livy hath the story writes the very contrary that is that Scipio Marshall'd the Principes behind the Hastati and if this place were not corrupted then Livius should contradict himself for in his Eighth Book he says once for all Hastati omnium primi pugnam inibant The Javelineers saith he first of all began the battel And sure the same Scipio at the battel of Zama against Hannibal placed the Hastati in the Van by a good token for they were so mixed with the enemy that he was glad to found a Retreat for them that he might have ground to bring his Principes up to the Medley which the same Livy reports to us In the fifth place Polybius complains that Vegetius hath murther'd five of his Fifth Error Centurions for he in his Sixth Book appointeth sixty for every Legion whereof Vegetius in the eighth Chapter of his Second Book produceth but five and fifty yet he needs not be afraid to be brought to any juridical trial for this assassination Truly it seems strange to me that Polybius his Legion consisting but of 3000 heavy armed should have sixty Centurions and that of Vegetius which was a hundred more than twice as strong should have but 55 for all his 6100 were heavy arm'd as he describes them in that same Chapter I can fancy no reason for this but that it was his fancy to write so I confess indeed it is more than probable that at the first institution by Romulus that band of men which was called a Century consisted of one hundred men and so the Centurions were no more but thirty and in process of time in a Legion of that same strength might be sixty for as I told you in my Discourse of the Infanteries though the particular bands of a Legion came to consist but of sixty men and those of the Triarii perhaps but of
he speaks there of Macedonian and Persian Warriours and is confuting Calisthenes his History of the Battel of Issus between Alexander and Daâ—ius as I noted before Achilles Terduzzi imagines the Roman Foot to have been twelve in File but that was to make good his conjecture of the quantity of ground a Consular Army took up whereof I may chance to speak hereafter But the common opinion carries me along with it that both the Roman Horse and Foot ordinarily were Roman Horse and Foot teâ— deep marshall'd ten in File but upon emergencies Generals might alter it though I confess the strong reason for it to me seems very weak which is that the Leader of the Horse was called Decurio and he of the File of Foot Decâ—nus for this last is appropriated to other Offices and the first by Aelian's Translator is given to the Leader of a Macedonian File which consisted of sixteen But this supposition as probable we must make the basis or ground on which to build our most probable conjectures of the Intervals of several Bodies and Classes in which both our Authors give us small assistance yet I shall give you all I can pick out of them or others on that Subject When Polybius in his twelfth Book told us that for most part Horse-men were ranged eight deep meaning I think the Persian Horse he subjoins that there must be an Interval between several Troops but what that Interval was he forgot to tell us It is pity he who knew things so well should needlessly have kept them up from us as secrets the reason he gives for an Interval between two Troops doth not weigh much because saith he they Intervals between Troops must have ground for conversion that is to face to either Right or Left hand or by any of them to the Rear If any of these be needful whole Squadrons of four six or eight Troops joyn'd together may do it as easily and conveniently as single Troops which consist of three or four Files at most But conversions on that same ground are seldome necessary never convenient But being left to guess how many foot of Interval Troops ten deep Conjectured required one from another I conjecture eight Foot which I ground on that the same Polybius saith in that same twelfth Book which is that a Stadium or Furlong contain'd eight hundred Horse drawn up in Battel Then I say First a Stadium is the eighth part of an Italian mile one hundred twenty five paces six hundred twenty five Foot Secondly eight hundred Horse being at our Authors rate eight in File are one hundred in Front Thirdly For every Horse-man to stand on Horse back and room to handle his Arms I allow with others four foot of ground and so for one hundred Horses four hundred Foot Fourthly According to Polybius and I suppose the Out of Polybius Roman rule the eight hundred Horse must be divided into several Troops and in each of them but thirty Riders so there will be twenty â—â—x compleat Troops and twenty Horse-men for the twenty seventh Troop Fifthly Twenty seven Troops require twenty six Intervals Now allow with Polybius a Stadiâ—m for eight hundred Horse-men that is for one hundred in Front and for these hundred allow with me four hundred Foot for the Horsemen to stand on you will have of six hundred twenty five foot of ground for your twenty six Intervals two hundred and seventeen foot and that will be eight foot and near one half for every Interval So my opinion is if I understand Polybius right that the Interval between two single Troops was about eight foot But let us fancy the Roman Horse to have been ten in File and so every Troop only three in Front for so I probably think they were and let uâ— remember that in every Consular Army there were twenty Roman Troops and forty of the Allies in all sixty Fancy those sixty Troops drawn up in one Field upon one of the Wings of the Army as several times all the Cavalry was marshall'd on one Wing they must have fifty nine Intervals Next remember that sixty Troops at thirty in a Troop were compos'd of eighteen hundred Too many Intervals Riders these drawn up ten in File made one hundred and eighty Leadders allow to every one of these four foot that will amount to seven hundred and twenty foot then for fifty nine Intervals which according to Polybius sixty Troops must have you are to allow four hundred seventy two foot at eight foot for each Interval I suppose still that which I can scarcely believe of so many Intervals but add four hundred seventy two foot to seven hundred and twenty the aggregate will be eleven hundred ninety two foot How these sixty Troops marshall'd so thin so few in Front with so many Intervals could stand out the brisk and furious charge of a numerous and couragious Enemy is beyond my fancy unless they have been interlin'd with well-armed Foot As to the Distances between Bodies of Foot Polybius in the twelâ—th Book Overâ—ight in Polybius so often cited allows expresly six foot between Files but he is to be understood in that place of the Macedonian Phalanx confâ—ting the impertinent relation of Calisthenes but he speaks not there or elsewhere oâ— distance between Roman Files And yet here is an inadvertency in that great man as we shall see another immediately in Vegetius of the same nature Polybius allows six thousand foot of ground for the Front or Longitude of sixteen thousand men sixteen deep and so we have one thousand Files between every one of the Files he allowâ— six foot of distance so the distances do compleatly take up his six thousand Foot and so no ground is allow'd to stand on to which if he had adverted he would have allow'd one foot to each man whereon to stand and consequently seven thousand foot for one thousand Files in Front But I shall not question the six foot of distance between Files being I have told you in the Grecian Militia that much was necessary for their Pike-men between Ranks on their march though not between Files and that in standing in Battel they used Densatio three foot of distance and in fight Constipaâ—â—â— one foot and a half Vegetius is more inexcusable than Polybius for he allows for the Ranks one foot Two in Vegetius of ground to stand on in these words Singuli Bellatâ—res stantes singulos obtinent pedes Every Combatant says he takes up one foot of ground But that he allows none for them to stand on when he speaks of Files I prove thus In the fourteenth Chapter of his third Book he allows three foot of distance between Files and in the next place saith that ten thousand men marshall'd The first in distance of Files six deep made a Front of sixteen hundred sixty six and so it doth with a fraction only of four hitherto he is very right but concludes very
Velites were not to stand in the intervals of the heavy armed but only either to advance to the Van or retire to the Reer through them and he knew too that the intervals between Maniples were principally for the Maniples of the first Class to fall in the intervals of the second Class and the Intervals of the third Batallion for the Maniples of the other two to full back to them and therefore to allow but ten foot for every one of these Intervals is an inexcusable error in him and a conjecture which hath no coherence with sense nor can ever be justified by reason That General never breath'd that could draw up a band of men consisting of twelve Files in ten foot of ground Now every Maniple of the Pâ—â—â—cipes and Hastati according to Polybius whom Lipsius follows consisted of one hundred and twenty men and these being ten deep constituted twelve Files these have eleven Intervals every one of which being three foot make thirty three foot add twelve to that for the twelve Files to stand on the aggregate True Intervals between Maniples is forty five foot and if you allow but two foot for every Interval between Files the Interval between two Maniples must be thirty four foot for it is not possible you can allow less ground for an Interval than that which a Body possesseth that is ordain'd to stand in that Interval Hence I think it is obvious to common sense that all the Intervals between the Maniples of the Hastati and Principes were of forty five foot or thirty four at least And those of the Triarii of ninety foot or sixty eight at least in regard they were to receive the Maniples of both the Hastati and Principes In the clearing this point of Distances I have been perhaps too prolix and have used repetitions which I condemn in others but being it is almost impossible to have so much as a general notion of a Roman Army how it was Marshall'd or of any other Army unless you know the Intervals I have not thought it amiss to spend a little paper on that Subject And indeed we are left as in many other Points necessary to be known so in this to grope in the dark Nor have I been so severe to the learned Lipsius for his extravagant conjectures of Roman Intervals but I shall be ready to accept and desire others to do so too of his own excuse which I shall give you in his own words as I find them in the fourth Book of his Commentary Hâ—◠〈◊〉 as me as â—â— rerâ—â—â—â— veterâ—â—â— quas Lipsius excused revera per leves conjecturas fallacia vestigia 〈◊〉 Ah says he my darkness or that of ancient things which indeed we must hunt after with uncertain conjectures and through fallacious footsteps CHAP. XV. Of the Roman Allies and Auxiliaries and the mistakes of some Authors concerning them YOU may read very frequently in Roman story of Socii Allies and Confederates who were obliged by Covenant and Stipulation to send out such an assistance of men for the City of Rome as the Senate or the Consul required till a little before Julius Caesar's time after that you shall read no more of them for then they were all made Citizens of Rome and reckon'd to be of one Incorporation The difference between Allies and Auxiliaries was the first could only be Italians the second were of any other Nation Hence it is that though we read of no Allies that join'd with Lucullâ—â— Sylla Pompâ—y Caesar Anthony Vespasian and his Son Titus yet we find their Armies mightily strengthened by Auxiliaries But indeed the Romans did but fool some of the Italian Towns and Republicks with the goodly show of Alliance and the honourable title of Socii whereas truly they used them no better than Vassals obliging Roman Allies ill used them to follow them in the pursuance of their ambitious designs with as many Forces of Horse and Foot as the Senate pleased to impose on them and to serve at their own charges except a little Proviant which with the help of these same Allies they took from an enemy Hence came these many grievances of the Confederated Towns mentioned in the Roman Histories and once a total rupture of the Latins from them till after much blood-shed they were reduced to their former condition Till the Romans had over-mastered Hannibal Philip of Macedon and the great King of Syria Antiochus we shall seldom read of any of their Armies that were not puissantly assisted by their Allies the number either as to Foot or Horse Number of the Allies of which that assistance consisted may be collected from the several times of their conjunction but that they were determinately and constantly stinted to such a number can never be prov'd out of ancient story yet I find Vegetius very positive in it and in the first Chapter of his Third Book he offers to assure Mistaken by Vegetius his Reader that neither Allies nor Auxiliaries were ever in one army stronger than the Romans Take his own words Illa tamen ratio servata est ne unquam ampliâ—r multitudo Sociorum Auxiliaxiumve â—sset in Castris quam Civium Romanorum That care saith he was taken that no greater number of Allies or Auxiliaries should be in the Camp than of Roman Citizens And Machiavelli in the Third Mistaken by Machiavelli Book of his Art of War says that every Consular Army consisted of two Legions which were eleven thousand Foot and two Legions of Allies which made also eleven thousand Foot I shall first speak a word to both of them together and then severally to each of them Both of them had read Livy and till they had produced a more Authentick Historian none of them should have given him the lye so broadly This Author in his Twenty first Book tells us that after Hannibal came to Italy Cor. Scipio and Sempronius levied six Legions of Romans each of four thousand Foot and for every one of them three hundred Horse and in that same place he casts up the total of them to be twenty four thousand Foot and eighteen hundred Horse and of Allies saith he forty four thousand Foot and four thousand Horse This wanted but four thousand of the double number of the Roman Foot and four hundred more than double the number of the Roman Horse In his Thirty fifth Book he informs us that in the War against Antiochus the Consul Quintius raised two Legions each of five thousand Foot in all ten thousand and six hundred Horse and of the Allies saith he twenty thousand foot and eight hundred Horse The number of the Foot was double the Roman Infantry and the Horse exceeded Prov'd out of Livius the Roman by two hundred In the Istrian War a little before that of Macedon Livy in his forty first Book says ten thousand Roman Foot and three hundred Horse were levied and of the Allies twelve thousand Foot and six hundred
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
first whereof they quarrel'd and invaded them and with the second broke Peace without either regard to Justice or sense of Honour But tell me had the two Consuls at Cannae no more but forty eight thousand Romans and Allies read Polybius his fourth Book you will see they had eight Legions of Romans and as many Allies at five thousand Foot each Legion and three hundred Horse and these extended to eighty thousand Foot and seven thousand two hundred Horse reckoning the Allies Cavalry double that of the Romans Read Livy's twenty second Book you will see Hannibal kill'd at that same Battel forty five thousand Roman Foot and two thousand seven hundred Horse besides Allies and the same Historian will tell you in plain language that the Roman Army at that place consisted of fourscore and seven thousand fighting men And before Hannibal enter'd Italy had the Romans no stronger Armies against the Gauls than forty eight thousand men Yes both Polybius and Livy will tell you of far greater numbers read in other Histories whether Marius had but forty eight thousand Romans against the fierce Nations of the Cimbrians and the Teutones How vain a thing it is then for an Author of Vegetius his reputation to aver that against the mightiest Enemy two Consular Armies each of twenty four thousand men were sufficient against the current of History Fourthly He lays it down for an unquestionable truth that one Consul A bold assertion of Vegetius had never more than two Legions of Romans and as many of the Allies against the most powerful Enemy Be pleas'd to hear his own words in the fourth Chapter of his Second Book In omnibus Auctoribus invenitur singulos Consules adversus Hostes copiâ—sissimos non amplius quam binas duxisse Legiones additis auxiliis seciorum In all Authors saith he it is found that every Consul never led more against the most numerous Enemies than two Legions with the assistance of the Allies And that it should not be said he had writ so manifest an untruth without a reason he adds Tanta in illis erat exercitatio tanta fiducia ut cuivis bello dua legiones crederentur sufficere They were so well train'd and had so great confidence that two Legions were thought to be sufficient for any War Did ever man write so If two Legions were sufficient in any War why were four Legions and two Consuls imployed against the fierce Nations he just now spoke of But I will come nearer him and tell him that it is very often found in Authors that one Consul or General had the Conduct of more than two Legions and therefore Vegetius his words that I cited last must either be false or those Authors whom I shall cite do grossly abuse us I shall not repeat the business of Canna but be pleas'd to take these other Instances When Caesar heard of the dreadful preparations of the Helvetians to stop Instances of later times to the contrary Of Caesar that inundation he posts to Italy and raises two new Legions joyns them with three Veterans brought them to France and with one he had there already he made six in all and with these fought the Helvetians and thereafter Ariovistus all in one Summer This he writes in the second Book of the Gallick War Here were more than two Legions yet but one Consul In his fifth Book he says he invaded England with five Legions besides a vast number of Gauls Numidians and Balearians having left his Legate Labienus in Gaule with 3 Legions and three thousand Horse here a Consuls Legate commanded more Legions than two The most part of the time Caesar stay'd in Gaule he had ten Legions till Pompey and the Senate cheated him of two of them Petreius and Petreius and Afranius Pompey Afranius had seven Legions in Spain Pompey had eleven at Pharsalia besides a world of Auxiliaries and there Caesar had eight and at Brundusium when he was in pursuit of the flying Senate he had twelve Legions Thus we see that Great Caesar the most daring Consul that ever was thought not two Legions sufficient against any Enemy or in any War Before his time the two Consuls Marius and Scipio joyn'd their Armies together against the Cimbrians and Marius and Scipio as Florus tells us lost in the Battel eighty thousand Romans and forty thousand Servants and Baggage-men Sure in these two Consular Armies there were four Legions four times told And the same Author says that Mark Anthony the Triumvir entered Media with eighteen Legions and sixteen thousand Horse all these Consuls and their Legates liv'd long before Vegetius and I doubt not but he hath read all their stories but I shall lead him up to those times when his Of more ancient times Romans were not so powerful as to raise so numerous Legions and yet in them we shall see that the Consuls were not stinted to two Legions a piece as he hath very confidently declared they were Polybius saith that before the second Before the second Punick War Punick War the Romans had several hundred thousands in arms I hope then no man except our Author will say that every Consul had but two Legions allotted him In the Consulship of young Camillus the City being environed Young Camillus with enemies ten Legions were levied two of them were left for defence of Rome four were given to the Prator and Camillus took four to himself each consisting of 4 thousand two hundred Foot and three hundred Horse Thus we see not only that a Consular Army had four Roman Legions in it a thing denied by Vegetius but a Pretorian one had four to which our Author allows but one You may read this in Livy's Seventh Book and in that same place he tells us that the Consul Popilius Lenus marched with four full Legions against the enemy Popilius Lenus leaving a considerable army at Rome to wait on all hazards In his Sixth Book he saith old Camillus who defeated the Gauls marched with four Legions against Old Camillus the Volscians One instance more which may serve to decide the question if there were any the same Historian in his Second Book informs us that the Dictator Marcus Valerius levied and enrolled ten Legions whereof he gave Marcus Valerius three to every Consul and kept four to himself Observe that at that time the Latines were Allies and levied their proportions as many Foot as the Romans did and twice as many Horse if not more of both the one and the other Observe also that in those times the Roman Seignory was of no large extent for Livy speaking of these Levies of Valerius says so many Legions were never levied before he means never at one time These are sufficient enough to prove Vegetius to have been too confident when he said that never Roman Consul conducted more than two Roman Legions even against the most numerous Enemies But he is in no danger for all
Consul was to storm a Wedg and yet it was a Phalange condensed only smaller at the point than at the rest of its dimensions And he might have call'd it a Testudâ— or Tortoise if he had pleased for they stood all covered with their Shields and great Targets which representing the Tortoise covered with its shell gave that figure of Battel its denomination The Globe-battel was a Batallion that appear'd to be of a round figure and Globe or Ring-figure if it was perfectly round the English have worded it well in calling it a Ring I find it oftner mention'd in modern than in ancient stories I should think those who use it were on the defensive for men standing in a perfect Globefigure can neither pursue nor run away without breaking their order and figure of their Battel and so unglobe or unring themselves Mr. Elton gives us its figure and tells us right ingeniously how it is made but sure it is not feasible for great bodies to cast themselves into that figure I incline to their opinion who think it was but a Wedg of a lesser body and being smaller seem'd more Circular And I the rather think so because Caesar in his Books of the Alexandrinâ— War says that Domitius one of his Legates sav'd a Legion by casting it in a Ring when the rest of his Army was routed at Nicopâ—lis by Pharnaces for if that Legion had been in a perfect round figure it could not have retir'd as it did from him who by his victory was master of the Field The Tenaille Tongs or Shears was nothing but the reverse of the Wedg Tenaille or â—ongs and was to be used only against it for whereas the Wedg was sharp at the point to pierce any Batallion that stood against it so the Tenaille open'd its arms to receive and embrace the Wedg having its bulk notwithstanding behind to oppose it if it could not be broke by the arms of the Tenaille And a Squadron may very soon cast it self in a Tenaille either by advancing its two flanks the Body standing â—ied ferme or yet by making the middle part against which the point of the Wedg prepares retire a little both the flanks standing still either the one or the other way makes the Squadron a Tenaille The Saw was a great Batallion composed of several Squadrons all marshalled The Saw in the form of Wedges the angular points of which Wedges represented the teeth of the Saw and the Bodies of the several Wedges standing in a direct line represented the body of the Saw Some have writ that the several Maniples of a Roman Legion did represent the Saw taking the Bodies of the Maniples for the Teeth and the Intervals for the body of the Saw But how could that be for the Bodies of the Maniples and the several Intervals between these Bodies were all of one equal front and so are not the teeth and body of a Saw and unless these Maniples had been made a little sharper at the front than of either ten or twelve men the resemblance would not have holden We do not read that the Romans used it at all CHAP. XIX Of some Customes used by the Romans and other Ancient Nations before in the time of and after their Battels THe Grâ—cians sung a Hymn and a Paan both before and after their Battels but before they begun unless they were surprized they offer'd Sacrifices Sacrifices to such of their Gods and Goddesses as either they hoped would be for them or feared might be against them The inspection of the Entrails of the sacrificed Beasts was an ordinary thing with the Greeks as all their Historians tell us nor was this custome peculiar to them for the Enemy of Mankind was worshipp'd by the Romans and other Nations as well as by the Grecâ—ans Before the Romans came to the Battel they were somewhat nice in observing how the Sacred Pullets did eat their allowance which furnish'd a fair occasion to the Chicken-masters to usurp a power to perswade or disswade the Consuls from fighting when they pleased Instead of these in our Modern Wars before the Battel the Turk with great devotion attends the sight of the new Moon and both he and other Mahometans howl loud enough to their Impostor who is otherwise so taken up that he hath no leisure to hear their habblings Christiaâ—s either humbly offer or should humbly offer the Sacrifices of their Prayers to the True God who gives Victory to whom he pleaseth In the Primitive times they sung a Paan and a Hymn Crux Vâ—cit After the Heathens thought they had made their Deities propitious their Chieftains labdured to encourage their Armies with good Words Speeches Orations and Promises of Rewards Their Speeches were sometimes premeditated and sometimes extemporary The Roman Generals used to harangue Harangues their Armies when they were to promalgate new Ordinances to punish grievous Crimes or to fight with an Enemy sometimes in the Camp and sometimes in the Field And all this was also done by other Nations though it may be not so well When the Roman Generals resolv'd either to fight or offer Battel they caus'd The Scarlet â—r Purple Coat of Arms. a Scarlet or Purple Coat of Arms to be hung upon the point of a long Spear at their Praetorium or Pavilion and this was Signum Pugna the sign of Battel and then every one prepar'd himself for his proper work But before that for most part the Souldiers had direction to refresh themselves with Sleep and Meat and this indeed was well done of them but they were not the only Refreshment men who did it other Nations used it particularly we read that Hannibal practis'd it at Treâ—ia for there he order'd his Army the night before he fought to take their rest and refreshment and next morning set upon the Romans when they were fasting to which Livy in his twenty first Book mostly attributes his Victory After these things the Army was marshall'd in the Field whereof I have already spoken sufficiently Being ready to come to the shock the Tessera or Word was given which The Tessera or Word all both Officers and Common Souldiers received that by it they might know one another and so discern an Enemy The Tessera was either one Word or one Sentence as Foelicitas Libertas Venus Genetrix one of Julius Caesar's Optima Mater given by Nero The worst of Sons Among the Emperours after their conversion to the Faith Deus Nobiscum God with us was ordinary and so it continues to be often used among the German Danish and Swedish Armies Next to the Word was the Shout and this either was not or should not be raised till the Armies were at that distance that they could immediately come to blows This was done to encourage their own men Baritus or shout and terrifie their Enemies Livius in his fourth Book informs us that where this cry or shout was very loud
shrill and continued without interruption it was interpreted to be a certain sign of Victory but if it was dead cold and unequal often begun and often interrupted it bewray'd fear and discouragement and portended ruine and destruction It was used by all Nations as well as the Romans and the word Baritus whereby Historians express it was borrowed from the Ancient Germans whose cry they say sounded like the pronunciation of that word They cryed no more after they came to the medley else it would have hinder'd them from hearing the Commands of their Officers either by word of mouth or the Trumpet Though the loud noise of Cannon and Musket in our Modern Wars may seem reason enough to suppress this ancient custome of shouting yet it neither ought to be nor yet is it banish'd out of our Armies The Germans French Danes and Swedes in their advance and before they give Fire have their ca ca oâ— And no doubt with an advance a stroâ—t heats and inflames the Blood and helps to encourage The late Usurper and his Armies made but too good use of it These things were previous to a Battel First The Purple Coat of Arms at the Consuls Pavillion Secondly The Exhortation or Harangâ—e Thirdly The Marshalling the Army Fourthly The Word or Teâ—â—â—â—a Fifthly The Classiâ—â—â— And Lastly This Shout or Baritus Of the first five that were ordinarily practis'd Caesar speaks in the Second Book of his Gallick War as necessary for when he was almost surpriz'd by the Nervians he writes thus Caesar saith he of himself had all things to do at once the Standard to be set up that is the Scarlet Coat his Army to marshal his Souldiers to exhort to cause the sign to be given by the Trumpet and to give the Sign this last Sign signifieth the Tessera otherwise the words had been superfluous of which that great man cannot be taxed As to this last Sign which was the Word the Ancients found that same difficulty with which all Armies are still troubled and that was that by the often requiring and giving it the Enemy came to the knowledge of it and then it was useless Lipsâ—â—â— tells us that he reads in Pâ—liâ—â—nus that one Aâ—ues an Arcadian A pretty story Captain being to fall on the Lacedâ—monians in the night time or as we now call it to beat up their quarters instead of a Word he commanded his Army to require no Word at all but to use all those who sought a Word as Enemies so that the demanding the Tessora bewray'd the demander to be a Lacedaemonian who at that time receiv'd a notable overthrow The Roman Consul when Classicum a sign of Battel he was to fall on caus'd the Classicum to sound which was seconded by the nearest and immediately by all the Trumpets Horns and Horn-pipes of the Army And now the Battel begins concerning which an old question is not yet perhaps decided Whether it was better to give or receive the charge The A question whether to give or receive the charge Roman Dictator Cossus as Levy hath it in his sixth Book being to joyn Battel with a powerful Army of the Volscians commanded all his Foot to stand still and fix their Javelines in the ground and so receive the Enemies charge which being violent put them out of breath and then the Legionaries clos'd with them and routed them Great Pompey gave the like order at Pharsalia but not with the like success for he was totally beaten But Machiavelli with Machiavelli's opinion his accustomed confidence to give it no worse name in the fourth Book of his Art of War takes upon him to give the definitive sentence and awards the Victory to him who receives the charge And saith also that most Captains chuse rather to receive than give it yet he instances only one of the Fabii who by receiving the charge of the Sanonites and Gauls was Victorious But we must listen to a greater Captain than any he hath named and himself to boot and that is Julius Caesar who by giving the charge in the Thessalian Plains gain'd the Soveraignty of the Roman Empire and blames Pompey for following the bad advice of Triarius to wait till Caesar charged him His words whereby he seems to void this difference you have in the third Book of his Civil War which are these in English But on the contrary says he I think this was done Caesar's judgement of it by Pompey without any shew of reason meaning his keeping his Souldiers from advancing to the charge because there is saith he I know not what galant vigour and natural inclination to courage born in all men which Captains ought rather to cherish stir up and augment than any way mollifie or restrain Thus far Great Caesar But on the other hand if an Army be drawn up in an advantageous ground suppose a Hill or fenced with Marish River To keep advantages or Rock the quitting of which may prove prejudicial as the loss of all advantages especially in matters of War doth it alters clearly the case and those who have done it either in Ancient or Modern Wars to the irrecoverable loss of their Masters have much mistaken Caesar who never practised it and assuredly those who do it had need of good fortune otherwise they may be sure to be branded in true Histories with either perfidy or inexcusable folly and even in Romances with too much generosity In the time of Battel all both Commanders and Souldiers did their duties by punctually obeying the commands of their Generals though to the certain and inevitable loss of their lives if not they were sure to incur those punishments whereof I shall speak hereafter Nor were they obliged to obey the commands given them before the Battel only but all those orders and signs that were given them in the time of Battel These Vegetius in the fifth Chapter of his third Book calls Signs and divides them into three Signs in time of Battel sorts Vocal Semi-vocal and Dumb. The Vocal were the verbal commands of the Officers especially the Consul and Tribunes The Semi-vocal were the several sounds of Classicums Trumpets and Horns as March Charge Retire The Dumb signs were the Ensigns Standards and Eagles as also the elevation of the Hand of a Colours or a Lance or the shaking of a Spear by a Consul or General But these were agreed on before the fight began and were either given to the whole Army or but to a part of it as when you see such a thing done then you are to do so and so These Dumb signs would not do much good in our Battels where the smoak of Powder would render many of them imperceptible And now the Battel is ended and the Romans are either Victorious or have lost the day If the first they were to pursue the Enemy to his Camp To pursue a Victory or clearly out of the Field and not only so but to follow him
Bodies of Foot it is the easiest motion of all the rest and cannot be suddenly done and therefore is dangerous if an enemy be near to take advantage of the disorder of the motion Thirdly If all the three Countermarches Laconian Macedonian and Chorâ—an Third be of very little use and great danger in the Infantry as I have endeavour'd to make appear in one of my Discourses of the Grecian Militia then I suppose it will be easily granted that the use of any of the three is as little and the danger as great in Bodies of Cavalry Fourthly That I conceive Wheeling a more proper motion and more easie Fourth for the Horse than for the Foot it is a motion that hath been much used by Horse in fight for unless in wheeling they are charged in the flank and if so they are ill seconded they are quickly reduced to their first posture but it is not so with the Foot for if the Body be but indifferently great suppose fifteeen hundred men standing at three foot distance in files and six in ranks you must â—irst make them come both ranks and files to their close order before you can wheel your Battel and that requires some time for it is a motion of it self and the greater the Body be the longer time it will have to make that first motion for great Bodies move slowly Next the motion it self of wheeling the Battel is not soon done if well done for if it be not order'd discreetly the Body is immediately in confusion Thirdly when you have wheel'd this Body of fifteen hundred men you must beg yet a Cessation of Arms from your Enemy till you put your Battel in a fighting posture which you cannot do till you reduce them to their first order for at close order your Musqueâ—eers cannot fight and therefore you must cause your Battel to open it is true the ranks will quickly open backward but the files being no less in a Body of fifteen hundred men than two hundred and fifty must have such a time to open though they do it with all the hast imaginable that a resolute Body of Horse will Charge thorough them before you end these three motions But a Body of Horse being in rank and file at that distance at which it is to fight needs no command to close ranks and files before it wheel nor no command to open them after it hath wheel'd being constantly in a posture to receive an enemy And with submission to great Drill masters I should think the motions of Facing and Countermarching of Bodies of Horse whether greater or smaller might be spared in their Exercise because you may face an enemy with a Squadron of Horse either in flank or reer by wheeling either to the right or left hand or by either of the two about a great deal sooner with a great deal of more ease and with a great deal of less danger than you can do by either Facing or Countermarching Fifthly Observe that no man can or will attain to a perfect understanding of Fifth either postures motions or evolutions in the Training particular men or yet Bodies of Horse and Foot by reading the words of command in a Book or Paper or looking upon the figures of them for the Military Art is practical one shall understand what belongs to Drilling and Training more by looking on the real practice of it three days than by the contemplative study of it three years when you see a Countermarch in the Field you will quickly understand what an Evolution it is when you see the figure of it in a Book but you will not so soon know what it signifies when you see the figure before the practice And lastly I avouch it to be the essential duty of a Captain to Exercise his Sixth Troop or company himself whether it be of Foot or Horse nor should it be permitted that his Lieutenant should do it when he is present much less a Serjeant as I have often seen for thereby he Uncaptains himself and changeth places with his Lieutenant And this is too ordinary a Military grievance against which the Earl of Swafford guarded by an express instruction that no Lieutenant should exercise a Company unless the Captain were absent which he might not be without either sickness or that Lords own permission a very just command And by the same reason all Colonels should exercise their Regiments and in their absence their Lieutenant Colonels but when either of them are present the Major ought neither to be commanded nor of himself offer to do it and this is contrary to the opinion of many who will impose so many duties on a Major that they make thereby Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels Cyphers or very insignificant Creatures CHAP. XI Of Compaies Regiments and Brigades of Foot what they have been what they are how they are Marshal'd of all their Officers their Duties and Qualifications I Suppose most Military men acknowledg the Infantry to be the Body of an Army with it the Artillery Munitions and Provisions lodg and so doth he who commands in chief The members of this Body are Regiments or Brigades and the sinews and arteries of these are Companies A Company is a Band of armed men Marshal'd in rank and file a rank and file differ in this that the first consists of men whether on horseback or foot standing in one A Rank and a File front side for side the second of men standing in one row or lane one behind another so they may easily be converted a file into a rank and a rank into a file The number of these ranks and files must be determined by the number of men appointed to be in each Company for which there is no general rule every Prince and State ordering that as they please neither do they restrict themselves constantly to one number but appoint their Companies to be stronger and weaker as the emergency of affairs or the present Ratio Belli seem to require it In former times ever since Gunpowder was invented it has been so likewise for sometimes Companies were more numerous than at other times yet never were the weakest of them of so small a number as generally now they be The first time I remember to have read of a Company of one hundred in the Modern War was in the Civil Wars of France in the Reign of Charles the Ninth about one hundred years since in them I find that the Protestant Foot-Companies Company of one hundred strong were but generally one hundred strong for which I can guess at no reason unless it were that many Gentlemen who were forc'd to take Arms and durst not stay at home might be invested with Charges and Imployments suitable to their qualities yet methinks it had conduced more to the advancement and prosecution of the grand design that Troops and Companies of Gens d'Armes or Curiassiers had been made up of those numbers of Gentlemen a service very
our first Parents had not rebell'd against their Creator their posterity had enjoy'd an everlasting peace and so such a person as we now speak of had been very unnecessary But I assure my self never man except Adam when he was in the state of perfection was endued with these gifts wherewith some Notional Authors wil have a Captain General to be qualified He must say A Notional description of a Captain General they be pious towards God just towards man and loyal to his Master He must be very affable very wise of a sudden and quick apprehension of a solid judgment and happy memory He must be very severe in his command and yet very merciful He must be liberal and free from all manner of Avarice painful magnanimous and couragious and in one word endued with all the Moral Vertues He ought to be an old Practitioner in the Military Art and well experimented in all its parts and duties Perhaps you may think this enough but Polybius in his Ninth Book requires more for he will have his General to be both an Astrologer and a Geometer If you will tell me where or in what region of the habitable world all these qualifications shall be found in one person Eris mihi magnus Apollo That he who is intrusted with the supreme Command of Royal Armies one or more and with the whole Militia of a State should be an accomplisht person The charge of a Generalissimo is of the highest nature and if it be possible such a one as we have describ'd will not be readily denied since it is a Command of the highest nature the greatest honour and deepest consequence that can be confer'd on any single person of what quality â—r degree soever for he is intrusted not only with the lives of those that are in Arms under his Command but with the defence of the whole Country Towns Forts and Castles with the honour welfare and standing of the Prince and State and with the lives and properties of all their Subjects The loss of his Army or Armies by his negligence inadvertency rashness or cowardice may occasion the loss of all these or make them run a very great hazard by his indiscretion much more by his treachery he may in one moment of time lose the lives and liberties of many thousands make numbers of women widows children fatherless and fathers childless he may lose the honour and beauty of a whole Province yea of a whole Kingdom all which he was bound by his office and charge to preserve The consideration of these things mov'd most of the ancient Kings and Emperours A Prince to manage his Wars in person and those of latter times likewise to manage their Wars and lead their Armies in person Those who laid the foundation of the first four Monarchies did so as in the Assâ—rian Nimrod Belus Ninus and Semiramis and when their posterity did it not their Empire was in the wain and ended with Sardanapalus who hid himself from the sight of men among his women Cyrus led his Armies himself so did some of his Successors but when others of them staid at home and sent their Lieutenants abroad the Persian Monarchy decay'd and became a prey to the Great Alexander who manag'd his Wars in person and so did those great Captains of his who cut out Kingdoms to themselves out of their Masters Conquests but their Successors lost them by sitting idle at home and employing their Generals abroad Many Roman Emperours after Augustus went to their Wars in person whereby they preserv'd their Imperial Dignity but when others imployed their Lieutenants though many of these were excellent men and often victorious the Empire was torn in pieces The Kings of Leon Navarr Castile Portugal and Arragon after the destruction of the Gothish Monarchy in Spain went to the field in person and recover'd Many Instances to prove it those Kingdoms out of the hands of the Saracens When the Kings of France of the Merovingian and Carolomannian race kept within their Palaces and suffer'd the Majors thereof to govern their Armies they lost their Kingdoms and Crowns Our Kings of Scotland and England used mostly to manage their Wars themselves the Emperour Charles the Fifth led his greatest Armies himself and for most part was always victorious for his loss at Algiers occasion'd by the visible hand of Heaven and his forced Retreats from Inspruck and the Siege of Metz were but small blemishes in the beautiful and fair Map of his victorious raign But since his time his Successors the Kings of Spain have sate at home and entrusted their Armies to their Generals and we see that their wide and far stretcht Monarchy has been since that Emperours time in a constant decadency All the Kings and Emperours of the Ottoman race went in person to the Wars till Selimus the second changed that custom and since that time none of them have done actions by their Bashas comparable to those of their Ancestors In our own days the Emperour Ferdinand the Second intrusted the managing his War against Gustavus Adolphus to his Generals Wallenstein Tily and Pappenheim all brave and great Captains yet that Martial King being in person on the head of his Armies prevailed over them all We may perceive the great odds of managing a War by a Prince in his own person and by his Captain General by taking a view of the actions of two Brothers both of them excellent Princes these were the Emperour Charles the Actions of two Brothers compar'd Fifth of whom I but just now spoke and Ferdinand the First King of the Romans Hungaria and Bohemia The first as I have already said led his most considerable Armies himself the second staid constantly at home and sent his Captain Generals to manage his Wars of greatest importance mark the issue Ferdinand lost three Royal Armies each of them composed of a well appointed Cavalry Infantry and Train of Artillery one of them at Esâ—câ—hiâ— under Cazzianer another at Buda under Rocandolf and the third at Pesth under Joachiâ—â— Marquess of Brandenburg all three were wofully and shamefully lost without fighting And if any think that the misfortune of all the three or any one of them could not have been prevented by the Princes own presence I shall answer that undoubtedly it had and my reason is this because that which lost them all was the irresolution of the Generals who durst neither fight nor retire in time as being shie and wary to hazard that which was not their owâ—â— whereas Ferdinand if he had been present would quickly have resolv'd either on the one or the other and consequently would have either retir'd in time and sav'd all his three Armies or have fought and by that means been victorious or would have been beaten with more glory to himself and mischief to his insolent enemy And this is more particularly clear in that Army commanded by Rocandolf who after multitudes of Infidels were already arrived
The late Duke of Guise whereby he went fair to have disburthen'd the King of Spain's head of the Crown of Naples immediately after the unexemplified Rebellion of Masanello but the Duke's entrusting the several Posts of that great City of Naples constantly to the same Officers encourag'd one of them to treat with the Count d'Ognati and fell him that which was entrusted to him when the Duke was reducing an inconsiderable Isle without the City this blasted all his fair hopes and shortly after lost him his liberty I told you in the last Chapter that Surprizal was the second and next to Treachery the easiest way to take fortified places I spoke of several kinds of Surprizals of any of which if a Governour gets Intelligence it is easie for him to render it ineffectual with the great hazzard if not the inevitable loss of many of the intended Surprizers but without Intelligence a Scalado is prevented by Guards duly order'd and set strictly and severely kept and Against a Scalado by the diligent going of Rounds either the circuit of the whole Fort or from Post to Post for a Scalado isâ—soon perceiv'd by vigilant Sentinels and careful Rounds and as soon are the Ladders thrown down with those who are upon them So were the Duke of Savoy's people used at Geneva seventy years ago where the Inhabitants expecting no such thing in time of Peace kept but a very careless Watch. And when Spinola besieg'd Breda in the year 1625. Prince Maurice of Orange his design to scale the Cittadel of Antwerp was utterly defeated by a more than half sleeping Sentinel In the next place there will be Against a disguis'd Enemy no danger for a Fort to be surpriz'd by Souldiers disguis'd like Countrey people if a vigilant Guard examine and search narrowly all who enter the Ports especially in the mornings and evenings which should be done in all Frontier Garrisons and the proper place for doing this is eight or ten paces without the Draw-bridge where there should be a great balk laid traverse the Streets tyed at each end by an Iron Chain to a Post made firm in the ground and A Spanish Reuter through that balk are great holes bored through which are pales of Wood made fast and these sharp at both ends this denies access to any either Horse or Foot till it be open'd And here likewise should all Waggons and Against Waggons Carts Carts be searched especially if they seem to be loaden with Hay Straw or Corn through and in which Halberds should be thrust for many times under such coverts arm'd men are carry'd in at Ports of fortified places Neither should any Cart or Waggon be suffer'd to stop on a Draw-bridge for that is often done to hinder the drawing it up till an Enemy lurking not far off runs to the Port and surprizes it and in such a case if the Portcullis at which for that purpose there should constantly stand a Sentinel be not very soon let down an Enemy may underprop it with strong Forks shorter or longer made purposely for that use If the Ports of a Town Castle or Fort be in the midst of the Curtain as they should be and ordinarily are the Flanks of the nearest Bastions seem sufficient to defend those Ports from Petards or any other manner of Surprizal Against Petards yet some think that long and great pricks of Iron of five or six foot length sixt in the lower part of the Draw-bridge would do well that when the Draw-bridge is drawn up those pricks standing out may hinder Petards to be affix'd as also that in the upper parts of the Gates and Ports loop-holes be made pretty wide out of which may be thrown Stones Logs of Timber and Granadoes against the Petardeers or Water pour'd to quench the Petard if it be already hung on There are several other ways to be used against Petards concerning which I refer you to Engineers and Gunners But it were good to have within every Port a piece of Ordnance of a large Caliber constantly A great piece of Ordnance within a Port. charg'd with Cartridges wherewith to welcome those who first offer to enter for one of those unexpected Vollies doth often make an Enemy who in all Surprizâ—ls hath the half if not more of the fear retire faster than he advanced I knew an Enemy who had got over the Walls of a little Town in Germany without opposition and had advanc'd to the Market-place where receiving not above fifteen or sixteen Musquetades run over the Walls faster than he enter'd There be two general ways good against all manner of Surprizals Two defences against all Surprizals The one for the defence of Ports that is a Raveline before every Port defends it from all manner of Attacks and Enterprizers The second to defend Curtains and Bulwarks if the Ditch be dry a row of Pallisadoes planted in the middle of it secures the Wall for these cannot be cut down so soon but the Guards unless they be all asleep or drunk will be sufficiently alarm'd to receive an Enemy If there be two Moats and Water in both a row of Pallisadoes between them secures the place if there be but one and Water in it it should not be full to the brink for so Boats may easily transport men but they cannot descend with them without being heard and then they may be assured of a shrewd reception But all this depends on the carefulness and watchfulness of the Guards on which indeed doth principally depend the security and safety of the place To defend Forts against Blockades or formed Sieges made by Approaches there be six things requisite first the fortification of the place whether that Six things requisite for a Fort against Sieges and Blockades be by Nature or by Art or both secondly Men thirdly Money fourthly Victuals fifthly Ammunitions sixthly all kind of Arms Defensive and Offensive therein comprehending Artillery The first of these belongs to the Engineer wherein I have no more skill than to tell my Reader that he or any who will study Fortification will profit more by one lesson taught by word of Fortification mouth from an Engineer than by twenty writ in a Book and illustrated every one of them by Figures I shall speak a word or two of every one of the other five necessaries for a Fort. The second requisite is Men of whom there should be no more nor fewer than are able to maintain it Horse-men if the Siege continue long prove Men. burthensome yet in three cases they may be made useful first to make Sallies both before and after the Besieger makes his Approaches till those come so Horse-men how serviceable in a Siege near that Horse dare not hazzard out secondly if there be a void street or Interval between the Houses and the Rampart of the Fort so broad that Horsemen can ride five or six in breast they may be very serviceable
men who profess the name of Christ than either Grotius or Machiavel If I mistake not that great Doctor of the Gentiles thought the Art of Souldiery consider'd a part and distinguish'd from all other Arts either Liberal or Mechanical very lawful and therefore compar'd not the professors of it to infamous people such as Grotius knew Hangmen to be On the contrary the Apostle proposes a pure Souldier who waited only on his own Art of War as a fit example for his Son Timothy to follow Read the third and fourth verses of the second Chapter of his Second Epistle to Timothy you will find these words Thou therefore endure hardness at a good Souldier of Jesus Christ No man that Warreth entangleth himself with the things of this life that he might please him who hath hired him to be a Souldier The French Translation hath it the affairs of this life the Italian the doings of this life the German hath it no Warriour seeks another livelihood This is much and more than I desire for I think it were good for Souldiers to have learned some othe Art or Trade than that of Souldiery only Deodati expounds these words in the doings of this life that is says he in such affairs such Art or such Trades as may hinder a Souldier in his duty of Souldiery Be that as it will I avouch That the Apostle in these words pronounceth the pure Art of a meer Souldier without any other Art or Trade to be most lawful else he had made no apposite comparison between Timothy and a Souldier which I presume none who hath read Paul's Epistles and believes them to be endited by the Holy Ghost will be so impious as to fancy By this Text a Christian man may very lawfully apply himself to the profession of pure Souldiery without learning any other Art or Trade And I think also that Timothy was exhorted if not commanded to apply himself only to the Ministry of the Gospel and to no other Art yet if he had learn'd any other way of livelihood before Paul circumcis'd him it would not have been forbid him Paul himself before his conversion had learn'd to be a Tent-maker which he exercis'd for his livelihood when he preach'd the Gospel Luke the Evangelist before his Baptism was a Physician which no doubt he practis'd all the time he accompanied St. Paul in his Voyages But I think by this Text men are forbid to learn any other Art after they are actual Ministers of the Gospel And therefore I conceive Church-men are forbid to have plurality of Professions which perhaps they will be contented to hear with better will than to have it told them That plurality of Benefices is forbidden the Clergy But because Grotius hath made use of St. Austine's authority against me in St. Austinâ—'s authority this question which I have cleared I shall presume to cite that same Father in defence of my cause It is true I have read but few of his learned Books but the passage I mind to speak of I have read cited by a very worthy and credible Author and though he cites it for another purpose yet finding it makes very much for mine I could not chuse but make use of it The words are in one of his Books against the Manichees and are these Non est potest as niâ—i à Deo â—ive â—nbâ—nte sive sinente Ergo vir justus si fortè sub Rege etiam Sacrilego militat rectè potest illo jubente Bellare quemadmodum enim Regem facit reum Iniquit as imperandi ita Innocentem Militem facit ordo serviendi English me this Monsieur de Grot but because you eâ—ther cannot or will not I both can and will There is no power says he but from God either commanding or permitting it therefore if sometimes a Righteous man serves as a Souldier under a Sacrilegious King he may lawfully fight when he is commanded for as the sin of commanding makes that King Guilty so the obedience of serving makes that Souldier Innocent This is more than I have yet said this great and pious Divine seems to me to assert That a Souldiers Art is not only lawful but that he is bound to fight when commanded even in a cause the Justice whereof does not appear to him yea though the Injustice of it be made apparent to him But assuredly St. Austin meant to except those things which are diametrically against the word and Will of God for the rule holds firm and perpetual Better obey God than Man In other matters the Souldier is not so strictly to examine the quarrel the sin of commanding to fight in an unjust cause rendering the Souldiers obedience in fighting blameless and innocent Hence it will follow That a profess'd Souldier who knows no other Art or Trade may lawfully make profession of his skill and practise it in any part of the World for wages so he fight not for those who are profess'd Enemies of the name of Christ against those who profess it for I do not at all doubt but Christian Souldiers who make a profession of Souldiery and have no other way of livelihood but to fight for wages may very lawfully serve either the Sophi of Persia or the great Mogul of India against the Great Turk because though they be all three equally blasphemous adorers of the Alcoran yet the Wars of the first two may divert the Grand Signior from the Invasion of Christendome Give me leave to take the help of another Doctor and Father of the Christian Tertu'lian's authority Church and that is Tertullian whom I find cited by many others to prove taking Arms against Soveraign power unlawful The passage is in that Apologetick which he wrote in vindication of the Primitive Christians persecuted by Heathen Emperours I shall only cite the words that I conceive make for my purpose Cui Bello non prompti fuimus cui Bello non idonâ—i etiam impares Copiis qui nunc tam libenter trucidamur To what War says he were we not fit to what War were we not ready though fewer in number of forces who now are content willingly to be slain In these words observe that profess'd Christians were Souldiers and fought willingly and without constraint and for pay too you may be sure under the Banners of Heathen yea Persecuting Emperours without examining the Justice of the War which ordinarily was very oft wanting with those Princes who measured the equity of their cause by the length of their Sword I doubt not but the War which the Tyrant Maximianus made was neither just nor lawful yet the Theban Legion consisting of six thousand Christians serv'd faithfully in that War and found no opposition in their Consciences to that Military employment But when that Pagan Emperour commanded them to Sacrifice to his false Deities and Idols then they flatly refus'd obedience knowing surely they were not oblig'd to disobey God by giving obedience to Man and offer'd their Throats to be