Machiavelli, Volume I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 456 pages of information about Machiavelli, Volume I.

Machiavelli, Volume I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 456 pages of information about Machiavelli, Volume I.

FABRICIO.  I will tell you.  Aniball had putte all the strengthe of his armie, in the seconde bande:  wherefore Scipio for to set againste thesame like strengthe, gathered the Prencipi and the Triarii together:  So that the distaunces of the Prencipi, beyng occupied of the Triarii, there was no place to bee able to receive the Astati:  and therefore he made the Astati to devide, and to go in the hornes of the armie, and he drewe them not betwene the Prencipi.  But note, that this waie of openyng the first bande, for to give place to the seconde, cannot bee used, but when a man is superiour to his enemie:  for that then there is commoditie to bee able to dooe it, as Scipio was able:  but beyng under, and repulced, it cannot be doen, but with thy manifest ruine:  and therefore it is convenient to have behinde, orders that maie receive thee, but let us tourne to our reasonyng.  The auncient Asiaticans, emongest other thynges devised of them to hurt the enemies, used carres.  The whiche had on the sides certaine hookes, so that not onely thei served to open with their violence the bandes, but also to kill with the hookes the adversaries:  against the violence of those, in thre maners thei provided, either thei sustained theim with the thickenesse of the raies, or thei received theim betwene the bandes, as the Eliphantes were received, or els thei made with arte some strong resistence:  As Silla a Romaine made againste Archelaus, whom had many of these cartes, whiche thei called hooked, who for to sustaine theim, drave many stakes into the grounde, behinde his first bandes of men, whereby the cartes beyng stopped, lost their violence.  And the newe maner that Silla used against hym in orderyng the armie, is to bee noted:  for that he put the Veliti, and the horse, behinde, and all the heavie armed afore, leavyng many distaunces to be able to sende before those behinde, when necessite required:  whereby the fight beyng begun, with the helpe of the horsemen, to the whiche he gave the waie, he got the victorie.  To intende to trouble in the faight the enemies armie, it is conveniente to make some thyng to growe, that maie make theim afraied, either with showyng of newe helpe that commeth, or with showyng thynges, whiche maie represente a terrour unto theim:  after soche sorte, that the enemies begiled of that sight, maie be afraied, and being made afraied, thei maie easely bee overcome:  the whiche waies Minutio Rufo used, and Accilio Glabrione Consulls of Rome.  Caius Sulpitius also set a greate many of sackes upon Mules, and other beastes unprofitable for the warre, but in soche wise ordained, that thei semed men of armes, and he commaunded, that thei should appere upon a hill, while he were a faightyng with the Frenchemen, whereby grewe his victorie.  The verie same did Marius, when he foughte against the Duchemen.  Then the fained assaultes availyng moche, whilest the faight continueth, it is conveniente, that the very assaultes in deede, dooe helpe moche:  inespecially

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Machiavelli, Volume I from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.