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