times) thei folowed the victorie: if thei were
repulced, thei retired by the flanckes of the armie,
or by the spaces ordained for soche purposes, and
thei brought them selves emong the unarmed: after
the departure of whom, the Hastati incountered with
the enemie, the whiche if thei saw themselves to be
overcome, thei retired by a little and little, by the
rarenesse of thorders betwene the Prencipi, and together
with those, thei renued the faight if these also wer
repulced, thei retired al in the rarenesse of the
orders of the Triarii, and al together on a heape,
began againe the faight: and then, if thei were
overcome, there was no more remeady, bicause there
remained no more waies to renue them again. The
horses stoode on the corners of the armie, to the likenes
of twoo winges to a bodie, and somewhiles thei fought
with the enemies horses, an other while, thei rescued
the fotmen, according as nede required. This
waie of renuyng theim selves three tymes, is almoste
impossible to overcome: for that, fortune muste
three tymes forsake thee, and the enemie to have so
moche strengthe, that three tymes he maie overcome
thee. The Grekes, had not in their Falangi, this
maner of renuyng them selves, and although in those
wer many heddes, and many orders, notwithstandyng,
thei made one bodie, or els one hedde: the maner
that thei kepte in rescuyng the one the other was,
not to retire the one order within the other, as the
Romaines, but to enter the one manne into the place
of the other: the which thei did in this maner.
Their Falange brought into rankes, and admit, that
thei put in a ranke fiftie menne, commyng after with
their hedde againste the enemie, of all the rankes
the foremoste sixe, mighte faight: Bicause their
Launces, the whiche thei called Sarisse, were so long,
that the sixt ranke, passed with the hedde of their
Launces, out of the first ranke: then in faightyng,
if any of the first, either through death, or through
woundes fell, straight waie there entered into his
place, thesame man, that was behinde in the second
ranke, and in the place that remained voide of the
seconde, thesame man entred, whiche was behind hym
in the thirde, and thus successively, in a sodaine
the rankes behinde, restored the faultes of those
afore, so that the rankes alwaies remained whole, and
no place of the faighters was voide, except the laste
rankes, the whiche came to consume, havyng not menne
behinde their backes, whom might restore theim:
So that the hurte that the first rankes suffered, consumed
the laste, and the firste remained alwaies whole:
and thus these Falangi by their order, might soner
be consumed, then broken, for that the grosse bodie,
made it more immovable. The Romaines used at the
beginnyng the Falangi, and did set in order their
Legions like unto them: after, this order pleased
them not, and thei devided the Legions into many bodies,
that is, in bandes and companies: Bicause thei
judged (as a little afore I saied) that thesame bodie,