although that I desire more willingly to heare: for as moche as
hetherto, your questions have satisfied me more, then those should have
pleased me, whiche in harkenyng to your reasonyng, hath chaunced to come
into my remembraunce. But sir, I beleve that it is good, that you lese
no tyme, and that you have pacience, if with these our Ceremonies we
trouble you.
FABRICIO. You doe me rather pleasure, for that this variacion of
demaunders, maketh me to knowe the sundrie wittes and sunderie appetites
of yours: But remaineth there any thyng, whiche seemeth unto you good,
to bee joyned to the matter, that alreadie hath been reasoned of?
ZANOBI. Twoo thinges I desire, before you passe to an other parte: the
one is, to have you to shewe, if in orderyng armies, there needeth to
bee used any other facion: the other, what respectes a capitaine ought
to have, before he conducte his men to the faight, and in thesame an
accidente risyng or growyng, what reamedie maie be had.
[Sidenote: To deffende moche the fronte of an armie, is most perillous;
What is beste for a capitaine to dooe, where his power is, moche lesse
then thenemies power; A general rule; The higher grounde ought to be
chosen; An advertisement not to place an armie wher the enemie maie se
what the same doeth; Respectes for the Sonne and Winde; The variyng of
order and place maie cause the conquered to become victorius; A policie
in the ordering of men and pitchyng of a fielde; How to compasse about
the enemies power; How a capitaine maie faight and bee as it were sure,
not to be overcome; How to trouble the orders of the enemie; What a
capitaine oughte to dooe when he hath not so many horsmen as the enemie;
A greate aide for horsemen; The policies used betwene Aniball and
Scipio.]
FABRICIO. I will inforce my self to satisfie you, I will not answere now
distinctly to your questions: for that whileste I shall aunswere to one,
many tymes it will come to passe, that I muste aunswere to an other. I
have tolde you, how I have shewed you a facion of an armie, to the
intent, that accordyng to thesame, there maie bee given all those
facions, that the enemie, and the situacion requireth: For as moche as
in this case, bothe accordyng to the power thereof, and accordyng to the
enemie, it proceadeth: but note this, that there is not a more perillous
facion, then to deffende moche the front of tharmie, if then thou have
not a most puisant, and moste great hoste: otherwise, thou oughtest to
make it rather grosse, and of small largenesse, then of moche largenes
and thin: for when thou hast fewe men in comparison to thenemie, thou
oughtest to seke other remedies, as is to ordain thine army in soche a
place, wher thou maiest be fortefied, either through rivers, or by
meanes of fennes, after soch sort, that thou canst not bee compassed
aboute, or to inclose thy self on the flanckes with diches, as Cesar did
in Fraunce. You have to take in this cace, this generall rule, to
inlarge your self, or to draw in your self with the front, according to
your nomber, and thesame of the enemie. For thenemies being of lesse
nomber, thou oughtest to seke large places, havyng in especially thy men
well instructed: to the intent thou maiest, not onely compasse aboute
the enemie, but to deffende thy orders: for that in places rough and
difficulte, beyng not able to prevaile of thy orders, thou commeste not
to have any advauntage, hereby grewe, that the Romaines almoste alwaies,
sought the open fieldes, and advoided the straightes. To the contrarie,
as I have said, thou oughtest to doe, if thou hast fewe menne, or ill
instructed: for that then thou oughteste to seeke places, either where
the little nomber maye be saved, and where the small experience dooe not
hurte thee: Thou oughtest also to chuse the higher grounde, to be able
more easily to infest them: notwithstandyng, this advertisment ought to
be had, not to ordaine thy armie, where the enemie maie spie what thou
doest and in place nere to the rootes of the same, where the enemies
armie maie come: For that in this case, havyng respecte unto the
artillerie, the higher place shall gette thee disadvauntage: Bicause
that alwaies and commodiously, thou mightest of the enemies artillerie
bee hurte, without beyng able to make any remedy, and thou couldest not
commodiously hurte thesame, beyng hindered by thine owne men. Also, he
that prepareth an armie to faight a battaile, ought to have respecte,
bothe to the Sunne, and to the Winde, that the one and the other, doe
not hurte the fronte, for that the one and the other, will let thee the
sight, the one with the beames, and the other with the duste: and
moreover, the Winde hindereth the weapons, whiche are stroken at the
enemie, and maketh their blowes more feable: and concerning the Sunne,
it sufficeth not to have care, that at the firste it shine not in the
face, but it is requisite to consider, that increasyng the daie, it
hurte thee not: and for this, it should bee requsite in orderyng the
men, to have it all on the backe, to the entente it should have to passe
moche tyme, to come to lye on the fronte. This waie was observed of
Aniball at Canne, and of Mario against the Cimbrians. If thou happen to
be moche inferiour of horses, ordaine thine armie emongeste Vines, and
trees, and like impedimentes, as in our time the Spaniardes did, when
thei overthrewe the Frenchmenne at Cirignuola. And it hath been seen
many times, with all one Souldiours, variyng onely the order, and the
place, that thei have become of losers victorers: as it happened to the
Carthageners, whom havyng been overcome of Marcus Regolus divers tymes,
were after by the counsaill of Santippo a Lacedemonian, victorious: whom
made them to go doune into the plaine, where by vertue of the horses,
and of Eliphantes, thei were able to overcome the Romaines. It semes
unto me, accordyng to the auncient insamples that almoste all the
excellente Capitaines, when thei have knowen, that the enemie hath made
strong one side of his battaile, thei have not set against it, the moste
strongest parte, but the moste weakest, and thother moste strongest thei
have set against the most weakest: after in the beginning the faighte,
thei have commaunded to their strongest parte, that onely thei sustaine
the enemie, and not to preace upon hym, and to the weaker, that thei
suffer them selves to be overcome, and to retire into the hindermoste
bandes of the armie. This breadeth twoo greate disorders to the enemie:
the firste, that he findeth his strongest parte compassed about, the
second is, that semyng unto him to have the victorie, seldome tymes it
happeneth, that thei disorder not theim selves, whereof groweth his
sodain losse. Cornelius Scipio beyng in Spain, againste Asdruball of
Carthage, and understanding how to Asdruball it was knowen, that he in
the orderyng the armie, placed his Legions in the middest, the whiche
was the strongest parte of his armie, and for this how Asdruball with
like order ought to procede: after when he came to faighte the battaile,
he chaunged order, and put his Legions on the hornes of the armie, and
in the middest, placed all his weakeste men: then commyng to the handes,
in a sodain those men placed in the middeste, he made to marche softly,
and the hornes of the armie, with celeritie to make forwarde, so that
onely the hornes of bothe the armies fought, and the bandes in the
middest, through beyng distaunt the one from the other, joyned not
together, and thus the strongest parte of Scipio, came to faight with
the weakest of Asdruball, and overcame hym. The whiche waie was then
profitable, but now havyng respect to the artillerie, it cannot be used:
bicause the same space, whiche should remain in the middest, betwene the
one armie and the other, should give tyme to thesame to shoote: The
whiche is moste pernicious, as above is saied: Therefore it is requisite
to laie this waie aside, and to use, as a little afore we saied, makyng
all the armie to incounter, and the weakest parte to give place. When a
capitaine perceiveth, that he hath a greater armie then his enemie,
mindyng to compasse hym aboute, before he be aware let hym ordaine his
fronte equall, to thesame of his adversaries, after, so sone as the
faight is begun, let hym make the fronte by a little and little to
retire, and the flanckes to deffende, and alwaies it shall happen, that
the enemie shal find hymself, before he be aware compassed about. When a
capitain will faight, as it wer sure not to be broken, let hym ordaine
his armie in place, where he hath refuge nere, and safe, either betwene
Fennes, or betwene hilles, or by some strong citee: for that in this
case, he cannot bee followed of the enemie, where the enemie maie be
pursued of him: this poincte was used of Aniball, when fortune began to
become his adversarie, and that he doubted of the valiauntnesse of
Marcus Marcello. Some to trouble the orders of the enemie, have
commaunded those that were light armed, to begin the faight, and that
beyng begunne, to retire betwene the orders: and when the armies were
after buckled together, and that the fronte of either of them were
occupied in faightyng, thei have made theim to issue out by the flanckes
of the battaile, and thesame have troubled and broken. If any perceive
hymself to bee inferiour of horse, he maie besides the waies that are
alredie shewed, place behinde his horsemen a battaile of Pikes, and in
faightyng take order, that thei give waie to the Pikes, and he shall
remain alwaies superiour. Many have accustomed to use certain fotemenne
lighte armed, to faighte emong horsemen, the whiche hath been to the
chivalrie moste greate helpe. Of all those, which have prepared armies
to the field, be moste praised Aniball and Scipio, when thei fought in
Africk: and for that Aniball had his armie made of Carthaginers, and of
straungers of divers nacions, he placed in the first fronte thereof
lxxx. Elephantes, after he placed the straungers, behinde whom he sette
his Carthaginers, in the hindermoste place, he putte the Italians, in
whom he trusted little: the whiche thing he ordained so, for that the
straungers havyng before theim the enemie, and behinde beyng inclosed of
his men, could not flie: so that being constrained to faight thei should
overcome, or wearie the Romaines, supposyng after with his freshe and
valiaunte men, to be then able easely to overcome the Romaines, beeyng
wearied. Against this order, Scipio set the Astati, the Prencipi, and
the Triarii, in the accustomed maner, to bee able to receive the one the
other, and to rescue the one the other: he made the fronte of the armie,
full of voide spaces, and bicause it should not be perceived but rather
should seme united, he filled them ful of veliti, to whom he commaunded,
that so sone as the Eliphantes came, thei should avoide, and by the
ordinarie spaces, should enter betwene the Legins, and leave open the
waie to the Eliphauntes, and so it came to passe, that it made vaine the
violence of theim, so that commyng to handes, he was superiour.
ZANOBI. You have made me to remember, in alledging me this battaile, how
Scipio in faighting, made not the Astati to retire into thorders of the
Prencipi, but he devided theim, and made theim to retire in the hornes
of the armie, to thintent thei might give place to the Prencipi, when he
would force forwarde: therfore I would you should tell me, what occasion
moved hym, not to observe the accustomed order.
[Sidenote: Cartes full of hookes made to destroie the enemies; The
remedy that was used against Cartes full of hookes; The straunge maner
that Silla used in orderyng his army against Archelaus; How to trouble
in the faighte the armie of the enemies; A policie of Caius Sulpitius,
to make his enemies afraied; A policie of Marius againste the Duchmenne;
A policie of greate importaunce, while a battaile is a faightyng; How
horsemen maie bee disordered; How the turke gave the Sophie an
overthrowe; How the Spaniardes overcame the armie of Amilcare; How to
traine the enemie, to his destruccion; A policie of Tullo Hostilio and
Lucius Silla in dessemlyng of a mischaunce; Sertorius slue a man for
telling him of the death of one of his capitaines; Howe certaine
captaines have staied their men that hath been running awaie; Attillius
constrained his men that ran awaie to tourne again and to faight; How
Philip king of Macedonia made his men afraied to run awaie; Victorie
ought with all celeritie to bee folowed; What a capitaine ought to dooe,
when he should chaunce to receive an overthrowe; How Martius overcame
the armie of the Carthaginers; A policie of Titus Dimius to hide a
losse, whiche he had received in a faight; A general rule; Aniball;
Scipio; Asdruball; A Capitaine ought not to faight without advantage,
excepte he be constrained; How advauntage maie bee taken of the enemies;
Furie withstode, converteth into vilenesse; What maner of men a
capitaine ought to have about him continually, to consult withall; The
condicions of the capitain of the enemies, and of those that are about
hym is moste requisite to bee knowen; A timerous army is not to be
conducted to faight; How to avoide the faightyng of a fielde.]