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
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
them so as every lodgment should contain ten men at Arms the whole number that I have allotted to each Battalion being an hundred and fifty The Captains lodgments should â—â—orty yards wide and ten in lenght and you must take notice that when I say wide I mean from North to South and when long from East to West The lodgment for the private men at arms should be fifteen yards long and thirty wide In the other fifteen lodgments which follow on both sides of the street which begin at the traverse way and should have the same allowance of ground as I have given to the other I would dispose my light horse And because there are likewise of them belonging to each Battalion 150 I would put ten of them into each of the fifteen lodgments and the sixteenth I would reserve for the Captain with the same space of ground as is allowed to the Captain of the men at arms and so the lodgments of the horse of the two Battalions should come down to the middle of the General 's Street and be a direction to the quartering of the foot as I shall shew You have seen how I have lodged the 300 horse of both Battalions with their Officers in 32 lodgments set up near the General 's Street and beginning at the Cross-street and how betwixt the sixteenth and the seventeenth there was resâ—rved a space of thirty yards to make a cross-way Being therefore to lodge the twenty Battalia's or Companies in the two ordinary Battalions I would appoint lodgments for every two Battalia's behind the lodgments of the horse and they should each of them contain in length 15 yards and in bredth thirty according to the dimensions of the horse-lodgment and they should be so close that they should touch one another In the first lodgment on each side butting upon the Cross-street I would lodge the Captain of each Company over against the lodgment of the Captain of the men at Arms and this lodgment alone should be twenty yards wide and ten long In the other fifteen lodgments which succeed on both sides as far as the traverse way I would quarter a Company of foot which being 450 should be disposed 30 to a lodgment The other 15 lodgments should be set up on each side by the lodgments of the light horse with the same dimensions of ground and on each side I would place a Battalia of foot In the last lodgment on each side I would place the Captain of the Company right over against the Captain of the light horse with a space of ten yards in length and twenty in bredth and so these two first ranks of lodgments would be half horse and half foot but because as I said before these horses are all horses of service which have no proper persons either to dress or to feed them I would have the foot which are quartered behind obliged to look to them and for so doing they should be exempt from other duties in the Camp and this was the method of the Romans After this I would leave a space of thirty yards on each side which should make streets and be called one of them the first Street on the left hand and the other the first Street on the right I would then on each side set up another row of 32 lodgments with their backs one to the other with the same spaces as I assigned to the other and having separated sixteen of them as with the rest to make a traverse way I would dispose in each side four Companies with their Captains at the head of them and other Officers in the rear After I had left on both sides a distance of thirty yards for a way which on one side should be called the second Street on the right hand and on the other side the second Street on the left hand I would set up another rank of 32 lodgments with the same distances and separations where I would lodge on each side four Companies with their Officers and by doing this all the Cavalry and the Companies of both the Battalions would be lodged in three rows of lodgments and the General 's quarter in the middle The two Battalions of Auxiliaries having made them to consist of the same number of men I would quarter on both sides of the two ordinary Battalions with the same number of rows and in the same order as they placing first one order of lodgments consisting half of horse and half of foot distant from the next order thirty foot which distance should make a Street and be called on one side the third Street on the right hand and on the other side the third Street on the left hand And then I would make on each side two more rows of lodgments with the same distances and distinctions as in the lodgments of the other Battalions which should make two other Streets and be called according to their number and the hand on which they are placed so that this whole Army will be lodged in twelve double rows of lodgments and there will be thirteen Streets reckoning the General 's Street and the Cross-street when I have design'd my circumference and appointed my lodgments for my four Battalions I would leave a space betwixt the lodgments and the trenches of an hundred yards broad which should go round my Camp and if you compute all the spaces you will find that from the middle of the General 's lodgment to the East Gate are 680 yards There are two other spaces one from the General 's quarter to the South Gate and the other from the same place to the North Gate each of them 635 yards commencing at the Center Substracting afterwards from each of these spaces fifty yards for the General 's quarter and five and forty more on each side for a Piazza and thirty yards for a Street that divides each of the said spaces in the middle and an hundred yards round betwixt the lodgments and the trenches there remains on all sides for lodgments a space of four hundred yards wide and an hundred long measuring the lenght with the space which is taken up by the General 's quarter then dividing the said length in the middle there will be on each side of the General forty lodgments in length fifty yards and twenty wide which in all will be 80 in which the general Officers of the Battalions should be quartered the Trâ—â—surers the Mastres de Campe and all such as have any Office in the Army leaving some spaces empty for strangers or such Voluntiers as follow the Wars meerly out of affection to the General on the back-side of the General 's quarters I would make a Street from South to North thirty yards broad and it should be called Front-street and run along all the 80 lodgments abovesaid From this Front-street by the General 's quarter I would have another Street that should go from thence to the West Gate thirty yards wide answering both for situation and
offenders and this was the first appearance of justice in the World after which being to make Election of their Prince they did not so much respect the ability of his body as the qualifications of his mind choosing him that was most prudent and just but by degrees their Government coming to be Hereditary and not by Election according to their former way those which inherited degenerated from their Ancestors and neglecting all virtuous actions began to believe that Princes were exalted for no other end but to discriminate themselvcs from their subjects by their pomp luxury and all other effeminate qualities by which means they fell into the hatred of the people and by consequence became afraid of them and that fear encreasing they began to meditate revenge oppressing some and disobliging others till insensibly the Government altered and fell into Tyranny And these were the first grounds of ruine the first occasion of Conjuration and Conspiracy against Princes not so much in the pusillanimous and poor as in those whose generosity spirit and riches would not suffer them to submit to so dishonourable administrations The multitude following the authority of the Nobles took up Arms against their Prince and having conquered and extirpated that Government they subjected themselves to the Nobility which had freed them and detesting the name of a single person they took the Government upon themselves and at first reflecting upon the late Tyranny governed according to new Laws devised by themselves postponing particular profit to publick advantage so that both the one and the other were preserved and managed with great diligence and exactness But their authority afterwards descending upon their Sons who being ignorant of the variations of fortune as not having experimented her inconstancy and not contenting themselves with a civil equality but falling into rapine oppression ambition and adulteries they changed the Government again and brought it from an Optimacy to be governed by few without any respect or consideration of Justice or Civility so that in a short time it hapned to them as to the Tyrant for the multitude being weary of their Government were ready to assist any body that would attempt to remove it by which means in a short time it was extinguished And forasmuch as the tyranny of their Prince and the insolence of their Nobles were fresh in their memory they resolved to restore neither the one nor the other but conclude upon a popular State which was regulated so as neither Prince nor Noble should have any authority and there being no States but are reverenced at first this Populacy continued for some time but not long especially after its Founders for it fell immediately into an irresistible licentiousness contemning all authority both publick and private and every man living after his own mind a thousand injuries were daily committed so that forc'd by necessity by the suggestions of some good maâ— or for avoiding the like enormities they returned to their primitive Kingship and from thence by degrees relapsed again in the manner and upon the occasions aforesaid And this is the Sphear and Circle in which all Republicks have and do move but it seldom or never happens that they return to the same circumstances of Government again because it is scarce possible for any of them to be so long liv'd as to pass many times thorow the same mutations and remain upon its legs It sometimes comes to pass likewise that in the conflicts and troubles of a State being destitute both of counsel and force it becomes a prey to some neighbouring Commonwealth that is better governed than it but admitting that could not be Governments would fall from one to another and make an infinite circulation For these reasons all the foresaid forms of Government are in my judgment infirm and unstable the three good ones from the shortness of man's life and the three bad ones from their proper imperfections Whereupon the wisest Legislators finding this defect and avoiding every one of those kinds they fram'd a Government which should consist of them all believing it to be more permanent and stable because Prince Nobles and People living in the same City and Communicating in the same Government they would be all of them in sight of one another and more capable of correction The person which in this kind has merited most praise was Lycurgus who ordered his Laws in Sparta in such manner that giving King Nobility and People each of them their portion he erected a Government that continued for more than eight hundred years to his great honour and that Cities repose To Solon it hapned clear otherwise who was the Athenian Legislator whose aiming only at a popular Government was the cause it was so short lived that before he died he saw the tyranny of Pisistrates spring out of it and though forty years after the Tyrant's Heirs were expelled and Athens restored to its liberty yet resuming the old model which Solon had recommended it could not continue above an hundred years notwithstanding many new laws were super-added to restrain the insolence of the Nobility and the looseness of the Commons But there being no mixture and temperament of Principality and Optimacy with the other in respect of Sparta Athens was but of little duration But to return to Rome though it had not a Lycurgus to obstetricate at its birth and supply it with such Laws as might preserve its freedom so long Nevertheless the accidents which hapned upon the dissention betwixt the people and the Senate produced that in some measure which was defective at its foundation for though in its beginning its Laws and Orders were imperfect yet it did not altogether deflect from the right way which was to conduct it to perfection Romulus Numa and all the rest of its Kings making many good laws conformable to its freedom But their ultimate design being to perpetuate their Monarchy though that City remained free there were many things omitted by those Princes which were necessary for its conservation And though it fell out their Kings lost their Dominion upon the abovesaid occasions yet those who expulsed them creating two Consuls in their stead they rather drove the name than the authority of Kingship out of the City After which the Government residing in the Consuls and Senate it consisted only of two of the three sorts Monarchy and Aristocracy it remained now to give place only to a popular Government and the Roman Nobility being grown insolent upon occasions which shall be mentioned hereafter the people tumultuated took up Arms against them and prevailed so far that lest otherwise they might lose all it was consented the people should have their share and yet the Senate and Consuls on the other hand retain so much of their former authority as to keep up their degrees as before and this was the beginning of the Tribunes of the people after the creation of which that State became better established every one of the three sorts
entertainments have been pleasing to our Country-men our Country has gone to ruine and all things declined Cosimo You have opened a way to a discourse which I desire exceedingly and therefore I beg of you that you would speak of it frankly without respect to any body seeing I intend to interrogate you with the same freedom and if in my demands or replies I excuse or accuse any man it will not be barely to excuse or accuse him but to understand the truth Fabritio I shall be well pleased to inform you of anything I know and shall leave it to your discretion to judge whether what I say be true or false expecting to learn as much from your demands as you will do from my answers for a wise question makes a man consider many things which perhaps he regarded not before and understand others which without interrogation he had never understood Cosimo I will return to what you said first that my Grand-father and your fore-Fathers would have done more prudently to have imitated their Ancestors in difficult and generous things rather than in what was delicate and soft and in this I will excuse my part and leave the other to be defended by you I am of opinion that there was not a man in his time who detested all kind of effeminacy more than he and who was a greater lover of that kind of activity and vigour which you so much commend nevertheless he found that he could not make use of it either in his own person or in the persons of his Children being born in so corrupt an age that a man who should have deviated from the common practice of those times would have made himself contemptible to every body For if a man in the heat of Summer should have lien basking upon the sands or in the midst of Winter should have taken up his quarters in the snow as Diogenes did he would have been thought a fool or a mad-man should a man have followed the Spartan way brought up his children in some cottage taught them to sleep in the fields to run about bare-foot and bare-headed wash in cold water to inure them to hardship and by making them less fond of life to make them less sensible of death he would have been despised for his pains and have been thought rather a bruit than a man Again should a man have been observed to starve his own carkass and to live only upon beans and pease and such kind of pulse and have made as small account of mony as Fabritius did of what was offered him by the Samnites 't is possible he might have been commended by some few but he should have been followed by no body being discouraged therefore by the practice of the present age he followed not the example of his Ancestors exactly but followed them as much as he could with as little notice and admiration to the World Fabritio You have excused your Grand-father very handsomly on that particular and what you have said is doubtlesly true but I did not speak so much of that hard and rustick way of living as of other ways that are more soft and effeminate have greater conformity and correspondence with our present times and are in my judgment easily to be introduced by any man who has the government of affairs and in my discourse of this matter I shall not need to straggle into other Countries for examples for the Romans my own Country-men will furnish me abundantly whose Practices and order of Government if well considered will not be found so impossible to be introduced in any other City where there is but the least spark of virtue and goodness Cosimo What are those things that you would introduce according to the example of our Ancestors Fabritio To honour and reward virtue not to dispise poverty to value order and discipline of war to constrain Citizens to love one another to live without factions to postpone all private interest to the publick and several other things that may easily accommodate with our times and these things are not difficult to be introduced provided it be done deliberately and by right means because in them the truth is so manifest and apparent that the commonest capacity may apprehend it He therefore who orders his affairs in this manner plants himself trees which will afford him a happier and more pleasant shelter and protection than these Cosimo I will not reply to what you have said but referring it to the discretion of the company who can easily judge of it I shall address my discourse to you who seems to find fault with all those who in their great and weighty affairs do not follow the examples of our Ancestors supposing thereby I may be more easily satisfied in my intention I would know therefore how it comes to pass that on one side you condemn all those who do not imitate the practice of our Ancestors and yet on the other in your wars which is your profession and excellence it does not appear that you have made use of any thing of the ancient method and discipline or done any thing that resembled it Fabritio You are now come to the point where I expected you and indeed my discourse deserved and I my self desired no other demand And though I might save my self the labour with a very plausible excuse yet I will satisfie both your desire and my own and that the more largely because both time and place concurs to our convenience Men who are desirous to do any great action are first to prepare themselves with all diligence and industry that when occasion is offered they may be ready to execute and compleat it And because where those preparations are made cautiously they are not to be discovered no man is to be accused of negligence unless occasion discovers him first to which if he be remiss and makes not use of his time to execute his design it gives us to understand that either he has not prepar'd as he ought to have been or that he had not thought of it at all and therefore no occasion having presented it self to me to discover the preparations which I had made to reduce our Militia into the form of the ancients if I have not yet reduced it I conceive I cannot justly be condemned either by you or any body else and this I think is a sufficient answer to your accusation Cosimo It would be sufficient indeed could I be assured that you never had any occasion Fabritio But because I find you may doubt whether ever such occasion were offered or not I am content to discourse more largely upon condition you will have the patience to hear me what preparations are necessary to be made what occasion is necessary to be had what difficulties obstruct our preparatives and hinder our occasion and how this is easie and hard to fall out at the same time which seems a contradiction Cosimo You cannot do me and the whole company a greater
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
the Romans marched in an Enemies Country and in what manner they are to be imitated Fabr. I Have shown you how an Army is drawn up and marshalled in order to a Battel I have told you how an Enemy is overcome and several circumstances which occur therein So that it is time now to inform you how an Army is to be ordered which has not an Enemy in view but is in continual probability of an assault This may happen when an Army marches in an Enemies Country or at least a Country that is suspected And first you must understand the Roman Armies had always some Troops of Horse which were scouting abroad in order to the discovery of the Roads After which followed the right Wing and after them the Carriages which belonged to that Squadron Then followed a Legion and after them their Carriages Then another Legion and their Carriages and after them the left Wing and the remainder of the Cavalry after them This in short was the manner in which the Romans marched most commonly and if it hapned in their march that their Army was assaulted either in the front or the rear they caused all their Carriages to withdraw to the right wing or the left as they found it convenient and most agreeable with the nature of the place and then when they were cleared of their Baggage and disincumber'd all of them unanimously make head against the Enemy If they were assaulted in the flank they drew their Carriages on that side where they were like to be most safe and then addressed themselves against the Enemy This way being good and well govern'd ought in my judgment to be imitated by sending your light Horse to scout about the Country and having four Battalions of Foot they are to follow one the other successively each of them with its Carriages in the rear And because Carriages are of two sorts one belonging to particular persons and others for the common use of the Camp I would divide the publick Carriages into four parts and assign one to every Battalion I would likewise divide the Artillery and the followers of the Camp into four parts that each Battalion should have equal share in their impediments and Carriages Bnt because it happens many times that you march thorow a Country not only suspected but so openly your Enemy that you expect every hour to be assaulted it will be necessary that to secure your self you change the form of your march and put your self into such a posture as that neither the Paisants nor the Enemies Army may be able to offend you though they come upon you never so suddenly In these cases your Generals of old were wont to march in a square order which they called a square not that it was exactly of that figure but because it was ordered so as it was able to fight in four places at once and by that means they were always ready either to march or to fight I shall follow this model for ordering my two Battalions which I have chosen to that purpose in stead of a compleat Army CHAP. II How an Army is to be Marshalled to march in an Enemies Country Fabr. TO march therefore securely in an Enemies Country and to be able to make good every part when surprized and assaulted by the Enemy I am to reduce my Army into a square according to the model of the ancients I would have a square whose area or vacuity within should consist of 212 yards in this manner I would first place my flanks distant one from the other 212 yards I would have five Battalia's in each flank marching length ways in files and at three yards distance the one Battalia from the other so that each Company taking up forty yards all of them together with the spaces betwixt them shall take up 212 yards Between the front and the rear of these two flanks I would dispose the other ten Companies in each of them five ordering them so that four of them should be placed in the front of the right flank and four in the rear of the left flank leaving a space of four yards betwixt each Company and of the two Companies that are left I would have one placed at the head of the left flank and the other in the rear of the right And because the space betwixt one flank and the other consists of 212 yards and these Battalia's drawn sideways in breadth rather than length will take up intervals and all 134 yards there will remain a space of 78 yards betwixt the four Companies in the front of the right flank and the same space will be possessed by the four Companies in the rear nor will there be any difference but that one space will be behind towards the right wing and the other before towards the left In the space of 78 yards before I would put my ordinary Velites in the space behind my Velites extraordinary which would not amount to a thousand for each space But to contrive it so that the great space within should consist of 212 yards square it would be convenient that the five Companies which are placed in the front and the five Companies in the rear should take up none of that space which belongs to the flanks wherefore it is necessary that the five Companies behind should with their front touch the rear of the flanks and those five Companies in the Van with their rear should touch the front of the flanks so that there should remain on each side of the Army a distance sufficient to receive another Company And because there are four spaces I would take four Ensigns of the Pikes extraordinary and place one in each of them and the two Ensigns which would remain I would place in the midst of the space of my whole Army in a square Battalion at the head of which the General of the Army should stand with his Officers about him But because these Battalia's thus ordered do march all of them one way at once but do not so when they fight when they are drawn up those sides are to be put into a fighting posture which are not guarded by other Battalia's And therefore it is to be considered that the five Battalions in the front are defended on all sides but just in the front so that they are to be drawn up in great order with the Pikes before them The five Companies behind are guarded on all sides but behind so as they are likewise to be ordered with Pikes in their rear as we shall show in its place The five Companies in the right flank are guarded on every side but only on the right flank The five in the left flank are the same only on the left flank they are open and therefore in the managing your Army you must observe to place your Pikes so as they may turn about to that flank which is naked and exposed and your Corporals are to be in the front and in the rear that being to
fight the whole Army and every Member of it may be in their proper places and the manner of doing it we have declared before when we discoursed of putting the Companies in order I would divide my Artillery and place part of it without my right flank and the other without my left My light Horse I would send before to scour the Country my men at Arms I would dispose part behind my right wing and part behind my left at about forty yards distance from the Battalia's And this general rule you are to observe by all means in the drawing up your Army that your Horse are to be placed either in the rear or upon the flanks for to place them before at the head of the Army would occasion one of these two things either they must be placed at such distance that upon a repulse they may have space and time enough to wheel of without falling foul upon the foot or else draw up the foot with such intervals that the Horse may pass thorow without putting them into disorder Certainly no body ought to look upon this as a thing of small importance for many have been ruined and routed by their own men for want of timely consideration But to return to our business the Carriages and the people unarmed are placed in the void place of the Army and so disposed that there is passage left for any to pass from one part of the Army to another These Companies without the Horse and Artillery do take up a space of 282 yards And because this square consists of two Battalions it is convenient to let you know what part of them makes one Battalion and what the other Now because Battalions are denominated from the number and each of them as you know consists of ten Battalia's or Companies and a Colonel I would have the first Battalion place five of first Companies in the front the other five in the left flank and the Colonel in the left angle of the front The second Battalion should place its five first Battalia's upon the right flank and the other five in the rear with the Colonel in the right corner to secure the rear and perform the office of him whom the Romans called by the name of Tergiductor CHAP. III. How to put an Army presently into order and draw it up so as if upon a march it should be attack'd it may defend it self on all sides Fabr. HAving put your Army into this posture you are to cause it to march and in its march observe the same order for without doubt it is safe enough against the tumults and incursions of the Peasants against which it is sufficient if the Colonel commands out parties of Horse or certain Companies of his Velites to repel them Nor is there any danger that those kind of people will ever come to handy strokes with you for men without order are always fearful of men in order and ' it s the practice of such people to alarm you with great shouts and crys but never to come near like little Curs that bark at a Mastiff but keep far enough off When Hanibal invaded Italy with so much detriment to the Romans he passed thorow France was frequently infested by the Bores but he valued them not But it is not sufficient to have your Army in this order but if you intend to march you must have Pioneers and such kind of people to plain the ways make your intrenchments c. and these Pioneers are to be secured by the Horse which you send up and down the Country In this order an Army may march ten miles a day and be time enough at their journeys end to Sup and take up their Quarters by day-light for many times an Army will march in one day twenty miles But if it happens to be attacked by a formed Army it cannot be so sudden but you will have time to put your self into a posture of defence because an orderly Army marches slowly and you will have leisure to draw your self up in Battalia and put your Army either into the same figures I have prescribed or into such another If you be assaulted in the Van you have no more to do but to bring your Artillery thither out of the flanks and bringing your Horse out of the rear into the Van to put them into the same place and distance as I have directed The 1000 Velites which are before may advance divide themselves into two parties of five hundred a piece and enter into their own place betwixt the Horse and the wings of the Army and then into their place are to succeed the two Companies of Pikes extraordinary which I placed before in the great vacuity of the Army The 1000 Velites in the rear are to remove from their post and dividing themselves repair to the two flanks and fortifie them and by the space and chasm which they leave at their departure the Carriages may march out and all those who are unarmed and put themselves behind in the rear The space in the middle being now void and every man in his place the five Battalia's which I ordered behind the Army may advance by the void space betwixt the two flanks and march towards those in the Van. Three of them may march up within 40 yards with equal intervals betwixt the one and the other and the other two may remain behind at the same distance of forty yards This is a form that may be ordered on a sudden and has some resemblance with the first model of an Army which we recommended before for thought it be streighter in the front it is firmer in the flanks and by consequence stronger But because the five Battalia's in the rear have Pikes with them for the reasons abovesaid it is necessary to cause them to advance to fortifie the front of the Army and therefore either you must cause your Companies to turn Company by Company as they were solid bodies or else pass them into the front thorow the files of the Bucklers which way is a better way and less disorderly than to cause them to wheel in whole Companies like a solid body and the same thing is to be done with those in the rear upon any assault as I have shown before If the Enemy presents himself in the rear you have no more to do but to face about with your whole Army and immediately the figure is altered the rear becomes the front and the front the rear after which you are to observe all the ways of fortifying your front as I have directed before If the Enemy appears upon your flank your Army is to face about to that side and do the same things to strengthen your front so that your Horse your Velites your Artillery may be in such places as are convenient for the making up that front and if there be any difference in this variation of fronts it is only this that some of those who are to remove have farther to