their liberty with it and turn'd Subjects to the Latins Livy tells us the same thing for says he the Latin Army was in nothing inferiour to the Romans their courage the same their constancy the same and their numbers the same if the Romans had any advantage it was in their Generals which indeed were better than the Latins and it is expressed by several both Latins and Romans who have left an account of that Battel to posterity that where-ever Manlius had been that side would certainly have conquered In this Battel there were two things very exemplary and remarkable One of the Consuls to keep his Souldiers firm in their obedience and preserve their Military Discipline caused his own Son to be slain for transgressing his Orders though he gain'd the Victory by the means The other devoted himself freely to death for the good of his Country for the dispute was like to be very hard fighting against the Latins who as Livy tells us had the same Language the same Customs the same Arms the same Discipline with the Romans the Soldiers the Captains the Tribunes both in one Army and the other had been Comerades and served formerly together not only in the same Army or Garison but in the same Company and Band. It was necessary therefore being equal in their numbers and equal in their courage that something extraordinary should be done that might render the Soldiers fiercer and more obstinate to overcome upon which fierceness and obstinacy the whole hopes of the victory did depend for whilst there is any such in the breasts of the Soldiers they never think of running but press still on for victory and prize and because there was more of this constancy and fortitude in the breasts of the Romans than in the breasts of the Latins partly the destiny and partly the bravery of the Consuls effected that for the good success of their Army and the preservation of their Discipline Torquatus killed his Son and Decius himself Titus Livius in his description of the equality of their force gives us an exact account of the Orders which they observed in their Armies and Fights and he has done it so largely I need not repeat it all but shall only select what I think most particularly remarkable and what if observed by the Generals of our days might have prevented very great disorders I say then that according to Livy's description their Armies were divided into three principal Schieri or Squadrons The first consisted of their Hastati which were most of them young men in the flower of their age digested into Manipuli or small parties and disposed at a certain distance with Pikes or Darts in their hands from whence they were called Hastati The second Squadron was as numerous as the first and divided into as many Manipuli but their distance was something greater and it consisted of choice men from whence they were called Principes The third and last Squadron was the biggest of the three and had almost as many in it as both the other and this was made up of the ancientest and most experienced Soldiers whom they called Triarii They too had their certain distances but something greater than in either of the other In their Battels the Hastati were in the Van the Principes behind them and the Triarii in the Rear To every one of these Squadrons there was a body of Horse which being drawn up in two divisions and disposed one of the right and the other on the left hand of the Army represented two wings and were therefore called Ala. These three Squadrons preceded and followed one another exactly but the Hastati in the first Squadron were drawn up closer That being to receive the first impetus of the Enemy they might endure it the better The Principes that followed them was not in such close order but were disposed at more distance to the end that if the Hastati should be forced to retire they might be received into that Squadron without disorder or confusion But the Triarii were drawn up with greater spaces and intervals than both the other and for the same reason that if they were repulsed that might fall back among them and make an entire Body together Being drawn up in this order the Hastati began the sight if they were over-powred by the Enemy and forced to give ground they fell back to the Principes and uniting with them renewed the fight in one body if they were both of them too weak and unable to bear up against the Enemy they retreated gradually into the spaces betwixt the Triarii and then all the three Squadrons being joyned the whole Army charged in a body and if they were beaten farewel there was no more reserves but the Battel was lost and because whenever the Triarii was engaged the whole Army was in â—â—nger this Proverb grew very frequent Res reducta est ad Triarios Things are now at the Extremity The Generals of our times having laid aside all the old discipline of the Romans have neglected this among the rest to their no little prejudice For he that draws up his Army in a posture with two such reserves must be beaten three times before he can be utterly defeated whereas once beating will do the Enemies business But he that trusts only to the first shock as the Christian Armies do generally now may easily be broken the least disorder or relaxation of courage puting all to the rout And that which is the reason why our Armies are so quickly defeated is because they have lost the old way of falling back one body into another and rallying three times For whoever draws up his Army according to Modern Custom does it with one of these two inconveniences He either draws up his several Squadrons shoulder to shoulder and by enlarging his Ranks makes his Files very thin which weakens his Army very much by leaving the distance so small betwixt the Front and the Rear or else he draws them up deeper according to the manner of the Romans but then their Files are so close that if the Front be beaten there being no spaces in the Battel to receive them they entangle and confound one another so as the Front being repulsed falls foul upon the middle Squadron and both of them upon the third whereby they are embarrassed and hindred from advancing or receiving the Enemy in any order and the whole Battel is lost The Spanish and French Armies at the Battel of Ravenna where Monsieur de Foix the French General was slain fought very well being drawn up according to the mode of our times with their Fronts so extended that their Battalions were much more in wideness than depth and his was done in respect of the ground which in that place was very spacious and large for being sensible that retreats are more difficult where the Files are too deep they drew them up large in the Front to prevent it as much as possible But when they
20 files and twenty men in a file This makes two squares or very near for though there be as many men on one side as the other yet towards the head they joyn together so as one flank may touch the other but on the other side their distance is at least two yards one from the other so that the square is longer from the Rear to the Front than from one flank to another And because we are to speak often of the fore part the hinder part and the sides of this Battalia or Company and of the whole Army when joyned you must know that when I say the head or the front I mean the fore part of the Battel when I say the shoulders I mean the hinder part and when I say the flanks I mean the sides The fifty Velites in ordinary do not mingle with the rest of the files but when the Battalia is formed they are disposed by its flanks The other way of drawing up a Company is this and because it is better than the first I resolve to describe it so plain that you shall understand it as well as it were before your eyes I suppose you remember of what number of men of what Officers it is composed and what Arms it is to carry The form therefore of this Battalia is of twenty files twenty men in a file five files of Pikes in the front and fifteen files of Bucklers in the rear Two Centurions in the front and two in the rear which the ancients called Tergiductores The Constable or Captain with his Colours and Drum is to stand in the space betwixt the five files of Pikes and the fifteen files of Bucklers Corporals upon the flank of every file one so that each of them may have his men by his side those who are on the right hand will have them on their left those on the left on their right the fifty Velites are to be drawn up on the flanks and rear Now that your Soldiers may put themselves into this posture in their ordinary march it is to be done in this manner You are first to reduce your Battalia into 80 files five men in a file leaving your Velites either in the front or the rear but they must be sure to be placed without this order Every Centurion is to be at the head of twenty files five of Pikes are to be immediately behind him and the rest Bucklers The Constable or Captain is to stand with his Drum and Colours in the space betwixt the Pikes and the rest of the Bucklers belonging to the second Centurion and may take up the place of three of the Bucklers Of the Capidieci or Corporals twenty are to stand in the flank of the files of the first Centurion upon the left hand and twenty upon the flank of the last Centurion upon the right hand And it is to be observed that every Corporal who leads the Pikes is to have a Pike in his hand and they who lead the Scudi are to have Bucklers in theirs Having put your files into this order and being desirous upon their march to reduce them into a Battalia to make head against an Enemy you must cause the first Centurion with his first twenty files to make a halt and the second Centurion to continue his march to the right all along by the sides of those twenty files which stand firm till he comes cheek by jole with the first Centurion where he also makes his stand and then the third marching on likewise on the right hand by the flank of the said files advances till he be even with the other two Centurions and then he making his stop and so the rest which being done two of the Centurions only are to depart from the front into the rear of the Battalia which by this means is in the same order as I said before The Velites are to be drawn up by the side as they are disposed in the first way which is called redoubling by a right line for the second way redoubles them in the flanks The first way is more easie this is more orderly and useful and may be better corrected and reformed to your mind for in the first you are obliged to conform to your number for five doubled make ten ten twenty twenty forty so that if you would double your files in a right line you cannot make a front of fifteen five and twenty thirty nor thirty five but you must go where the number will carry you And therefore it happens every day upon particular rencounters that it is necessary to make head with 7 or 800 foot and in so doing to double in a right line would undo you For these reasons this way pleases me best and the difficulties therein are easily removed by exercise and practice I say then that nothing is of greater importance than to have Souldiers which can put themselves instantly into their ranks and to learn that it is necessary to exercise them in these Companies at home to teach them the quick and the slow march to advance or retreat and to pass thorow streights and difficult places without disturbing their order For Soldiers that can do that well are good Soldiers and may be called old Soldiers though they never looked an Enemy in the face whereas on the contrary if a man has been in a thousand Battels and understands not that he is but a Novice and a fresh-water Soldier This is only as to closing their ranks upon a march when they are in small files but having closed their files and being afterwards broken by some accident either from the place or the Enemy to rally and recollect themselves then there lies the difficulty and importance which requires great exercise and practice and by the ancients was endeavoured with much industry In this case it is necessary therefore to do two things CHAP. IX The manner of rallying Soldiers after a rout and to make them face about a whole Company at a time Fabr. WHen a Squadron is broken to rally and bring them again suddenly into order two things are convenient first that several Colours or Countermarks be assigned to every Battalia and secondly to observe this rule that the same Foot stand still in the same Files For example if a Soldier 's place was formerly in the second File let him continue in that File and not only in that File but in the same place and in order to that as I said before several Countermarks are necessary And first it is convenient that the Ensigns and Colours of each Company be so handsomly distinguished that being joyned with other Squadrons they may know one another Next that the Captains and Centurions have Plumes of Feathers of Scarfs or something that may make them conspicuous and remarkable and last of all as being of more importance the Capidieci or Corporals are to be so accoutred that they may be known and of this the ancients were so extraordinarily curious that their
numbers were written upon their Helmets in great Characters calling them the first second third and fourth c. And not content with this every Soldier had the number of his File and the number of his place in that File engraven upon his Buckler Your Companies being in this manner made distinguishable by their Colours and accustomed to their Ranks and Files by practice and experience it is no hard matter though they be disordered to rally and reduce them suddenly again for as soon as the Colours are stuck down in the ground they are immediately visible and the Captains and Officers knowing which are their own repair themselves and dispose their Soldiers immediately to their places and when those on the left have placed themselves on the left hand and those which belong to the right hand on the right the Soldiers directed by their rules and the difference of their Colours fall immediately into their Ranks as easily as we put together the Staffes of a Barrel when we have marked them before These things if learned with diligence and exercise at first are quickly attained and hardly forgot for your raw men are directed by the old and in time a Province by these exercises might be made very fit for the War It is necessary therefore to teach them how to turn all together when to face about in the Rear or the Flanks and make Rear and Flank of the first Ranks when occasion is offered And this is no hard matter to do seeing it is sufficient that every man faces to that side he is commanded and where they turn their faces that is the Front True it is when they face to the Flank their Ranks do not hold their proportion because the distance betwixt the Front and the Rear is thereby much lessened and the distance betwixt the extremity of the Flanks is much encreased which is quite contrary to the genuine order of a Battalia for which cause great practice and discretion is required to rectifie it and yet this may be remedied by themselves But that which is of greater consequence and which requires more practice is when an Officer would turn his whole Company together as if it were a single man or a solid and massy body of it self And this requires longer experience than the other For if you would have it turn to the left the left corner must stand still and they who are next them march so leisurely that they in the right may not be put to run if they be it will breed confusion But because it always happens that when an Army marches from place to place that the Companies which are not in the Front are forced to fight in the Flanks or Rear so that one and the same Company is many times compelled to face about to the Flanks and Rear at one and the same time that these Companies therefore may in this exigence hold their old proportion according to what is said before it is necessary that they have Pikes in that Flank which is most likely to be attacked and Capidieci Captains and other Officers in their proper places CHAP. X. To range a Company in such order that it may be ready to face the Enemy on which side soever he comes Fabr. WHen you have marshalled your fourscore Files five in a File you are to put all your Pikes into the first twenty Files and place five of your Corporals in the head of them and five in the Rear The other 60 Files which follow are Bucklers all and consist of 300 men So then the first and last File of every Company are to be Corporals The Captain with his Ensign and Drum is to stand in the midst of the first hundred of Bucklers and every Centurion at the head of his Division When they are in this order if you desire to have your Pikes on the left hand you are to double them Company by Company from the right Flank if you would have them on the right you are to double from the left and this is the way by which a Company turns with the Pikes upon one Flank with their Officers at the Head and the Rear of them and their Captain in the midst and it is the form which is observed in a march But upon the approach of an Enemy when they would make a Front of a Flank they have no more to do but to command that all of them face about to that Flank where the Pikes are and in so doing the whole Battalia turns with its Files and Officers at the same time in the manner aforesaid for unless it be the Centurions they are all in their old places and the Centurions can quickly be there But when a Battalia marches in the Front and is in danger to be engaged in the Rear the Files are to be so ordered that the Pikes may be readily behind and to do this there needs no more but whereas usually in every Battalia every Century has five Files of Pikes in the Front those five Files may be placed in the Rear and in all other places the same order to be observed as before Cosimo If my memory fails not you said that this way of exercise is in order to the uniting these Battalia's into an Army and that this practice is sufficient to direct them in that But if it should happen this Squadron of 450 Foot should be to fight singly and by its self how would you order it then Fabritio He who commands them is to judge where his Pikes are to be disposed and place them as he thinks fit which is not at all consistant with what I have prescribed before for though that be a way to be observed in Battel upon an union or conjunction of several Squadrons yet it may serve as a rule in what ever condition you fall into But in showing you the two other ways which I recommended for the ordering of a Battalia I will satisfie you farther CHAP. XI To draw up a Company with two horns or another with a Piazza or vacuity in the middle TO come to the way of drawing up a Battalia or Squadron with two horns or points I say you must order your 80 Files five in a File after this manner In the midst you must place a Centurion with 25 Files two of Pikes to the left and three of Bucklers to the right when those five are disposed bring up the other twenty with twenty Files and File-leaders all of them to be placed betwixt the Pikes and the Bucklers only those who carry Pikes are to stand with the Pikes After these twenty five Files are so placed draw up another Centurion with fifteen Files of Bucklers after which the Constable or Captain is to draw into the middle with his Drum and his Colours with other fifteen Files of Bucklers This being performed the next to march up is the third Centurion who is to be at the head of 25 Files of 5 in a File three Bucklers to the left
that each of these two Companies should be ranged directly behind the extremity of the three precedent Companies and the space left betwixt them should be 91 yards By these means all the Companies thus disposed should extend themselves in front 161 yards and in depth 20. After this I would extend the Pikes extraordinary along the flanks of all the Companies on the left hand at about twenty yards distance and I would make of them 140 ranks of seven in a rank so that they should secure all the left flank in depth of the ten Battalia's drawn up as I said before and I would reserve forty files of them to guard the Baggage and the unarmed people in the rear distributing their Corporals and other Officers in their respective places The three Constables or Captains I would place one at the head of them another in the midst and a third in the rear who should execute the Office of a Tergiductor who was always placed in the rear of the Army But to return to the front of the Army I say that after the Pikes extraordinary I would place the Velites extraordinary which are 500 and allow them a space of forty yards By the side of these on the left hand I would place my men at Arms with a space of 150 yards after them I would advance my light Horse at the same distance as I allowed to my men at Arms. As to the Velites in ordinary I would leave them about their Battalia's which should take up the space which I left betwixt each Company unless I found it more expedient to put them under the Pikes extraordinary which I would do or not do as I found it more or less for my advantage The Captain General of the Battalion should be placed in the space betwixt the first and second orders of Battalia's or else at the head of them or else in the space betwixt the last of the first five Battalia's and the Pikes extraordinary as I found it most convenient he should have about him 30 or 40 select men all brave and experienc'd and such as understood how to execute their Commission with prudence and how to receive and repel a charge and I would have the Captain General in the midst of the Drums and the Colours This is the order in which I would dispose my Battalion on the left wing which should contain half the Army and take up in breadth 511 yards and in depth as much as I have said before without reckoning the space that was possessed by the Pikes extraordinary which should be as a Shield to the people without Arms and take up a space of about a hundred yards The other Battalion I would dispose on the right side leaving betwixt the two Battalions a distance of about 30 yards having order'd it as the other At the head of that space I would place some pieces of Artillery behind which should stand the Captain General of the whole Army with the Drums the Standard or chief Ensign and two hundred choice men about him most of them on foot and amongst them ten or more fit to execute any command The General himself should be so mounted and so arm'd that he might be on Horseback and on foot as necessity required As to the Artillery ten pieces of Cannon would be enough for the taking of a Town In the Field I would use them more for defence of my Camp than for any Service in Battel My smaller pieces should be of 10 or 15 pound carriage and I would place them in the front of the whole Army unless the Country was such that I could dispose them securely in the flank where the Enemy could not come at them This form and manner of ranging an Army and putting it in order may do the same things in a Battel as was done either in the Macedonian Phalanx or the Legion of the Romans for the Pikes are in the front and all the foot placed in their ranks so that upon any charge or engagement with the Enemy they are able not only to bear and sustain them but according to the custom of the Phalanx to recruit and reinforce their first rank out of those which are behind On the other side if they be over-power'd and attack'd with such violence that they are forced to give ground they may fall back into the intervals of the second Battalia behind them and uniting with them make up their body and charge them briskly again And if the second Battalia is not strong enough to relieve them they may retire to the third and fight all together in conjunction so that by this order as to the business of a Battel we may supply and preserve our selves according to the Grecian and the Roman way both As to the strength of an Army it cannot be ordered more strong because the two wings are exactly well fortified with Officers and Arms nor is there any thing weak but the rear where the people which follow the Camp without Arms are disposed and they are guarded with the Pikes extraordinary so that the Enemy cannot assault them any where but he will find them in very good order neither is the rear in any great danger because an Enemy can be hardly so strong as to assault you equally on all sides if you found he was so strong you would never take the Field against him But if he was three times as many and as well ordered as you if he divides and weakens himself to attack you in several places beat him in one and his whole enterprize is lost As to the Enemies Cavalry though they out-number you you are safe enough for the Pikes which encompass you will defend you from any impression from them though your own Horse be repulsed The chief Officers are moreover plac'd in the flank so as they may commodiously command and as readily obey and the spaces which are left betwixt one Battalia and the other and betwixt one rank and another serve not only to receive those who are distressed but gives room for such persons as are sent forward and backward with orders from the Captain Add as I told you at first as the Romans had in their Army about 24000 men I would have our Army consist of the same number and as the Auxiliaries took their method of Fighting and their manner of drawing up from the Legions so those Soldiers which you would joyn to your two Battalions should take their form and discipline from them These things would be very easie to imitate should you have but one example for by joyning either two other Battalions to your Army or adding as many Auxiliaries you are in no confusion you have no more to do but to double your ranks and whereas before you put ten Battalia's in the left wing put twenty now or else you may contract or extend them as your place and Enemy will give leave Luigi In earnest Sir I am so well possess'd of your Army that
are straightned for room they are forced to be contented and draw up as well as they can for there is no remedy They are subject likewise to the same disorders in their Marches and Incursions into the Enemies Country whether to forrage or upon some other design In the War betwixt the Florentines and Pisans upon their Rebellion after the King of France's passage into Italy coming to a Battel at Santo Regolo the Florentines were defeated by their own Horse which being drawn up in the Front of the Army and charged smartly by the Enemy were put into disorder and forced to fall foul upon their Foot which broke the whole Army And I have been many times assured by Monsieur Griacus de Burgo an old Officer of Foot in the Florentine Army that their Foot had not fled that day but for the disorder of their own Horse The Swizzers the best Soldiers of our times when they are drawn up with the French will be sure to be drawn up in the Flanks that if their Horse should be beaten they may not be driven in among them And though these things seem easie to be understood and more easie to practise yet there has not been one of our late Generals that has found the way of imitating this old method or correcting the new for though they also have their Armies divided into three Squadrons which they call the Van-guard the Body and the Rear yet they use them only in their Marches and Incampments but when they come to a Battel it is seldom seen but they are drawn up as abovesaid and altogether run the risk of one shock and no more And because some people to excuse their ignorance pretend the Execution of the Cannon will not suffer them to make use of the old order I shall examine in the next Chapter whether that can be a just impediment or not CHAP. XVII How the Armies of our times are to judge of Artillery and whether the general opinion of it be true WHen I consider with my self how many Field Battels were fought by the Romans in several times it falls into my thoughts to examine what many people have believed that had there been great Guns in those days as there are now the Romans could never have over-run Provinces nor made them tributary so easily nor have done so many great things as they did for by reason of these fire-arms Granadoes and such kind of Engines people are sooner terrified and cannot show their valour so freely as heretofore To which it is added that Armies come with more difficulty to a Battel and that their Orders and Ranks are not so easily kept so that in time the whole business of War will be dispatched by the Cannon Not thinking it improper to enquire into these opinions to examine whether Artillery have added or substracted from the strength of our Armies and taken away or given more occasion to our Captains of doing brave things I shall begin with their first opinion that the Romans would not have made those vast Conquests had there been Artillery in those days In answer I say that War is twofold defensive or offensive and it is first to be considered which of these two Wars it does most mischief or good and though it may be said it does great mischief in both yet I am of opinion it is much more prejudicial to him that is upon the defensive than him that is upon the offensive part The reason is because he who defends himself is either blocked up in some Town or straightned in his Camp If in a Town it is either small like your Citadels or large In the first case the besieged is lost for the force of those Guns is such that no wall is so thick but in a few days they will beat it down So that if he has no retreat nor time to stop up the breaches or throw up new works within the Enemy enters pell mell at the breach and the Cannon of the Town does the Garison very little good for this is a Maxim where people can fall on in a crowd and run headlong in their fury to a storm great Guns do never repel them Wherefore the fierce assaults of the Tramontani are not so easily sustained as the attacks of the Italians who fall not on with that fury and impatience as the other but march up cooly and quietly to the Battel and do rather skirmish than storm Those who enter a breach in this gravity and state are sure to go to pot for the Artillery does certain execution upon them But those who fall on briskly and crowd one another into the breach if there be no new works or retrenchments thrown up within enter as they please without any great prejudice by the Cannon for though some of them may be killed yet they cannot be so many as to hinder the taking of the Town That this is true we find by many instances in Italy and among the rest in the Siege of Brescia the Town revolted to the Venetians only the Castle stood firm for the French That the Town might receive no prejudice from the Castle the Venetians fortified the great Street that comes down from the Castle with great Guns in the Front Flanks and every where so that they thought themselves secure not only from sallies within but from relief without But Monsieur de Foix made no reckoning of them for marching thither with a Body of Horse he alighted and charging boldly thorow the said Street relieved the Castle without any considerable loss So that he who is shut up in a small place his walls battered down and has nothing left but his Artillery to defend him is in very great danger and can hardly escape If the place you defend be a large Town where you have room enough to retire and throw up new works yet your disadvantage is great and the Enemies great Guns shall do more mischief upon you than yours upon him For first you must be forced to advance your Cannon and raise them to some higher place for whilst they are level with the ground every blind or small work that the Enemy throws up is sufficient to secure him and being forced to plant them higher either upon the top of some Wall or Church or Mount erected on purpose you fall under two inconveniences One is that you cannot bring such large Guns upon those places as he can bring without because in those little places great Guns are not to be managed The other is that if you could get them up they cannot be so easily secur'd because they cannot have the convenience of works or baskets to defend them as the Enemy has whose Guns are planted as he pleases So that it is almost impossible for him that is besieged to keep his Cannon long upon a high place without being dismounted if the Enemy without has any store of Artillery and to keep them upon the ground is to have little or no use of
the goodness of their order giving new life and courage to their men makes them confident of Victory and that confidence never suffers them to give ground till their whole order be broken There is another sort of Armies which are acted more by fury than discipline as in the Armies of the French and there it is quite otherwise because not succeeding in their first charge and not being sustained by a well ordered courage that fury upon which they wholly rely'd growing cold and remiss they are quickly overthrown Whereas the Romans fearing nothing of danger by reason of their good order and discipline without the least diffidence or question of the Victory fought on still obstinately being animated with the same courage and agitated by the same ardor at last as at first and the more they were press'd the better they resisted The third sort of Armies is where their is neither natural courage nor discipline and order as in our Italian Armies now adays which are so useless and unserviceable that â—â—â—ess they light upon an Enemy who runs by some accident they are never like to have a Victory and this is so obvious every day it needs no example to prove it But because by the testimony of Livy every one may know what is the right discipline and what is the wrong I will give you the words of Papirius Gursor in his reprimande to Fabius the Master of his Horse His words are these Nemo hominum nemo Deorum verecundiam hebeat Non edicta Imperatorum non auspicia observentur Sine Commeatu vagimilites in pacato in hostico errent immemores Sacramenti se ubi valent exauctorentur infrequentia deserantur signa neque conveniatur ad edictum nec discernatur interdiu noctu aequo iniquo loco jussu injussu Imperatoris pugnetur Non signa non ordines serventur latrocinii modo caeca fortuita pro solenni sacrata Militia sit Let them bare no respect or reverence either to God or man Let neither the orders of the General nor the directions of the Auspices be observed Let the loose and vagabond Soldier infest his own Country as much as the Enemies Let them forget their Oaths and disband as they please Let them run from their Colours as they think good and not come back when they are required Let them fight hand over head without consideration of time or place or order of their Officers Let their ranks be confused and their Colours deserted In a word Let their whole Conduct be blind and fortuito like thieves rather than the solemn and sacred Militia of the Romans By this we may easily see whether the Militia of our times be blind and fortuitous or whether it be solemn and sacred how far is it short of the old discipline of the Romans which consisting in exact order produced courage and constancy in the Souldiers and how far behind the French among whom though their is not that just order and constancy yet there is courage enough CHAP. XXXVII Whether fighting in small parties or pickeering before a Battel be necessary and how the temper of a new Enemy is to be found without them IN humane affairs as we have said before there is not only a perpetual and unavoidable difficulty in carrying them to their perfection but there is always some concomitant mischief so inseparable from it that it is impossible to arrive at the one without the other This is visible in all the actions of mankind so that that perfection is acquir'd with much difficulty unless you be so favoured by fortune that by her force she overcomes that common and natural inconvenience and of this and duel betwixt Manlius Torquatus and the French-man put me in mind where as Livy tell us Tantiea dimicatio ad universi belli eventum momenti fuit ut Gallorum exercitus relictis trepidè Castris in Tiburtem agrum mox in Campaniam transierit The success of that duel was of so much importance to the success of the War that thereupon the French Army drew off in a great fear into the Tiburtine Country and afterwards march'd away into Campania From whence I infer on the one side that a good General is to avoid any thing that carrying but small advantage with it may have an ill influence upon his Army to fight therefore in parties and venture your whole fortune upon less than your whole Army is rash and imprudent as I have said before where I dissuaded the keeping of passes On the other side I observe when an experienced General comes against a new enemy that has the reputation of being stout before he brings him to a Battel he is obliged to try him by slight skirmishes and pickeerings that by so doing he may bring his Souldiers acquainted with their discipline and way of sighting and remove that terror which the fame and reputation of their courage had given them And this in a General is of very great importance and so absolutely necessary that he who engages an unknown enemy with his whole Army before he has made an essay of his courage runs himself and his Army into manifest danger Valerius Corvinus was sent by the Romans with an Army against the Samnites a new enemy with whom they had never had any conflict before and Livy tells us he sent small parties abroad and caused them to entertain light skirmishes with the enemy Ne eos novum bellum ne novus hostis terreret Lest his Souldiers should be terrified with a new war and a new enemy But then the danger is that your men being overcome their terror should be encreased and that which you intended to animate should discourage and dismay them and this is one of those good things which have so near a conjunction with evil that 't is no hard matter to take one for the other My advice therefore is that a wise General abstains from any thing that may strike a terror into his Army for then the Souldiers begin to apprehend when they see their Comrades kill'd before their face For which reason those pickeerings and slight skirmishes are to be avoided by all means unless upon great advantage or some more than ordinary hopes of success Again it is not his interest certainly to defend any pass where he cannot upon occasion bring his whole Army to engage neither are any Towns to be made good but such as are of importance to the subsistance of his Army and without which both that and himself must be ruined and no such Towns are to be fortified but where not only a good Garison may be disposed and supplyed but where in case of a Siege your whole Army may be brought to relieve it other Towns are rather to be quitted than kept for to abandon a Town whilst your Army is in the field is no disrepute to you nor discouragement to your Souldiers but when you lose a place that you undertook and every body expected you would defend that
as running leaping throwing the bar accustoming them to heavy arms teaching them to shoot in the cross and long bow and musket which is a new engine as you know but very good And to these exercises I would accustom all the youth in my Country but with more industry and solicitude those exercises which are useful in war and all their musters should be in idle days I would have them learn to swim likewise which is a very useful thing for they are not sure of bridges where-ever they come and boats are not always to be had So that your Army not knowing how to swim is deprived of several conveniencies and lose many fair opportunities of action The reason why the Romans exercised their youth in the Campus Martius was because of its nearness to the Tyber where after they had tired themselves at land they might refresh and learn to swim in the water I would have also the Cavalry exercised as of old which is most necessary for besides teaching them to ride it teaches them to sit fast when they come to a charge To this end they had horses of wood upon which they exercised vaulting upon them sometimes with their arms and sometimes without very neatly and exactly without any assistance so that upon a signal from their Captain they were immediately on horse-back and upon another signal as soon upon the ground And as those exercises both for horse and foot were easie in those times they would be the same now to any Prince or Commonwealth that would employ their youth that way as is to be seen in several Cities in the West where they are continued They divide their Inhabitants into several parties and every party is denominated by the arms which they wear and because they use pikes halbards bows and harquebusses they are called Pike-men Halbardiers Bow-men and Harquebussiers every inhabitant is to declare in what Company he will be listed and because some for their age and other impediments are not apt for the wars there is a choice made out of every order of such persons as are called the Giurati being sworn to see the rest exercised in their several arms according to their respective denominations and every one of them has a certain place appointed where their exercises are to be made and all that belong to that Order besides the Giurati repair thither with such monies as are necessary for their expence What therefore is done actually by them we may do as well but our imprudence will not suffer us to imitate any thing that is good By these exercises the ancients Infantry were very good and at this day the western foot are better than ours because the ancients exercised them at home as in the Commonwealths or in the field as by the Emperors for the reasons aforesaid But we will not exercise them at home and in the field we cannot they not being our subjects are not to be compelled but to what exercises they please and this want of authority to exercise them has caused our Armies to be first negligent and remiss and afterwards our discipline and has been the cause that so many Kingdoms and Commonwealths especially in Italy are so weak and inconsiderable But to return to our order and the business of exercising I say that it is not sufficient to make an absolute Souldier to inâ—ure a man to labour to make him strong swift and dexterous but he must learn likewise to keep his ranks well to obey orders and the directions of the trumpet and drum to know how to do right standing still retiring advancing fighting and marching for without this discipline be observed with all accurate diligence your Army will never be good And without doubt men who are furious and disorderly are much more unserviceable than cowards for order drives away fear and dissorder lessens a mans courage CHAP. VII Of what number of men and of what arms a battalion is to consist and of exercising in Companies to make them ready either to give a charge or receive it ANd that you may the better understand what is said before you must know that there is no Nation which to put in order its men of war has not constituted a principal member which member or body though they have altered it as to their name yet it is not much altered as to the number of their men for in all places they consist of betwixt six and eight thousand This body among the Romans was called a Legion among the Grecians a Phalanx among the French Caterve the same thing by the Swizzers who are the only people which retain any thing of the discipline of the ancients is called that in their language which in ours is called Battalion True it is that afterwards every one divided it into companies and ordered them as they pleased My advice is that we found our discourse upon the name which is most known and range it as well as we may according to the order both of the ancients and moderns And because the Romans divided their Legions which consisted of betwixt 5 and 6000 men into ten Cohorts I think fit that we divide our Battalions into ten Companies and the whole consisting of 6000 men allot to every company 450 of which 400 may be compleatly armed and the remaining fifty slightly The compleatly arm'd may by 300 with swords and bucklers called Scudatâ— and an hundred with pikes called Pike-men Those which are lightly arm'd may be fifty foot carrying Harquebusses Cross-bows Partizans and Halbards which according to the old name may be called Velites so that all the ten Companies make 3000 bucklers 1000 ordinary Pikes and 500 ordinary Velites which in all will amount to 4500 foot But because we say that our Battalion is to contain 6000 men 1500 more are to be added of which 1000 are pikes which we will call Pikes in extraordinary and the other 500 are to be slightly arm'd and called Velites in extraordinary So that my foot as is said before will be composed half of Bucklers and the other half of Pikes and other Arms. I would have every Battalion have a Commander in chief four Centurions and forty Capidieci or Corporals and over and above a Commander in chief of the Velites in ordinary with five File-leaders I would assign to the Velites in extraordinary two Officers in chief five Centurions and fifty Corporals then make a General of the whole Battalion I would have every Constable to have his Colours and Drums by which means the Battalion would consist of ten Companies 300 Bucklers 1000 Pikes in ordinary 1000 extraordinary 500 Velites in ordinary and 500 in extraordinary so as they would amount in all to 6000 foot among which there would be 600 Corporals 15 Constables 15 Drums 15 Colours 55 Centurions 10 Commanders of the Velites in ordinary and one General of the whole Battalion with his Standard and Drum I have repeated this order the oftner that afterward when I shew
you the way of ordering a Battel or Army you may not find your self confounded I say therefore that a King or Commonwealth is to order his subjects which he designs for the wars with these arms and into these divisions and raise as many Battalions as his Country will afford And when he has disposed them so being to exercise them in order he is to exercise them in their several divisions And although the number of each of them cannot bear the form of a just Army yet thereby every man may learn what belongs to his own duty because in Armies there are two orders observed one what men are to do in every battel or division distinctly and the other what they are to do when united with the rest and those men who know the first well will easily learn the other but without knowledg of the first they will never arrive at the discipline of the second Every one then of these Companies may learn by it self to keep the order of their ranks in all motions and places to open and close and understand the direction of their Drums by which all things are commanded in a battel for by beating of that as by the whistle in the Gallies every man knows what he is to do whether to stand firm to his ground to advance or fall back and which way they are to turn their faces and arms So that understanding the order of their files in that exactness that no motion nor no place can disorder them understanding the commands of their Officer derived to them by his Drum and how to advance fall back into their places these Companies as I have said before as soon as joyned may easily be taught what an united body of all the Battalions is obliged to do when they are drawn together into an Army And because this universal practice is of no slight importance in time of peace it would be convenient once or twice in a year to bring them to a general Rendezvous and give them the form of an Army exercising them for some days as if they were to fight a battel with an enemy drawing them up and disposing them into front flank and reserve And because a General orders his Army for a battel either upon the sight or apprehension of an enemy he is to exercise his Army accordingly and teach them how to behave themselves upon a march and how in a battel and how upon a charge either upon one side or other When they are exercised as if an enemy was before them they are to be taught how they are to begin the fight how they are to retreat upon a repulse who are to succeed in their places what Colours what Drums what words of commands they are to obey and so to train them up and accustom them to these false alarms and counterfeit battels that at length they become impatient to be at it in earnest For an Army is not made valiant and couragious for having brave and valiant men in it but for the good order which is observed for if I be in the forlorn and know being beaten whither I am to retire and who are to succeed in my place I shall fight boldly because my relief is at hand If I be of the second body that is to engage the distress or repulse of the first will not fright me because I considered it might happen before and perhaps desired it that I might have the honour of the Victory and not they Where an Army is new this way of exercising is absolutely necessary and where it is old it is convenient for we see the Roman Captains before they brought them to fight continually exercised their men after this manner though they had been brought up to their Arms. Iosephus tells us in his History that this continual exercising in the Roman Army was the cause that all the multitude of idle people which followed the Camp either for Traffick or gain were made useful and serviceable because they understood their orders and ranks and how to preserve them in time of Battel But if you have raised an Army of young men never in the Wars before whether you intend them for present Service or to establish them as Militia and engage them afterwards without this way of exercising by single Companies and sometimes a conjunction of them all you do nothing For order being perfectly necessary it is convenient with double industry and labour to teach such as are not skilful already and practise such as are as we have seen several excellent Commanders to practise and instruct their Soldiers take extraordinary pains without any respect to their dignities Cosimo It seems to me that this discourse has a little transported you for before you have told us the way of exercising by Companies you have treated of entire Armies and the managing of a Battel Fabritio You say right and the true reason is the affection I bear to those orders and the trouble I am under that they are no more used yet do not think but I will recollect my self and return As I told you before in the exercising of a Company the first thing of importance is to know how to keep your ranks to do this it is necessary to exercise them in that order which they call Chiocciole or the Snail order And because I have said that one of these Battalias or Companies is to consist of four hundred Foot compleatly armed I will keep to that number These four hundred men then are to be reduced into 80 files five in a file after which they are to be carried forward upon a quick march or a slow wheeling and doubling charging or retreating which indeed is more demonstrable to the eye than the understanding But this Snail way of exercising a Company is not so necessary because every one that knows any thing of an Army knows how 't is to be done and indeed it is not considerable in any respect but to teach Soldiers how to move their files but let us now draw up one of these Companies and dispose them into their ranks CHAP. VIII Of three principal ways of drawing up a Company and putting them into a posture to fight I Say that there are three principal forms of drawing up men the first and most useful is to draw them up close in the figure of two Squares The second is to draw them up in a square with two wings The third is to draw them up with a vacuity in the middle which they call Piazza To draw them up in the first figure there are two ways One is to double their files that is the second file entring into the first the fourth into the third the sixt into the fift and so successively so that whereas they were 80 files of five in a file they may become forty files of 10 ih a file After this you are to double them again in the same manner thrusting one file into another and then they will be
and two Pikes to the right and after the 5 first Files let there be twenty File-leaders placed betwixt the Pikes and the Bucklers and after these the fourth Centurion Having drawn your men into this order to make a Battalia consisting of two horns the first Centurion is to make a stand with his 25 Files at his heels then is the second Centurion to advance with his 15 Files of Bucklers and place himself on the right hand of the 1st Centurion and marching along by the side of the 25 Files he is to advance till he comes to the 15 File and there he is to stop The next that marches is the Captain with his division of 15 Files of Bucklers behind him and advancing on the right hand by the flank of the other 15 Files he is to march up to their front After him the third Centurion is to move with his 25 Files and the fourth Centurion after him and passing along by the right flank of the last 15 Files of Bucklers they are not to stop at the front of the said Files but to advance till the last of the twenty five Files be parallel with the Files which are behind them As soon as this is done the Centurion at the head of the 1st 15 Files of Bucklers is to remove into the left angle in the rear and by this means you shall form a Battalia of five and twenty firm Files of twenty men in a File with two horns on each side of the front one each of them consisting of ten Files of 5 in a File with a space betwixt the two horns sufficient to receive ten men a breast Betwixt the two horns the Captain is to be placed and a Centurion at each point or angle there are likewise to be two Files of Pikes and twenty Corporals on each Flank These horns or wings are useful to receive and secure Carriages or Artillery when they have any with them The Velites are to be drawn up along the flanks under the shelter of the Pikes But to reduce this horn'd Squadron into another Figure with a space in the middle no more is to be done than out of the 15 Files of twenty in a File to take eight and place them upon the point of the two horns which will make a good rear and turn it into a Battalia Della Piazza or a Battalia with a space in the the midst in this space or Area the Carriages are disposed and the Captain and his Colours but not the Artillery for they are placed either in the front or along the flanks These are the forms to be observed in a Battalia or Squadron when it marches alone thorow dangerous places But the single Battalia without horns or vacuity is better though to secure such as are disarmed the horned figure is convenient The Swisses have several forms of drawing up their Battalia's one is the fashion of a Cross placing their Harquebussiers betwixt the Arms of the said Cross to secure them from the Enemy But because those figures are proper only when Squadrons fight singly and by themselves and my intention being to show they may fight united and in conjunction I shall not trouble my self with them Cosimo I fancy I do sufficiently comprehend the way that is to be observed to exercise men in these Battalia's but if I mistake not you told us that to the ten Battalia's which united make a Battalion you would add a thousand extraordinary Pikes and four hundred of the extraordinary Velites And these would you not advise should be exercised Fabritio I would and with very great diligence exercising the Pikes with the same care as the rest because I would make more use of them than the rest upon all private occasions as in conducting convoys of provisions depredations and such like But my Velites I would exercise at home without bringing them together for it being their office to fight loose and confused it is not necessary that they should be always exercised as the rest for it is enough if they understand their own business well They ought then as I said before and I am not troubled to repeat it again so to exercise their men in these Battalia's that they may know to keep their ranks understand their places wheel readily and shift handsomly either upon sight of an Enemy or inconvenience of the place For when they can do this well they will easily learn which are their places and what are their duties in a Battel And if a Prince or Commonwealth grudges not to take pains and employ themselves in seeing their Subjects thus exercised they would have always good Soldiers be always too hard for their Neighbours and would be in a condition rather to give than receive Laws from other people But as I have said before the disorder in which we live is the cause that we do not only neglect but despise those things and that is the true reason our Souldiers are no better and though there may be Officers and Soldiers too that perhaps are both valiant and skilful yet they have no occasion or encouragement to show themselves CHAP. XII Of the Baggage and Train belonging to a Company How necessary it is that they have several Officers and of the usefulness of Drums Cosimo I Would ask you now what Carriages you would allot to each of these Battalia's Fabritio In the first place I would not allow that either Centurion or Corporal should march on Horseback and if the Captain must ride I would allow him only a Mule I would allow him two Carriages one to every Centurion and two betwixt every three Corporals because we quarter them together in our Camp as shall be shown in its due place so that to every Battalia there should be 36 Carriages which I would have carry the Tents and Utensils for their Cookery their Hatchets and other Iron Instruments to set up their Huts Tents and Pavilions and if there be afterwards any place left let them carry what they please Cosimo I am of opinion that the Officers which you have appointed in every of these Battalia's are necessary yet I should be afraid so many Commanders should confound them Fabritio What you say would be true were they not subordinate to one but depending still upon one person they proceed very regularly nay without them they could not possibly be governed For a wall that is tottering in all places requires that its Buttresses and Supporters be rather many than strong because the strength and goodness of one will not hinder the ruine which will follow And therefore in all Armies and among every ten men it is convenient to have one of more life more courage and more authority than the rest who with his alacrity and language and example may encourage the rest and dispose them to fight And to prove the necessity of these things in an Army viz. Ensigns Officers and Drums it appears by our Armies where there are of them all but none
repulse but to relieve one another they observe this order they put their Battalions one in the flank of another but somewhat behind it towards the right hand so that if the first be in any distress the second advances to relieve it The third Battalion they place behind the other two but at the distance of the shot of a Harquebuss that if the two Battalions should be worsted the third might advance in their rescue and that which advances and the other which retire may have space to pass by one another without any clashing or collision for gross bodies cannot be received so commodiously as little and therefore small bodies disposed at a distance as they were in the Roman Legions might better receive and relieve one another upon occasion And that this order of the Swisses is not so good as the ancient order of the Romans is demonstrated by many examples of their Legions when they were engaged with the Macedonian Phalanxes for these were still worsted by the other The fashion of their Arms and their way of Reserves being more effectual than the closeness and solidity of a Phalanx CHAP. IV. How the Author would make use of both Greek and Roman Arms for his Battalion and what was the ordinary Army of the Romans BEing therefore according to these Models to range and marshal an Army I think it best to retain something of the Arms and Orders both of the Phalanx and Legion For this reason I have said in a Battalion I would have 2000 Pikes which were the Arms of the Macedonian Phalanx and 3000 Scudi or Shields and Swords which are the Arms of the Romans I have divided a Battalion into ten Battalia's or Companies as the Romans divided their Legions into ten Cohorts I have ordered the Velites or light-arm'd to begin the fight as they did formerly And because as the Arms are mix'd they participate of the one Nation and the other that they may participate likewise in their orders I have appointed that every Company may have five files of Pikes in the front and the rest of Bucklers that the front may be enabled to keep out the Horse and break more easily into the Foot having Pikes in the first charge as well as the Enemy by which they may be fortified to sustain it bravely till the Bucklers come up and perfect the Victory And if you consider the strength and vertue of this Order you will find how all these Arms perform their office exactly For Pikes are very useful against Horse and against Foot too before the Battels be joyned but after they are joyned they are utterly useless For this reason behind every third rank of Pikes the Swissers put a rank of Halbards which was to make room for their Pikes though indeed it was not enough Placing therefore our Pikes before and our Bucklers behind them they are enabled to sustain the Horse and when they come to charge they do open and press hard upon the Foot but when the fight is begun and the Battels are joyned the Bucklers succeed with their Swords as being manageable more easily in the crowd Luigi We desire now to understand how with these Arms and Orders you would manage your Army to give the Enemy Battel Fabritio I shall show you nothing at present but this You must know that in an ordinary Army of the Romans which they called a Consular Army there were no more but two Legions of Citizens consisting in all of 600 Horse and about 11000 Foot They had besides these as many more Horse and Foot sent them in by their Friends and Confederates These Auxiliaries were divided into two parts the right wing and the left for they would never suffer them to exceed the number of the Foot of their Legions though their Horse indeed they permitted to be more With this Army consisting of 22000 Foot and about 2000 Horse a Roman Consul did all his business and attempted any thing Yet when they were to oppose a greater power they joyned two Consuls together and their two Armies You must know likewise that in the three great Actions of an Army their march their encampment and engagement they placed the Legions in the middle because the force in which they reposed their greatest confidence they thought fit should be more united and compact as I shall show you more at large when I come to treat of those things These Auxiliary Foot by vertue of their conversation with the Legionary Foot grew to be as Serviceable as they because they were train'd and disciplin'd with them and upon occasion of Battel drawn up in the same figure and order He therefore who knows how the Romans marshalled one single Legion in the day of Battel knows how they disposed of them all When I have told you therefore how they divided a Legion into three Squadrons and how one Squadron received another I shall have told you how a whole and entire Army is to be ordered when it is to be drawn up for Battel CHAP. V. The way of drawing up a Battalion according to the intention of the Author BEing to prepare for a Battel according to the method of the Romans as they had two Legions so I would take two Battalions and by the ordering of them you may guess how to order a compleat Army For to add more men is only to multiply their ranks I think it unnecessary to repeat what foot there are in a Legion what Companies what Officers what Arms what Velites in ordinary what in extraordinary what Pikes and what other things For it is not long since I told you distinctly and press'd it upon your memories as a thing very necessary for the understanding all other Orders wherefore I shall pass on without farther reflection It seems to me best that one of the ten Battalions or Companies of a Battalion be placed in the left flank and the other ten of the other Battalion on the right Those on the left are to be ordered in this manner Put five Battalia's one on the side of the other in the front so as there may remain a space of four yards betwixt each draw them up so as they may possess in breadth 140 yards of ground and in depth forty behind these five Battalia's I would place three others distant in a right line from the first about forty yards of these three I would have two follow directly the Companies which are upon the two extremities or corners of the five first and the third should be disposed in the midst by which means these three Companies should take up as much ground both in breadth and depth as the other five which have only five yards distance betwixt the one and the other whereas the three last should have thirty three This being done I would cause the two Companies remaining to advance and place themselves behind the three former in a right line and at the distance of forty yards but it should be in such a sort
I fancy I see it drawn up before my eyes which gives me an ardent desire to see it engaged I would not for any thing in the world that you should prove a Fabius Maximus and endeavour no more than to avoid Fighting and keep the Enemy in suspence for I should blame you more than the Romans did him CHAP. VI. The description of a Battel Fabr. DO not question it Hark do not you hear the Artillery Ours have fired already but done little execution upon the Enemy the Velites extraordinary together with the light Horse advance to the charge in Troops with the greatest shout and fury imaginable The Enemies Artillery has fired once and the shot passed over the head of our Foot without any prejudice at all That it might not have time for a second Volley our Velites and our Cavalry have marched up in great haste to possess it and the Enemy advancing in its defence they are come so close that neither the Artillery of one side or the other can do any mischief See with what courage and bravery our Souldiers charge with what discipline and dexterity they demean themselves thanks to the exercise to which they have been used and the confidence that they have in our Army See our Battalions marching up with their Drums beating Colours flying and men at Arms in their wings in great order to the charge Observe our Artillery which to give place and make room for our men is drawn off by that ground which was left by the Velites See how the General encourages his men and assures them of Victory See how our Velites and light Horse are extended and returned to the flanks of our Army to see if there they can find any advantage to make an impression upon the Enemy Now now they are met See with what firmness our Battalions have received the charge without the least noise or confusion Observe the General how he commands his men at Arms to make good their ground not to advance upon the Enemy nor desert the Foot upon any occasion whatever See our light Horse marching to charge a Body of the Enemies Harquebussiers that was firing upon our flank and how the Enemies Horse come in to their rescue so that being enclosed betwixt the Cavalry of one side and the other they cannot fire but are forced to retreat behind their Battalia's See with what fury our Pikes addresâ— themselves to the Fight and our Foot advanced already so near that the Pikes are become unserviceable so that according to our Discipline the Pikes retire by little and little among the Shields See in the mean time how a Body of the Enemies men at Arms has disordered our men at Arms in the left wing and how according to our Discipline retiring under the protection of our Pikes extraordinary by their assistance they have repulsed the pursuers and killed most of them upon the place See the Pikes in ordinary of the first Battalia's how they have sheltred themselves under the Scudati and left them to make good the fight See with what courage with what security with what leisure they put the Enemy to the Sword Behold how they close their ranks in the Fight and are come up so near they have scarce room left to manage their Swords See with what fury the Enemy slyes because being armed only with Pike and with Sword both of them are become unserviceable one because of its length the other because the Enemy is too well armed See how they throw down their Arms how they are wounded killed or dispersed See how they run in the right wing see how they fly in the left So now we are safe and the Victory our own CHAP. VII The Authors reasons for the occurrences in the Battel Fabr. WHat do you think now have we not got the Victory very fortunately but we would have had it with more advantage had I been permitted to have put all things in execution You see there is no necessity of making use either of the second or third order because our Van was sufficient to overcome the Enemy so that I am enclined to speak no farther upon this Subject unless it be to resolve any doubt that may arise in your mind Luigi You have gain'd this Victory with so much courage and gallantry that I fear my transport will not give me leave to explain my self whether I have any scruple or not Nevertheless presuming upon your quickness I shall take the boldness to tell you what I think First therefore let me desire you to inform me why you made use of your Artillery but once why you caused them to be drawn off into your Army and made no mention of them afterward It seems to me that you placed the Enemies too high and ordered them as you fancied which might possibly be true but if their Cannon should be so placed as I do not question but many times they are as that they should play among your Troops I would fain understand what remedy you would prescribe and since I have begun to speak of the Artillery I shall propose all my scruples in this place that I may have no occasion to mention them hereafter I have heard many persons find fault with the Arms and orders of the ancients as things of little or no use in our days in respect of the fury of our Cannon because they break all ranks and pierce all Arms at such a rate that it seems to them no less than madness to oppose any ranks or orders of men against them and to tire your Souldiers with the carriage of Arms that will not be able to defend them Fabr. Your demand consisting of many heads requires a large answer 'T is true I caused my Artillery to play but once and I was in doubt whether they should do that and the reason is because it concerns a man more to keep himself from being hurt than to mischief his Enemy You must understand that to provide against the fury of great Guns it is necessary to keep where they cannot reach you or to place your self behind some wall or bank that may shelter you for there is nothing else that can secure you and then you must be sure that either the one oâ— the other are able to protect you Those Generals who put themselves into a posture to give battel cannot place their Armies behind a wall or a bank or at a distance where the Enemies Cannon cannot reach them and therefore seeing they have no way to defend themselves absolutely the best course is to secure themselves as well as they can and that is by possessing their Cannon with as much speed as is possible The way to possess themselves of it is to march up to it suddenly and in as wide an order as is convehient suddenly that they may fire but once and wide that the execution may be the less This is not to be done by a band of Souldiers in order for if they march any
one rank and the other so as there remains but six yards that can be used In the third rank for the same reasons there remains but four yards and an half in the fourth three yards and in the fift but one and an half The other ranks therefore are not able to reach the Enemy yet they serve to recruit the first ranks as we have said before and are as a rampart and bulwark to the other five If then five of their ranks are sufficient to sustain the Enemies horse why may not five of ours do as much having other ranks behind to reinforce them and give them the same support though their Pikes be not so long And if the ranks of extraordinary Pikes which are placed in the flanks should be thought too thin they may be put into a square and disposed in the flank by the two Battalia's which I place in the last squadron of the Army from whence they may with ease relieve both the front or the rear and give assistance to the horse as occasion requires Luigi Would you always use this order when-ever you were to give the Enemy Battel Fabr. No by no means for the form of your Army is to be changed according to the situation of the place and the strength or number of the Enemy as I shall shew by example before I finish my discourse But this form or model is recommended to you not as the best though in effect it is so but as a rule from whence you may take your other orders and by which you may understand the other ways of drawing up an Army for every Science has its Generalities upon which it is most commonly founded Only one thing I would press upon you to remember and that is That you never draw your Army up so as that your front cannot be relieved by your rear for whoever is guilty of that error renders the greatest part of his Army unserviceable and can never overcome if he meets with the least opposition and courage Luigi I have a new scruple that is risen in my mind I have observed that in the disposing of your Battalia's you make your front of five Battalia's drawn up by the sides one of another your middle of three and your rear of two and I should think it would have been better to have done quite contrary because in my opinion an Army is broken with more difficulty when the Enemy which charges it finds more firmness and resistance the further he enters it whereas it seems to me that according to your order the farther he enters it the weaker he finds it Fabr. If you remembred how the Triarii which were the third order of the Roman Legions consisted only of 600 men you would be better satisfied when you understood they were placed always in the rear for you would see that I according to that example have placed two Battalia's in the rear which consist of 900 men so that I choose rather in my imitation of the Romans to erre in taking more men than fewer And though this example might be sufficient to content you yet I shall give you the reason and it is this The front of the Army is made thick and solid because it is that which is to endure the first shock and insult of the Enemy and being not to receive any recruits from elsewhere it is convenient that it be well man'd for a few would leave it too weak and the ranks too thin But the second Squadron being to receive its friends into it before it is to engage with the Enemy it is necessary that it has two great intervals and by consequence must consist of a less number than the first For should it consist of a greater number or be but equal to the first either there must be no spaces or intervals at all which would occasion disorder or by leaving of spaces they would exceed the proportion of the first Squadron which would make your Army look very imperfect As to what you say touching the impression of the Enemy That the farther he enters your Army the weaker he finds it it is clearly a mistake for the Enemy cannot engage the second body before the first is fallen into it so that he finds the middle Battalion rather stronger than weaker being to fight both with the first and second together And it is the same thing when the Enemy advances to the last Squadron for there he has to encounter not only two fresh Battalia's but with all the Battalions united and entire And because this last Battalion is to receive more men it is necessary the distances be greater and by consequence that their number be less Luigi I am very well satisfied with what you have said but pray answer me this If the five first Battalia's retire into the three Battalia's which are in the middle and then those eight into the two Battalia's in the rear I cannot conceive it possible that the eight Battalia's first and afterwards the ten can be comprehended when eight or ten in the same space as when they were but five Fabr. The first thing I answer is this That the space is not the same for the five Battalia's in the front were drawn up with four spaces in the middle which were closed up when they fell in with the three Battalia's in the midst or the two in the rear Besides there remains the space betwixt the Battalions and that also which is betwixt the Battalia's and the Pikes extraordinary which space altogether do give them room enough To this it may be added That the Battalia's take up another place when they are drawn up in order before their retreat than they do after they are pressed for in their retreat they either contract or extend their Orders They open their orders when they fly they contract them when they retreat so that in this case it would be best to contract Besides the five ranks of Pikes in the Van having received the first charge are to fall back thorow the Battalia's into the rear of the Army and give way to the Scudati or Shields to advance and those Pikes falling into the rear of the Army may be ready for any Service in which their Captain shall think fit to employ them whereas did they not retire after the Battel was joyned they would be altogether useless And by this means the spaces which were left to that purpose are made big enough to receive all forces that are remaining And yet if those spaces were not sufficient the flanks on both sides are men and not walls which opening and enlarging their ranks can make such distances as will be able to receive them Luigi The ranks of Pikes extraordinary which you place in the flank of your Army when the Battalia's in the front fall back into the Battalia's in the middle would you have them stand firm and continue as two wings to the Army or would you have them retire with the Battalia's If you
they are great impediments to your sight one with its beams and the other by raising the dust and carrying the powder into your eyes besides the wind being contrary is a great disadvantage in rendring the blows which they give the Enemy more languid and weak and as to the Sun your must not only take care that it be not in your face nor does you no prejudice in the beginning of the Fight but that it does you no injury when it gets up wherefore the best way is when you draw up your men to have it if possible on their backs that many hours may pass before it can come about into their faces Hanibal knew this advantage very well and made use of it in the Battel of Cannas and Marius did the same against the Cimbrians If you be weaker in Horse it is your best way to draw up among the Vines or the Woods and such other impediments as in our times the Spaniards did when they beat the French in the Kingdom of Naples near Cirignuola And it has been many times seen that the same Soldiers which have been worsted and bastled before by only changing their order and shifting their ground have recovered the Victory Thus it was with the Cartbaginians who having been many times worsted by Marcus Regulus were afterwards Victorious by the Conduct of Kantippus the Lacedemonian who caused them to come down into the plain where they might have room for their Horse and their Elephants and by so doing they were too hard for the Romans According to the practice of the Ancients I have observed That all great Generals when they have known which quarter of the Enemy was the strongest and where they have fortified most they have not opposed the strongest part of their Army against it but have chose rather to confront it with the weakest of their divisions and with their strongest attack the weakest of the Enemies When afterwards they came to engage they commanded the strongest of their Squadrons that they should not only stand firm and receive the charge without making any advance whilst the weaker parts had orders to suffer themselves to be overcome and by giving ground gradually to fall behind the rear of the Army The Artifice procures two great disorders to the Enemy The first is that the strongest part of his Army is environ'd insensibly the other is that imagining their Victory certain by the retreat of their Enemy they fall frequently into disorder which many times robs them of that Victory of which they thought themselves so certain Cornelius Scipio being in Spain against the Carthaginians under the command of Asdrubal and knowing that Asdrubal understood very well that in the drawing up his Army he put the Roman Legions which were the strength and flower of his Army in the midst and that Asdrubal in probability would do the like When they came afterwards to Fight he changed his order put his Legions in the Wings and his light arm'd men in the Body When the Battel was joyned he commanded his Body to slacken their march on a sudden and the Wings to double their pace so that only the Wings on both sides engaged and the Bodies on both sides being at a distance one from the other came not up to one another and the strongest part of Scipio's Army fighting better than the weakest of Asdrubal's he overcame them In those days that stratagem was well enough but in our days by reason of our Artillery it is unpracticable for the space which would be left betwixt the two Bodies would give opportunity to the Artillery to play which as we said before would be very dangerous So then that way is to be laid aside and the way which I recommended before is to be used which is to charge with your whole Army and let your weakest Squadrons retire When a General finds his Army stronger than his Enemies if he would encompass it insensibly and that the Enemy may not prevent him let him draw up his Army to an equal front with the Adversary afterwards in the heat of the Fight let him order by little and little to retire in the front and let the Wings advance as gradually and it will always happen that the Enemy shall be encompassed before he is aware When a General would fight and be sure not to be routed let him draw up his Army near some place of retreat or security as either Fens Mountains or some strong inexpugnable Town for in that case he may pursue the Enemy but the Enemy cannot pursue him Hanibal made use of this cunning when his fortune began to decline and he began to apprehend the Conduct of Marcellus Some Generals to disturb the orders of the Enemy have commanded their light armed men to begin the Battel and when it is once joyned to retire among the ranks When afterwards it grows hotter and both sides are thorowly engaged they have had orders to draw forth out of the flanks of the Army and having flanked the Enemy unexpectedly they have disordered and broke him If any one finds himself weaker in Horse besides the ways proposed before he may place a Battalia of Pikes behind them and draw them up in such manner that in the heat of the Battel they may open and give way for the Pikes to pass thorow them and by so doing he shall be sure to prevail Several have accustomed their light armed men to fight among their Horse and they have been found to give the Horse very good assistance Of all those who are famous for drawing up Battels Hanibal and Scipio are the most renowned for the great skill that both of them expressed in their conflict in Africa but because Hanibals Army was composed of Carthaginians and Auxiliaries of several Nations he placed 80 Elephants in his front behind them he placed his Auxiliaries next them his Carthaginians and last of all his Italians in whom he could not safely conside and the reason why he ordered them so was because the Auxiliaries having the Enemy in their faces and finding themselves closed up with Carthaginians at their backs should not think of flying but being under a necessity to fight he did hope they might either overcome or so harrass the Enemy that when he came up with his fresh men he might the more easily overthrow them Against this order Scipio placed his Hastati Principes and Triarii in his accustomed manner so as upon occasion they might be received one into the other The front of his Army he made up with great spaces but that it might appear close and united to the Enemy he filled them up with his Velites with order that as soon as the Elephants come upon them they should retire and entring among the Legions by the ordinary spaces leave a way open for the Elephants to pass by which means the fury and execution of the Elephants being evaded they came presently to handy-blows and the Carthaginians were overcome Zanobi
advance than others Nevertheless in making a front of your right flank your Velites are to enter into the intervals betwixt the wings of the Army and the horse should approach to the left flank into whose place the two Companies of Pikes extraordinary which were placed in the middle should succeed but the carriages should remove and the unarm'd people by the great space and overture that is made and retire behind the left flank which is now become the rear of the whole Army and the other Velites who were placed in the rear at first are not to budge in this case because that place should not remain open being of the rear become the flanks all other things are to be done as in my first directions for the making of a front What is said before of making a front of the right flank will serve for making a front of the left flank for the same order is to be used if the Enemy comes upon you so strong that he is able to attack you on both sides you must fortify the places where you suspect he will charge by doubling your ranks from the place where he does not appear to fall on by dividing your Artillery your Velites and your Horse distributing them equally in both places If he assaults you in three or four sides at once you or he must be very imprudent for had you been wise you would never have put your self into a place where an enemy could have come at you on so many sides especially with a form'd and well ordered Army For to ruine you securely it is necessary the Enemy be strong enough to attack you on all sides and with as many men in every place almost as in your whole Army and if you be so indiscreet to march into his Country or put your self into the power of an enemy whose men are three times as many and as well experienced as yours if you miscarry you can blame no body but your self but if misfortune happens not by your fault but by accident of war no body will condemn you and it will fair with you as it did with Scipio in Spain and Asdrubal in Italy But if the Enemy be not much stronger than you and yet ventures to assault you in several places the rashness will be on his side and the success in all probability on yours for of necessity he must so weaken himself that you may receive him in one place and charge him briskly in another and then you will easily ruine him This way of ordering an Army against an enemy that is not in sight but is hourly expected is very necessary and it is very useful to accustom your Souldiers to close and change and march in this order and in their march to shew them how to fight according to my first front and then falling into their march again upon a new alarm in the rear to turn that into a front and then each of the flanks and so in their first posture again and these exercises are very necessary if you would have your Army ready and well disciplin'd For which cause I would recommend it to all Princes and great Captains to restore these practices of the ancients for what is military discipline but to know how to command and execute these things well what is a well disciplin'd Army but an Army train'd up well in these kind of exercises and he who in our times would but frame his discipline to this I am confident could never be worsted But to continue our discourse if this square figure be difficult it is not to be laid aside for that for that difficulty is necessary nevertheless exercise will make it easy for having learn'd how to draw your self up and preserve your figure you will easily understand afterwards how to maintain other figures in which there is not so much difficulty Zanobi I am of your mind that those orders are necessary and cannot tell as to my self what can be added or substracted Yet I would willingly be satisfied in two things One is when you would make a front of your rear or one of your flanks and would have your men face about how you do signify your commands whether by word of mouth or sound of trumpet The other is whether those you send before to plain the ways and make them passable for your Army are to be Souldiers drawn out of your Battalia's or other Country people designed on purpose for that work CHAP. IV. Of Commands derived by word of mouth by Drums and Trumpets and of the nature of Pioneers Fabr. YOur first demand is of very great importance for many Armies have been ruined when the Captain 's orders have been mistaken or not heard for which reason the words of Command in such great dangers ought to be clear and intelligible and if you would signify your commands by the sound of your Trumpets or Drums great care is to be taken that the sounds be so different and distinguishable one from the other that they cannot be mistaken If your commands are by word of mouth you must use particular and be sure to avoid general terms and in your particular words you must be cautious to use none that may be liable to an ill interpretation Many times the crying back back has been the loss of an Army wherefore that word is to be avoided and instead of it you are to say retreat If you would change your front and make it either in the flank or the rear you must not say turn but face about to the right or the left to the front or the rear and in like manner all the words of command are to be plain and intelligible as march on stand firm advance retreat and what ever may be done by word of mouth clearly and distinctly is to be signified that way what cannot be done that way is to be done by the Trumpet and Drum As to the Pioneers which is your second demand I would have that office performed by my own Souldiers as well because it was the practice of ancient times as because thereby I should have fewer idle persons in my Army and by consequence fewer impediments I would command out of every Battalia what number I thought necessary I would furnish them with Pickaxes and Spades and cause them to leave their arms with their next ranks who should carry them for them so that when the enemy appeared they should have no more to do but to fall back to their ranks and take them again Zanobi But who should carry their Pickaxes and Spades Fabr. There should be Waggons on purpose Zanobi I fear you would never prevail with your Souldiers to work Fabr. We will talk of that in its proper place at present I shall lay it aside and discourse of the way how they are to be supplyed with provisions for having tired them thus long 't is but reasonable to refresh them with victuals CHAP. V. Of the Provisions that are
very cautious of this in his War with the Germans and opened a way for them when he saw that not being able to fly they must of necessity fight and that more couragiously than otherwise wherefore he chose rather the trouble of pursuing them when they fled than the danger of fighting them when they were forced to defend themselves Lucullus observing a party of his horse going over to the Enemy caused a Charge to be founded immediately and commanded other parties to follow them whereupon the Enemy believing Lucullus intended to fight sent out a party to charge those Macedonians who were running away and they did it so effectually that the Macedonians were glad to stand upon their guard by which means of fugitives intended they became good Subjects in spight of their teeths CHAP. XVI How a suspected Town or Country is to be secured and how the Peoples hearts are to be gained Fabr. IT is a great thing in a General to know how to secure a Town that you suspect either after a Victory or before as several ancient examples do demonstrate Pompey being jealous of the Catinenses beg'd of them that they would give entertainment to some of his sick men and under the disguise of sick sending stout and valiant men they surprized the Town and kept it for Pompey Publius Valerius was diffident of the Epidauni and caused a General indulgence to be given in one of the Churches without the Town the people thronging thither for pardon he shut the Gates upon them and received none back again but such as he could trust Alexander the great being to march into Asia and by the way secure himself of Thrace carried along with him all the principal persons of that Province giving them commands in his Army and leaving the people to be governed by those of their own condition by which means he satisfied all parties the Nobility by paying them and the Populace by leaving no Governor that would oppress them But among all the ways wherewith the people are to be cajoled nothing goes so far as examples of chastity and justice as that of Scipio in Spain when he returned a beautiful young Lady to her Parents and Husband untouched a passage that contributed more than his Arms to the subduction of that Country Caesar only for paying for the wood which he caused to be cut down to make Stoccadoes about his Camp in France got such a name for his justice that it facilitated the Conquest of that Province I know not now that there remains any thing to say further about these accidents or that there is any thing which we have not already examined If there be any thing it is the way of taking and defending of Towns which I am willing to show were I sure I should not be tedious Battista Your civility is so great that it makes us pursue our desires without the least fear of presumption for you have offered us that frankly which we should have been ashamed to have requested We do assure you therefore you cannot do us a greater favour than to finish this Discourse but before you proceed let me entreat you to resolve me whether it be better to continue a VVar all VVinter long as they do now adays or carry it on only in the Summer and in the VVinter go to their Quarters CHAP. XVII War is not to be continued in the Winter Fabr. OBserve Gentlemen had it not been for the prudence of Battista a very considerable part of our Discourse had been omitted I tell you again that the Ancients did every thing with more prudence and discretion than we who if we be defective in any thing are much more in matters of War Nothing is more imprudent and dangerous for a General than to begin a War in the Winter and he who is the aggressor is more liable to miscarry than he that is invaded The reason is this all the industry employed in Military Discipline consists in preparing your men and putting them into order for a Battel That is it at which a General is principally to aim because a Battel does commonly decide the business whether it be lost or won He therefore who knows best how to put his Army in order and he who knows best how to prepare and equip them has doubtless the advantage and is in most hopes to overcome On the other side nothing is more inconsistent with good order than steep places or cold rainy weather for steep places will not suffer you to open or extend your ranks according to discipline cold and wet weather will not permit you to keep your men together nor present them in close order before the Enemy but constrains you of necessity to lodge them up and down asunder without order at the mercy of all the Castles and Towns and Villages that receive you so that all the pains you have taken to discipline your Army is for that time utterly useless Do not admire If now adays we make War in the Winter for our Armies being without discipline it is not to be imagined what inconveniences they suffer by not being quartered together for it troubles them not that they cannot keep those orders and observe that discipline which they never had Yet it ought seriously to be considered what prejudice has followed upon encampments in the Winter and it ought likewise to be remembred that the French in the year 1503. were broken and ruined near Garigliano rather by the extremity of the weather than the magnanimity of the Spaniards For as I told you before the Invador is under greatest incommodity as being more exposed to the weather in an Enemies Country than at home for to keep his men together he is necessitated to endure the cold and the rain or to avoid it to divide his men which is mightily to expose them But he who is upon the defensive part can choose his place and his way attend him with fresh men which he can joyn in a moment and fall upon some party of the Enemies with such fury as they will not be able to endure the shock It was the weather therefore which disordered the French and 't is the weather that will always ruine any man that begins War in Winter if his adversary have any share of discretion He therefore who would have his force his order his discipline and his courage of no use or advantage to him let him keep the Field and carry on his War in the Winter For the Romans who desired all those things in which they employed their industry and diligence should be useful to them avoided the incommodities of Winter as much as the asperities of the Alps the difficulty of places and whatever else might hinder them from showing their dexterity and courage And thus much as to your demand we will discourse now of taking and defending of Towns and of their Natural and Artificial strength THE SEVENTH BOOK CHAP. I. How Towns or Castles are to be