[Sidenote:  The Art of War.]

Throughout both The Prince and the Discorsi are constant allusions to, and often long discussions on, military affairs.  The Army profoundly interested Machiavelli both as a primary condition of national existence and stability, and also, as he pondered upon the contrast between ancient Rome and the Florence that he lived in, as a subject fascinating in itself.  His Art of War was probably published in 1520.  Before that date the Florentine Secretary had had some personal touch both with the theory and practice of war.  As a responsible official in the camp before Pisa he had seen both siege work and fighting.  Having lost faith in mercenary forces he made immense attempts to form a National Militia, and was appointed Chancellor of the Nove della Milizia.  In Switzerland and the Tyrol he had studied army questions.  He planned with Pietro Navarro the defence of Florence and Prato against Charles V. At Verona and Mantua in 1509, he closely studied the famous siege of Padua.  From birth to death war and battles raged all about him, and he had personal knowledge of the great captains of the Age.  Moreover, he saw in Italy troops of every country, of every quality, in every stage of discipline, in every manner of formation.  His love of ancient Rome led him naturally to the study of Livy and Vegetius, and from them with regard to formations, to the relative values of infantry and cavalry and other points of tactics, he drew or deduced many conclusions which hold good to-day.  Indeed a German staff officer has written that in reading the Florentine you think you are listening to a modern theorist of war.  But for the theorist of those days a lion stood in the path.  The art of war was not excepted from the quick and thorough transformation that all earthly and spiritual things were undergoing.  Gunpowder, long invented, was being applied.  Armour, that, since the beginning, had saved both man and horse, had now lost the half of its virtue.  The walls of fortresses, impregnable for a thousand years, became as matchwood ramparts.  The mounted man-at-arms was found with wonder to be no match for the lightly-armoured but nimble foot-man.  The Swiss were seen to hold their own with ease against the knighthood of Austria and Burgundy.  The Free Companies lost in value and prestige what they added to their corruption and treachery.  All these things grew clear to Machiavelli.  But his almost fatal misfortune was that he observed and wrote in the mid-moment of the transition.  He had no faith in fire-arms, and as regards the portable fire-arms of those days he was right.  After the artillery work at Ravenna, Novara, and Marignano it is argued that he should have known better.  But he was present at no great battles, and pike, spear, and sword had been the stable weapons of four thousand years.  These were indeed too simple to be largely modified, and the future of mechanisms and explosives no prophet uninspired could foresee.  And indeed the armament and formation of men were not the main intent of Machiavelli’s thought.  His care in detail, especially in fortifications, of which he made a special study, in encampments, in plans, in calculations, is immense.  Nothing is so trivial as to be left inexact.