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.
the particular exercises.  Thei ought then (as I firste tolde you, nor now me thynkes no labour to rehearse it againe) to cause their men to exercise them selves in these battailes, whereby thei maie knowe how to kepe the raie, to knowe their places, to tourne quickly, when either enemie, or situacion troubleth them:  for that, when thei knowe how to do this, the place is after easely learned, which a battaile hath to kepe, and what is the office thereof in the armie:  and when a Prince, or a common weale, will take the paine, and will use their diligence in these orders, and in these exercisyng, it shall alwaies happen, that in their countrie, there shall bee good souldiours, and thei to be superiours to their neighbours, and shalbe those, whiche shall give, and not receive the lawes of other men:  but (as I have saied) the disorder wherein thei live, maketh that thei neclecte, and doe not esteme these thynges, and therefore our armies be not good:  and yet though there were either hed, or member naturally vertuous, thei cannot shewe it.

COSIMO.  What carriages would you, that every one of these battailes should have?

[Sidenote:  Neither Centurion nor Peticapitaine, ought not to ride; What carriages the Capitaines ought to have, and the nomber of carrages requisite to every bande of menne.]

FABRICIO.  Firste, I would that neither Centurion, nor Peticapitain, should be suffered to ride:  and if the Conestable would nedes ride, I would that he should have a Mule, and not a horse:  I would allowe hym twoo carriages, and one to every Centurion, and twoo to every three Peticapitaines, for that so many wee lodge in a lodgyng, as in the place therof we shall tell you:  So that every battaile will come to have xxxvi. carriages, the whiche I would should carrie of necessitie the tentes, the vesselles to seeth meate, axes, barres of Iron, sufficient to make the lodgynges, and then if thei can carry any other thyng, thei maie dooe it at their pleasure.

COSIMO.  I beleve that the heddes of you, ordeined in every one of these battailes, be necessarie:  albeit, I would doubt, lest that so many commaunders, should confounde all.

[Sidenote:  Without many capitaines, an armie cannot be governed; To what purpose Ansignes ought to serve; For what purpose Drummes oughte to bee used; The propertie that soundes of instrumentes have in mens myndes.]

FABRICIO.  That should bee, when it were not referred to one man, but referryng it, thei cause order, ye and without theim, it is impossible to governe an armie:  for that a wall, whiche on every parte enclineth, requireth rather to have many proppes, and thicke, although not so strong, then fewe, though thei were strong:  bicause the vertue of one a lone, doeth not remedie the ruine a farre of.  And therefore in tharmies, and emong every ten men, it is convenient that there bee one, of more life, of more harte, or at leaste wise of more aucthoritie, who with stomacke, with wordes, and with example,

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Machiavelli, Volume I from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.