hollowed for that and other purposes Heereof Aelian likewise treateth in this booke heere after And albeit the most vsuall embattailling of them hath beene in the wings yet the bestowing in the reare according to Aelians minde hath also advantages First it concealeth theire number which because they are shaddowed with the pikes standing before can hardly bee discerned Then it is easie from the reare to drawe them to any place of service without disorder bee it before on the wings or behinde the reare Further it will not bee easie for the enemies horse to charge them the armed standing before for a sure defence Lastly from the reare they shall bee able at all times to anoye the enemy before the battaile ioynes as soone as the battaile ioynes and all the time of fight Neither doth this manner of embattailing want examples of the ould historie of the Graecians The embattailing of Cyrus the elders armie in Xenophon hath the light-armed in the reare I will set downe the effect of Cyrus words at large because they conteine the ordering of an armie to fight according to the iudgement of Xenophon Cyrus then being to trye a battaile with Craesus thus directs his Commanders you saith hee Araspes take your place in the right wing as you now doe and you the other Myriarches as you are acoustomed For when the fight is once a foote noe Chariot may change horses and command the Taxiarches and file-leaders to order theire files every one divided in two parts Phalange-wise that is each half fronting one with another in a right line A file conteineth foure an twenty men Then saide one of the Myriarches doe you thinke Sir that wee shall bee able in this order to encounter so deep a Phalange as the enemies Cyrus answered the Phalanges that are deeper then may with theire armes reach the enemy are they fitt thinke you either to annoye the enemy or profitte theire frindes For my part I could wish those that are ranged 100 in depth to bee in depth a thowsand For so should wee haue the fewer to fight with all The number that I giue for the depth of the Phalange I doubt not but will entirely serue for vse and maintaine a joynt fight in every part The Darters I will place after the armed and after the darters the Archers For who will sett them in front that confesse themselues vnable to maintaine a fight hand to hand Howe then will they hould theire grownde if they bee sett before the armed but being in the reare some with darts other with arrows sent over the heads of the armed will greatly endammage the enemy And it is cleere that wherewithall soever an enemy is endamaged with the same a mans owne fide is eased and relieved You therefore order your selues as I haue appointed As for the captaines of the Targetiers I will haue them and theire files stand likewise next the armed in the Reare and after them the Archers And you the chiefe Commaunder of the Reare enjoyne the other reare Commanders every man to haue an eye to those vnder him that they doe theire duties And let them sharply threaten the negligent and in case any man treasonably forsake his place punish him with death For it is the worke of Commanders both with word and deed to encourage those they command to make the cowards more afraide of them then of the enemy This is your charge but you Euphratas that command over the Engines see that the beasts that drawe the Engines and Turrets followe the Phalange as neere as may bee And you Daouchus that haue the charge of the baggage come with your manye next after the Turrets and let your Serieants seuerely punish them that hast to much before or come to slowly after And you Carduchus that rule the wagons wherein the women are order them next the baggage For all these comming in the reare will both breede an opinion of multitude and giue vs meanes to lay an ambush and will force the enemy purposing to encompasse vs to fetche a larger compasse which the larger it is soe much the weaker must hee be And you Artabasus and Artagersas each of you leade next after these the 1000. foote you commande a piece And you Phranuchus and Asiadatas order the Chiliarchies of horse you commande not with the Phalange but set them by themselues a part behind the wagons and when you haue done it repaire to vs with the rest of the commanders But you are to bee in a readinesse as if you were first to fight And you the commanders of the Camel-riders place your selues after the wagons and doe what Artagersas shall bidde you And you the Commanders of the Chariots after lotts are cast let him whose lotte it is range himself and his 100. Charriots before the Phalange the other two hundred one of them is to follow the Phalange on the right side wing-wise the other on the left So farre Cyrus I haue rehearsed the words at large principally to shewe that the light-armed in ancient time were placed sometimes behinde the Phalange and yet further also to represent the manner of embattailing an armie which was then vsuall For heere haue you set downe the place of the Myriarches of the other commaunders which was in front then the place of the pikes of the light-armed of the reare commanders of the Engines of the baggage of the wagons wherein the women were of the gards for the baggage both horse and foote of the Camels and of the Chariots And albeit many of these particulers agree not with our manner at this day for wee haue neither Engines nor Camels nor Chariotts nor slings nor darts nor arrowes yet is the reason of warre alike in all and in our placing also the fitnesse of seruice principally to bee respected The place of the horse is heere omitted by Xenophon which may be supplied out of the seventh booke where Chrysanthas Generall of the horse is saide to stand on the right wing of the Phalange with half the horse Hystaspas on the left with the other half But to returne to the placing of the light-armed the same Xenophon testifieth that it was the Aegyptian manner to order theire light-armed behinde that in the battaile betwixt Cyrus and Craesus the Aegyptian archers and darters were with drawne swords compelled by the reare-commanders to shoote and east theire darts Thrasybulus in his fight against the thirty Tyrants set his armed in front and in the reare his targetiers and darters without armor and those that cast stones And it seemeth by the words of Thrasybulus to his owne side that the Tyrants did the like The Tyrants saith hee haue brought vs to a place in which by reason of the steepnesse they must ascend and can neither cast stone nor dart over the heads of theire owne people that are embattailed before Where wee contrarywise whether wee throwe jauelins or darts or stones shall easily reache
the Spaniardes being all armed and set in order shewed theire battail about a mile from the Roman campe The Ansetans were in the middest the Illergetes held the right winge other obscure people of Spaine the left Betwixt the wings and the middle parte they left broade intervalls to giue passage to theire horse when time should bee to send them through to charge The Romans Embattailed after theire wonted manner Onely then imitated the enemy in leaving open waies for the horse betwixt the legions Lentulus imagining that partye and none other should haue vse of theire horse that first possessed these intervalls of the adverse battaile commaunded Cornelius the Tribune to giue direction to the horsemen presently to charge through the foote on both sides came to blowes and the fight was hard when the Roman horsemen passing through the Spaces and falling vpon the middest of theire enemies at once disordered the battaile of foote and shut â—p the wayes against the Spanish horse by which meanes after noe long fight the enemy was vtterly defeated Where Livy saith the Romans embattailed after theire wonted manner his meaning is they ordered them selues in Maniples or Battallions as wee now terme them for that was theire woont But when hee addeth they imitated the enemy in leaving open waies for the horse betwixt the legions Wee must vnderstand that a legion was thus embattailed First they divided theire legion in to thirty Maniples ten of the Hastati ten of the Principes and ten of the Triarij The ten maniples of the Hastati they set first in an even front leaving soe much distance or voide grounde betwixt every Maniple as a Maniple it self tooke vp in standing At a reasonable space behinde were the Principes placed in as many maniples but soe that theire maniples stoode directly behinde the voide spaces of the Hastati And against the bodies of the hastati they left likewise spaces in the Principes to the end the Hastati being overlaid might retire within those spaces or else themselues might advance against the enemy through the intervalls of the Hastati Lastly at a larger distance behinde these were the Triarij set and divided with spaces betwixt euery maniple which spaces were great enough to receaue the Principes in case they retired also Now the Horse being ordered in the reare after the Triarij if from thence they had gon to charge the Enemies front through the spaces of the Triarij they must of necessity haue fallen vpon the Maniples of the Principes whoe were set directly against the intervalls or spaces To giue therefore free passage to theire horse the Roman Generals removed the maniples of the Principes from theire ordinarie place and bestowed them in a right line after the maniples of the Hastati and made an open lane as it were from the reare of theire battell to the front So that nothing hindred the horse but they might freely fly vp to and fall vppon the enemies front And yet I take not Aelians meaning to be that the Horse set in the reare should during the time of the fight still remaine there For soe would noe great service bee had of them But hee placed them there the rather to avoyde confusion in ordering the foote And that after theire embatteling they might bee led from thence to any place front or flanke or wheresoever they might yeeld most vse For in the fifteenth and twentith chapter he would haue both light-armed and horse soe placed that they might answer all attempts of the enemy And in his caution following hee saith if occasion require both horse and light-armed may bee otherwise placed That they were vsually placed in the wings I haue before shewed The examples declare they were placed in the reare sometimes Of placing in the front there are also examples The Lacedaemonians at the battaile of Leuctra against the Thebans placed theire horse before their Phalange and tried their fortune with â—hem and were beaten before the foote ioyned The Persians at the River Granicus esteeming theire Horse to bee theire chiefest strength opposed them vpon the bancks against Alexander that was to passe over and embattailled their foote behinde the horse And Alexander encountered them first with his Horse before his foote could get over One example more I will adde to shewe the reason why Horse are sometimes placed before the front of the Phalange of foote Eumenes being to fight against Craterus and Neoptolemus both greate generalls that had served vnder Alexander in all his warrs ordered the fight thus Because hee vnder-stood that theire Army confisted of twenty thowsand foote the most parte Macedonians renowmed for theire valour and skill in fight In whom they set theire greatest trust and of more then two thowsand horse and knewe his owne foote albeit they were as many in number yet all to bee ramasses of diuerse kinds of people and that his owne horse were fiue thowsand with exceeded the enimy both in number and valor hee determined to hasard the battaile vpon his horse before the two Phalanges of foote should come together Advancing therefore with his horse farre before his foote hee tooke the right wing himselfe and gaue the left to two strangers to Pharnabarus a Persian the sonne of Artabazus and to Phenix a Tenedian Craterus stood in the right wing of his owne horse and placed Neoptolemus on the left And seeing the enemies horse comming forward with greate fury charged them first and fought brauely But his horse failing vnder him hee fell to grounde and it being not knowne whoe hee was by reason of the medly and throng of those that gaue backe and fled hee was trampled vnder foote and ended his life after a strange manner By his death the enemy tooke courage and encompassing theire adversaries on all sides made a great slaughter and the right wing after this manner with might overpressed and put to the worst was faine to fly for succour to the Phalange of foote In the left winge Neoptolemus stoode directly against Eumenes and the mutuall sight of eche bredde a greate emulation betwixt the generalls and a fervent desire to come to hands And being easely knowne both by theire horse and other marks they flewe one vpon another and out of theire single fight made away to a consequent victorie And first they assailed one another with swords and after fell into an vnlooked for and wonderfull Monomachy for being transported with anger and mutuall hatred quitting the raines of theire bridles with theire left hands they eache seazed and tooke hold vpon the body of other which hapening and the horse continuing theire careare and springing from vnder them they both fell to the grounde neither of them could wel arise by reason of the suddaine violent fall and of the heavines of theire armor Yet Eumenes got vp first and prevented Neoptolemus stricking him on the ham The wounde was wide and his strength of footing thereby failed
which respect a place fit hath alwaies beene sought for their seruice to secure them from the accesse of the Horse or of the enemies armed Which place was either behinde the Phalange as Aelian here would haue it or else in the wings betwixt the Horse and the armed or if they skirmished loose before the front and chanced to bee pressed with the enemy they retired into the interualls and conueied themselues behind the Phalange in safetie Leo saith if there be any place of strength it will much helpe the light-armed For after their flying weapons spent reâ—iring thither they will be in more securitie as a steepe rockie place or the bancke of a riuer or a high hill or such other Our stories report that at the battaile of Agincourt in France 200 English Archers were bestowed in a meddow fenced with a deepe ditch from whence they so gauled the French horse and foot that they were a great helpe to the victorie The like happened before at Poitiers where that braue Prince of Wales eldest sonne of Edward the third hauing to fight with the whole power of France vnder the leading of their King gaue safegard to his Archers with hedges and ditches and other strengths So that the French-horse hauing no accesse to disorder them were ouerwhelmed with the tempests and stormes of their arrowes and such a victory obteined by our nation as might maâ—ch the most renowmed of all antiquitie To say nothing of the inuention which Henrie the fifth vsed against the horse of France for securing his Archers The storie saith he deuised stakes of two yards long and armed both ends with pikes of iron the one to sticke into the ground and the other to gall and enter the horses bellies in case they came to charge our Archers home By meanes whereof he caried the famous victorie of Agincourt This for the assurance of the light armed when they come to fight without which assurance their seruice would be weake and scarce worth the hauing Their seruice then according to Aelian hath many particulars And they are good to Prouoke the enemie If the enemie be in a wood a fenâ—e a hill a fort a towne or other place of strength that admitteth no accesse the manner hath beene to send out the light armie to shew themselues and with a Brauado to towle him out of his aduantage and bring him into the field where he may more easily be dealt withall Examples are plentifull but I will content my selfe with a Macedonian example Alexander leading his armie against the Triballs that had hid themselues in a wood commanded his Archers and Slingers to runne out and to shoote and sling amongst the Barbarians to see if he could towle them into the plaine The Archers and Slingers spared not to let flie and the Triballs being wounded with arrowes threw themselues out of the wood with all speed to fall vpon the vnarmed Archers Alexander presently commanded Philotas with the Horse of vpper Macedonia to charge the right wing on which part they cast out themselues furthest And Heraclides and Sopolis with the horse of Bottiâ—a and Amphipolis the left himselfe stretching out in length the Phalange of foote setting the rest of horse before the Phalange led against the midst of the enemie As long as it was but a skirmish the Triballs had not the worst But after the Phalange close serred came vp roundly to them and the Horsemen charged them no longer with darts but pressed and ouerbore them with their horse they fled thorough the wood to the riuer To beginne the fight Leo agreeth If saith he we haue light-armed enough let them before the armie ioyne send their darts and arrowes at the enemie and after the fight of the armed is begunne plie the flanke with their missiue weapons that at ouce both their flankes may be assaulted It hath beene and is now the ordinarie course to beginne the fight with the light-armed And because wee shall read of no batâ—aile almost wherein it was not so I will forbeare examples To wound a farreof The light serue to great purpose if the Generall desire not to come neere to fight but seeke to annoy his enemie a farre of without danger of his owne folkes Liuy telleth of Cn. Manlius Volso that being to make warre against the Gallo Graecians that fled into the mountaines and awaited the Romans there and sought to defend themselues by aduantage of the place he prepared great plenty of darts arrowes bullets and small stones for Slinges and leauing his legionariâ— soulâ—iers behind led his light armed against the enemy that possessed certaine straights by which his armie must passe After some fight the Gallo-Graecians being not sufficiently armed to dâ—fend their bodies from the missiue weapons the light-armed of the Romans forced the passagâ— And following them euen to the Campe where their Companions came to their aide they first droue them into their Campe and after the Legionarie Souldiers comming vp they wonne it I haue before rehearsed the historie of Iphicrates who with his Targetires that came seldome to hand blowes but plied the enemie with darâ—s a farre of ouerthrew and slewe a whole Moira of the Lacedemonians The Acarnans likewise with this kinde of fight much incumbred Agesilaus that made an excursion into their Countrey The story is this a Agesilaus hauing taken a great prey in the territory of the Acarnans rested that day where he had taken it being busie in selling of it In the meane time many Acarnan Targetieres assembled themselues together where Agesilaus was incamped vpon the side of a mountaine and with darting and slinging they forced his Campe to descend to the plaine themselues in the meane time being free from hurt The next day Agesilaus led away his armie The passage out of the place was straight by reason of the mountaines lying about in a circle which the Acarnans possessing plied the Lacedemonians with darts and stones from the higher ground and sometimes descending to the skirts of the hills they pressed the armie so that it could not moue forward And when the armed foote or horse fell out vpon them they profited little For the Acarnans retired immediately to their strength Agesilaus perceiuing it would be hard for his armie to winde out of those straights so long as the enemy so hung vpon them resolued to charge those on his left hand For the ascent on that side was more easie both for his horse and armed foote Commanding therefore his men to charge the armed of 29 yeeres of age first fell on and the horse after them vpon the spurre Himselfe followed with the rest The Acarnans therefore that were descended and busie a darting were quickly put to flight and many slaine in seeking to remount the hills But their armed foote and most of their Targetiers stood imbattailed on the toppe and from thence both threwe other missiues and lanced Iauelines wherewith they wounded horsemen and killed
hapned a like to both they found a safe retreat within the battailes of foote But when the Armies were come within 500 paces one of an other Scipio giuing a signall of Retreat and opening his battaile receiued all the horse and light-armed into the middest and diuiding them into two parts placed them as seconds behind the wings Now when time was come to begin the fight he commanded the Spaniards who had the middle ward to march on leasurely and sent a messenger from the right winge for hee commanded there to Syllanus and Martius willing them to stretch out the left winge as they saw him stretch out the right and to charge the enemy with the light-armed and horse before the middle wards might be able to come vp and ioyne The winges being thus stretched out they led with all possible speed three Cohorts of foote and three troupes of horse a peece against the enemy besides the light-armed and those that were receiued into the Reare who followed a thwart There was a great empty space in the middest because the Ensignes of the Spaniards came slowly on And now the wings were in fight when the old souldiers Carthaginians and Africans the strength of the Armie were not yet come to vse their darts neither durst they runne into the wings to helpe them that fought for feare of opening the middest of the battaile to the enemy who was comming on against them The winges were pressed with a double medley The Horse light-armed Velites wheeling about their Troupes charge their flanks The Cohorts pushed on in front to the end to breake of the wings from the body of the battaile And the conflict was vnequall both in all other respects and especially because a rable as it were of drudges and vntrained Spaniards were opposed against the Roman and Latin souldiers The day being now farre spent the Armie of Asdruball oppressed with the mornings tumult and compelled to take the field before they had strengthned their bodies with meat began to faint and faile in strength which was the reason that Scipio lingered out the day made the fight somewhat late For it was past the seuenth houre before the winges of foote attached one an other and yet the fight came later to the middle wards So that the scorching heat of the south-sunne and the labour of standing armed and hunger and thirst first afflicted their bodies before they came to hands with the enemy Therefore they stood leaning vpon their Targets and being weary both in body and minde they gaue backe at last keeping notwithstanding their array no otherwise than as if the battaile being yet entire had retreated at the commandement of the Generall But when the victors perceiuing them to shrinke so much the more eagerly pressed on the brunt could hardly be indured any longer And although Asdrubal restrained and stopped them that gaue ground crying that hills and a safe place of retreat was at their backs if they could be but intreated to retire easily yet feare ouercomming shame and the enemy killing them that were next to hand they forthwith turned their backs and vniuersally powred out themselues into flight This stratagem of Scipio resteth principally in shifting his best men the Romans into the winges the Spaniards his worst into the middest and in keeping the Spaniards aloofe from ioyning and in hasting to try the day with the Romans against the weakest of the enemy Asdrubals way to meete with this stratagem had beene to countermarch by ranke halfe his Carthaginians and Africans into one winge and halfe into the other And by that meanes his Spaniards should haue had the middest against the Roman-Spaniards and his old souldiers Carthaginians and Africans beene opposed in the wings against the Romans and Latins and the advantage eluded that Scipio sought As the Countermarches by file were of three kindes so are the Countermarches by ranke namely the Macedonian the Lacedemonian and the Choraean The Macedonian beginneth to moue at the corner of the wing which is nearest to the enemy the enemy appearing to either flanke And therefore incâ—rreth the same imputation that was laid vpon the Macedonian countermarch by file as seeming to runne away because it dismarcheth from the enemy Yet is there vse of it as well as of that by file For by this countermarch you may set the strongest part of your Armie against the enemy and apply the weakest to some Riuer Lake hill or such like so that the enemy can not come to incompasse it It taketh the ground that lyeth on the side of the contrary wing The Lacedemonian taketh the ground that lieth on the side of that wing which is toward the enemy and bringeth the best men to be formost against the enemy And therefore beginneth the moving on the contrary side The vse of it is when your forces are such as are able to incounter the enemy and you desire to bring your best men to fight The Choraean keepeth the same ground the battaile had at first bringeth one wing to possesse the place of the other Or else the Sections to possesse the place of the wings as might haue beene done in the last example cited concerning Scipio and Asdrubal The manner of countermarch by ranke is contrary to the countermarch by file In countermarch by file the motion was in the depth of the battaile and either the front remoued toward the reare or the reare toward the front and tooke one an others place In this the motion is in length of the battaile flanke-wise the wing either marching into the middest or else cleane thorow to the other wing In doing it the souldiers that stand vttermost in the flanke of the wing must moue first to the contrary wing and the rest of euery ranke seuerally follow them in order The figure will shew the manner of the motion Patritius vtterly mistaketh the countermarch by ranke and groundeth himselfe vpon a wrong principle namely that in all Countermarches the File-leaders must march toward the reare and the Bringers-vp towards the front And therefore in changing the winges into Sections he makes the winges to fall of behind in the reare the File-leaders wheeling about and there to ioyne themselues as neare as the middle Section will giue leaue and the Sections falling backe likewise to ioyne themselues to the flanks of them that were the wings Whereas the nature of this Euolution is clearely to leaue the File-leaders in front and Bringers-vp in reare as they were at first And albeit the File-leaders then change their places yet change they their place with none but with File leaders and the change is but a change of hands the right hand for the left or the left hand for the right For whereas the File-leaders of the right wing had before the right hand now in countermarch by ranke being transposed to the left wing they haue the left hand of all the rest of the File-leaders as likewise the Bringers-vp of the other
thinke though the name in the story faileth Yet the kinde of souldiers so armed and so appointed as Aelian describeth may easily bee found and that vnder the name of Hypaspistes Which name albeit most vsually signifie him that carries another mans Target yet is it also applied to souldiers that are neither light nor heavy-armed of which kinde the Targetiers were as a meane bet wixt both That Hypaspistes signifieth noe heavy armed may bee evident by the wordes of Arrian Alexander when hee sawe the streights of Cilicia possessed with a strong gard left Parmenio behinde withall that were heavy armed himselfe about the first watche taking the Hypaspistae and the Archers and the Agrians who were darters as I haue shewed led on in the night toward the streights purposing to fall vpon the wâ—che before hee was looked for Hee left all the heavy-armed with Parmenio and tooke the Hypaspistae with him And in another place hee saith Alexander commaunded the Hypaspistae first to passe the river and after them the Macedonian armed Hee distinguisheth the Hypaspistae from the armed And streight after Three dayes after Alexander vnderstanding that Cleitus Glaucias were ill lodged with theire army neither held watche nor had cast a trenche for theire owne security for they imagined Alexander marched away for feare and that theire Campe was stretched out to a needlesse length secretly repassed the river a litle before night leading with him the Hypaspists and the archers and the Agrians and the Phalanges of Perdiccas and Coenus And in the same booke at the assault of Thebes when Perdiccas had engaged himselfe and brought Amyntas with his troupes in the same danger Alexander lothe to leaue them in hazard advaunced with the rest of his army and gaue a signe to the archers and Agrians to enter the trenche the Agemata Livy translateth them legions and Hypaspists hee held without So that in all these places hee distinguisheth them from the heavy armed and maketh the Hypaspists one the heavy-armed another I might alleage other passages out of the same author but these will suffise That they were not of the light armed may bee proued by the same places of Arrian Where they are alwaies distinguished from the archers and Darters There targets make them vnfitt for slingers and mention of slingers I find in other places The very name she weth that they carry targets and the great Etymologicon allo weth them spears beside their targets Whereby they are clearely exempted from the light armed â—t remaineth then that they be the peltastae which Aelian heere speaketh of especially since they were armed with target and speare which armes hee giveth to his targetiers and to no other except it be to the armed 13 Cataphracts The horsemen are divided into two kinds Cataphracts compleat armed aud not Cataphracts Cataphracts are those that cover themselues and horse with armor Not Cataphracts that fight with launces or with flieng weapons Livytermeth Cataphracts Loricatos because they wore curasses The other sort are either launciers or Acrobolists Acrobolists came not to the shocke but plyed the enimy a farre of with flieng weapons The Launciers closed and charged the ennemy with theire launces The word Cataphrasso to cover with armes giveth name to the horsemen Cataphracts and as the horsemen are called Cataphracts so is the furniture of horse and man called Cataphragma How they were armed Aelian shâ—weth when he saith they cover themselues and their horses with armour yet was it not always that the whole horse was armed For Xenophon speaking of the Persians in the time of the elder Cyrus saith they armed there horses with frontlâ—ts and pectoralls covers for there thighes As much hee saith of the six hundred horse that followed Cyrus the younger against Artaxerxes sauinge they wanted couer for there thighes The horsmen themselues he giueth great Curasses and cuisses and head-pieces So it appeareth that the horse were not all over armed but onely theire heads their breasts and there forethighes Yet Pâ—utarch speaking of the Cataphrastâ— in the time of Lucullus saith theire leggs and thighes were vnarmed Concerning the Parthians Suidas I know not out of what Author hath thus The Curasse of the Parthian horsemen is made in this manner The part before covereth his breast and thighes and his hands to the fingers end and his leggs The hinder-part his backe and necke and all his head There are buttons made for the sides with which both the parts being fastened it makâ—th the whole horsemen seem as if hee were made of iron The iron neither hindreth the stretching out nor the gathering vp of his limbs it is so exactly fitted to the nature and sise of all parts of the body Likewise they arme there wâ—ole horse with iron except his hoofes because theire owne armor would little availe in case theire horse miscaried Cuâ—tius discribeth the forme in the Persian horsemen whose furniture hee saith was made of plate fastened together in continued dependances of scales of iron Appian speaking how the Parthians seeking to terrify Crassus and his army vpon the suddaine cast away the couers of theire armour and both themselues appeared in shining curasses and head-pieces the Maâ—gian iron of which they were made darting forth a flashing and dispersed twinkling light and their horses glistring in brasen and iron furniture Yet doth Appian in the sâ—me plaâ—e note that the bellys of these horse was not armed For the french horsemen saith he that followed young Crassus when they perceived how little they prevailed with theire staues against the sure and vnpierceable armour of the Parthians lighting from theire owne and creeping vnder the Parthian horses stroke them into the bellys and they impatient of paine and flinging heere and there and treading vnder foote as well theire riders as theire enemies died in the place Plutarch hath the like The Cataphracts beside theire armour of defence had a launce or horsemans staffe to fight with all Plutarch affirmes it Lucullus saith hee after hee sawe Tigranes his Cataphract horsemen whoe were of most acount defended as it were by a hill that had the ground aboue plaine and broade the ascent which was about fower furlongs in length not very hard or steepe commaunded the Thracian and gaule horsemen hee had to giue vppon the flanke and to put by the launces with theire swords For the onely strength of the Cataphract is his launce and it alone hee is able to vse either in defence of himselfe or annoying the enimie being by reason of the weight and harshnes of his furniture like a man shutte and locked vp in a wall Hetherto Plutarch Likewise the Partâ—ian Cataphracts albeit they vsed boâ—e and arrows yet they had also launces with which they came to the shocke with the enemie When the armie of Anthony saith the same Plutarch sawe the Parthians ready to giue on the armed turning their faces about toward the enimie tooke in
or Xeo to shaue or polish as our ioyners doe and the launces being made of wood shaven or polished are named Xysta or Xesta of the forme as I said that is given them by shaving and the Launciers that beare thesâ— launces Xestophoroi or Xystophoroi And heere I am once to note for all that wee are not to presse wordes according to the proper signification of theire primitiues from whence they are derived For considering there are more things then names of things as Logicians say the most copious language that is cannot giue proper names to all Heereof come the wordes of divers significations And howsoever names seeme at first rough straunge vse and custome maketh them smooth and gives them passage As the coyne of a Prince is currant by the stamp hee setteth vpon the mettalle what mettalle so euer it bee fine or base 16 Acrobolists The word importeth such as throwe aloft or from alofte Ballo signifieth to throwe Acron the highest or the vttermost By common vsage Acrobolizo is taken for to dart and by consequent to skirmish a farre of Because such as cast flieng weapons as darts and stones and the like came not to stedfast fight but lay aloofe and onely threwe their weapons at the enemy and of so doing are called Acrobolists Acrobolismos in Polybius is interpreted Skirmishing And Diodorus Siculus ioyneth Acrobolismos and a short meddley in fight together which Xenophon termeth Acrobolisis by another word flowing from the same fountaine 17 Tarentines They are so called of a Citty in Italy Tarentum by name the inhabitants whereof that were horsemen vsed this manner of fight But he maketh two kinds of Tarentines one that ever fought a farre of with darts and never came to hand with the enemy the other that after a dart or two cast came close vp and fought hand to hand Livy speaketh of a third kind of Tarentines who vsed in fight two horses at once made fast together and one being weary leaped vpon the backe of the other 18 Some vse darts a farre of Of the manner of fight of these horsemen the passage of Xenophon is worth repeating After these things done saith hee the aide of Dionysius which hee sent the Lacedemonians arrived being more then twenty Gallyes They brought French and Spaniards and aboue fifty horse The next day the Thebans and theire confederats embattailing theire armie and filling theâ—â—ith the whole plaine even to the sea-side to the hills that lay about the City of Corinth destroyed whatsoever might serue to any vse The horsemen of the Athenians and Corinthians seeing the strength and multitude of the enemy came not neere vnto them but the horsmen of Dionysius albeit fewe in number galloping heere and there dispersedly and putting spurrs to theire horse charged them with their darts and in case the enemy followed they returned with all speed and then turned againe and threw darts afresh In doeing these things they vsed to alight from theire horse and rest themselues and if any of the enemy singled out to fall vpon them leaping quickly againe to horse-backe they fled and being pursued any distance from the army as soone as those that pursued them retired the Tarentines followed and plyed them with their darts and put them to great distresse forcing the whole armie to advance and retire as they list themselues So farre Xenophon Another example I will adde out of Livy of the Numidians whose manner of fight is all one with the Tarentine manner In Liguria saith hee nothing worthy of memorie was done a long time At the end of the yeare all things were brought to extreame hasard For both the Consuls camp being assaulted was hardly defended and not long after when the armie was ledd through a forrest the way whereof was streight and narrowe the Ligurians possessed themselues of the mouth of the straights Through which when the Consull could find no passage hee turned about his armie and purposed to reduct it the way he came But the mouth of those straights was likewise possessed by a part of the enemies forces And now the remembrance of the Desaster of Caudium presented it self not onely to the minds but even almost to the eyes of euery man There were wellnigh eight hundred Numidian horse at that time in the camp The Commaunder of them promised the Consull to breake through on which side hee pleased onely he desired to know on which side most hamblets and villages were Vpon them said hee I will fall and sett the houses on fire presently that that feare may compell the Ligurians to forsake the streights they hould and runne severall wayes to defend theire owne The Consull much commended the man and laded him with hopes of promises The Numidians vp to horse and began to ride heere and there before the enemies gards provoking yet no man Nothing at the first sight was more contemptible The horse and men were little and leane The horsman vngirded and vnarmed saving that hee carried darts the horse without a bridle galloping deformedly with a stiffe neck and a head thrust out at length They purposely augmenting this contempt slid from their horses and dallied and sported to bring the enemie to a gaze Wherefore the enemy which at first were intentiue and ready for a charge became gazers on and the most part vnarmed themselues sett downe vpon the ground The Numidians rode vp neerer and then backe againe and by little and little gott to the skirts of the forest as if theire horses being resty had caried them forward against theire wills At last putting spurres to they broke through the midst of theire enemies gards entring into a larger field they sett fire on all the houses next the way then burned they the next village and wasted and filled all things with fire and sword The smoke first scene then the cry of the people affrighted lastly ould men and children flieng for succor raised a tumult in the campe Therefore without counsell or commaund every man of himself ranne to the defence of his owne and in amoment both the enemies camp was forsaken the Consull delivered from his siege came to the place intended By these two examples the kinde of fight that these darters one horse-backe maintained may he perceiued which was not to come neer the enemy but to keep a loofe and lett theire darts fly Besides not to obserue any order in files or rankes but straglingly to gallop the field seeking by theire disbanding to tolle the enemy out of his strength and so to worke theire advantage And albeit in the second example the Numidians vsed not theire darts yet they would haue done it if need had beene and you shall find in other places of Livy and Polybius they did vsually as also in Caesar. 19 After they haue spent one or two These darters on horsebacke differ from the other before mentioned because at the last they ioyne and fight hand
wound many of them The stones and darts of the light-armed were to flye over the front of the battaile and that could not bee vnlesse the light-armed were placed behinde I will adde one example onely out of Plutarch to shew the seruice of the light-armed in the reare Plutarch discoursing of the battaile fought betwixt Sylla and Archelaus the Generall of Mithridates at Cheronaea hath thus Afterwards the foote forces came to joyne the Barbarians holding out and charging theire long pikes and endevouring with locking theire targetts close together to mainteine the order and closenes of their Phalange The Romans on the other side casting away their darts and drawing their swordes putte by the enemies pikes in choler to the end they might come quickly vp to them For they espied opposed against them in front 15000. of the enemies slaues that were enâ—ranchised by Proclamation of the Kinges generalls enrolled emongest the armed And when the Roman Armed coulde hardly breake them by reason of theire depth and fast knitting together and of theire bouldnes in daring contrary to the nature of slaues to abide the danger of the encounter the arrowes and darts cast in aboundance from the Reare made them shewe their backs and fall in a route Wee finde heere that the light-armed from the reare effected that which the Armed could not These slaues endured the shocke and could not bee broken by the armed and yet were defeated with Arrowes and darts from the Reare Nowe for the distance that should bee betwixt the bodies of the light-armed and betwixt them and the reare of the armed Aelian saith nothing I make noe doubt but there ought to bee as great if not greater as in the sections of the armed For wee must vnderstand that the sections that served to sever the Phalangarchies one from another must runne through the light-armed in depth to the reare And by them are the Epixenagies to bee devided a sunder as the Phalangarchies are with Epixenagies answer the Phalangarchies for number of files albeit not in number of men Likewise there ought to bee a greater space in ranke and file then the armed had For the handling of missiue weapons require more liberty of place then the managing of a pike or sworde A dart can not bee sent for ciblie without running two or three steppes in the delivery of it A sling being throwne and circled about the head before the stone or bullet can bee forced out to any purpose will not suffer a neere stander by In bowes and arrowes is the like reason if they be vsed as they ought Besides the light-armed in their fight are tied to noe certainty of order or grounde but fight dispersedly Soe that the more grounde they haue the fitter they are for seruice In which respect a large intervall croswise betwixt the armed and them should serue to purpose it having liberty for their motion forward and backward as occasion should require 7 And behinde theÌ„ the Horse I haue not read in any greek historye that the horse-men in a sett battell haue beene ranged behinde the light-armed The vsuall manner was to place them in the wings Soe did Alexander before he passed the River Granicus soe at Issos soe at Gangamela Soe did Antigonus against Eumenes and Eumenes against Antigonus Soe Ptolomeus against Demetrius and Demetrius against Ptolomeus and in brief all the Macedonians and the Graecians before the Macedonians were accounted of for matter of armes vnlesse some speciall cause moved an alteracion And as I shewed out of Xenophon before all theire times Cyrus albeit hee set the light Armed in the reare notwithstanding hee beestowed the horse in the wings Alexander having passed the River Ister as long as hee marched in the corne lande placed his horse behinde his Phalange when hee entred the Champeigne hee sett them on the right wing and lastly cast his Phalange in to a Plaesium and ordered his horse before In the Corne-land they followed for feare of an Ambushe In the Champian they marched on the right wing because on the left the Phalange was secured by the River before the Plaeâ— sium that being over-layde with the multitude of the enimye they might haue a sure retreate to the foote The same Alexander when hee was to fight the Battaile of Issos with Darius as long as hee was in the streights marshalled his horse after his foote But in marching forward comming to open ground when he might giue full length to his Phalange hee placed his horse on both the wings But the reason of setting them behinde-was in the streightnes of the place and hee being incerteine how neere the enemye lay was loathe to put them to hasard before they had liberty of grounde to order themselues and might haue assistance of the foote For otherwise it was an ordinarie matter in marching as it is the manner also at this day to dispose the horse half behinde and half before I will content my self with one example When Agesilaus retourning out of Asia passed through Thessalie the Thessalians allies of the Thebans followed him and sought to endammage his armie to theire vttermost Hee had before disposed his march into a Plaesium with the horse half in front and half behinde nowe when the Thessalians ceased not to molest him by falling vpon his reare hee sent to the reare all the horse of the vantgarde excepting those that attended his person Either party prepared them selues to fight The Thessalians holding it not sure with Horse alone to incounter armed foote Turning about their faces began leasurely to retire and the Lacedaemonians slowly to followe Agesilaus perceaving the errour of both sent the best of his horse that were about him commanding them to signifie to the rest that they together should goe and charge the Thessalians with all speede and giue noe respite to them to turne their faces The Thessalians contrary to their expectation being hottly charged some fled other some turned about towards the enimy other some indevouring to turne were surprised by theire enemies that by that time were come vp to theire flancke Nowe for the reason of Aelians placing the Horse in the reare I haue noe more to say then that from thence they might bee soone drawen to all places front flanke or wheresoever the enemy is like to distresse vs. For it hath beene the forecast of all generals to fashion their battails according to the figure the enemy hath before chosen Examples are so plentifull I neede not alleage many Onely I will remember one latine story of placing horse in the reare L. Lentulus and L. Manlius Acidinus in Spaine being to fight with the Illergetes and Ansetans and other Spaniards that had revolted from the Romans in this very kinde of placing horse in the reare imitated and gotte the advantage of and defeated theire enemies Livy hath the story and writes thus in effect The next day at the rising of the sonne
by force some by feare he came before Rhage and besieged it He found the siege longer and more difficult then any man would haue thought And the enemy made his resistance that way the Consull would hardly haue beleeued he could For he imagined that all his labour should be in throwing downe the walls If once he found passage for the Army to enter there would after be nothing else but flight and slaughter as is wont in wonne-Cities But after that part of the wall was throwne downe with the Ramme and the Armie entred the Citie by the breach it was the beginning of a new and fresh labour For the Macedonians that were there in Garrison being many and chosen thinking it also a glory to them if they could defend the Citie rather with armes and valor than with walles serring themselues close together in a deepe Phalange when they perceiued that the Romans began to enter the breach droue them out the place being cumbersome and hard to make a retreat The Consul much offended therewith and thinking that shame concerned not only the delay of winning one Citie but also the state of the whole warre which for the most part dependeth vpon moments of small matters purging the place which was heaped vp with the fall of the halfe-ruined wall aduanced a Tower which in many stories was stuffed with multitudes of armed men and sent besides Cohorts vnder their Ensignes to breake with maine force if it were possible the body they call it the Phalange of the Macedonians But the kinde of weapons and fight was more aduantagious for the enemy than for the Romans especially in that place which was narrow and streightned with the small space of the ouerthrowne wall When the Macedonians serring themselues close had charged pikes of a great length before their front and the Romans after their darts throwne in vaine against the Iestudo compacted as it were of the thicke knitting together of the Targets had drawne their swords they could neither come vp close nor cut a sunder the pikes And in case they cut the heads of or broke any the steale amongst the rest of the whole pikes filled vp the roome with their sharpe fragments Ioyne that that part of the wall which was yet whole secured the enemies flankes on both sides neither needed they much ground in retiring or advancing to charge which things are wont to cause the breach of array There also fell out a chance which increased their hopes and spirits For the Tower being driuen on vpon a rampier that was not well rammed vnderneath but had loose earth one of the wheeles sinking deeper into the ground than the rest made the Turret to nodd lie of one side that both the enemy beleeued it would fall and they within it were put in a pitifull feare When nothing succeeded well the Consull was euill appaide that the Macedonian souldiers and kinde of Armes might seeme matcheable to his and seeing no great hope of speedy winning the Citie and that the place was vnfit to winter in raised his siege So here the Macedonian souldier is not onely equalled but also preferred before the Roman and that onely by reason of his armour the Pike and Target An other experience fell out in the battaile betwixt Perseus and Aemilius whereof I spake in this Chapter The storie is this The Romans comming to ioyne battell with the Macedonians and not able to come vp to them by reason of the length and ioint out-bearing of their pikes There was one Salius a Captaine of Pelignans who tooke the Ensigne of his Company from the Ensigne-bearer and threw it into the Macedonian Phalange The Pelignans ranne in heapes to the place for it is not lawfull nor honest for the Italians to forsake their Ensignes where the medley brought forth wonderfull effects For the Pelignans fought with swords to put by the pikes and to presse them downe with their Targets And seazing vpon them to pull them out of the handes of the Macedonians The Macedonians contrary-wise maintaining their charge with both hands and striking such as approached neare thorough the bodies armes and all neither Target nor Curace being able to sustaine the violence of the blow turned topsy-turuy the bodies of the Pelignans who not with reason but with the rage of wilde beasts threw themselues desperately vpon wounds and vpon certaine and fore seene death So the formost falling the followers began to slacke And yet they sled not but retired to the mount called Olacrus I will out of Appian ioyne a third experience in the battaile of Antiochus against L. Scipio which I likewise touched before in this Chapter As soone as the Horse and Chariots of Antiochus were put to flight by the Roman horsemen and by Eumenes his Phalange of foote being destitute of horse first opened and receiued the light-armed that had all this while fought in the front into the middest of it Then after-ward againe closed And when Domitius Scipio's Lieutenant incompassed it round with horse and light-armed which he might easily doe by reason it was thrust vp into a thicke Plinthium it was driuen to great distresse being neither able to charge the enemy nor yet to countermarch in so great depth as it carried It grieued them much that their long experience nothing auailed them to annoy the enemy and that notwithstanding they were subiect to arrowes and darts at all hands Yet bearing out a multitude of pikes on euery side of their square they called the Romans to come to handy blowes and still made a countenance as though they meant to charge keeping themselues for all that within their Ranks as being footmen and heauy armed and the rather because they had to doe with an enemy on horse-backe Besides they were loth to breake the thicknes of their battaile which forme they could not now alter The Romans also durst not approach them and come to sword fearing their experience in warre and closenesse of array and desperation But running about here and there plied them with arrowes and darts whereof none was throwne in vaine falling amongst a troupe so closely put vp together that they could neither auoide and decline any thing throwne nor giue way albeit they saw it comming At last being weary and irresolute what to doe they retired easily with a threatning countenance notwithstanding and in good order and not deliuering the Romans of feare who durst not yet come neare but sought to annoy them aloofe till the Elephants placed in the Macedonian Phalange being affrighted and not to be ruled by their Gouernours troubled all and gaue occasion of flight hitherto Appian Out of these three examples the truth of that which Aelian saith is to be seene that is that the Macedonian Phalange can not be forced or resisted by an enemy taking with all Polybius his caution if it be in the right posture and figure and haue such ground as is fit The Romans the best souldiers of all
some horse But being ready to be charged by the Lacedemonian armed they fled loosing some 300 in the flight These light-armed then as long as they can keep aloofe from the enemie annoy them sore by wounding as Aelian saith a farre of as soone as the armed come vp they are glad to quite their place and saue themselues by flight 4 To disarray So long as a battaile remaineth in order no victorie is gotten against it Breaking of array and disbanding are companions of flight and of forsaking the field The armed that are to endure the efforts of the light armed must either keepe still their order and suffer themselues to be knocked downe and slaine as they stand or else prouide for themselues by flight or by yeelding For the light-armed effect with their missiue weapons the one or the other An example may be seene in the Aegyptians in Craesus his battaile who after the defeate of the rest of the armie maintained yet the fight and yeelded not to Cyrus though he had now the victorie Cyrus at the first charged their backes with his horse and being not able to breake them was faine to command his Archers and darters to shoote and cast their darts at them whâ—rby the Egyptians after many wounds and losse of their people were finally constrained to yeeld A like example is before alledged of Domitius the Lieutenant of L. Scipio who with missiue weapons alone forced the Macedonian Phalange to scatter and take themselues to flight 5 To repulse their Horse The light armed alone without a sure retreate to the armed or else some place of strength can dâ—e little in repulsing of horse I haue shewed before in the â— exploite of Crassus into Persia how the lightarmed were beaten in by the Persian horse and by the shew of wounds they receiued and with their feare discouraged the armed The like happened in Antonies retreate out of Persia the light-armed being faine to shroude themselues from the Persian horse within the Phalange of the armed Be they neuer so many without some such assurance the horse will soon ouerrunue them hauing this assurance their seruice much afflicteth horsemen both in wounding them and in killing their horse Therefore of ancient time it was vsuall to mingle horse and light armed together For the enemies horse so charged cannot be able to resist both A notable example is in Hirtius Caesar saith hee hauing a iourney in hand and but a small number of Horse and legionary Souldiers was in his way set vpon by the enemie abounding in store of Horse and of light armed Numidians amongst them And when the Souldiers of Caesar fell out to charge the enemies horse galloped away and the foote stood fast till the Horse with a full carreare returned to the rescue This kinde of fight troubled Caesar much and would haue troubled him more had hee not recouered hills that were not farre of and by that meanes shaken of the molesting enemy And for repulsing horse there is no better meanes for the armed foote then with the light armed to line that part of the battaile where the horse shall be about to giue on 6 To beat in the light armed The light armed being nimble and quick and seeking alwaies aduantages by changing of ground can neuer be forced by the armed foote who are charged with heauie furniture and by reason thereof can make no speed to seeke succour in the battaile of their armed Either they must be beaten in by the horse or by the contrary light armed as Aelian hath heere The Horse are commonly to encounter with Horse and the light-armed with light-armed amongst whom the greater number preuaileth their skill and armes being alike For the fight being a farre of many will sooner wound or kill a few then a few many saith Xenophon If the fight bee at hand the better armed or better minded will driue the other out of the field The Roman Horse and the light-armed were too hard for the Macedonians and chased them to their Campe. And that happened by reason their armour was fitter to close and to fight at hand So our Archers at the battaile of Cressy compelled the Genua crossebowes to forsake the field the english bowe being better in vse then the Genua crossebowe When they haue made the contrary light armed to quit their place they are at liberty themselues to serue where most aduantage may be had of their seruice 7 To discouer suspected places and lay ambushes Suspected places are such for the most part as ambushes are laid in Ambushes are of two kindes being laid either to endamage the enemies battell in the field or to hinder and disapoint his march The places such as are remoued from sight and had neede of speciall discouery As woods mountaines forrests rockes banckes of riuers caues hills hollow and deepe waies and the like The most part of which are rough and intricate and scarce passable for the heauy armed and horse But the light armed that are not incumbred with weight of armes able quickly to aduance or retire are fittest to lie close in such places or to search if the enemie be lodgâ—d there For the first kinde of Ambushes wee read that both heauy armed and horse haue beenâ— imploied The warres of Anniball in Italy afford plenty of examples herein For the other which is to bâ—set or discouer waies there are none so fit as the light armed whose quicknes and expedition giueth then aduantage to assault their enemy with their missiue weapons though the ground be neuer so vnequall and meanes to view any place suspected without almost any danger of their owne 〈◊〉 Cap 18 The Square 9.in Front .3 in Flank 8. in Front .4 in Flank .10 in Front .5 in Flank 8 For speedy and farre attempts A heauie armed man is not fit for farre or suddaine attempts he is armed for a firme and stedfast fight and not for concursations Alexander whensoeuer he was to vse expedition tooke with him the horse and light-armed leauing the armed to come after So did he when he oppressed Clytus and Glaucias in their campe so when he possessed himselfe of the streights of Cilicia so in preuenting of the burning of Tarsus so in seeking to take the straights of the Vxians and the gates of Persia and the rocke of Aorne The same hath beene the manner of other Generalls as I haue noted in other places For when Celerity is requisite who so fit to be imploied as they who haue nothing to hinder their speede The Targetiere had but a light target and a spâ—are the lightarmed but their armes And what are they bowe and arrowes darts and slings which haue no weight in them Which was the reason also that in victory they were imployed in giuing chaâ—e to the enemie that had lost the field The armed vsed to follow in good order of batâ—ell the slaughter and execution was deliuered
to the light armed and horse Wherein notwithstanding the counsell of Iphicrates was held good take heede said hee to his light-armed of ambushes and spare not to presse hard vpon the reare of those that flie till you come to riuers or straights or ditches For it is dangerous in such places to hinder the enemies flights least feare turne into desperation The fashion of Horse-battailes and first of the Rhombe the Wedge and the Square CHAP. XVIII THose that haue written before mee haue diuersely framed Horse-battailes some of iust squares some longer in flanke then in front some like a Rhombe some like a Wedge but none of them haue if I may speake freely expressed fully their owne conceits Therefore to make all things cleere and better to bee vnderstood I will set downe the seuerall figures of each seuerall kinde 1 It seemeth the Thessalians whose power was great in Horse were the first that vsed the kinde of battaile 2 fashioned in forme of a Rhombe the inuention whereof is attributed to Iason as fittest for all encounters The Horsemen thus ordered being ready to turne their faces euery way with speede and not easie to bee surprised in flanke or in the Reare Because the best men stand in the flanke and the Commanders in the Angles as namely the Captaine of the troupe in the front and in the right and left Angles those that are called Flanke-commanders and the Leiutenant in the Reare-angle 3 The Scythians and Thracians haue vsed Wedges and likewise the Macedonians by the ordinance of King Philip. For this kinde of battaile was held of mor exact vse then the square because the Commanders are placed in a circle and consisting of a narrow front it maketh readie passage thorough any distance and an easier wheeling and returning to the first posture as hauing no such troublesome windings about as hath the Square 4 The Persians and Sicilians and most Graecians made choice of Squares being of opinion they were more easie to frame and fitter for ioint-mouing of the Horse and more effectuall in vse For they are sooner in order being digested into files and rankes and in this order alone all the Commanders fall vpon and charge the enemie with one maine force Those are best Squares that double the number of the length to the number of the depth As when there are eight in length and foure in depth or tenne in length and fiue in depth These in number are of vnequall sides but in figure foure Square For the length of a Horse from head to taile compared with his bredth requireth more men in rank then in file to make vp the Square Some allow thrice as many in length as in depth and thinke by that meanes a perfect square may be formed because for the most part the length of a Horse seemeth thrice as much as the bredth betwixt his shoulders Therefore they giue nine in front and three in flanke For a multitude of Horsemen yeeld not the same aduantage behinde that foote doe when in the depth of the Battaile they iointly thrust on in as much as the Horse helpe nothing to the setlednesse of fast resistance being neither able to thrust those forwards that are before nor yet to linke and knitte with them and so to make one weight as it were of the whole body and in case they presse vpon the formost by disordering and distempering their owne Horse they annoy themselues more then the enemy Therefore it alwaies falleth out that when there are as many Horse in length as in depth a Square of number is made but the sides of the figure are vnequall the depth exceeding the length in proportion but when the figure of the Troupe is Square the number of the sides and front is vnequall Notes IN the second Chapter of this booke the armie was diuided into two kindes footemen and Riders Footemen againe into three armed Targetieres and light armed Of these three is hither to treated Riders follow who either vsed Horses or Elephants Horses either alone or else in Chariots Of these Aelian treateth seuerally hereafter For the arming and place of Horse in the fielde hee hath sufficiently spoken already The following discourse is First of the manner of embattailing horse wherein he setteth downe the diuersity of vsage in ancient time Then of Chariots and lastly of Elephants That a horse is a kinde of beast that loues man and is most faithfull vnto him Pliny testifieth The vse of him is for carriage and for seruice in the field And in the seruice of the field an armie without horse is in a manner no armie Iphicrates as I haue said before comparing an armie to a mans body resembleth the horse to feete And as the body hath no power of mouing or rather remouing the feete being lame or taken away so is the armie slow and vnfit for expedition that is destitute of horse and may be well resembled to those beasts that creepe vpon their bellies whose greatest hast is with little speede The horse do great seruice in the field of themselues alone and are principally imployed in matters that require quicknesse in dispatch Therefore are they fit for discoueries either of the enemies country or of his campe or of his marche or of other things whereof the Generall desires to haue notice And not for discoueries alone but to spoile and destroy whatsoeuer the enemy hath growing to make prey of his Cattle burne his houses kill his people surprise his places of strength and to â—mbarre him from doing the like to vs to bring and conuay prouision for our Campe to shut in the enemie that he goe not out his campe for like causes to hinder the enemies march by falling on the reare Briefely all expeditions of celeritie are for the most part deliuered to the horse alone Especially as long as they are in such places as giue them liberty to go on or retire at their pleasures Yet are they often ioyned with the light armed as I haue shewed They often ioine likewise with the armed And if they may come to charge the enemies battaile in the flanke or reare at such time as our armed charge in front they â—ndanger all But for imployment alone against the armed foote many examples of former times shew how weake there force is And how little they preuaile especially against armed that are practized in fight and resolute Souldiers The examples I haue quoted in the margent make the matter cleare For further confirmation I will set downe Xenophons opinion which all be it it were deliuered concerning the Persian horse that came against the armed foote of the Graecians in their return out of Persia yet the reason stretcheth to all horse in generall His words sound thus If any of you faint in minde said he to the Graecians because we haue none the enemy many horse let him consider that ten thousand horse-men are no more then ten thousand men For no man was
euer slaine in battaile by byting or stroke of a horse Men they are that performe whatsoeuer is done in fight As for vs the foote he meaneth our mounting is much more firme and stedfast then theirs They hange vpon their horse and are in feare not onely of vs but to be shaken of and throwne to ground We contrariewise haue stable footing and shall be able both with great assurednesse to strik and direct our aime with more certainty One aduantage the horse-men haue they may more securely runne away Hitherto Xenophon And so much is summarily spoken of the seruice of horse 1 The Thessalians whose power was great in horse The Thessalians inhabiting about the mountaine Pelius were the first that fought on horse-backe and were therefore called Centaures When they watered their horses in the riuer Peneus the horse heades stooping to drinke made the vnskilfull multitude who saw the bodies of men ioyned to the shoulders of the horse conceiue that the vpper part was man and the neither Oxe For it should seeme horse were not so well knowne then as Oxen with which they laboured and plowed their land The Poets therefore fained that they were monsters compounded of two diuers natures man and oxe or bull and that Centaurus the beginner of the race was begotten by Ixion vpon a cloude which was figured like Iuno Howbeit Seruius giueth a better originall of the name saying that certaine seruants of a Thessalian King seeing their masters Neate raging with the Brimse a flie that biteth cattell got a horse backe and pricking them with goades reduced them to their stables and that they were after called Centaures Para kentein tous taurous of pricking the neate The great Etymologicon giueth yet an other beginning of the name For where I haue said that Centaurus was begotten by Ixion vpon a cloude which was figured like Iuno with whom Ixion was in loue The Etymologicon saith the sonne of Ixion and of the cloude was called Centaurus Apo tou ton patera autou kentein ten auran But Diodorus Sicul. reporting the historie of the Centaures speaketh not of Centaurus the father of the race but saith notwithstanding that they were bred of a cloude and that the Nymphs brought them vp and that they were the first horsemen and therefore called Hippocentauri which gaue occasion to the fable that they had two natures It is generally agreed that these Centaures were Thessalians and that they were the first horsemen that are mentioned in any history And as they were the first so by reason of their long practise they were accounted the best the most valiant and the most expert horse-men of all Greece euen to the time of Philip sonne of Amintas King of Macedonia who conquered all Thessaly saith Iustin not of desire to make himselfe rich of the prey of that Countrey but to winne to his armie the strength of the Thessalian horsemen Whose seruice he vsed afterward in all his war Neither did they lesse seruice to his sonne Alexander in whose greatest battailes their vertue clearelie appeareth and is especially commended by histories Pyrrhus also principally by their valor put the Romans to flight Agesilaus returning out of Asia towards his Countrey led his armie through Thessalie and being much incumbred in his mareh by the Thessalian horsemen that were his enemies hee charged them and ouerthrewe them and pleased himselfe maruellously therein because with troupes of horse which himselfe had raised and disciplined hee had ouerthrowne the Thessalians that were saith Xenophon so highly renowned for horsemanship 2 Fashioned and forme of a Rhombe There are three kindes of horse battailes mentioned by Aelian the Rhombe the Wedge and the Square And the square is either a iust square or longer in flanke then in front or in front then in flanke The Rhombe was the inuention of the Thessalians and in that forme they vsually fought But where he maketh Iason to be the inuentor of it he afterward expoundeth his owne meaning attributing the inuention to Ileon the Thessalian from whom also it was tearmed Ile but the chiefe practise to Iason Euclyde defineth a Rhombe in this sort f A Rhombe is a square figure that hath the sides equall but the angles not right That is the foure sides of the square are of one and the same length but the points which make the angles are two of them stretched out in greater length and become more sharpe two of them brought narrower together and made more blunt then the right angles of a Tetragonall square See the figure It is the same figure in a battaile that at this day we call the Diamond battaile which is sometimes practised amongst the foote for shew and evercise sake but amongst the horse I haue not seene it practised And as the square goeth to charge with all the souldiers that stand in one of the sides that is with the front for the front is but a side of the square so the Rhombe chargeth with one of the points which is the front of the Rhombe Whether of them is of most vse in the field I am not to determine For the square standes the practise of our daies besides the vsage of the Persians Sicilians and most Graecians as Aelian saith For the Rhombe the Thessalians alone which notwithstanding were acknowledged the best horsemen of Greece vnlesse we allow the Wedge for a parcell of the Rhombe a Rhombe being but a double Wedge as making two wedges when it is diuided in two and then haue wee for the Rhombe not onely the Scythians and Thracians both nations very good Horsemen but King Philip Amintas sonne and Alexander the great and his successours Either of both formes haue their reasons For the squares they that vse them held opinion as Aelian saith that they were easier to frame and fitter for ioint mouing of horse and sooner in order of file and ranke and that the Commanders iointly charged the enemy which in no other forme could be done For the easinesse to frame I see no great difference onely custome and vse must in euery for me yea in the squares themselues make the horseman ready to know and take and keepe his place The same may be said for the ioint moouing of the horse Now to file and rancke is common to the square with some Rhombes and as soone done in the one as in the other the number of the troupe being once knowne and euery horseman hauing his place assigned and the forme resolued vpon into the which it must be cast For where there are 4 kinds of Rhombes one that fileth and ranketh an other that fileth but ranketh not the third that ranketh but fileth not the last that neither fileth nor ranketh as Aelian teacheth in the next Chapter The first will finde no more difficultie of fiâ—ing and ranking then the square the two next albeit the one ranke not the other file not yet the want of filing or ranking
Metabole For Metabole is the conuersion of euery mans face particularly to the place which was behinde his backe And the same that Metabole is in ech seuerall Souldier the same is Perispasmos or wheeling about in the whole battaile There are 4 two kinds of Metabole the one from the enemie the other to the enemie Metabole is defined to be a changing of euery mans face in particular from the front to the reare or contrariwise Turning about from the enemie is when the Souldier turneth his face twice towards the Pike To the enemy when hee turneth twice towards the Target Notes FOure kinde of Motions are set downe by Aelian whereby vpon any occasion the battaile may be somewhat changed Turning of faces countermarch wheeling and doubling whereof the first may be vsed in what order soeuer your battaile standeth the second onely in open order the third â—n close order only the fourth either in close or open order Clisis or turning of faces whereof this Chapter intreateth albeit it may bee brought in also in open Order Yet is it not don for the most part but in close order and then especially when none of the other motions haue place The Graecians alwaies coueted to bring their file Leaders that is their best men to fight In open Order they chose to countermarch In close Order hauing place to wheele their battaile about and so turne the face of it against the enemy If they could doe neither of these they came to the last remedy which was turning of faces of euery particular man in the battaile 1 Clisis or turning of faces This motion is of lesse paines then any other but of no lesse importance or necessitie In the rest the Phalange changeth the place or the forme In this it holdeth both and yet is ready for any attempt of the enemy Onely euery Souldier in particular turneth his countenance to the right or left hand as he is commanded To turne his face to the Pike is to turne to the right hand because that hand bore the pike to turne to the Target is to turne to the left hand because the Macedonians caried their targets on their left shoulder For the vse of this turning of Faces Aelian saith It hath place when the enemie sheweth himselfe in flanke 2 To incompasse our wings Clisis is no more then bearing faces to the right or left hand that is to our wings When then we finde our enemies to incompasse our right wing wee turne our faces and weapons that way to receiue him to the left when he commeth to charge vs on that side If on both sides then turne wee the faces of our Phalange halfe to the right halfe to the left hand which is the Antistomus Phalange whereof Aelian speaketh hereafter Briefely there is almost none of the marching Phalanges which are afterward discribed but it hath neede of this motion Besides if vpon any occasion the Phalange be to moue from any of the flanks you are only to command Turning of faces to that flanke and then to lead on I will giue an example or two Alexander at Arbela hauing imbattailed his armie to fight with Darius had intelligence that Darius had strowed the ground betwixt the two armies with Calthropes He commanded therefore the right wing which himselfe led to turne faces to the right hand and follow him to the end to go round about and auoide the places that were sowed with Calthropes Darius marching against him to the left hand disioyned his troupes of horse and Alexander taking the aduantage and giuing in quickly betwixt the spaces put Darius to flight If Alexander had marched on with the right front he had fallen vpon the Calthropes To auoide them be vsed the benefit of this motion and turning faces to the right hand he led on vntill hee had passed the danger and then turning againe to the first posture went to charge and defeated the enemie An other example is in Polybius who describing the battaile betwixt Machanidas the Lacedemonian Tyrant and Philopoemen the Achaean Generall telleth that Machanidas hauing in the left wing put the Achaean mercenaries to flight followed hard the chase Philopoemen as long as there was hope indeuoured by all meanes to stay his men when he saw them vtterly defeated hee hasted to the right wing and perceiuing the enemie busie in chase and the place voide where the fight had beene commanding the first Merarchies to turne their faces to the right hand hee led them on with high speede not yet breaking the order of their imbattailing And quickly seazing vpon the forsaken ground hee both cut betwixt them that gaue chase and home and withall got the aduantage of the vpper ground against the left wing of the armed Whereby hee obteined the victory If Philopoemen had in this action vsed wheeling of his battaile which onely was the other motion which would haue serued his turne besides the troublesomenesse of the winding about he should haue beene forced to haue vsed two wheelings and so failed of the câ—lerity which was at that time requisite Faces were turned in a trice and he made himselfe Master of the ground hee desired before hee could haue wheeled once his battaile 3 Two turnings of the Souldiers face Clisis or turning faces to the right or left hand consisteth of one turning and moueth no further then the side If the motion be to the reare it hath two turnings and is called Metabole which is defined to bee a changing of euery mans face in particular from the front to the reare or contrariwise And as wheeling of the whole body carieth about the fronts of the battaile to the reare So doth Metabole turne the face of euery particular Souldier and maketh him looke from the front to the reare The word properly signifieth a change which happeneth herein when the souldiers are changed from the front to the reare or contrariwise The vse of Metabole is principally to resist the enemy that giues on vpon the reare So Pyrrhus being entred the Citie Argos with a few and ouerpressed with multitude retired by little and little and defended himselfe often turning his and his souldiers faces against the enemy So the armie of Cyrus the elder retiring from the walles of Babylon often turned about their faces to the left hand and waited their enemie who were reported to be on foote and ready to come and charge them And if the enemy assault both the front and reare it hath beene the manner to continue halfe the souldiers in each file with their faces to the front and command the other halfe to turne their faces to the reare against the enemie behind And this forme is called Phalanx Amphistomos discribed by Aelian cap. 38. And sometimes it is vsed to speed our march and preuent the enemie as was said before of Clisis Agesilaus made an incursion into the Territory of the Thebans and finding a Trench and Ramper cast vp by the Thebanes for
fault to be in the number of 9 and that it ought to be read 8 or 10. To extend a Phalange is to draw it out in length the length is the space betwixt the point of both wings When he saith he extended it to 10 the meaning is he drew it out so farre in length that he left but 10 in depth Ten is the decas whereof I spoke before and I haue likewise noted that the Lacedemonians for the most part made the depth of their battaile 8. The number of 9 as all other vneuen numbers was reiected by the Tacticks as vnfit for doublings So that mine opinion is that Xenophon at the first wrote 8 or 10 not 9 or 10 howsoeuer 9 be crept into the place of 8. But to returne to Agesilaus admit he vsed doubling of ranks or of the front in retiring out of the Mantinaean straights yet giue me leaue to be of opinion that the Macedonian Countermarch had beene the fittest motion for that purpose For himselfe being thereby cast in the reare he had both preuented the charge of the enemie which he feared and yet wounde better out of the straights the long Herse which still remained in the Macedonian Countermarch being more proportionable to issue out of a narrow place then a broad-fronted Phalange which ariseth out of doubling the front 3 The Persian is the Cretan or Choraean This Countermarch is called the Persian and Cretan because it was vsed amongst the Persians and Cretans And it was termed the Choraean also of the similitude it had with the solemne Graecian dances vpon stages the company that shewed themselues in such dances being called Chorus Who in their daunces ordered themselues into files and ranks as souldiers doe in battaile and mouing forward to the brinke of the stage when being straightned by the place they could passe no further they retired one through the ranks of the other exceeding not the bounds of the place as is done in this Countermarch The other two kinds of Countermarch changed the ground they had before The Macedonian tooke the ground before the front The Lacedemonian the ground after the reare The Choraean holdeth the same ground beginneth the motion with the File-leaders who notwithstanding proceede no further then thither where the Bringers-vp stood their files following them euery souldier keeping the same distance he had before the mouing The figure shewes the manner of it These Countermarches by file are to be made when the enemy appeares in the reare and commeth to charge vs. And they are made to the end to bring our best men that is the File-leaders to the incounter Wherein notwithstanding there is a caution to be held that if the enemy be very neare or so neare that we cannot conueniently countermarch before he come vp to vs we forbeare lest we fall into disorder and in disorder be easily defeated In which case the best remedy is to turne faces about and so receiue him Hitherto of Countermarches by file 4 Countermarches by ranke are made The ends of Countermarches by ranke are two in Aelian one to strengthen the middest of the battaile the other to strengthen the wings If the strength of the enemies battaile lie most in the middest reason of Warre would that we should oppose our greatest strength against the middest If in the wings against the winges There is an other cause of strengthning the winges namely if the enemy be ready to charge either of them and this strength Aelian would haue giuen by the Countermarch of our best men into the winges It shall not be from the purpose to make all plaine by an example or two Herodotus reporteth that before the battaile of Plataea betwixt the Graecians and the Persians it was agreed betwixt the Athenians and Lacedemonians that where the Athenians had vanquished the Persians in the battaile of Marathon and had lately slaine Masistius the Generall of the Persian horse and by those incounters had good experience of the Persian manner of fight and where the Lacedemonians were imbattailed in the right wing against the Persians the Athenians in the left wing against the Thebans and other Graecians that tooke part with the Persians they should change and the Athenians haue the right wing the Lacedemonians the left These newes were caried to Mardonius the Generall of the Persians who whether fearing the Athenians or desirous to fight with the Lacedemonians changed his place from the left into his right wing to the intent to oppose against them which when Pausanias saw he returned to his right wing and Mardonius to his left the place which he had at the beginning Here are changing wings on both parts The one coueting to fight in the left wing the other desirous to fight in the right The Countermarch by ranke from the right wing would haue fitted Pausanias as the contrary Countermarch would haue fitted Mardonius Yet am I led to thinke that Pausanias vsed a wheeling of his battaile and so conveighed it from one wing to an other behind the battaile of the other Graecians to the end that being shadowed by them hee might the better hide his purpose from Mardonius An other example I finde in Livy and Polybius both It is this Pub Scipio who was afterward called Africanus and Asdruball the sonne of Gisgo being incamped neare together in Spaine brought daily out of their Campes their Armies one against an other And after they had long stood waiting who should begin the fight which was done at neither hand they conveighed them backe againe The manner of their imbattailing was this The Romans and likewise the Carthagineans mingled with the Africans had the middle their Confederates the wings The opinion was they should fight in that order Scipio when he perceiued this to be firmely beleeued the day before he ment to fight made an alteration of all When night came he gaue the word thorough the whole Campe that horse and men should dine before it was light day and that the horsemen in Armes should keepe their horses bridled and sadled The day was scarse sprunge when he sent his horse and light-armed to beat in the Carthaginean Gardes himselfe streight followed with the armed Legions disposing the Romans contrary to the setled opinion of his owne people and of the enemy in the wings and receiuing the Allies into the middest Asdrubal raised out of his bed with the cry of his horsemen had no sooner leaped out of his Tent and seing the tumult before the trench of his Campe and the amazednes of his people and the Ensignes of the Legions shining a farre of and the field full of enemies presently sent out his whole power of horse to vndertake the Roman horse Himselfe issued out of the Campe with his foote not changing any thing of his wonted manner of imbattailing The fight of the horsemen had now a long time beene doubtfull and could not bee tried because still as they were beaten which
bringers-vp The words of Command may be these For the Macedonian Countermarch by file File-leaders turne your faces about to the right or left hand The rest of euery File passe thorow in order one after another and place your selues at your distances after your Leaders turning your faces about and so stand For the Lacedemonian Countermarch by file The first manner Bringers-vp turne your faces about to the right or left hand The rest turne your faces about and beginning at them that are next to the Bringers-vp countermarch and place your selues in your distances before the Bringers-vp and one before an other till the File-leaders be first The second manner File-leaders countermarch to the right or left hand and let euery mans file follow him and keepe true distance For the Choraean countermarch by file File-leaders countermarch to the place of the Bringers-vp and stand and let your files follow you keeping their distance For the Macedonian countermarch by ranke The right or left hand corner file turne your faces to the right or left hand The rest of each ranke passe thorough to the right or left hand and place your selues orderly behind your side-men keeping your distance Cap 29 Dobling of Rankes The front before Dobling of rankes Dobling of rankes in action The front after Dobling of Rankes For the Lacedemonian countermarch by ranke The first manner The corner file where the enemy appeareth turne your faces to the right or left hand The rest of ech rankes turne your faces and passe thorough to the right or left hand and place your selues before your side-men orderly keeping your distances The second manner The right or left wing where the enemy appeareth not countermarch to the contrary wing and all in the Ranks follow euery man his side-man keeping your distance For the Choraean countermarch by ranke The vttermost corner file of the right or left wing countermarch into the place of the left or right winge and stand And the rest follow ranke-wise keeping their distance Of doubling and the kindes thereof CHAP. XXIX 1 THere are two kinds of doubling one of Rankes the other of Depth or files and 2 either of these double the number or the place 3 The length is doubled in number when of a front of 124 files we make a front keeping the same ground of 248 files by inserting in the spaces betwixt file and file some of the followers that stood in the depth This is done to the end to thicken the length of the battaile If we lift to recall them to their first posture we are to command those that were inserted to countermarch to the place they had before 4 There are that mislike these doublings especially the enemy being at hand and would haue a shew of doubling made without indeed doubling the Phalange already ordered by stretching out the light-armed and the Horse on both sides of the wings of the Battaile 5 The vse of doubling the length is when either we would ouer-wing the enemy or else our selues feare to be ouer-winged The Depth is doubled 6 by inserting the second file into the first so that the Leader of the second file be placed next behind the Leader of the first file and the second man of the second file be the fourth man of the first file and the third man of the second file be the sixt in the first file and so forth the rest till the whole second file be ingrossed into the first and likewise the fourth file into the third and all the euen files into the odde Doubâ—ing of the Depth by Countermarch is made either when the next side-files in seuerall as in the former example the second and the fourth and the rest of the euen files countermarch to the Reare and place themselues behind the Bringers-vp of the odde files or else the files remayning in their first place and number halfe of them diuiding themselues from the other halfe countermarch likewise to the Reare and conveying themselues behind the other there order themselues and so double the depth of the Phalange If we would returne them to the first posture we must recall those that were conveyed to stand behind to the place they had before the Countermarch Notes THE former three Motions alter not the forme of the Phalange For whether you turned faces wheeled or countermarched the Phalange the depth and length remained one The motion to be expressed in this Chapter induceth an other shape to the Phalange and maketh it seeme a different body from that it was before being by Doubling extended either in length or in depth For Doubling the number of men or the place of the Phalange in front maketh the length twise as much and doubling the same in flanke maketh the depth double to that it was before For Doubling is nothing else then making a military body twise as long or twise as deepe as it was before 1 There are two kindes of doubling The Doublings are either of length or depth Or which is all one as Suidas saith of ranks or files For ranks stretch out in length files in depth And these againe are diuided into two other kinds the body being 2 Doubled in number or place That which is here called number is called elsewhere persons or by Suidas men It is called persons in the Insertion which is made to Aelian I know not by whom in the precedent Chapter of Countermarches Which because it lay thrust in betwixt the description of Countermarches and nothing perteined to that argument I neuer made doubt was crept into the text And I am rather confirmed in my opinion because I saw it noteâ— with an Asteriske in that Aelian being of Robortellus Edition which the learned Isaack Casaubon had quoted and purposed to set forth if vntimely dâ—ath had not prâ—vented him I will here set downe the words because they differ not much from Aelian and may giue some light to the manner of Doubling It is to be vnderstood so are the words â—hat a Phalange is doubled in persons or place when we therefore take halfe the souldiers from the Depth and making files of them place them euen with the rest in length of the front so that of 124 files we make 248 this is Doubling of persons In like sort we double the place with 124 files not increasing the number but onely commanding some to turne to the Pike some to the Target till the Phalange be stretched out to a convenient length as from 5 furlongs to 10. In the same manner is the depth doubled For either one file is inserted into an other man for man so that the second File-leader becomes the follower of the first and the second man in the second file the follower of the second in the first file and so the rest Or else 16 men are so extended that they hold as much ground in length as 32 vsuallydoe So farre the insertion It followeth in Aelian 3 The length is doubled in
sleeuing them vpon one side which you will may be vsed without danger as well when the enemy is neare as when the fight is in as much as they disturbe not the battaile but advance fresh aides against the enemy on the flanks of it 6 By inserting the second file There are two manner of doublings of the depth or of files one in number the other in place In number when one file is inserted into another the Leader or first man of the second file standing behind the Leader of the first the second behind the second the third behind the third and so forth of the rest Or when the euen files countermarch and their Leaders place themselues behind the Bringers-vp of the odde their files following them or which commeth all to one the files being whole they diuide themselues into two parts in the front and halfe countermarch and place themselues in the Reare of the other file to file albeit the two last are Doublings both in number and place and not in place alone The true Doubling of the place alone is not Aelian The Insertion whereof I spake remedieth this defect also There it is said that when 16 men that is a file are so extended that they possesse as much length as 32 should doe that is as 2 files it is doubling of place which is nothing else but changing of the Souldiers order into open order For in their order they haue 48 foote in depth in their open order 96 foote in depth In this Doubling of depth we must take heed that we make not the front of our Armie to narrow lest we giue oportunitie to the enemy to incircle and incompasse it Polybius noteth this a great faulâ— in Marcus Atilius Regulus at such time as he fought with the Carthaginians and was taken prisoner His words haue this effect k The Romans seing the enemy order his battaile marched out against him fuâ—l of courage Being notwithstanding somewhat appalled at and foreseing the Elephants violence in comming on they set their Darters before and placed many maniples of Armed behind one after an other and diuided the Horse halfe into one wing halfe into the other Then making the whole battaile shorter but deeper then they were wont they prouided well against the Elephants but not against the Horse that farre exceeded theirs in number Being now come to hands the Roman horse ouerpressed with multitude of the Carthaginians quickly fled from either wing But the foote of the left wing partly auoyding the Elephants partly contemning the Mercenaries fell on and charged the right wing of the Carthaginians and putting it to flight followed hard and gaue chase euen to the trench But of those that were placed against the Elephants the first sinking vnder the violence of the beasts perished being ouerturned and troden to death by heapes The body of the battaile remained a while vnbroken by reason of the depth of them that were after placed But when the Reare of all incompassed by the horse was forced to turne about and fight with them and the other that had by force made way thorough the middest of the Elephants and were now behind their backs came vp to the fresh Phalange of the Carthaginians standing in good order they were by them slaine Thus fortune being contrary on all sides the Romans for the most part were troden to death by the excessiue might of the beasts and the rest died with the darts of the horsemen in the place where they fought The error of Attilius Regulus was in ordering his battaile too deepe by meanes whereof it was easily incompassed and distressed by the Carthaginian horse Appian likewise blameth Antiochus for ordering his Phalange 32 men in depth where the Macedonian Phalange ought to but 16 deepe shewing that by that ouersight it was incompassed by the Romans and ouerthrowne I haue touched the historie in my notes before Many other examples might be alledged but these two are sufficient for our purpose The words of Command in doubling of the length by number Middle men double your Rankes to the right or left hand By this Command the middle men with their halfe files march vp to the front in the spaces betwixt the files and stand euen with the File-leaders and the rest euen with the rest of the Ranks Doubling of the length in place Stand in your open order One halfe openeth their files to the right hand the other to the left and stand six foote one from another Doubling of the depth in number Double your files to the right or left hand The euen files fall into the spaces of the odde files Double your files by countermarch to the right or left hand The euen files countermarch and fall behind the reare of the odde and place themsâ—lues lineally after them obseruing their first distances Diuide your files and double them by countermarch to the right or left hand Halfe the files diuide themselues from the other halfe and countermarch out behind the Reare then turne their faces towards the place behind the Reare of the standing files which remoued not then march on and place themselues orderly behind them file to file then turne their faces as at first Doubling the depth in place Ranks open behind to your open order The broad-fronted Phalange the deep Phalange or Herse and the vneuen-fronted Phalange CHAP. XXX PLagiophalanx or the broad-fronted Phalange is that which hath the length much exceeding the depth Orthiophalanx or the deep Phalange commonly called the Herse is that which procedeth by wing hauing the depth much exceeding the length In generall speach euery thing is called Paramekes which hath length more then the depth and that which hath the depth more then the length Orthion and so likewise a Phalange The Phalange Loxe or vneuen fronted is that which putteth forth one of the wings which is thought fittest toward the enemy and with it beginning the fight holdeth off the other in a convenient distance till oportunitie bee to advance Of Parembole Protaxis Epitaxis Prostaxis Eutaxis Hypotaxis CHAP. XXXI PArembole or insertion is when placing souldiers before we take off the hindmost and ranke them within the distances of the first Protaxis or fore-fronting is when we place the light-armed before the front of the armed and make them fore-standers as the File-leaders are When we place the light-armed behind it is called Epitaxis as it were an after-placing Prostaxis or adioyning is when to both flanks of the battaile or to one flanke some part of the hindmost is added the front of them that are added lying euen with the front of the battaile such addition is called Prostaxis Entaxis or Insition is when it seemeth good to set the light-armed within the spaces of the files of the Phalange man to man Hypotaxis or Double-winging is when you bestow the light-armed vnder the wings of the Phalange placing them in an embowed forme so that the whole figure resembleth a
length It is profitable in many respects For seeming to cary but few in so small a bredth it deceiueth the enemy and it easily breaketh his forces with the thicknesse and strength of the embattailing and may without perceiuing bee lead thorough straight and narrow passages The Foot-battaile to encounter it is called the Plagiophalange or broad-fronted Battaile For being but slender in depth it beareth foorth and extendeth it selfe in length so that albeit it be broken in the middest with the charge of the Horse yet is nothing broken but a little of the depth and the fury of the Horse is carried not vpon the multitude of the foote but straight and immediately into the open field And for that cause is the length thereof much exceeding the depth Of another kinde of Rhombe for Horsemen and of the foote-Battaile Epicampios Emprosthia to encounter it CHAP. XLVI ANother sort of Rhomboides there is whereof I need say no more but that it fileth and ranketh not For I haue before shewed the vse and that Ileon the Thessalian was the inuentor and that Iason Medeas husband most put it in practise The vse thereof is great being directed and lead in the foure corners by the Captaine the Lieutenant and the two flanke-Commanders It is commonly fashioned of Archers on Horsebacke as the Armenian and Persian manner is Against it is opposed the foote-battaile called Epicampios Emprosthia because the circumduction of the front is like an embowing The end of this forme is to deceiue and ouer-reach the Archers on Horsebacke either by wrapping them in the voide space of the front as they charge and giue on vpon the spurre or else disordering them first with their wings and breaking their fury by ouerthrowing them finally with their rankes about the middle Ensignes This kinde of Battaile was deuised to entrappe and beguile For opening the middle hollownesse it maketh shew but of a few that march in the wings hauing notwithstanding thrice as many following and seconding in the reare So that if the wings bee of power sufficient for the encounter there needeth no more if not retiring easily on either fide they are to ioyne themselues to the bulke of the Battaile Of the foot-battaile called Cyrte which is to be set against the Epicampios CHAP. XLVII THe Battaile to be opposed against the Epicampios is called Cyrte of the circumferent forme This also maketh semblance of small forces by reason of the conuexitie of the figure For all round things appeare little in compasse and yet stretched out in length and singled they proue twice as much as they appeared to be as is euident in pillars which are round and therefore in sight shew the one halfe and conceale the other The greatest piece of skill in embattailing is to make a shew of few men to the enemy and indeed to bring twice as many to fight Of the Tetragonall Horse-battaile and of the wedge of foote to be opposed against it CHAP. XLVIII THe Tetragonall Horsebattaile is square in figure but not in number of men For in Squares the number is not alwaies the same and the Generall for his aduantage may double the length to the depth The Persians Sicilians and most of the Graecians doe affect this forme and take it to bee easie in framing and better in vse Against it is opposed the Phalange called Embolos or Wedge of foote all the sides consisting of armed men This kinde is borrowed of the Horse-mans wedge And yet in the Horse-wedge one sufficeth to lead in front where the Footewedge must haue three one being vnable to beare the sway of the encounter So Epaminondas the Theban fighting with the Lacedemonians at Mantinea ouerthrew a mightie power of theirs by casting his armie into a Wedge It is fashioned if the Antistomus Diphalangy in marching ioyne the front of the wings together holding them open behind like vnto the letter A. Of the foot-Battaile called Ploesium and of the winding or saw-fronted foot-battaile to encounter it CHAP. XLIX THe Battaile Ploesium hath the length much exceeding the depth And it is called Ploesium when armed foote are placed on all sides the Archers and Slingers being throwne into the middest Against this kinde of Battaile is set the winding-fronted-battaile to the end that with the vnequall figure they may Cap. 47. The Cyrte or convex half Moone The front The Epicampios The front Cap. 48. The foote wedge The front The Horsbattaile square in figure not in horse The front Cap. 49. The Peplegmene The front The Plesium Cap. 50. The aduerse battaile The overfrontnig battaile Cap. 50. The aduerse battail The overwinging battail traine out those of the Ploesium to cope with the foremost of the winding-fronted-battaile and by that meanes dissolue and disorder the thicknesse oâ— the same And the file-Leaders of the winding-battaile are to obserue and marke the file-Leaders of the Ploesium that if they still maintaine their closenesse and fight serred they also incounter them in the like forme if the Ploesium file-Leaders seuer themselues and spring out from their maine force then they likewise bee ready to meet them man to man Of Hyperphalangesis and Hyperkerasis and of Attenuation CHAP. L. HYperphalangesis or ouer-fronting is when both wings of the Phalange ouer-reach the enemies front Hyperkerasis or ouerwinging is when with one of the wings we ouer-reach the front of the enemy So that hee that ouerfronteth ouerwingeth but hee that ouerwingeth ouerfronteth not For they that match not the enemy in multitude may yet ouerwing them Attenuation or lessening is when the depth of the battaile is gathered vp and instead of 16 men a smaller number is set Of conueying the Cariage of the Army CHAP. LI. THe leading of the cariage if any thing else is of great importance and requireth a speciall Commander It may bee conueyed in fiue manners either before the Armie or behinde or on the one flanke or the other or in the middest Before the Army when you feare to bee charged behind Behind the Army when you would leade toward the enemy When you feare to bee charged in flanke on the contrary side In the middest when a hollow-Battaile is needfull and fit Of the words of Command and certaine obseruations about them CHAP. LII LAst of all wee will briefly repeate the words of direction if we admonish first that they ought to be short then that they ought to be without double-signification For the Souldiers that in hast receiue direction had neede to take heede of doubtfull words least one doe one thing and another the contrarie As for the purpose If I say turne your face some it may be that heare mee will turne to the right some to the left hand and so no small confusion follow Seeing therefore these words turne your face import a generall signification and comprehend turning to the right or left hand we ought in stead of saying turne your face to the pike to pronounce it
you are farre superior so in vertues worthy of your birth and yeares and in all hopefull expectations are you nothing inferior to Adrian It may please your Highnesse to regard him with a gratious eye and to esteeme the Presentor of him your faithfull bedesman that will not cease to pray to the mighty God of hosts to giue you conquest ouer all your enemies From my Garrison at Woudrichem in Holland the 20 of September 1616. Your Highnesse most humbly deuoted IO BINGHAM THE TACTICKS OF AELIAN or art of embattailing an army after the Grecian manner THE Grecian arte of embattailing an army most mightie Augustus Cesar Adrian the antiquitie whereof reacheth back to the age wherein Homer lyved hath beene committed to wryting by many whose skill in the Mathematicks was not reputed equal with myne whereby I was induced to thinke it possible for me soe to deliver the groundes therof that posteritie should rather regard and esteeme my labors then theirs that before me haue handled the same argument But weighing againe myn own ignorance for I must confesse a truth in that skill practise of armes which is now in esteeme among the Romaines I was by feare with-held from reviving a science half dead as it were and since the invention of that other by your auncestors altogeather out of request and vnregarded NotwithstandiÌ„ng comming afterward to Formie to doe my dutie to the 1 Emperour Nerva your maiesties father It was my fortune to spend sometime with 2 Frontine a man of Consular digniÌ„tie and of great reputacion by reason of his experience in militarie affaires and after conference with him perceiving he imparted no lesse studie to the Grecian then to the Romaine discipline of armes I began not to despise that of the Grecians conceiving that Frontine would not so much affect it if hee thought it inferiour to the Romaine Having therefore in times past framed a project of this worke but yet not daring then to publish it in regard of 3 your majesties incomparable valour and experience which make you famous aboue all Generalâ—s without exception that euer were I haue of late taken it againe in hand finished it being if I deceaue not my self a worke both worthy to be accompted of of sufficiencie especially with such as are studious of the arte to obscure the credit of the auncient Tacticks For in respect of the perspicuitie I dare bouldlie affirme the reader shall more advantage himselfe by this little volume then by al their writings such is the order and methode I haue followed Howbeit I durst scarcely offer it to your majestie who haue beene Generall of so greate warres least happily it proue too too slender a present altogether vnworthy of your sacred viewe And yet if your majestie shall bee pleased to thinke of it as of a Greekish Theorie or a various discourse it may bee it will giue you some little delight the rather because you may therin behold 4 Alexander the Macedons manner of marshalling his fields And for that I am not ignorant of your majesties more weightie affaires I haue reparted it into chapters to the end you may without reading the booke in few wordes take the somme of that which is to bee delivered and without losse of time find the places you are desirous to peruse Notes THe Tacticks As Taxis in a general sence signifieth order so Tacticos is as much as perteyning to order but specially taken it signifieth parteyning to order of a battaile or to the embattailing of an army Here of the arte of embattailing an army is called Tacticè and hee that is skillful and experienced in that arte Tacticos Vegetius nameth him magistrum armorum and the books written of the arte Tactica And that this is the true signification of the word may appeare by Xenophons Cyropaedia where the arte Tactick is distinguished from the arte Imperatory or arte of a Generall Hee induceth Cyrus in a discourse with his father speaking thus In the end you asked mee what my master taught mee when hee professed to teach the art Imperatory And when I answered the Tacticks you smiled and asked particulerly what the Tacticks availed without provision of thinges necessary to liue by what without preservacion of health what without knowledge of arts invented for the vse of warre what without obedience so that you plainely shewed that the Tacticks are but a small portion of the arte Imperatory or of commanding an army Thus Xenophon making a difference between the arte Imperatory the arte Tactick And in other place hee speaketh yet more particulerly Cyrus sayd hee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it not the duty of a Tactick to enlarge onely or to stretch out in 〈◊〉 the front of his Phalange or to drawe it out in depth or to reduce it from a winge to a Phalange or to countermarche readily the enemy shewing himselfe on the right or left hand or in the rear but to diuide it when need is to place euery part for most advantage to leade it on speedily when occasion is of prevention Yet sometimes in a gener all signification books entreating of the whole arte of warr are called Tacticks as the Constitutions military of the Emperour Leo are entituled Tactica Leonis perhaps of the best parte because the arte of embattailing an army hath alwayes been esteemed the chiefest point of skill in a Generall Howbeit Aelian in his title of this booke taketh Tacticè in the streighter signification as appeareth by the definitions he alleageth out of Aenaeas and Polibius of whome the first defineth the art Tactick to bee a science of warlick motion with whome also Leo agreeth the other to bee a skill whereby a man taking a multitude serviceable ordereth it into files and bodies and instructeth it sufficiently in all thinges apperteining to warre Which two definitions comprehend in fewe words the argument of the whole booke For first Aelian intreatcth of levieng of arming men then of filing next of joyning files and making bodies after of ordering the whole Phalange or battaile further of motions requisit to affront the enemy whersoever he giveth on whether in front flank or reare lastly of marching and of the sondry formes of battailes carieng with them advantage of charging or repulsing the enemy in your marche He that will further vnder stand the boundes of this arte let him reade in the 21. chapter of Leo the 58. section 1 The Emperour Nerva your maiesties Father The Emperour Nerva here mentioned was not Nerva Cocceius whoe succeeded Domitian but Vlpius Traianus who was also called Nerva because he was adopted by Nerva Cocceius succeeded in the Empire And where Aelian termeth him Adrians father indeed Adrian pretended he was Traians sonne by adoption But Dio plainely denieth it Spartian saith some reported hee was adopted by the faction of Plotina Traians wife by substituting one to speake with a faint voice as if it had beene Traian vpon
or Ochane which was the Macedonian manner and not to hold them any more by the Porpax or handle and so to free their left hand to apply both to the menaging of a pike This I take to be the direct meaning of Plutarch Cleomenes then perswaded them to leaue theire speares take pikes And left the target in the left hand might proue an impediment to the vse of a pike hee thought best they should cary them at their backe by the Ochane To cary them then by the strappe at the backe is to giue free vse to the left hand without which a pike specially a long pike such as Cleomenes advised them vnto cannot be wielded as experience will teache any man that list to make triall 4 And long pikes Pikes for the most parte haue beene called by two names by the Graecians Doru and Sarissa Aelian nameth them Dorata both heere and in other places of this book Xenophon speaking of the weapons of the Chalybes saith they had Dorata of 15. cubits long armed with iron at one end onely Tet is Doru taken for a speare oftentimes as in that place of Plutarch last recited where Cleomenes perswaded the Lacedemonians to chaunge theire Dorata speares into Sarissas pikes The like recounteth hee of Philopoemen whoe chaunged the speares of the Achaeans into pikes calling the speares Dorata the pikes Sarissas And even in this place Aelian termeth them not Dorata simply but with addition of Perimekestera of a longsise And after describing the armes of the Peltastes hee saith theire speares Dorata were much shorter then the pikes Sarissae of the armed Properly the pike of the Macedonian is termed Sarissa if sometime Doru some other word is added to avoide the ordinary signification of Doru as Doru macron in Xenophon Doru perimekes in Aelian Yet deny I not but it may bee called Doru of the matter For Doru signifieth wood of any kinde and by consequent the wood a pike is made of But as I said the Macedonian pike is properly called Sarissa What the length of this pike was Aelian will shewe in the 14. Chapter And for the wood it was made of I take it to haue beene Corneil For I finde that the Macedonian horsemans staffe was of that wood Arrian confirmeth it saieng And nowe the Macedonians had the better both by reason of the strength of theire bodies and experience in warre and also because they fought with Corneil launces against Iavelins For I assent not to the translater of Arrian whoe turneth Xystois Craneinois into Corneil dartes where it should bee Corneil launces For in that place Alexander is reported to haue fought with a launce and to haue broken it in fight and to haue asked another of Aretes one of the Quiries of his stable whoe had also broke his and fought with the truncheon and to haue taken the launce of Divarates the Corinthian and returned presently to the fight and therewith overthrowne Mithridates the sonne in lawe of Darius Besides it is said that the Macedonians had the advantage in weapons Take it thus that they fought with dartes against Iavelins what advantage had they especially being come to the shock Dartes are vsed a farre of At hand noe man fighteth with them vnlesse hee haue noe other weapon I thinke noe man will deny but that a Iavelin in closing is more advantagious then a darte And that Xyston signifieth a launce Aelian himselfe testifieth in this Chapter calling the launciers Doratophori or Xystophori The Macedonian then had his horsemans staffe of Corneil Whiâ— Pliny affirmeth to bee a sound and a fast wood If his launce a man may â—bably coniecture his pike also which exceeded the launce in length and thicknesse onely Wee at this day preferre the Ashe before all woodes for toughnesse lightnesse and beautie especially if the vaine runne through to the end Notwithstanding I finde in Cicuta a knight of Venice an old souldier and one that followed the Emperour Charles the fift in his warres of Africk that the opinion of his time enclyned rather to Firre both for lightnesse and strength I haue not seene the experience therefore leaue I the iudgement to triall Wee haue then out of Aelian that the armed had both target and pike that one man should at one time vse both target and pike in fight against the enemy will seeme incredible in our dayes Yet vsed the Macedonian souldiers both at one instant they both charged theire pikes and covered themselues with theire targets against the flyeng weapons of the enemy The manner was this when they closed with the enemy they charged theire pikes with both handes and with a slight wryeng of the body and lifting vp the right shoulder whirled their target hanging at their backe vpon the left shoulder that stood next the enemy in the charge and so covered all theire body to the midle and beneath I haue touched it in the practise of Cleomenes It appeareth more plainely in Plutarch describing the battaile betwixt K. Perseus and the Consul Aemilius Hee hath this The enemy approaching Aemilius issued out of his Campe and fownd the legionary Macedonians bearing nowe the heades of their pikes stiffe vpon the targets of the Romans not suffering them to come vp to the sword which when hee sawe and sawe with all the other Macedonians casting about their targets from behinde their shoulders and receiving the Roman targetiers with their pikes abased together at one signal and likewise the firmenesse of the battaile shutte vp serred the roughnesse of the front the pikes lyeng out before he became astonied affrighted as having never before beheld so fearefull a sight Which passion spectacle hee afterward oftentimes recounted to his familier friends This ioyâ—ing of targets in the front is called Synaspismos whereof wee shall haue occasion to speake heere-after 5 The light They had divers names given them in the Greek history Sometimes they are called Euzoni because they so girded vp theire apparaile about theÌ„ that they were light and fitt for motion Sometimes Askeuoi because they beare no military furniture of defence Sometimes Elaphroi because they resemble as some think a harte in lightnesse and swiftnesse Sometimes Gynnietae naked because they were without defensiuâ— armes Sometimes Psyloi naked or light as they are heere termed by Aelian and by Appian and the other that I cited 6 Flyeng weapons onely The light-armed are divided into three kindes Archers Darters and Slingers Which three kindes were of much vse emongest the Graecians and they beare onely flieng weapons Xenophon testifieth that Cyrus the elder had them And the Graecians in theire returne out of Persia Alexander had them in his warre against Darius and Pyrrhus in his warre in Italy Sicill and Greece The Graecians against Brennus King of the Gaules Both the Athenians The bans at the battaile of Delos 7 Arrowes Archers haue alwayes
more then a long line as it were and carieth neither Thicknes nor breadth but in respect of the Phalange the depth whereof is measured by the file And in the fourth the twelfth and fourtenth chapters hee termeth the depth of the Phalange it self Thicknes Pachos alone with out adding Bathos shewing thereby that Pachos also signifieth the dimension of the Phalange from the front to the reare But where some are of opinion that Platos breadth ought to bee read in those places in stede of Pachos Thicknes they perswade mee not to bee of theire mind For Aelian himself giveth an Attenuation or Thinning which hee calleth Liptysmos to the Phalange and that cannot bee vnderstood vnlesse there were in it a kind of Thicknes before And to make it more plaine hee saith that this Leptysmos is when the depth of the Phalange is gathered vp and from sixteen men it becometh a lesse number So that the Thicknes of the Phalange is the full sixteen which is also the depth and making of it Thinner is to lessen the depth To a Place Platos is fittly attributed a Place being onely superficies which consisteth of longitude and latitude So Poliaenus speaking of a valley wherein an ambush was layde to entrap Alexander saith the length stretched farre out but the breadth Platos was narrowed to foure furlongs The name of Platos is likewise given to a place by Polybius But to say the truth Platos in a Phalange rather signifieth the length then the depth as appeareth by Aelian after in the foure and fourty chapter And Leo calleth the front of the Phalange Platos and when hee would haue the front enlarged or doubled hee giveth this word of direction Plátynon pròs tà amphâ—tera mere enlarge the front on both sides 4 The right wing That which in the English toung is called a wing is termed in Greeke Keras a horne Wee in our warres of auncient time divided our armies into three parts The vantgarde the battaile and the reare-warde and when wee came to fight set them for the most parte in an even front the battaile in the middest on the right hand the vant-garde which was called the right-wing on the left the reare-warde which was called the left-wing Properly enough for our embattailing For the battaile is as it were the body and the vant-garde and reare-warde are the wings which in a manner sticke out from the body and whereby the body is supported that that wee call wings the Graecians and Romans called horns in the battaile The word Keras signifieth a point bearing out from the height or ends of any thing It is vsed for the toppe of Rocks and for promontories and such like And in a Phalange it properly signifieth the two points the right and the left of the winges The English worde wing I am faine to retaine because it is familiar and in vse Aelian heere will haue the wings to stretche out from the middle section to either point the right and left of the Phalange vnder which appellation must fall to the right wing the whole space that beginneth at the middle intervall and runneth along to the corner of the battaile on the right hand to the left all that is comprehended betwixt the same space and the left corner of the battaile 5 Thâ— twâ—â—fould section In Greeke it is named Dichotomia because it parteth and divideth the Phalange into two even parts beginning at the front and stretching out to the reare And Aelian in the tenth chapter of this book nameth it Apotome But heere hee speaketh of no more intervalls or partitions of the Phalange then of this one in the midst I would thinke there should bee more Onosander saith let there bee certaine intervalls in your battaile that if your enemy advance your light-armed after they haue spent theire missiue weapons and before the Phalanges joyne may retire leasurely in the intervalls and without disorder come behinde to the reare For it is not safe for them in retiring to fetch a compasse about the whole armie or to turne in againe on the outside of the winge For the enemy hasting to come to hands would easily prevent and intercept them in the middest so that they neither should bee able to breake through the armed already closed for fight and falling vpon theire owne weapons they must needes disorder theire owne people every man after other seeking to finde a way through them to escape the danger hee is in Thus much Onosander from whom wee may learne both that theire ought to bee more sections in the Phalange then one and that the institution of them had this cheefe end to receiue the light-armed in theire spaces after they had skirmished with the enemy and were by them forced to retire I may adde that Aelian placing the light-armed in the reare of the Phalange if you giue but one section vnto it it will be as hard for them to advance and sâ—rue before the front as it will bee to retreat after theire service done It seemeth that Leo giveth three intervalls to the Phalange of the auncient Tacticks Hee saith they opposed the bodies of the armed against the enemy and divided them into foure parts the right and left and the middle-right and middle-left parte Making so many parts the parts must bee distinguished as I collect by intervalls which ought to bee one after the first body of the right-right-wing another after the second which is the middle section the third after the third And this Third section is bounded with the fourth body which maketh the point of the left-wing For if the Phalange were whole and entire without more intervalls then one how could there bee foure parts For esteeming them by Phalangarchies without leauing spaces betweene it could not bee saide there were but foure parts of the Phalange considering that as well the Merarchies Chiliarchies Pentecosiarchies Syntagmataes are parts of it as the Phalangarchies But being distinguished by partition of intervalls the foure Phalangarchies become foure parts namely the right left middle-right and middle-left as Leo heere termeth them The same Leo speaketh after more plainely enioyning his generall to seperate and disioyne Diachorizein the whole number of his armie into foure parts For as Choris signifieth a part or severed so Diachorizo being derived from it signifieth to put asunder or sette a part Suidas is yet a little more cleare A Phalangarchie saith he is two Merarchies of foure thowsand and ninty six men This as some saye is the section Apotome of the wing as other it is a Meros Of auncient time it was called Strategia and the commander Strategos but nowe hee is termed Phalangarcha Suidas maketh the wing to haue a partition or section and saith some call a Phalangarchie by the name of this section Before wee heard out of Aelian that the wing right or left did stretche out from the middle section to the outward most point of the battaile on either
yet for the Trumpet I cannot say that all the Graecians held themselues precisely vnto it Plutarch much commendeth the Lacedemonian manner of ioyning with the enemy and writeth it is in this sort When the King hath offered the Goate that was the Lacedemonian sacrifice when they were to giue battaile hee straight commands all the Army to crowne their heads and the Flutes to sound the measure of Castor And himselfe withall beginneth the Paean the song they vsed when they were to charge and advanceth first against the enemy So that it is a braue and no lesse fearefull thing to behold them pacing according to the measure of the Flute neither dissoluing their order nor shewing any astonishment of minde but mildely and ioyfully approching the danger of conflict diuiding out their Marche to the sound of the instrument For it is not likely that men so demeaning themselues can be transported with feare or choler Nay rather they must needes haue a setled minde full of hope and assurance as if God were present on their side thus Plutarch Out of whose words it is cleare that the Lacedemonians vsed no Trumpets in fight but Flutes and made them their instruments to daunce as it were the measures of warre by For they vsed an easie and slow pace framed to the cadence of the sound which may well be resembled to the solemne measure in dancing Athenaeus rehearseth out of Herodotus that the Lydians vsed the like But he addeth that the Cretans made choice of the Harpe for their instrument of warre as though it had beene peculiar to that nation Pausanias testifieth the like of the Lacedemonians Polybius goeth not so farre but affirmeth onely that the Cretans and Lacedemonians in stead of Trumpets brought in Flutes and measures into the warre And if it were so that the Lacedemonians vsed Harpes it is like they tooke them from the Cretans For I finde in Plutarch that Lycurgus brought many of his lawes from Crete and had great familiarity with Thales the Cretan whom he also sent to Lacedemon to make an ouerture for the establishing of his lawes that were then newly finished Yet Diodorus Siculus reporteth that the Lacedemonians vsed also Trumpets in their Battailes He writing of a fight that was betwixt the Thebans and Lacedemonians vnder the leading of Agesilaus vseth these words in effect There was a strong fight betwixt them a long time and at first Agesilaus had the better but afterward when the Thebans issued out of the City at all hands Agesilaus seeing the multitude caused the Trumpet to sound a retreat The signe of retreat here was giuen by Trumpet and it seemeth the Lacedemonians had the vse both of Trumpet and Flute Of the Flute in pacing toward the enemy to ioyne battaile of the Trumpet in all other military signalls such I haue before noted it as the rest of the Graecians gaue by Trumpet The place of the Trumpet in the time of the Battaile was within the Phalange by the Ensigne Thucydides placeth the Flutes of the Lacedemonians within the battaile where they can finde no roome vnlesse they stand by the Ensignes And albeit Polienus saith the Flute led the Army and went before yet that is to be vnderstood in the marche For in case of a Marche or exercise Leo also giueth the Trumpet place by the Captaine in front When the fight commeth he retireth himselfe to his place in the Battaile with the rest 9 A Sergeant The word Hyperetes signifieth a Minister which is all one with the French word Sergeant as appeareth by the interpretation of our Law it selfe wherein the Sergeants next degree to Iustices are called seruientes ad legem I reteyne therefore the name of Sergeant because it is familiar amongst souldiers And a Sergeant hath the same office in our Warre that Hypenetes had amongst the Graecians What his duty and seruice should be is declared out of Suidas There were of these officers as well among the horse as the foote as appeareth in Xenophon The estimation and worth of their places is expressed by the same Xenophon Cyrus held the Sergeants in warre saith he worthy of no lesse honour than messengers and Embassadors in peace He conceiued that they ought to be trusty skilfull in matter of warre vnderstanding quicke swift industrious and voide of feare besides endued with all qualities requisite in the best sort of men that they were to accustome themselues to refuse no manner of seruice but willingly vndergo whatsoeuer is laid vpon them by their Commanders These Sergeants attended their Commanders in Marches and other times saue onely when Battaile was to be ioyned and alwaies expected his command During the fight they retired to some place where they might bee ready at call for as I said before they could haue no place in front 10 A Crier Concerning the office of a Crier Suidas hath taught vs that he was to deliuer the Commanders pleasure by voice Leo calleth him Mandator from the Latine word because he signified to the souldiers Mandata the commandments of the Captaine In exercise he stood at the head of the Troupe taking from the Commander the words of direction and making as it were proclamation of them to the Souldiers and serued often when neither Trumpet nor signall might be giuen he was otherwise also of great vse For in all busines which required distinct signification of any sudden alteration in the Armie the Crier had his part alone Xenophon telleth in the Graecians returne out of Persia that Clearehus their Generall led them not against the enemy both because their courages began to fall and also because they were all the day fasting and it grew somewhat late But yet hee turned not out of the way lest he might seeme to flie but holding on right forward he came with the vantgard to the next Villages by sunne-set there quartered The very timber of the houses of some of those Villages was broken downe and carried away by those of the Kings armie The first therefore lodged themselues reasonably the last being be-nighted euery man tooke vp his lodging as it fell out and made a great noise calling one after an other so that the enemie heard it Whereby it came to passe that the next of them fled out of their tents This appeared the next day for neither was there carriage-beast nor Campe nor smoake neere at hand to be seene The King also was terrified as it should seeme with the accesse of the Armie Which he declared by the next daies worke Yet in the processe of night a feare seased the Graecians themselues and the tumult and hurleburly was such as is wont when men are possessed with feare Clearchus in this distresse commanded Tolmides the Elean whom hee then had with him the best Crier of those times after silence to make proclamation that the Commanders signified generally that whosoeuer could
he taketh vp 2 cubits 3 In Constipation or shutting one cubit Densation then or closing is when we draw wide distances close together and by side-men and followers that is both in length and depth gather vp the bodie of the Phalange so notwithstanding that the souldier yet hath libertie to moue and turne about Constipation or shutting is when the Phalange by side-men gathereth it selfe yet closer together then in Densation so that by reason of the nearenesse there is left no Declination or turning of faces either to the right or left hand The vse of Closing is when the Generall leadeth the Phalange against the enemy Of Shutting when he would haue it stand fast and as it were locked vp and serred to receiue the charge of the enemy Seeing then there are 1024 File-leaders in the front of the Phalange it is plaine that 4 in their ordinary array they take vp in length 4096 Cubits 5 that is ten furlongs and ninetie six cubits In Closing fiue furlongs and forty eight cubits In Shutting two furlongs a halfe and fower and twenty cubits Notes AFter Souldiers are armed and distributed into bodies military the next care is to be had of their Mouing For as a man let him be neuer so well proportioned and strong if he pace disorderly and either set too great strides or reele here and there or so mince and tread out his steps as if his leggs were bound together groweth hereby deformed and not onely loseth his comelinesse but his actiuitie withall and possibility to performe any thing by strength So is it of an Armie that hath either too great distances or is thronged vp or pestred too close together Too much thronging bindeth as it were the souldiers hands and taketh away the vse of his weapons as on the other side falling one loose from another and standing or mouing too farre asunder maketh the Battaile weake and disiointed and subiect to the enemies entry and easie to be broken The meane betwixt both was brought in by King Philip King of Macedonia who first constituted and raised the Macedonian Phalange and invented the distances of opening and closing the same imitating the serring of Targets called Synaspismos practised by the old Heroes at Troy Out of his discipline sprung the distances mentioned here by Aelian which are of three sorts The first are large distances of 1 Foure Cubits Which amount to six foote For a Cubit conteineth a foote and a haâ—fe This distance was vsed in marching or else in solemne pompes and shewes And the souldier hauing a pike of 14 Cubits or 21 long whereof one halfe lay forward on his shoulder and the other halfe backward it was requisite he should haue a reasonable large distance both in file and ranke to the end that in turning this way or that Cap. 11. The first distance ordnary 6 foote in file asmuch in ranck The Reare The second distance called Closing foote in file asmuch in ranck The third distance called or serring foote in file shoulder to shoulder in rank way or that way or mouing out of his place for no man in his marche can alwaies hold his ranke he offended not his next neighbours therewith This distance our exercise at this day calleth open order The next distance is of Two Cubits Or three foote The name of it in Greeke is Pycnosis that is thickning In Leo it is called Sphinxis knitting together in our moderne exercise Order And it is when from the distance of 6 foote we draw our Phalange both by file and ranke so close that the souldiers stand but 3 foote one from an other euery way This distance is vsed when the Army approcheth neare to the enemy and onely commeth not to charge that it may be ready to shut and locke it selfe for the charge which is performed in the last distance of One Cubit A foote and a halfe This is called Synaspismos ioyning Target to Target For as I before shewed the pikemen of the Macedonians vsed also Targets with their pikes and in charging the enemy closed so neare in front that their owne Targets touched one another This kind of fight the Aegiptians vsed in Xenophon which he calleth locking together of Targets and by meanes therof had the advantage against the Persians The Parthian horse likewise comming to charge Crassus with their staues After they perceiued the depth of the locking of Targets and the setlednesse and stedfastnes of the Roman Phalange they retired and durst not come to hands with them And Diodorus Siculus writes that Alexander besieging the City of Halicarnassus there was in the City and in seruice of Darius one Ephialtes an Athenian a man of great valour and strength of body He by the permission of Memnon Generall of Darius Armie determined to make a saly And taking to him 2000 mercenarie souldiers all chosen men and giuing brands flaming with fire to one halfe and reseruing the rest for fight he opened the gates and fell out throwing fire vpon the engines of battery which soone caught a mighty flame And marshalling the rest into a thicke and deepe Phalange himselfe led on and was the first that fell on the Macedonians coÌ„ming to aide and to quench the fire Alexander aduertised hereof speeded to the medley ordered first the Macedonians in front after them other choice men for seconds and in the third place men of extraordinarie account for their prowesse himselfe leading them on sustained the enemy which seemed vnresistible and sent others to slake and put out the fire and to preserue the Engines The fight was hot and albeit the Macedonians found meanes to quench the fire yet had Ephialtes the better in the fight who both himselfe killed many with his owne hands and the towers from the walls furnished with many Catapelts annoyed greeuously the Macedonians In so much that some falling in the place other-some forsaking their ground by reason of the number of Engine Darts that fell thicke amongst them Alexander himselfe was reduced to extremitie Here the old souldiers of the Macedonians although otherwise freed from such seruice in regard of their age hauing of a long time followed the warres with King Philip and gained many a battaile were by this occasion tolled out to succour and as they excelled the yonger sort in greatnes of spirit and military experience so meeting with the run-a-waies they bitterly reuiled and taunted them for their cowardice Then serring themselues close and ioyning their Targets together they repressed and held the enemy short who now seemed to haue the victory in his hands Finally killing Ephialtes and many other they droue the rest into the City A memorable seruice of the vse of Targets and of the Synaspisme of the Macedonians which was not vsed but when they either gaue vpon or receiued the charge of the enemy And the Targets so knit together serued for a wall as it were to the whole Phalange and
which regard I preferre the Target of Aelian before that of Leo Aelians reaching vp to the height of the necke from the middle of the thigh Leos carying a handfull more in bredth which in the circumference groweth to a good proportion of weight and greatnesse 4 No shorter than 8 Cubits That is 12 foote Short pikes against long haue a great disadvantage With the long pike a man is able to strike and kill his enemy before himselfe can be touched or come in danger of a shorter the pike keeping the enemy out so farre as the length is The experience of the battaile of Sorano sheweth it where Vitellozzo Vitelli discomfited the Almaines onely with the advantage of pikes an arme longer than theirs Against long pikes this policie was vsed by Cleonymus the Lacedemonian King as Polienus tells Cleonymus besieging Aedessa and hauing ouerthrowne the wall of the City the pikemen of the City sailed out whose pikes were each 16 cubits in length Cleonymus closed his Phalange in depth and commanded the file-leaders to lay away their pikes and when the pikemen of the enemy came to charge to seaze vpon their pikes with both hands and hold them fast and the followers to passe thorough by the file-leaders sides and maintaine the fight The file-leaders laid hold on the pikes and the enemy stroue to recouer them out of their hands In the meane time the followers passing thorough the ranke of file leaders to the front slew the enemies pikemen and got the victorie This was Cleonymus deuice against long pikes which notwithstanding derogates nothing from the length of pikes more than from shortnes For the same policie might haue prevailed as well against short pikes as long each assoone as the enemies haue seized vpon them growing to be of no vse But that the longer pike is to be preferred before the shorter I haue shewed before by reason and the reformation of armes made by Iphicrates amongst the Athenians and by Philopomen amongst the Achaians will be warrant enough so to hold In the length notwithstanding ought to be a reasonable consideration that it exceede not the measure of his strength that shall beare the pike The worth that the File-leaders and next followers should be of CHAP. XIII THE File-leaders as the Commanders of files of the Phalange are to be the choice and flower of the Army and to excell the rest as well in stature as in experience and martiall skâ—ll For this Ranke knitteth and bindeth in the Phalange and of all other yeeldeth greatest vse For as a sword taking to the edge as a weight and sway the swelling yron towards the backe exhibiteth thereby more violence in piercing so in a Phalange the Ranke of File-leaders is the edge it selfe and the multitude of after-commers is the swelling and sway and increase of weight Consideration must be had likewise of those that follow in the second Ranke For their Pikes reach ioyntly ouer the front and being next in place they are alwaies ready for vse And the File-leader falling or being wounded the next follower stepping to the front in his place holdeth together and preserueth the tenor of that Ranke vnbroken Furthermore we are to order the third and the rest of the Rankes according to reason and as the valour of our souldiers shall require THis Chapter sheweth how the Souldiers are to be ordered in euery File whereof because I haue before spoken sufficiently in my Notes to the fifth Chapter and the words of this Chapter carry no difficultie or obscuritie with them I will forbeare to treat any further Of the strength of the Macedonian Phalange and length of the Souldiers Pikes CHAP. XIIII THE 1 Macedonian Phalange hath of enemies beene thought vnresistible by reason of 2 the manner of embattailing For the Souldier with his Armes standeth in close order or shutting when he is ready for fight 3 occupying two Cubits of ground And the length of his Pike is sixteene Cubits according to the first institution but in truth it ought to be foureteene Cubits whereof the 4 space betwixt the hands in charging taketh vp two Cubits the other twelue lye out from the front of the Battaile Those in the second Ranke that stand next to the Leaders loosing foure Cubits in the Phalange haue their Pikes reaching ouer the first Ranke ten Cubits Those of the third Ranke eight Cubits of the fourth Ranke six cubits of the fift 4 cubits of the sixt 2 Cubits 5 The Pikes of the other behind cannot attaine to the first Ranke And seeing fiue or six pikes are charged ouer the first Ranke they present a fearefull sight to the enemy and double the strength of the souldier standing fortified as it were with fiue or six Pikes and seconded with a maine force at his backe as the figure sheweth Moreouer they that are placed after the sixt Ranke albeit they push not with their pikes yet thrusting on with the weight of their bodies r'enforce the strength and power of the Phalange and leaue no hope for the File-leaders to flie or shift away Some would haue the hinder pikes longer then the formost that they of the third and fourth Rankes might beare out the heads of their pikes equally with the first 6 The Superordinary Lieutenant of euery Syntagma must be a man of vnderstanding ouerseeing the souldiers of his command that they file and ranke and if for feare or other occasion any forsake their ground he is to compell them againe to their places and in Closing to put them when neede requireth as neare vp together as they should stand For it is a great strength and assurance to the Phalange to haue some principall Commander not onely in front but also in the Reare of the Battaile for the causes before mentioned Notes THE strength of the Macedonian Phalange which consisted principally in the protension and charging of pikes and knitting together of Targets is here set downe The whole Chapter seemeth to haue beene taken out of Polybius who handleth the same argument and almost with the same words but that Aelian and he differ about the number of Cubits which the Pikes take vp reaching ouer the front of the Phalange 1 The Macedonian Phalange hath beene thought to be vnresistible The strength of the Macedonian Phalange appeareth no way better than by the conquests it hath made King Philip was the inventer of it and by that invention raised the kingdome of Macedonia from the poorest to the powerfullest and greatest kingdome of Europe and that I may vse the words of Diodorus Siculus finding the Crowne at his comming to it in bondage to the Illyrians made it afterward Lady of many great Nations and Cities and purchased to himselfe to be declared Generall of Greece And first ouerthrowing the Illyrians Pâ—onians Thracians and Scythians afterward let vpon the kingdome oâ— Persia to breake it after he had enfranchised the 〈◊〉 Cities of Asia And albeit death intercepted him yet he left such
hindereth no more the readinesse of framing them then the vse of filing and ranking helpeth the other The fourth is rather curious then profitable as I take neither doe I findâ— example of it And it may bee truly affirmed of it that the square is much easier to be fashioned We shall haue occasion to speake of the last three in due place Touching the ioint falling on of the Commanders I confesse the aduantage is great For when the best men such as the Commanders ought to be altogether fall vpon the enemy they are very like to put hard to them And as it is a great part of skill to bring many hands to fight so is it no lesse to bring the best hands to fight Many hands make light worke the best hands sure worke Now for the Rhombe Aelian alledgeth these reasons First that it is fittest for all encounters because the horsemen are ready to turne their faces euery way with speed Then that they cannot be surprised in flanke or reare hauing the best men in their flanks and the Commanders in euery point of the Rhombe And cannot the square turne faces euery way They can but not with the same advantage For the Rhombe which way soeuer faces are turned remaineth in the first forme And whether it be to the right or left flanke or to the reare it keepeeh still 4 euen sides and the men of most seruice in the sides Besides that one point alwaies affronteth the enemy Not vnlike a Calthrop which howsoeuer you cast it to the ground hath one point bearing right vp to wound the horses feet But the square in turning faces to either flanke altereth the forme of the front In a broad square the front at the first was longer than the sides faces being turned to either flanke the sides become longer than the front contrariwise in the Herse battaile Besides in such turning of faces the square leeseth the advantage of embattatling the Commanders that stood in the front standing now in one of the flanks and being not able to charge the enemy iointly the greatest advantage of that forme and so the front being without Commanders is subiect and in danger of surprise where the Rhombe which way soeuer faces turne hath as many Commanders in the front as at first But let vs take the horse square in full strength with all Commanders in front whether shall that forme be better than the Rhombe I dare not affirme it For where there are two kindes of fight One with maine force the other with sleight and Art in the first I will preferre the square in the last the Rhombe The square for slaughter and violent ouerthrowing the Rhombe for piercing and artificiall breaking the enemies battaile which last amongst great Commanders hath alwaies beene accounted the best kinde of winning In the square all the Commanders fall iointly vpon the enemy and because they are supposed to be the chiefe of the Army in all likelyhood they will ouerthrow the formost and slay many Yet by reason of the length of their front they sticke man to man and can make no farre entrance and the victorie hangeth doubtfull till they haue slaine the most of them that resist and so make the rest to flie The Rhombe contrary-wise being narrow and pointed in the front first forceth a passage with the point which maketh way to the rest that follow and then without great labour piercing further and further breaketh the aduerse battaile disperseth and putteth them to flight and after doth execution at pleasure Neither can I make a fitter resemblance then by comparing the 2 figures one to an axe the other to a wedge both instruments vsed for diuiding solid masses of wood For the axe albeit sharper than the wedge yet hauing the edge drawen out in length can not by any strength be driuen farre into the wood but by doubling many stroaks and by much labour commeth at last to diuide it The wedge contrary-wise though not so sharpe being once entred insinuateth it selfe more by litle and litle with the narrownes of the point and maintayning the hold it first got at last forceth it asunder though it be neuer so tough So is it in the square and Rhombe whereof the square beginneth and endeth with violence the other vseth first cunning and mildenes as it were to enter being once entred renteth a peeces and disparteth all that standeth in the way The manner of our times alloweth not of Rhombes Experience of former times highly prized them I will insist vpon the Thessalians alone who are accounted the inventers of the Rhombe fought alwaies Rhombe wise Polybius had seene their seruice and beene Generall of the Horse in his owne country and therefore able to iudge He giueth this censure of them that in troupes and being imbattailed they could not be resisted to fight man to man in single combat they had neither will nor courage What then should be the reason they should be so powerfull in troupes No other then the forme of their imbattailing which forme was the Rhombe here mentioned by Aelian In this forme they commonly beat the Graecian and Persian squares and gat the reputation of the best horsemen of Europe 3 The Scythians and Thracians vsed the wedge The Rhombe is of 4 sides the wedge but of three and halfe a Rhombe maketh a wedge as will be shewed in the next Chapter The wedge was vsed by the Scythians and Thracians and whether King Philip of Macedonia borrowed it of them I am vncertaine But I rather incline to thinke that his The ban Master taught him as well the wedge as other formes of battailes The cause of my coniecture is for that I finde that his fellow scholer Epaminondas beat the Lacedemonian horse at Mantinaea in that forme Xenophon recounteth the storie to this effect The enemy they were the Lacedemonians ordered their horse like a Phalange of armed in depth without mingling foote with them But Epaminondas made a strong wedge of horse also for before he tells the Theban armed were cast into a wedge and ioyned some foote with them conceiuing after he had cut in peeces the horse he should not misse of ouercomming the other forces of the enemy And so going to charge he was not deceiued of his hope Thus Xenophon Of ioyning horse and light armed together I haue spoken before And that they were light-armed that Epaminond as ioyned to his horse Diodorus Siculus sheweth By Xenophon then it is plaine that not onely the Scythians and Thracians but the Graecians also when they thought it convenient vsed the horse-wedge and that Epaminondas ordered both foote and horse in a wedge And considering King Philip was brought vp in Epaminondas his Fathers house and made partaker of the learning wherewith Epaminondas was instituted it is like in erecting a new military discipline amongst the Macedonians as he tooke many other things from the Graecians so he borrowed this forme hauing first seene
the notable effect thereof at Mantinaea Now Aelian bringeth reasons why the wedge was holden better than the square Let me with leaue adde a word or two why I take it to be better than the Rhombe And first it cannot be denied that the wedge hauing the same manner of disposition that the Rhombe hath that is a front ending in a point where the Captaine standeth two points of the two flanks where the flanke-commander stands the Lieutenant in the reare and the best men in the flanks but it must be as powerfull to open the enemies battaile as the Rhombe is Then it hath this advantage of the Rhombe that it bringeth more hands to fight For let the Rhombe and wedge be framed of an equall number the wedge in figure resembling the forepart of the Rhombe must haue the horse that should be ranged in the reare of the Rhombe orderly couched within the 3 sides thereof where by both the number of the horse in the sides is increased and the bulke of the body betwixt flanke and flanke inlarged And seing both the Rhombe and the wedge goe to the charge with the point of their front the wedge both hath the property to pierce and enter the enemies battaile by art and sleight as well as the Rhombe and doth it with more strength because of the great number of hands in the sides which all come to fight Ioyne that the hinder part of the Rhombe serueth onely to auoide surprizes and worketh nothing in charging For after the two flanke points are entred the rest of the Rhombe growing narrower and narrower toward the Reare falleth further off from the enemy and is content onely to follow the way that was made to hand by the front and flanks without being able to strike a stroke especially if it preserue the order it ought to keepe whereas all parts of the wedge are effectuall the point to enter the sides euen to the flanke corners where the Reare endeth to dispart and disseuer and finally to disorder the enemy whereby the victorie ensueth And if we may rely vpon authority the authority of King Philip will sway much for the wedge For vnlesse he had held it better than the Rhombe hee would not haue chosen nor accustomed his Macedonians to it nor Alexander after reteined it if he had not beene of the same opinion Neither did the euent deceiue them for almost in all battaileâ— their horse thus disposed caried away the victorie But as I before noted neither Rhombe nor wedge haue found grace in the eyes of the great Generalls of our daies nor can we tell what to insist vpon till experience hath taught how well these formes will agree with the weapons and seruice of our moderne warres 4 The Persians made choice of squares The square is the third and last forme of horse-battaile that Aelian mentioneth whereof there are three kinds one with a larger front then flanke an other with a larger flanke then front the third with front and flanke equall All these three were vsed amongst the Persians and Graecians For two of the first Xenophon may witnes When Agesilaus after Tissaphernes the King of Persia's Lieutenant in part of the lesser Asia had broken truce with him made an incursion into Phrigia Xenophon telleth that the rest of his iourney was without impediment till he came not farre from Dascylium There when his horsemen galloped to a hill to discouer the country by chance the horsemen of Pharnabazus an other of the King of Persians Lieutenants being about the same number that the Graecians were and sent by Pharnabazus vnder the command of Rathynes and Bancaeus his bastard brother galloped vp the same hill and discouering one the other no further of than two parts of a furlong at the first they stood still the Graecians ordered Phalange-wise 4 in depth the Barbarians making their front 12 in length the depth many more Afterward the Barbarians began first to charge when they came to hands all the Graecians that ioyned broke their staues The Persians hauing Corneil darts killed some 12 horsemen and 2 horses Herevpon the Graecians fled But when Agesilaus came with the Armie to the reskew the Barbarians againe forsooke the field The Persians then vsed a square longer in flanke then front The Graecian a square longer in front theu flanke But which of the three squares is most to be esteemed Aelian sheweth in the words following saying those squares are best that 5 Double the number of the length to the number of the depth What the length and depth in a battaile are we haue seene before Yet to vnderstand Aelian the better let vs repeat that the length of a battaile is the extension of the front the depth the extension of the flanke To double then the number of the length to the number of the depth is to place twise so many men in front as in flanke As for the purpose 6 in front 3 in flanke or 8 in front 4 in flanke or 10 in front 5 in flanke And that this was the manner of the Lacedemonians appeareth by the Oulamos or horse-troupe instituted by Lycurgus which was figured Tetragonally with 4 equall sides and conteined in it 50 horse Now that it could not be a square of number that is to haue as many horse in flanke as in front may hereby be shewed because no square number will make 50. The nearest is 7 times 7 which amounts to 49. But proportioning the number of the length double to the number of the depth that is 10 in front and 5 in flanke euen 50 will arise So that the horse troope of the Lacedemonians had the number of the length double to the number of the depth and made a square in the equality of measure of the sides not in number which is the Tetragonall figure whereof Plutarch speaketh And where Xenophon as I haue alledged before reporteth that the horsemen of Agesilaus were but 4 in depth it hindereth not this truth For as I noted before the ordinary aray of the Lacedemonians foote was 8 in depth Yet did Pausanias the Lacedemonian King cast his men into a deepe Phalange against Thrasibulus Other examples I haue alledged in the same place touching the same matter Besides this appeareth to be but a tumultuous fight either of the parties comming soddainely in the sight of the other and going presently to charge before they could haue time to alter the order they then were in And to say the horse troupe of the Lacedemonians ought to haue beene but 4 in depth it must thereof necessarily follow that they were 12 in length which yet will come short of 50 4 times 12 makes but 48. Indeed Leo holdeth opinion that in a horse battaile the depth ought to be no more than 4. I will set downe his words as neare as conveniently I can english them The depth saith he or thicknes as it was of ancient time limited is sufficient if it be of 4
body an Epitherarchy Of eight 4 Ilarcha and the body an Ilarchy Of 16 5 Elephantarcha and the body an Elephantarchy Of 32 6 Keratarcha and the body a Keratarchy That which consisteth of 64 wee call 7 a Phalange of Elephants as if a man should name the Commander of both the wings Phalangarcha Notes THe vse of Elephants was greater amongst the people of Asia and Africa Those of Europe esteemed them not much And yet we finde that they were brought into the field by the Romans also who first saw Elephants in Italy in the warres they had against King Pyrrhus â— The Indian Elephant was preferred before the African for greatnesse of body strength and courage Many things are written concerning the seruice of Elephants But because Aelian toucheth no more then the names of the bodies and the degrees of Commanders I will only note such things as I finde concerning them in Histories Their kinde of armor and furniture I haue taken out of Liuy and expressed them as neere as I could in figure For their power strength and manner of fight see Diodor. Sicul. lib. 17. 609. lib. 19. 717. Polyb. lib. 1. â—5 D. lib 5. 425. C. Their place in battaile Diodor. Sicul. lib. 17. 685. Arrian lib. 5. 111. Liu. decad 4. lib. 7. 141. B. Appian in Syriac 107. Polyb. l. 1. 34. D. The distance one from an other Arrian lib. 5. 111. Light armed in the distances betwixt Elephant and Elephant Diodor. Sicul. lib. 17. 609. lib. 18. 665. lib 19. 685. 716. Plurarch in Pyrrho Remedies against Elephants Diodor. Sicul. lib. 18. 665. lib. 19. 717. Polyb. l. 1. 42. A. Hirt. de bell African 416. Liu. decad 3. lib. 7. 194. C. I haue noted before the improprietie of names giuen to militarie bodies as well in the armed and the light armed foote as in horse troupes and in Chariots That defect is no lesse in Elephants The Commanders and commands of them hauing names which were at first large and improper enough but afterward made good by vse and receiued by the Tacticks as significant to expresse the things for which they were inuented The first is giuen to him that is to command one Elephant Who is called 1 Zoarchos The Commander of a liuing creature that is of one Elephant The next is 2 Therarchos A Commander of Beasts which name is appropriated to him that commandeth two Elephants and the body it selfe is named a Therarchie 3 An Epitherarcha Hauing the authoritie ouer the Therarchie and the body is called an Epitherarchie comprizing foure Elephants 4 An Ilarch As it were the Commander of a troupe and the body is called an Ilarchie I le is commonly applied to horse and signifieth a horse troupe and Ilarcha the Captaine But here Ilarcha signifieth the Commander of 8 Elephants 5 An Elephantarch A Commander of Elephants as thougâ— the other bodies before mentioned were not of Elephants Such straights are men often times driuen vnto in deuising new names for new things which notwithstanding passe afterward and growe familiar by vse Elephantarcha commandeth 16 Elephants and the command is called an Elephantarchie 6 A Keratarch The Commander of a wing the body a Keratarchie hauing in it 32 Elephants A wing of Chariots had as many 7 A Phalange This is the greatest body and consisteth of 64 Elephants But as Chariots may be ordered into many Phalanges and yet the same names retained in euery one of the Phalanges so it is in Elephants For that armies haue had in them at once aboue 64 Elephants appeareth by Histories Polybius and Diodor Sicul testifie the first that the Carthagineans the last that King Porus against Alexander had the one 140 the other 130 Elephants in their armies The same Polybius saith that Ptolomey had against Antiochus 73 Elephants in his armie and Antiochus 102. And Plutarch reporteth that Androcottus King of a part of India gaue to Seleucus at on time 500 Elephants The names of military motions expressed in this booke CHAP. XXIV THus haue we set downe in particular the kindes of perfect Forces together with the seuerall names of euery body Which being premised it seemeth Cap 25 〈…〉 Faces turned to the right hand The Front Câ—â—s or one Turning of Faces to the right hand The Front The first standing The Front fit to deliuer the words of exercise that when the Commander shall will any thing to be done the Souldier in daily experience acquainted before with the signification of euery of them and with the moouing in each figure may easily performe and execute whatsoeuer is commanded There is a motion called Clisis whereof one kinde is to the Pike the other to the Target Another is called Metabole another Epistrophe another Anastrophe another Perispasmus another Ecperispasmus besides we say to file to ranke to returne to the first posture to countermarch to double Likewise we vse the words Induction and Deduction to the right or left hand a broad-Phalange a deepephalange and vneuen-fronted Phalange and Parembole and Protaxis and Entaxis and Hypotaxis and Epitaxis and Prostaxis The signification of which words I will shortly deliuer And yet I am not ignorant that the precepts of warre are not by all Tacticks expressed in the same tearmes Notes AElian in the Chapters precedent hath numbred vp all kindes of forces as well foote as Horse and Chariots and Elephants that in ancient time were accounted necessarie for warre And hath giuen them their armor and furniture and distinguished them into militarie bodies and imbattailed them and taught the distances that they ought to hold in fight It followeth now that he speake of motions military which are the life of an armie and onely giue meanes of victorie and without which all preparation of forces is vaine and auaileth nothing in the field nor to the end for which they were leuied This Chapter then conteineth the names of those motions the following Chapters the particular explication of them To which we will note what we finde in ancient writers For the signification of the words I referre them to the seuerall Chapters where they are expounded Of turning and double turning the Souldiers faces as they stand embattailed CHAP. XXV 1 CLisis or turning of the face is the particular motion of euery Souldier declining his face either to his Pike that is to the right hand or to his Target that is to the left hand The vse of it is when the enemie sheweth himselfe in flanke 2 to encompasse our winges or else to charge vs or for some other cause whereof I will speake in conuenient place 3 Two turnings of the face towardes the same side transferre the sight of the Souldier to the reare of the battaile And this kinde of motion is called Metabole being also vsed either to the Pike or to the Target In the first standing the mouing of the Souldiers face toward the Pike is called Clisis the second mouing the same way
the right hand 2 Ecperispasmos I could neuer hitherto conceiue any vse of a treble wheeling for so Aelian takes the word vnlesse a Perispasmos were first made and the battaile had the front already brought to the reare and so an Epistrophe added from the reare to the same hand Otherwise seeing that one wheeling is sooner made then two and therefore sooner then three I see no neede of three wheelings especially seeing we may doe that wee desire with one For example let vs wheele our battaile thrice to the right hand the front will come to be in the place of the left flanke The same will be performed as well with one wheeling to the left hand Et frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora especially in matter of warre where the least moment of time often carieth the whole businesse The like may be said of Ecperispasmos to the left hand The vse of the motions of wheeling and double wheeling is when the battaile being closed and the enemy comming to assault you in any other one place then the front you seeke to bring the best men to fight For if you be to be charged in two places at once or more wheeling helpes little except it be to turne the front to one enemy and in that case your onely shift is to turne faces against them that come to charge on what side soeuer they come Examples of these two motions I meane Epistrophe and Perispasmos meete vs almost in euery Greeke Historie Of which I will represent one or two especially of the latter the rather because practise giueth both light and life to precepts Plutarch recounteth that after King Pyrrhus had in vaine assaulted Sparta he was invited by an Argiuan named Aristaeus to receiue Argos into his protection and that hee marched thitherward with his armie Arieus the king of Lacedemonia laying ambushes for him and taking the principall streights by which he was to passe charged his reare wherein the Galatians and Molossians were When Pyrrhus heard the bruite and noise he sent his sonne Ptolomy with the band of Companions to aide himselfe with all speede marching out of the streights led on his armie The medly being sharpe about Ptolomy and the chosen Lacedemonians commanded by Eualcus standing close to their busines Oroesus a Candiot of Aptera valiant of his hands and swift of foote running crosse against the young Prince gaue him a deadly stroke and ouerthrew him His fall made the rest to flie And the Lacedemonians hauing the victorie and following the chase came into the Champian ground still killing but not remembring they were not followed with armed foot Vpon whom Pyrrhus hauing euen then heard of and being much mooued with the death of his sonne wheeled about the Molossian horsemen And himselfe first aduancing vpon the spurre imbrued himselfe with the slaughter of Lacedemonians He alwaies seemed mighty and terrible in armes but then he exceeded himselfe in daring and valor For turning his Horse vpon Eualcus who shunning him shifted a side and with all strooke at his bridle hand as he passed by and wanted but little of cutting it off But missing the hand he light vpon the raines and carued them quite a sunder Pyrrhus with all strooke him thorough the body with his Launce Then leaping from his horse and fighting a foote hee cut in pieces the chosen Lacedemonians that fought to recouer the body of Eualcus This was the fight that Pyrrhus made by wheeling about his Horsemen against the Lacedemonians that followed vpon his Reare Another example of Wheeling about is reported by Polybius and it is of Amilcar Annibals father this is the history The mercenary souldiers of the Carthaginians reuolted from them and ouerthrew some of their Generalls and shut them vp within the Citie of Carthage possessing both other streights that led into the Countrey and also a bridge laide ouer a riuer called Macar which riuer was not passable but by that Bridge Besides they built a City for defence of that Bridge Amilcar seeking to dislodge the enemie from that Bridge and hauing no way to come at them conueniently obserued that when certaine windes blew the mouth of the riuer toward the sea was commonly filled vp with sand and would giue passage sufficient for his armie Finding then a fit time hee put ouer his army in the night and before day or ere any man knew of it made himselfe Master of the passage and presently led against them that held the bridge Spendius hee was one of the chiefe Rebells hearing thereof aduanced to meete Amilcar in the plaine and both ten thousand from the City at the bridge foote and fifteen thousand more from Vtica came out one to aide another thinking to wrappe in the Carthaginians betweene them who were not aboue ten thousand Souldiers of all sorts and 70 Elephants Amilcar led on his armie Before were the Elephants the horse and light armed followed next the armed foote came last And perceiuing the enemie that followed his Reare pressed hard vpon him he commanded his whole armie to turne about Those that were in the Vangard of the march hee willed to returne to him with speede the other that at first had the reare hee wheeled about and straight opposed against the enemy The Lybians and mercenaries imagining the Carthaginians fled for feare fell vpon them disorderly and boldly came to hands But when they saw the Horsemen being now turned about and come vp neere to the foote and already put in order make a stand they themselues by reason they looked for nothing lesse fell into a feare turning their backes fled presently as before they gaue on vnaduisedly and straglingly And some of them falling vpon their owne people that were comming on wrought both theirs and their owne destructions othersome were trampled vpon and trode to death by the horse and Elephants that followed the chase Thus farre Polybius And thus farre of Wheelings The figure and words of command are reserued for the 32 Chapter where the manner of wheelings and returning to the first posture is set downe Of filing ranking and restoring to the first posture CHAP. XXVII TO file is when euery particular man keeping equall distance from other standeth in his owne file lineally betwixt the file-Leader and bringer-vp To ranke is to be in a right line euen with his sidemen in the length of the battaile 1 To restore to the first posture is to bring the sight of the Souldier to the same aspect he had before the first turning As if his face were at first towardes the enemy being commanded to turne towards the Pike and thence to returne to his first posture hee is againe to returne his face toward the enemy Notes OF filing and ranking enough is spoken before 1 To restore to the first posture This motion differeth from Anastrophe before specified For Anastrophe bringeth backe againe the whole body to the first place after a Wheeling This the Souldiers faces
particularly to the first aspect So that this is vsed after the making of an Anastrophe For alwaies in motions it is requisite that the Souldiers faces moue forward To moue backeward hath many inconueniences of stumblings vpon vneuen ground or stones or pittes or stubbes or such like Which is the cause that in Anastrophe after a Wheeling Aelian willeth that the Souldiers turne their faces the contrarie way first then moue on till they haue recouered their first ground then open rankes and files and lastly to restore to the first aspect And as it differeth from Anastrophe so differeth it likewise from Metabole Metabole only turned faces about this setteth the Souldier in his former posture not onely for his face but for his armes also which are ordered as at first The wordes wherein this motion is expressed by Aelian are Ep orthon apodounai and Eis orthon apocaâ—astesai which is interpreted by Gaza in arrectum reddere to restore vp right by Arcerius rectum reddere to restore right and so the words sound Aelian interpreteth it to set againe the Souldiers sight in the same aspect in which it stood at first as if being placed with his face against the enemy he be commanded to turne his face to the Pike and then againe to restore his face to his first posture he must returne and set his face against the enemy Aelian therefore referreth it to the sight he first had which if it bee the right meaning how can it be vpright or right more in that then in any other posture For the Souldier not onely in front but in flanke and in the reare carrieth himselfe vpright or right I doubt not but that it may be applied to the vpright standing of men as appeareth by sundry places of Pausanias Who reherseth that Mineruas Image set in the Temple Parthenion standeth vpright orthon esti and in an other place that in Corinth in the Temple Pantheon there were two Images of Mercurie standing vpright Ortha and that in the Temple of Fortune the image of Fortune was carued of Parian stone and stood vpright Orthon and that in Neptunes Temple situate in the Corinthian Isthmus the images of Amphitrite and Neptune stand in a Chariot and the boy Palemon vpright vpon a Dolphin Orthos In all which places Orthos designeth the site of men But here as I take it cannot be so applied Because in euery motion not onely in this the men stand vpright How then can they be restored to their standing vpright when they doe it already I take the originall of the appellation to come from another cause and that is from the ordering of the Pike For when the battaile is first set in the field euery Souldier standes with his Pike ordered that is vpright For to order a pike is to set the butt end on the ground before the Souldier somewhat wide of his right foote and to hold it vpright with the right hand borne euen with the shoulder But when you beginne or continue any motion the manner is to aduance or to shoulder the Pike and so to proceede But being commanded to returne to the first posture it must bee ordered againe So that the first posture of an armed man is to stand with his pike vpright And after many motions and windings he at last returneth to the same posture which I take the command of Ep'orthon apodounai to signifie Now that I may not seeme to relie vpon a probable coniecture alone I will bring witnesse for the confirmation of my opinion It is reported by Diodorus Siculus that Agesilaus the Lacedemonian King with an armie of eighteen thousand foote and fifteen hundred horse inuaded Boeotia The Athenians before hearing of Agesilaus comming had sent fiue thousand foote and 200 horse to aide the Thebans who gathering their armie together seized vpon a long narrow hill distant 20 furlongs from the City And making the hard accesse to the place a kinde of fortification against the enemie they there waited his comming fearing to hazard vpon euen ground in regard of the renowne and glory of Agesilaus Agesilaus hauing imbattailed his troupes led them against the Boeotians and approching neere sent his light armed to sound their disposition to fight which being easily repulsed by the Thebans by the aduantage of the higher ground hee aduanced the rest of his forces being imbattailed in such manner as might giue greatest terror Chabrias the Athenian willed his Souldiers to awaite the enemy contemptuously both keeping their first array and their Targets at their knees and continuing their Pikes vpright ordered who when they iointly as vpon a word giuen did as they were commanded Agesilaus both wondering at the good order and at the assured fashion of the enemy thought it not fit to striue with vnequall ground and by forcing them to fight to compell them to be valiant whether they would or no. Hitherto Diodor Sicul. of the Strategem of Chabrias against Agesilaus which consisted in the contempt of Agesilaus and all his forces First in not stirring one foote to meete the enemy then in keeping the array they held before further in sincking their Targets to their knees Lastly in continuing the former order of their Pikes that is not making readyto charge but remaining with their Pikes ordered as they were at first Agesilaus aduancing his armie thought to strike a feare into his enemie Chabrias trusting to the strength of the place scorned the Brouado of Agesilaus conceiuing he would not be so hardy to aduenture the fight vpon so great an inequallity of ground He therfore willeth the Cap 28 The Macedoman Countermache by file The reare The front of the first standing The Countermarche in action The file leaders with their faces about standing firme The bringers vp dismarching The front after Countermarche The ground taken before the front of the Phalange Cap 29 The Lacedemonian Countermarche The Countermarche in action The file-leaders aduancing in Countermarche The bringers vp standing firme w th their faces turned about The front after Countermarche The ground taken beyond the reareof the Phalange Cap 20 The Chorean Countermarche The Front in the first standing The Bringers vp moving The fileleaders dismarching The front after Countermarche Cap. 20. Countermarche by Ranke The Countermarche in action diers not to alter their posture but to continue as they were The words concerning the Pike are En ortho tò dorati menein That is to continue their pikes vpright En ortho Now whether the same be the posture that the Tacticks describe when they speake or restoring Ep ' ortho vpright I referre to the iudgement of the Reader a Poliaenus remembring this Stratagem vseth somewhat different words and yet consenteth in meaning Chabrias saith he commanded his Souldiers not to runne out against the enemy but quietly to stand still holding their pikes before vpright and their Targets before their knees which they were wont to doe when they would a little ease
the Macedonians were the inventers of it Which of the Macedonians he telleth not but excludeth Philip and Alexander who both vsed the Lacedemonian Countermarch And before their times I haue not read of any warlike Kings of Macedonia The manner of it is this First all the File-leaders turne their faces about either to the right or left hand then the next ranke passeth thorough by them on the same hand and being come to their distances place themselues directly behind their File-leaders and then turne about their faces the same way And so the third ranke after them and the fourth and all the rest till the Bringers-vp be last and haue taken the reare of the battaile againe and turned about their faces The figure expresseth not well the action For in it the Bringers-vp begin first to countermarch which according to Aelian should moue last Yet may this Countermarch be done as the figure is But I take Aelians way to be easier and readier And it may be also that the Countermarch expressed in the figure is lost in the text For one of the Lacedemonian Countermarches which proceedeth the contrary way beginneth the motion with the File-leaders as this doth with the Bringers-vp as wee shall straight see 2 The Lacedemonian countermarch In this Countermarch the proceeding is contrary to that of the former that tooke the ground before the Phalange this takes the ground after In that the mouing was from the Reare to the front in this from the front to the reare This is the invention of the Lacedemonians Aelian describeth it to be done in two manners One when the Bringers-vp first turne about their faces and the next ranke likewise turning faces beginneth the Countermarch and euery man thereof placeth himselfe directly before his Bringer-vp and the third doe the like and so the rest till the ranke of the File-leaders come to be first The other when the File-leaders begin the Countermarch and euery one in their files follow them orderly The figure expresseth this last Aelian preferreth the Lacedemonian Countermarch before the Macedonian because in it the souldiers seeme to fall on and goe to the charge where in the Macedonian they seeme to flie There are notwithstanding times when it is better to vse the Macedonian As in case you meane to march on and not to fight with the enemy except you be compelled Or else you seeke to gaine some ground of aduantage For the Macedonian continueth still the march and stayeth not the Lacedemonian returneth vpon the enemy and so looseth ground in marching Agesilaus after victorie gotten against the Argives against whom he stood in the right winge hearing that the Thebans had beaten the Orchomenians in the left winge vsed the Lacedemonian Countermarch against them The words of Xenophon sound thus Here the strangers were about to crowne Agesilaus thinking he had got the victory when newes was brought that the Thebans after they had broken the Orchomenians had forced a passage as farre as the baggage Then Agesilaus countermarching his Phalange led against them The Thebans perceiuing their Confederates were fied vp to the mount Helicon closed their troupes together as neare as they could seeking to open a way by force and to get vp vnto them Agesilaus albeit he might by giuing way to the formost haue followed them at heeles and charged the reare yet did he it not but met the Thebans front to front Thus encountring and clashing their Targets together they fought thrust on killed and were killed In fine some of the Thebans broke thorough to Helicon other some as they sought to escape were left dead on the place Agesilaus here followed the chase vpon the Argives toward the mount Helicon The Thebans vpon the Orchomenians the contrary way towards the enemies Campe. The Thebans seing their confederates fled to the mount Helicon returned toward them Agesilaus countermarched to meete them met them and fought with them For the Countermarch he vsed I make account it was the Lacedemonian himselfe being a Lacedemonian And he vsed it to meet the Thebans brauely in front The same Agesilaus after he had by night incamped in a peece of ground behind Mantinaea incompassed about with mountaines perceiuing the next morning that the Mantinaeans gathered together vpon the toppes that lay right ouer the head of his Rearegard determined to lead his Armie out of the place with all speed Now if himselfe should lead he feared the enemy would giue vpon his Reare Therefore standing still and turning his armes against the enemy he commanded the last of the Phalange to march backe againe from the Reare and come vp to him and so at once he brought his Armie out of the streights and made it by little and little stronger When the Phalange was thus doubled he proceeded in that order into the Champeigne there againe reduced the depth of the armed foote to 9 or 10 men in euery file This place of Xenophon if it be not corrupted is very obscure And I cannot tell whether to take it for doubling of the front or the Macedonian countermarch The words make for a doubling For Xenophon saith plainely the Phalange was doubled Besides he addeth it was made by little and little stronger which could not be done with a Countermarch And that a deepe Phalange or Hearse such as this by the euenings march and the straights it entred seemeth to be is made stronger by doubling the front there is no question On the other side the streights thorough which it was to passe perswade me it should be a Macedonian Countermarch For in doubling the front the length still increaseth the manner is not to inlarge but to extenuate the front when an Armie is to be conveighed thorough a narrow place And Xenophon saith expresly that Agesilaus led it thorough the streights into the Champeigne in that order to which it was reduced last that in the Champion the depth of the Armed was lessened and brought to 9 or 10 for there Agesilaus imbattailed his Phalange to receiue the enemy if he would charge And in a march through straight waies the front is commonly narrowed and proportioned to the way but in open ground the Phalange is againe brought to the iust length So that it seemeth the depth was much before it come into the plaine because in the plaine it was brought to 9 or 10 men and therefore no doubling Lastly Agesilaus and the front I doubt not of the Phalange with him turned face to the enemy before the Reare came vp to him which is done in no other motion than the Macedonian countermarch In which all the File-leaders first turne about their faces toward the enemy and then the whole battaile marcheth against the File-leaders and placing themselues orderly behind them turne their faces the same way that they haue done before Now where it is in Xenophon that Agesilaus hauing gained the Champeigne extended his Armie to 9 or 10 Targeteres I suspect a
the distance required to the right hand Faces as you were Close your hinder ranks forward and order your Pikes Restoring to the first posture File-Leaders stand firme The other Rankes turne faces about and open behinde to the first distance Faces as you were The right-wing-corner-file stand firme the rest turne faces to the Target and proceede to your first distance Faces as you were and order your Pikes Closing to the left wing It differeth not from the other but that the mouing is to the contrarie hand Closing to the middest of the Battaile The right-wing turne faces to the Target the left to the Pike Each moue vp to the middest of the Phalange and stand at the distance named Faces as you were Close the hinder rankes forward and order your Pikes Restoring to the first Posture The first ranke stand firme The rest turne faces about and open the rankes to the first distance Faces as you were The files next the middle section stand fast and the right wing turne faces to the Target the left to the Pike and moue on till the first distance recouered Faces as you were and order the Pikes We may not forget Aelians generall rule for turning of faces out of Closings that the Pikes be alwaies aduanced For when you come vp to the closenesse required the Pike vpon the shoulder will hardly admit turning of the face The like falleth out when you would open from the Closing The vse and aduantage of these exercises of armes CHAP. XXXIV THese precepts of turning about of faces of wheeling and double wheeling of the Battaile and of reducing it to the first posture are of great vse in suddaine approches of the enemy whether hee shew himselfe on the right or left hand or in front or in the reare of our march The like may bee said of Countermarches Of which the Macedonians are held to bee the inuentors of the Macedonian the Lacedemonians of the Lacedemonian and for this cause either to haue name accordingly The Histories witnesse that Philip who much enlarged the Macedonian kingdome and ouercame the Graecians in battaile at Cheronea and made himselfe Generall of Greece and likewise his sonne Alexander that in short time conquered all Asia made small account of the Macedonian countermarch vnlesse necessitie forced it and that they both by the vse of the Lacedemonian became victorious ouer their enemies For the Macedonian countermarch the enemy falling vpon the reare is cause of great confusion in as much as the hindermost dismarching toward the front and making a shew of running away it more encourageth and emboldneth the enemy to follow For feare and pursuit of the enemy ordinarily accompanieth that kinde of countermarch But the Lacedemonian is of contrarie effect For when the enemy sheweth himselfe in the reare the Leaders with their followers brauely aduancing and opposing themselues it striketh no small feare and terror into their mindes Cap. 30 The File-leaders A Deduction to the left hand A right induction The Front A Deduction to the right hand Cap. 36. The Coelembolos or hollow fronted wedge The Front The right Induction Cap. 36. The Coelembolos The left wing The right wing The front The Phalange set against the left wing of the Coelembolos The Phalange set against the right wing of the Coelmebolos The forbearing Phalange Of the signes of direction that are to be giuen to the armie and their souerall kindes CHAP. XXXV WEe are to acquaint our forces both foote and horse partly with the voice and partly with visible signes that whatsoeuer is fitting be executed and done as occasion shall require Some things also are to be denounced by the Trumpet for so all directions will be fully accomplished and sort to a desired effect The signes therefore which are deliuered by voice are most euident and cleere if they haue no impediment But the most certaine and least tumultuous are such as are presented to the eye if they bee not obscured The voice sometime can hardly be heard by reason of the clashing of armour or trampling and neighing of Horses or tumult of cariage or noyse and confused sounds of the multitude The visible signes also become many waies incertain by thicknes of aire and dust or raine or snow or sun-shine or else thorow ground that is vneuen or full of trees or of turnings And sometimes it will not be easie to find out signes for all vses occasions eftsoones presenting new matter to the which a man is not accustomed Yet can it not fall out that either by voice or by signal we should not giue certaine and sure direction Of marching and of diuers kindes of Battailes fit for a March And first of the right-induction of the Coelembolos and the Triphalange to be opposed against it CHAP. XXXVI BEing now to speake of marching I will first giue to vnderstand that some kind of march is a Right-induction other some a Deduction on the right or left hand And that in a single or double or treble or quadruple-sided-battaile In a single when one enemy is feared In a double when two In a treble when three In a quadruple when the enemy purposeth to giue on on all sides Therefore the march is vndertaken sometimes in a single Phalange sometimes in a twofold Phalange or else in a threefold Phalange or in a fourefold Phalange A right-induction is when one body of the same kinde followeth another as if a Xenagy lead and the rest follow Xenage-wise Or a Tetrarchy lead and the rest follow according to that forme It is so called when the march stretcheth it selfe out into a wing hauing the Depth much exceeding the length Against it is opposed the Coelembolos which is framed when the Antistomos Diphalange disioyneth the Leading-wings closing the Reare in manner of the letter V as the figure after placed doth teach In which the front is disseuered the reare ioyned and knit together For the Right-induction pointing at the middest of the enemies battaile the Coelembolos quickly opening before serueth both to frustrate the charge of the front and to claspe in and circumuent the flankes of the right-induction Furthermore a Triphalange is to be set against the Coelembolos one Phalange fighting against one winge of the Coelembolos The second against the other and the middle and third forbearing and expecting a time fit to charge Of Paragoge or Deduction CHAP. XXXVII PAragoge or Deduction is when the Phalange proceedeth in a wing not by file but by ranke hauing the Commanders or file-Leaders either on the right hand which is called a right-hand-Deduction or on the left hand which is called a left-hand Deduction For the Phalange marcheth in a double treble or quadruple-side accor̄ding to the place and part it is suspected the enemy will giue on And both the Paragogies beginning the fight in flanke doe make the length double to the depth This forme of fight was deuised to teach a Souldier to receiue heedfully the charge of
the enemy not onely in front but also in flanke Of the Phalange Amphistomus CHAP. XXXVIII THe Phalange Amphistomus for it is so called because it hath two fronts and that part of the battaile that is set and aduanced against the enemie is called a front Seeing then in this forme the middlemost are ordered backe to backe and those in front and reare make head against the enemy the one being Commanders of the front the other of the reare therefore it is called Amphistomus It is of great vse against an enemy strong in Horse and able to giue a hot and dangerous charge and principally practised against those Barbarians that inhabit about the riuer Ister whom they also call Amphippi because they change Horses in fight The Horse battaile to encounter this forme hath a Tetragonall shape being for the purpose diuided into two broad-squares they are broad-squares that haue the front twice as much as the depth And these Squares are opposed seuerally against the diuisions of the foot-battaile Of the Phalange Antistomus CHAP. XXXIX THe Phalange Antistomus is like the Amphistomus the forme being a little altered so that it accustometh the souldier to resist the seuerall kindes of incursions of Horse All that hath beene spoken concerning the former Phalange both for foote and Horse agreeth with this figure also Herein they differ that Cap. 37. A foure fronted Phalange against all allemptes of the Enemy The Front of the reare The Front of the right flank The Front of the March The Front of the left flank Cap. 38. The Phalange Amphistomus Cap 39 The Phalange Antistomus Front Cap. 40. The Horsmans wedge Front A Diphalange Antistomus the Amphistomus receiueth the charge in front and reare the Antistomus in flanke But aswell in the one as the other they fight with long Pikes as doe the Alans and Sauromatans And the one halfe of the souldiers in the files turne their faces forward the other halfe backward so that they stand back to backe This forme hath two fronts the one before where the file-Leaders the other behind where the back-Commanders stand And being also diuided into a Diphalange it maketh the fore-front with the one and the after-front with the other Phalange Of the Diphalange Antistomus CHAP. XL. A Diphalange Antistomus is that which hath the file-Leaders placed not in Deduction outwardly but inwardly face to face one against-an other and the reare-Commanders without one halfe in a right the other in a left-hand Deduction This forme is vsed when the Horse giue on and charge Wedge-wise For the * Wedge shooting foorth into a point and hauing the Commanders following in flanke and endeauouring to disseuer and breake the front of the foote the Leaders of the foote foreseeing their purpose place themselues in the middest with intent either to repulse them or else to giue them a thorough passage without losse For the Wedge flieth vpon the foote in hope to charge the multitude in the middest and to disorder the whole battaile And the foote Commanders conceiuing well the fury of that kinde of forme leaue a little space betwixt either front and stand like walles on both sides and iointly turning their faces toward the middest giue them a fruitlesse and empty passage This forme of Horse-battaile is called a Wedge by Tacticks which was inuented by Philip King of Macedon who placed his best men before that by them the weaker sort might be held in and enabled to the charge as we see in a speare or in a sword the point whereof by reason of the sharpnesse quickely piercing maketh way for and letteth in the middle blunt iron Of the Diphalange called Peristomus CHAP. XLI THe Phalange of the Diphalange * Peristomus proceedeth by deduction in a wing the oblique deduction on the right hand hauing the file-Leaders without the left hand oblique deduction the reare-Commanders within The figure sheweth the intent of them that fight so ordered For the battaile going to charge hauing beene at first Tetragonall diuideth it selfe into two oblique wings the right and the left of purpose to enclose the aduerse square-battaile And they fearing to bee inclosed transforme themselues into two seuerall marching-Phalanges directing one against the right the other against the left wing Therefore it is called Peristomus as hauing the front bent against the enemy both waies Of the Diphalange called Homoiostomos and of the Plinthium CHAP. XLII A Diphalange * Homoiostomus is so named because a whole file that is 16 men mouing by it selfe another file followeth it And it is therefore called Homoiostomus because they that follow follow in a like figure This kinde is opposed against the Plinthium * Plinthium is a forme of Battaile that hath the sides equall both in figure and number In figure because the distances are euery where equall In number because there are as many men in length as in depth In this foure-sided-Battaile are none in the flankes but armed without Archer or Slinger to helpe When therefore two Phalanges march together one by another and both haue their Leaders either in a right-hand or left-hand Deduction it is called a Diphalange Homoiostomus Of the Diphalange Heterostomus CHAP. XLIII A Diphalange * Heterostomus is that which proceedeth by Deduction hauing the Leaders of the former Phalange in a right-hand-Deduction and of the following Phalange in a left-hand-Deduction so that the battailes march counterchangeably one hauing the Leaders in one flanke and the other in the other and so the rest Againe of the Battaile called a Rhombe and of the foote-halfe moone to encounter it CHAP. XLIV THe battaile framed in forme of a Rhombe was first inuented by Ileon the Thessalian and was called I le after his name and to this forme he exercised and accustomed the Thessalians It is of good vse in that it hath a Leader at euery corner at the point the Captaine of the Troupe the reare-Commander behinde and on either side the flanke-commanders The foote battaile fittest to affront this is the Menoides or Cressant hauing both the wings stretched out and in them the Leaders and the middest imbowed to inuiron and wrap in the Horsemen in their giuing on Whereupon the Horsemen ply the foot a farre off with flying weapons after the manner of the Tarentines seeking thereby to dissolue and disorder their circled frame of marching Tarentum is a City of Italy the Horsemen whereof are called Acrobolists because in charging they first cast little Darts and after come to hands with the enemy Cap. 42. The Battaile called Plinthium The front The Diphalange Homoiostomus Cap. 43. The Diphalange Heterostomus The File-leaders The bringers up Cap. 45. Heteromekes or the Herse of Horse The front Plagiophalanx or the broad fronted battaile of foote Cap. Epicampios Emprosthia The front Of the Horse-battaile Heteromekes and of the Plagiophalange to be opposed against it CHAP. XLV THe Horse battaile Heteromekes is that which hath the depth double to the