# BOOK THREE

BOOK THREE



COSIMO. [1] Since we are changing the discussion, I want the questioner to be changed, for I would not want to be held presumptuous—something I have always blamed in others. [2] Therefore, I put down the dictatorship and give this authority to whichever of these other friends of mine wants it.

ZANOBI. [3] It would be very gratifying for us were you to continue. But since you do not want to, at least say which of us must succeed to your place.

COSIMO. [4] I want to give this burden to the lord.

FABRIZIO. [5] I am content to take it, and I want us to follow the Venetian custom [according to which] the youngest speaks first. For since this training is for the young, I am persuaded that the young are more fit to reason about it, as they are more quick to execute it.

COSIMO. [6] Then it’s your turn, Luigi. [7] And I am as pleased with such a successor, as you will be satisfied with such a questioner. [8] Therefore, I beg1 that we return to the material and not lose more time.

FABRIZIO. [9] I am certain that in wanting to demonstrate well how one orders an army to do battle, it would be necessary to tell how the Greeks and the Romans used to order the lines in their armies. [10] Nonetheless, since you yourselves can read and consider these things by means of the ancient writers, I will leave many particulars behind and adduce only those things about them that seem to me necessary to imitate, wanting in our times to give to our military some parts of perfection. [11] This will make me show at one time how one may order an army for battle, how one may engage in true fights, and how one may train it in fake ones. [12] The greatest disorder that those who order an army for battle make is to give it only one front and obligate it to one thrust and one fortune. [13] This arises from having lost the mode that the ancients had of receiving one line into the other. For without this mode, one cannot assist the first [men], or defend them, or follow in their place in the fight; this had been observed by the Romans in the best way. [14] Wanting to show this mode, I say that the Romans used to divide each legion into three parts—into hastati, principes, and triarii. Of these, the hastati were put in the first front of the army with dense and firm orders. Behind these were the principes, but placed with their orders more spaced. After these they put the triarii with orders so spaced that when needed they were able to receive between them the principes and the hastati. [15] Besides these, they had slingers and crossbowmen and others lightly armed who did not stay in these orders; rather, they located them at the head of the army between the cavalrymen and the infantrymen. [16] These lightly armed [men], then, joined the fight; if they won, which occurred rarely, they pursued the victory; if they were repulsed, they withdrew along the flanks of the army or through the intervals ordered to such an effect, and they arranged themselvesamong the unarmed.2[17] After their departure, the hastaticame to hands with the enemy. If these were seen to be overcome, they withdrew little by little through the spaces in the orders between the principes and together with these they renewed the fight. [18] If these too were forced [back], they all withdrew into the spaces in the orders of the triarii and, having made one mass, they recommenced the fight all together. If these lost, there was no more remedy for them because no further mode of remaking themselves remained for them.3[19] The cavalrymen, placed like two wings on a body, stayed on the sides of the army; at one moment they fought with the cavalrymen, at another they helped the infantrymen, as need demanded.4 [20] This mode of remaking themselves three times is almost impossible to overcome, for fortune needs to abandon you three times and the enemy to have so much virtue that he beats you three times.5 [21] The Greeks with their phalanxes did not have this mode of remaking themselves; and although in the latter there were many heads and many orders, nonetheless they made one body, or rather, one head. [22] The mode that they held to in assisting one another was not to withdraw one order into the other, like the Romans, but for one man to enter the place of the other. [23] They did so in this mode: their phalanx was arranged in files; and let us suppose that they placed fifty men in each file, coming then with their head against the enemy; of all the files, the first six were able to fight, for their lances, which they called sarisses, were so long that the sixth file passed beyond the first file with the point of their own lances. [24] Thus, while fighting, if someone from the first [file] fell dead or wounded, the one who was behind in the second file immediately entered in his place. And into the place that was empty in the second [file], that [man who] was behind in the third [file] entered. Thus, the files behind at once successively restored the defects of those in front, so that the files always remained entire and no place was empty of combatants, except the last file, which came to be consumed by not having behind its back anyone who would restore it. So the harms that the first files suffered consumed the last, and the first always remained entire. Thus, these phalanxes, through their order, could be consumed rather than broken, for their thick body made them more immobile.6[25] In the beginning, the Romans used phalanxes, and they instructed their legions to be like them. [26] Later, they did not like this order, and they divided the legions into more bodies; that is, into cohorts and maniples.7 For as I said a little while ago,8 they judged that that body had more life which had more souls and was composed of more parts, so that each stood firm.9 [27] In these times, the brigades of the Swiss use all the modes of the phalanx, as much in ordering themselves in mass and as a whole, as in assisting one another. And in doing battle, they put one brigade on the flank of the other; if they put one behind the other, they have no mode by which the first, when it withdraws, can be received by the second. Instead, so as to be able to assist one another, they keep this order: they put one brigade in front and another behind it on its right hand, such that if the first has need of help, the other can go ahead and give it aid. [28] The third brigade they put behind these, but at a distance of one arquebus shot. [29] They do this because, if the former two are repulsed, the latter can go ahead, and they have space for it; and the repulsed ones and those that are put ahead avoid charging into one another. For a large multitude cannot be received like a small body, and therefore the small and distinct bodies that were in a Roman legion could be located so that they could be received among them and assist each other with ease. [30] And many examples of the Roman legions demonstrate that this order of the Swiss is not as good as the ancient Roman one when they fought with the Greek phalanxes. The latter were always consumed by the former for, as I said before, this kind of arms and this mode of remaking themselves could do more than the solidity of the phalanxes. [31] Thus, having to order an army according to10 these examples, to me it seems [well] to retain the arms and modes of the Greek phalanxes, on the one hand, and of the Roman legions, on the other. Therefore, in one brigade I said11 I wanted two thousand pikes, which are the arms of the Macedonian phalanxes, and three thousand shields with swords, which are the arms of the Romans. [32] I divided the brigade into ten battalions, like the Romans, whose legion [was divided] into ten cohorts. [33] I ordered the velites, that is, the light armed [troops], to join the fight like them. [34] And because the orders should also partake of [those of] one nation and the other, just as the arms are mixed and partake of12 [both] of them, I ordered each battalion to have five files of pikes in front and the rest to be shields, so as to be able to withstand cavalrymen at the front and enter easily into the battalions of the enemy on foot, having the pikes in the first encounter, like the enemy. I want them to be enough to withstand him, and the shields then to beat him. [35] And if you observe the virtue of this order, you will see all of these arms doing their offices entirely. For the pikes are useful against cavalrymen, and when they come against infantrymen, they do their office well before the fight is joined. For once it is joined, they become useless. [36] Hence, the Swiss, so as to flee this inconvenience, put a file of halberds after every three files of pikes. They do this to give the pikes space, which is not as much as is needed. [37] Our pikes being placed ahead and our shields behind thus end up withstanding cavalrymen and, in joining the fight, open13 and molest the infantrymen. But after the battle is joined,14 and they become useless, the shields and swords, which can manage in any narrowness, follow.



1. Lit.: pray.





2. See Vegetius II 17.

3. See Livy VIII 8; cf. D II 16. Against Livy’s account, Piero Pieri makes a strong case that the maneuvers described above were not performed on the battlefield, but were instead training exercises only (Piero Pieri, Guerra epolitica negli scrittori italiani (Milan: Riccardo Riccardi, 1955), 31–36).

4. See Vegetius II 15.

5. See Livy VIII 8.





6. See Polybius XVIII 28–30 and Livy IX 19 for the most detailed ancient discussions of the Macedonian phalanx.

7. Livy VIII 8.

9. Or: rule itself (reggersi).

8. SeeAWII275.





LUIGI [38] We are now waiting with desire to understand how you would order the army for battle with these arms and with these orders.

FABRIZIO. [39] I now want to show you nothing but this. [40] You have to understand how in an ordinary Roman army, which they called a consular army, there were not more than two legions of Roman citizens [each of] which had six hundred cavalrymen and around eleven thousand infantrymen. [41] They then had as many cavalrymen and infantrymen sent to them by their friends and confederates, which they divided in two parts. They called one the right horn and the other the left horn. Nor did they ever permit these auxiliary infantrymen to pass beyond the number of infantrymen of their legions. They were quite content that the number of cavalrymen be more. [42] With this army, which had 22 thousand infantrymen and around two thousand useful cavalrymen, one consul took every action and went on every campaign.15 [43] However, when there was a need to oppose greater forces, they brought together two consuls with two armies. [44] You should also notice that ordinarily in all three of the armies’ principal actions, that is, marching, encamping, and fighting, they put the legions in the middle.16 For they wanted the virtue in which they had more confidence to be more united, as will be shown to you in the reasoning about all three of these actions. [45] These auxiliary infantrymen, through the practice that they had with the legionary infantrymen, were as useful as the latter. For, like them, they were disciplined, and therefore in ordering for battle they ordered them in a like mode. [46] So anyone who knows how the Romans arranged one legion of the army for battle knows how they arranged the whole. [47] Therefore, since I have told you17 how they divided one legion into three lines, and how the one line received the other, I have ended up having to tell you how the whole army is ordered in a battle.



10. Lit.: with.

11. SeeAWII70.

12. Lit.: participate in, here and below.

13. That is, break up the ordered ranks and files of the infantrymen.

14. Lit.: tightened.





[48] Therefore, since I want to order a battle as the Romans [did], I will take two brigades just as they had two legions, and having placed these, the disposition of one whole army will be understood. For in adding more men, one will have to do nothing other than enlarge the orders. [49] I do not believe that I need to remind you how many infantrymen one brigade has, how it has ten battalions, what the heads of a battalion are, what arms they have, what the ordinary pikes and velites are, and what the extraordinary ones are. For I told you distinctly a little while ago, and reminded you to commit it to memory as a thing necessary for [one] wanting to understand all of the other orders.18 I will therefore come to the demonstration of the order without repeating anything else.19 [50] It seems [well] to me that the ten battalions of one brigade be put on the left flank and the other ten from the other on the right. [51] Those on the left are ordered in this mode: five battalions are placed from one side of the front to the other, such that between one and the other a space of four braccia remains, so that they come to occupy 141 braccia of ground in width and 40 in length. [52] Behind these five battalions I would put three others in a straight line from the first at a distance of 40 braccia. Two of these should come in a straight line behind the extreme [left and right] of the [first five battalions], and the other should take the space in the middle. [53] And thus, in width and length, these three would come to occupy the same space as the five [in front]. But where the [first] five have a distance of four braccia between one and the other, these [three] would have [a distance] of 33. [54] After these I would likewise put the last two battalions behind the three [middle battalions], in a straight line and at a distance of 40 braccia from the three [middle battalions]. And I would put each one of these behind the extreme [right and left] of the three, such that the space that remains between the one and the other would be 91 braccia. [55] All of these battalions so ordered would be 141 braccia in width and 200 in length. [56] I would extend the extraordinary pikes along the flanks of the left side of these battalions, 20 braccia distant from the latter, making them 143 files of 7 per file, so that with their length they would cover the whole left side of the battalions ordered in the mode stated by me. And that would leave forty files to guard the wagons and the unarmed who would remain at the tail of the army, distributing the decurions and the centurions in their places. Of the three constables, I would put one of them at the head, the other in the middle, and the third in the last file, which does the office of tergiduttore,20 for so the ancients called him who was posted at the back of the army. [57] But returning to the head of the army, I say that I would locate the extraordinary velites, which you know are 500, next to the extraordinary pikes, and I would give them a space of 40 braccia. [58] To the side of these, again on the left hand, I would put the men-at-arms, and I would want them to have a space of 150 braccia. [59] After these, [I would place] the light cavalrymen, which I would give the same space as the men-at-arms. [60] The ordinary velites, which would stay in the spaces that I put between one battalion and another, I would leave around their own battalions so that they would be like ministers of the latter, if it should not yet seem [well] to me to put them under the extraordinary pikes. I would do this, or not, according to what turns out to be more to my purpose. [61] The head-general of the whole brigade I would put in the space that is between the first and second orders of the battalions, or else at the head and in the space that is between the last battalion of the first five and the extraordinary pikes, according to what turns out to be more to my purpose, with 30 or 40 men around, chosen because they are known for prudence in executing a commission and for strength in withstanding a thrust; and he too is in the middle of the music and the flag. [62] This is the order in which I would arrange one brigade on the left part, which would be the disposition of half of the army. It would take up 511 braccia in width, and in length as much as was said above, not counting the space, which would be around one hundred braccia, taken up by that part of the extraordinary pikes which makes a shield for the unarmed. [63] The other brigade I would arrange on the right side, in the exact mode in which I have arranged the one on the left, leaving a space of 30 braccia between the one brigade and the other. At the head of this space I would put some artillery carts, behind which would be the captain-general of the whole army. He would have around him, with the music and the flag captain, at least 200 selected men, for the most part on foot, among whom would be ten or more fit to execute any commandment, and [who] would be on horseback and armed so that they would be able to be on horseback or on foot, as the need may require. [64] [As to] the artillery of the army, ten cannons, whose [ordnance] does not exceed fifty pounds of weight, are enough for storming towns. In the field I would use these more for the defense of the encampment than for making battle; [the ordnance of] all of the other artillery would weigh ten rather than fifteen pounds. [65] I would put this at the front of the whole army, unless of course the land21 lies so that I can locate it along the flank in a secure place where it cannot be charged by the enemy. [66] This form of the army so ordered can keep the order of the phalanxes and of the Roman legions while fighting. For in the front are the pikes, and all the infantrymen are ordered in files so that when they join with the enemy and withstand him, they can restore the first files with those behind in the manner of the phalanxes. [67] On the other hand, if they are charged so that they are necessitated to break orders and withdraw, they are able to enter the intervals of the second battalions which are behind, to unite with them, and having made a mass anew, to withstand the enemy and fight him [68] And when this is not enough, they can withdraw in the same mode a second time, and fight a third, so that in fighting in this order there is remaking both according to the Greek mode and according to the Roman. [69] As to the strength of the army, it cannot be ordered stronger. For one and the other horn is very well provided with heads and with arms.22 Nor is the rest weak except the part behind the unarmed; and even that has its flanks covered by the extraordinary pikes. [70] Nor can the enemy assault any part that he does not find ordered. And the part behind cannot be assaulted because there cannot be an enemy who has so many forces that he can assail you equally on every side. For if he has them, you do not have to put yourself in the field against him. [71] But when he is a third more than you and, like you, [is] well ordered, and if he weakens himself so as to assault you in more places and you break one part of him, all goes badly [for him]. [72] You are very secure against cavalrymen, when they are more than yours. For the orders of pikes that cover you defend you from their every thrust, even when your cavalrymen have been repulsed. [73] Besides this, the heads are arranged in a place that they can easily command and obey. [74] The spaces that are between one battalion and another and one order and the other serve not only to enable one to receive the other, but also to give room to the messengers that go and come by order of the captain. [75] And, as I told you before,23 [since] the Romans had around 24 thousand men for an army, this one should be so as well. And as the other soldiers took the mode of fighting and the form of the army from the legions, so those soldiers that you add to your two brigades would have to take the form and order of the latter. [76] Since one has an example of these things, it is an easy thing to imitate. For by increasing the army by two brigades, or by as many as there are of these other soldiers,24one has to do nothing else with them but duplicate the orders; and where ten battalions were placed on the left part, you put twenty of them, either enlarging or extending the orders as the place or the enemy command you.



15. See Polybius VI 26, where it is said that the Roman infantry usually equaled the infantry of their allies; cf. Livy XL 36, where it is said that the allies always had fifteen thousand infantry, considerably more than the Roman infantry.

16. See Polybius VI 26.

17. See AWIII 14–20.

18. SeeAWII157.

19. For the following discussion, see figure 4, page 172.





20. Rearguard.





21. Paese, usually translated “country.”

22. Weapons (arme), not upper limbs (braccia).





LUIGI. [77] Truly, Lord, I imagine this army so that I already see it, and I burn with a desire to see it attack. [78] And I would not for anything in the world want you to become a Fabius Maximus, giving thought to keeping the enemy at bay and deferring battle, for I would speak worse of you than the Roman people spoke of him.25

FABRIZIO. [79] Doubt not. [80] Don’t you hear [the sound of] artillery? [81] Ours has already fired, but it barely harmed the enemy. Together with the light cavalry, the extraordinary velites leave their places and, dispersed and with as much fury and as much clamor as they are able, they assault the enemy, whose artillery has unloaded one time and has passed over the heads of our infantrymen without doing them any harm. [82] And so that26 it cannot fire a second time, see how our velites and cavalrymen have already occupied it, and how the enemy, so as to defend it, has been put ahead; such that that of friend and enemy can do its office no more. [83] See with how much virtue our [men] fight, and with how much discipline, through the training that has made them do so by habit and the confidence they have in the army that you see march ordered, at its own pace and with its men-at-arms nearby to join with the adversary. [84] See how our artillery, so as to give them room and leave the space free for them, is withdrawn through that space where the velites had gone out. [85] See how the captain inspirits them and shows them certain victory. [86] See how the velites and the light cavalrymen are spread out and returned to the flanks of the army to see whether they can do any injury to their adversaries on the flank. [87] Behold how the armies attack one another. [88] Look with how much virtue they have withstood the thrust of the enemy, and with how much silence, and how the captain commands his men-at-arms to withstand [the enemy’s thrust] and not to charge, and not to separate themselves from the order of their infantries. [89] See how our light cavalrymen went to charge a band of enemy arquebusiers who wanted to wound the flank, and how the enemy cavalrymen have helped them; such that, enveloped between one cavalry and the other, they cannot fire and withdraw behind their battalions. [90] See with what fury our pikes are attacked, and how the infantrymen are already so near to one another that thepikes can no longer be managed, so that, according to the discipline learned from us, the pikes are withdrawn among the shields little by little. [91] Look howa thick band of enemy men-at-arms have in the meantime pushed back our men-at-arms on the left, and how ours have withdrawn beneath the extraordinary pikes according to discipline and, having remade a front with their help, they have repulsed their adversaries and killed a good part of them. [92] Meanwhile, all of the ordinary pikes of the first battalion have hidden themselves among the orders of shields and left the fight to the shieldmen. Look with how much virtue, security, and calm27 they kill the enemy. [93] Don’t you see that while fighting their orders have contracted so much that [only] with trouble can they wield their swords? [94] Look with how much fury the enemies die. [95] For, armed with the pike, which is useless since it is too long, and with their own sword, which [is useless] since the enemy is too well armored, some [of the enemy] fall wounded or dead, some flee. [96] See them fleeing from the right side; they flee from the left as well; behold, the victory is ours. [97] Have we not won a battle very happily? [98] But with greater happiness would it be won, if making it fit were conceded to me. [99] And see how availing themselves either of the second or of the third order was not needed. For our first front was enough to overcome them. [100] In this part I have nothing else to say, except to dispel any doubt that occurs to you.



23. See AW III 42.

24. “These others” refers to the already existing brigades.

25. Quintus Fabius Maximus (275–203 b.c.), known as Cunctator (the Delayer). See Livy XXII 12–18; 23–30; cf. AWIV 116–32; D I 53.2, III 9.4, 10.1-3; see also D I 53.4, II 24.3, III 9.1, 34.4, 40.1, P17.68. (Fabius Cunctator also was the nickname of Prospero Colonna, a mercenary captain more famous than his cousin Fabrizio Colonna, the participant in the Art of War.)

26. Lit.: because.





LUIGI. [101] You have won this battle with so much fury that I remain altogether amazed and so stupefied that I don’t believe I’m able to explain well if any doubt remains in my spirit. [102] However, entrusting myself to your prudence, I will take heart28 and say what I think.29 [103] First, tell me: Why did you not have your artillery fire more than once? [104] And why did you immediately have it withdraw behind the army, and then make no mention of it? [105] It also seems to me that you set the artillery of the enemy high and ordered it in our own mode, which can very well be [the case]. [106] However, when it happens, and I believe that it happens often, that they hit the lines, what remedy do you give for that? [107] And since I have begun with artillery, I want to offer this whole question, so as not to have to reason about it anymore. [108] I have heard many disparage the arms and the orders of the ancient armies, arguing that today they would be capable of little, or rather, would be completely useless on account of30 the fury of artillery. For it breaks the orders and passes through the armor so that it seems crazy to them to make an order that cannot be kept, and to endure toil in carrying armor that cannot defend you.



27. Ozio, translated elsewhere as “idle.”





FABRIZIO. [109] This question of yours needs a long response because it has many heads. [110] It is true that I did not fire the artillery more than one time, and I was in doubt even of that one. [111] The cause is that31 it is more important for one32 to guard against being hit than it is important to hit the enemy. [112] You have to understand that [if you] want an artillery piece not to harm you, it is necessary either to stay where it does not reach you or put oneself behind a wall or behind an embankment. [113] There is nothing else that keeps it away; but both need to be very strong. [114] Those captains who have arranged themselves to do battle cannot stay behind their walls or their embankments, nor where they are not reached. [115] Thus, since they cannot find a mode that defends them, they need to find the one by which they are least hurt; nor can they find another mode than occupying [the enemy artillery] immediately. [116] The mode of occupying it is to go to find it quickly and [in] broken [order], not slowly and in mass. For by speed, one doesn’t let them redouble the blow, and since [you are] scattered, it is able to hurt a smaller number of men. [117] A band of ordered men cannot do this. For if it marches rapidly, it disorders itself; if it goes sparsely, to break it gives the enemy no trouble because it breaks by itself. [118] Therefore, I would order the army so that it can do the one thing and the other. For, having put a thousand velites on its horns, I would order it that they go out together with the light cavalry and occupy the enemy artillery after our artillery has fired. [119] Therefore, I did not have my artillery fire again so as not to give the enemy time. For space cannot be given to me and taken from the others. [120] And for [the same] cause for which I did not have it fire a second time, I was not going to let them fire the first, so that the enemy would be unable to fire even the first time. [121] For to want the enemy artillery to be useless, there is no other remedy than to assault it. For if the enemies abandon it, you occupy it; if they want to defend it, they need to leave it behind [their own lines from the beginning], so that occupied by enemies and by friends, it cannot fire. [122] I would believe that without examples these reasons would be enough for you; however, being able to give them from the ancients, I want to do so. [123] Coming to battle with the Parthians, whose virtue consisted in large part in their bows and arrows, Ventidius let them come almost beneath his encampments before he took his army out. He did this only so as to be able to occupy them quickly and not give them space to fire.33 [124] Caesar reports that in making a battle with his enemies in France he was assaulted by them with so much fury that his [men] did not have time to throw their darts according to the Roman custom.34 [125] Therefore, one sees that in wanting a thing that fires far not to offend you while you are in the field, there is no other remedy than to occupy itwith as much speed as you can. [126] Another cause also moved me to do without firing the artillery, at which you will perhaps laugh; however, I don’t judge it to be [something to be] despised. [127] There’s nothing that makes greater confusion in an army than obstructing its view. Hence, many very hardy armies have been beaten by their sight having been obstructed either by dust or by the sun. [128] And there’s also nothing that obstructs the view more than the smoke that artillery makes in firing. Therefore, I would believe that there is more prudence in letting the enemy blind himself than for you, blind, wanting to go to find him. [129] Therefore, either I would not fire it or (because this would not be approved on account of35 the reputation that artillery has)36 I would put it on the horns of the army, so that in firing it does not blind the front of the latter with its smoke. This is the important thing for my men. [130] And [as evidence] that obstructing the enemy’s view is a useful thing, one can adduce the example of Epaminondas. So as to blind the enemy army that came to make battle with him, he had his light cavalrymen run before the enemies’ front because they raised the dust high and obstructed their view. This gave him the victory in the battle.37 [131] As to it seeming to you that I guided the shots of the artillery in my own mode, making them pass over the heads of the infantrymen, I respond to you that without comparison there are many more times that heavy artillery does not hit infantries than those that it does hit [them]. Because the infantry is so low and [the artillery] is so difficult to fire that if you raise it even a little, it passes over the heads of the infantrymen; and if you lower it, it harms the ground, and the shot does not reach them. [132] The inequality of the terrain also saves them because every little wrinkle and rise that is between the infantrymen and it impedes it. [133] As to cavalrymen, and especially the men-atarms, since they have to be more confined than the light [cavalrymen] and can the better be hit through being taller, one can keep them at the tail of the army until the artillery is fired. [134] It is true that the arquebuses and the small artillery do much more harm than the [heavy artillery]. The best remedy for these is to come to hands quickly; and if in the first assault some die, some always die. And a good captain and a good army do not have to fear a harm that is particular, but a general one. They imitate the Swiss, who never shun battle for fear of artillery; indeed, they punish by capital punishment those who from fear of it either leave their file or show any sign of fear with their bodies.38 [135] Once it had been fired, I had it withdraw into the army, for they left a free passage in the battalions. [136] As a thing useless once the fight has been joined, I made no more mention of it. [137] You also said that on account of39 the fury of this instrument, many judge the arms and orders of the ancients to be useless. From this speech of yours it seems the moderns have found orders and arms that are useful against artillery. [138] If you know about this, I will cherish your teaching it to me, becauseup to this point I’m unaware of seeing any of them, nor do I believe one can find them. [139] So I would like to understand from them for what causes the foot soldiers of our times wear the breast[plates] and iron corselets and those on horseback go entirely covered in armor. For since they condemn ancient arming as useless on account of40 artillery, they should flee these as well. [140] Iwould also want to understand through what cause the Swiss make a tight battalion of six or eight thousand infantrymen similar to the ancient orders; and forwhat cause all have imitated them, since this order bears the same danger on account of41 artillery that those others would were they imitated from antiquity. [141] I believe that they would not know what to respond. But if you were to ask the soldiers that have some judgment, they would respond, first, that although those arms do not defend them from artillery, they go armored because they do defend them from crossbows, pikes, swords, stones, and every other harm that comes from their enemies. [142] They would also respond that they come tight together like the Swiss so as to charge infantrymen more easily, so as to be better able to withstand cavalrymen, and so as to give more difficulty to the enemy in breaking them. [143] So one sees that the soldiers have to fear many other things besides artillery, from which things they are defended by arms and by orders. [144] From this it follows that by however much an army is better armored, and by however much it has its orders closer and stronger, by so much is it more secure. [145] Such that whoever is of the opinion that you stated must either have little prudence or have thought very little about these things. For if we see that the small part of the ancient mode of arming that is used today, which is the pike, and the small part of their orders, which are the battalions of the Swiss, do us so much good and give so much strength to our armies, why don’t we have to believe that the other arms and the other orders that have been left are useful? [146] Then, if we do not have regard for artillery in putting ourselves close together like the Swiss, what other orders can make us more afraid of it? [147] With that being the case, no one order can make us fear it as much as those that constrict the men together. [148] Besides this, if the enemies’ artillery does not frighten me from putting myself in the field by a town where it harms me from its own more secure [position] (since I cannot occupy it since it is defended by walls; indeed, only with time can my artillery impede theirs from being able to redouble its shots in its own mode),42why do I have to fear it on the field, where I can occupy it quickly? [149] So I conclude with this: that artillery, according to my opinion, does not impede one from being able to use the ancient modes and to show ancient virtue. [150] And if I had not spoken with you about this another time, I would expatiate more here; but I wish to put forth again what I said about it then.43



28. Animo, translated elsewhere as “spirit.”

29. Lit.: confiding myself to your prudence, I will take spirit and say what I intend.

30. Lit.: with respect to.

31. Perchè, usually translated as “because.”

32. Uno, usually translated as “one individual.”





33. Publius Bassus Ventidius at the battle of Gindarus in 38 b.c.; see Frontinus II 2.5.

34. Caesar, Gallic WarI 52; Caesar was fighting the German troops of Ariovistus in 58 b.c.

35. Lit.: with respect to.

36. Parentheses in original.





37. Epaminondas (ca. 418–362 b.c.) was a great Theban general. Frontinus II 2.12; cf. AW III 103, VII 204, 243; D I 17.3, 21.3, III 13.3, 18.1, 38.1; P 12.50.

38. Lit.: person.

39. Lit.: with respect to.

40. Lit.: with respect to.

41. Lit.: with respect to.





LUIGI. [151] We can understand very well as much as you have discussed44 concerning artillery. In sum, it seems to me that you have shown that occupying it quickly is the best remedy one has for it, if one is on the field and faces an opposing army. [152] A doubt occurs to me concerning this: for it seems to me that the enemy could locate [his artillery] in a place within his army where it could offend you and would be guarded by infantrymen so that it could not be occupied. [153] If I remember well, in ordering your army for battle you have made intervals of four braccia between one battalion and the other, and of 20 between the battalions and the extraordinary pikes. [154] If the enemy ordered his army similarly to yours, and put his artillery far back in those intervals, I believe that it could offend you with very great security for itself, because one could not enter into the forces of the enemy to occupy it.



42. Parentheses in original.

43. Cf.DII17.

44. Lit.: discoursed.





FABRIZIO. [155] You doubt very prudently, and I will strive either to resolve your doubt or to offer a remedy. [156] I told you45 that these battalions are continually in motion whether marching or fighting, and by nature always come to be constricted, so that if you make the intervals in which you put the artillery of little width, in a short time they are constricted so that the artillery will no longer be able to do its own office. If you make them wide so as to flee this danger, you will run into a greater one. For with these intervals you make it easy for the enemy not only to occupy your artillery but to break you. [157] But you have to know that it is impossible to keep the artillery between the lines, especially that which comes on wagons. For the artillery marches in one direction and fires in the other. So if it has to march and to fire, before firing it is necessary for it to turn around and, in turning, it requires so much space that fifty artillery wagons would disorder any army. [158] Therefore, it is necessary to keep it outside of the lines, where it can be fought in the mode that we demonstrated a little while ago.46[159] But let’s set it down that they can be kept [within the orders] and that one can find a middle way of [such] a quality that, while being constricted, it does not impede the artillery and is not so open as to give passage47to the enemy. I say that this is easily remedied by opposing intervals in your army that give free passage to the shots of artillery. Thus, its fury will turn out to be in vain. [160] This can be done very easily. For since the enemy wants his artillery to remain secure, he must put it in back in the last part of the intervals. And since he wants them not to hurt his own [men], its shots must always pass along the same straight line. Therefore, by giving [the artillery shots] their place, they can easily be fled. For this is a general rule: that one has to give way to those things which cannot be withstood, as the ancients did with elephants and scythed chariots.48 [161] I believe, indeed I am more than certain, that it seems to you that I have adjusted a battle to my own mode and won. Nonetheless, if what I have said up to this point is not enough, I reply to you with this: that it would be impossible for an army so ordered and armed not to overcome in the first encounter every other army that is ordered as modern armies are ordered. [162] Most of the time these make but one front, have no shields, and are unarmed in such a way49 that they cannot defend themselves from a nearby enemy. And they are ordered so that if they put their battalions with the flank of one along that of the other, they make their army thin; if they put one behind the other, they make it confused and apt to be easily disturbed, having no mode for one to receive the other. [163] And although they give three names to their arms and divide them in three lines, vanguard, battalion, and rearguard, nonetheless, they use them for nothing other than marching and distinguishing encampments. But in battle all are obliged to one initial thrust and one initial fortune.



45. SeeAWII10.

46. See AWIII 64–65.

47. Via, translated elsewhere as “way.”

48. See Polybius XV 9; cf. Vegetius III 24.

49. Lit.: of a quality.





LUIGI. [164] I also noticed that in making your battle your cavalry was repulsed by the enemy cavalrymen, so that it [was] withdrawn among the extraordinary pikes. From this it arose that with their help it withstood and turned back the enemies. [165] I believe that pikes can withstand cavalrymen, as you say, but in a thick and solid brigade such as the Swiss make. But in your army you have five orders of pikes along the head and, along the side, seven, so that I do not know how they may be able to withstand them.

FABRIZIO. [166] Although I told you50 that six files at a time51 were used in the Macedonian phalanxes, you nonetheless have to understand that one brigade of Swiss, if it were composed of a thousand files, can use but four of them or, at most, five. For the pikes are nine braccia long. One and a half braccia are occupied by the hands, so in the first file, seven and a half braccia of pike remain free. [167] The second file, besides what it occupies with the hands, consumes one and a half braccia with the space that remains between one file and the other, so that only six useful braccia of pike remain. [168] To the third file, for these same reasons, four and a half braccia remain; to the forth, three; to the fifth, one and a half braccia. [169] The other files are useless for wounding [the enemy], but serve to restore these first files, as we had said,52 and to act as a barbican for these five. [170] Thus, if five of their files can resist cavalrymen, why can’t five of ours resist them? These also do not lack files behind, which sustain them and give them the same support, even though they do not have pikes like the former. [171] And if the extraordinary pikes that are posted on the flanks seem thin to you, they could be arranged in a square and put along the flank of the two battalions that I put in the last line of the army. From that place, all together could easily protect53 the front and the back of the army and lend help to the cavalrymen, as need requires.

LUIGI. [172] Would you always use this form of order when you want to do battle?

FABRIZIO. [173] Not in any mode. For you have to vary the form of the army according to the quality of the site and the quality and quantity of the enemy, as will be shown by some examples before this reasoning is finished. [174] But this form was given to you not so much as being hardier than the others, though truly it is very hardy, as because you may take from it one rule and one order to know how to recognize the modes of ordering the others. For every science has its generalities upon which it is in good part founded. [175] Of one thing alone I remind you: never order an army so that whoever fights ahead cannot be assisted by those posted behind. For whoever makes this error renders the greatest part of his army useless, and he cannot win if he encounters any virtue.



50. SeeAWIII23.

51. Or: at a stroke.

52. See AW III 21–24.

53. Lit.: favor.





LUIGI. [176] A doubt has occurred to me over this. [177] I saw that in the arrangement of the battalions you make the front from five [battalions] in a line, the middle from three, and the last parts from two. I would believe that it is better to order them oppositely, because I think that an army can be broken with more difficulty when whoever charges finds it harder the more he penetrates it. And the order made by you seems to me to make it that the more one enters it the weaker one finds it.

FABRIZIO. [178] If you were to remember that the triarii, which were the third order of the Roman legions, were not assigned more than six hundred men, you would doubt less, having understood that they were posted in the last line. For you would see how I, moved by this example, posted in the last line two battalions of nine hundred infantrymen.54 So that, going by the Roman order, I end up erring by having taken too many rather than too few of them. [179] And although this example should be enough, I want to tell you the reason for it. [180] It is this: the first front of the army is made solid and dense because it has to withstand the thrust of enemies and does not have to receive into itself any of its friends. And for this it must abound in men, for few men would make it weak either through sparsity or in number. [181] But because it has to receive its friends before withstanding the enemy, the second line must have large intervals, and for this it must have a smaller number than the first. For if it had a greater or equal number, it would be necessary55 either not to leave intervals there, which would be a disorder, or, if they are left there, to pass beyond the ends of the first one, which would make the form of the army imperfect. [182] And what you say is not true, that the more the enemy enters into the brigade the more he finds it weak. For the enemy can never fight with the second order unless the first has joined with it, so that [the enemy] ends up finding the middle of the brigade hardier and not weaker, since it has to fight with the first and the second orders together. [183] The same happens when the enemy reaches the third line. For there he has to fight not with the two fresh battalions that he finds there, but with the whole brigade. [184] And because this last part has to receive more men, the spaces must be bigger, and whoever receives them [must] be less numerous.



54. See Polybius VI 21.

55. Convenire





LUIGI. [185] I like what you have said. But answer this for me as well: if the first five battalions withdraw among the second three, and then those eight among the third two, it doesn’t seem possible, once the eight are arranged together and then the ten [are arranged] together, that they, either when they are eight or when they are ten, would take up56 the same [amount of] space that the [first] five took up.

FABRIZIO. [186] The first answer I give you is that it is not the same [amount of] space. For the [first] five have four spaces in between which they occupy while withdrawing among the three [in the second line] and among the two [in the third line]. Then there is the space that is between one brigade and another and between the battalions and the extraordinary pikes, which spaces all make room. [187] Add to this that the battalions take up a different space when they are in their orders without being altered than when they are altered. For in altering they either constrict or widen the orders. [188] They widen them when they are so afraid that they are put to flight; they constrict them when theyfear in such a mode as57to seek to secure themselves not with flight but with defense, such that in this case they would end up being constricted and not being widened. [189] Add to this that the five files of pikes that are in front, once they have joined the battle, have to be withdrawn among their battalions to the back of the army so as to give place to the shieldmen, who are able to fight. [190] And the former, by going to the back of the army, can attend to what the captain judges it is well for them to do; whereas in front they would be altogether useless once the fight is joined. [191] And through this, the ordered spaces end up being very capacious for the remaining troops. [192] However, when these spaces are not enough, the flanks on the side are men, not walls. By yielding and widening themselves, they can make a space of enough capacity to be sufficient to receive them.

LUIGI. [193] Do you want the files of extraordinary pikes, which you place on the flanks of the army when the first battalions withdraw into the second, to stay solid and remain as the two horns of the army, or do you want them as well to withdraw together with the battalions? [194] I don’t see how they can do so when they have to, since they do not have battalions behind them with thin intervals to receive them.

FABRIZIO. [195] If the enemy does not fight them when he forces the bat



56. Capere, related to the words translated as “grasp,” “understand,” “capable,” “capacity,” and “capacious.”

57. In modo che, usually translated “so that.”





talions to withdraw, they can stay solid in their orders and wound the enemy on the flanks, once the first battalions have been withdrawn. But they too must withdraw if he fights them as well, as seems reasonable, since he is so powerful that he is able to force the others. [196] They can do this very well, even though they do not have anyone behind who receives them. For by the previous means they can double by right [lines], the one file entering into the other in the mode that we discussed when the order of doubling was spoken of.58 [197] It is true that in wanting to withdraw by doubling, a mode must be kept other than that which I showed you. For I said to you that the second file had to enter into the first, theforth into the third, and so on.59In this case, one would not have to start from the front, but from behind, so that in doubling the files they end up withdrawing backward, not going forward. [198] But so as to respond to everything that can be asked by you about this battle shown by me, I tell you anew that I have ordered this army and shown this battle for two causes: the one, so as to show you how it is ordered; the other, so as to show you how it is trained. [199] I believe that you grasp the order very well; and as to the training, I say to you that one must put them together in these forms as many times as one can. For the heads learn to keep their battalions in these orders. [200] Because it belongs to the particular soldiers to keep the orders of each battalion well, it belongs to the heads of the battalions to keep them in each order of the army well and to know how to obey the commandment of the captain-general. [201] Therefore, they must know how to conjoin one battalion with the other [and] know how to take their places at a stroke. The flag of each battalion must, therefore, have its number written in an obvious place so that they can be commanded and because the captain and the soldiers may recognize them more easily by that number. [202] The brigades must also be numbered and have the number on their principal flag. [203] Thus, one must know what number the brigade posted on the left or on the right is, what number the battalions posted on the front and in the middle are, and so on, one after the other.60 [204] One also wants these numbers to ascend by the ranks of the honors of the armies. For instance, the first rank to be the decurion; the second, the head of the fifty ordinary velites; the third, the centurion; the forth, the head of the first battalion; the fifth, [the head] of the second; the sixth, [the head] of the third; and, from one to the other,61 up to the tenth battalion, [whose head] would be honored in the second place after the head-general of a brigade. Nor could anyone end up as that head unless he had climbed there through all of these ranks. [205] And because besides62these heads there are the three constables of the extraordinary pikes and the two of the extraordinary velites, I would want them to be of the [same] rank as the constable of the first battalion.63 Nor would I care that six men would be of equal rank, so that each of them would be in competition for being promoted to the second battalion. [206] So since each one of these heads knows in which place his battalion has to be located, it would follow from this of necessity that at the sound of the trumpet, the captain’s flag being raised, the whole army would be in their places. [207] And this is the first exercise to which an army should be accustomed, that is, being put together quickly. And so as to do this, one must order it and disorder it everyday, and many times in one day.



58. SeeAWII 183 ff.

59. Lit.: from hand to hand.

60. Lit.: from hand to hand.

61. Lit.: from hand to hand.

62. Lit.: outside of.





LUIGI. [208] What sign would you want the flags of the whole army to have, besides the number?

FABRIZIO. [209] That of the captain-general is to have the sign of the prince of the army. The others would be able to have the same sign and to vary by camps, or to vary by signs, as may seem better to the lord of the army. For this is of little importance, as long as the effect arises from it that they recognize one another. [210] But let’s pass to the other training in which an army should be trained. This is to have it move and go with a fitting pace, and see that it maintain its orders while moving. [211] The third drill is [to have] it learn to manage itself in that mode in which it later has to manage itself in battle: to have it fire the artillery and withdraw it; to have the extraordinary velites go out and, after seeming to attack, to withdraw them; to have the first battalions, as if they were pushed back, retire into the sparsity of the second, and then all into the third, and from there each return to his place; and to accustom them to this drill, so that everything is noted and familiar to each. With practice and familiarity this is performed very quickly. [212] The fourth drill is [to have] them learn to recognize the commandment of their captain by virtue of his musical instrument and flags. For they will understand without another commandment what is uttered to them by voice. [213] And because the important thing about this commandment must arise from the musical instrument, I will tell you those musical instruments which the ancients used. [214] As Thucydides affirms, flutes were used by the Lacedemonians in their armies. For they judged that this harmony was more apt to make their army proceed with gravity and not with fury.64 [215] Moved by this same reason, the Carthaginians used the cythera in the first assault.65 [216] Halyattes, king of Lydia, used the cythera and flutes in war. But Alexander the Great and the Romans used horns and trumpets,66 as they thought that by virtue of such instruments they were more able to inflame the spirits of the soldiers and make them fight more hardily. [217] But just as we, in arming the army, have taken the Greek and Roman mode, so in distributing the musical instruments we use the customs of the one and the other nation. [218] Therefore, I would have the trumpets stay near the captain-general, not only as a musical instrument fit to inflame the army but more fit than any other musical instrument to be heard amidst every noise. [219] I would want all the other musical instruments that were around the constables and the heads of the brigades67 to be little drums and loud flutes played not as they are now, but as is customary in playing at banquets. [220] With the trumpet, the captain thus shows when one has to stop or go forward or turn backward, when the artillery has to fire, when the extraordinary velites have to move, and, with the variation of such musical instruments, he shows the army all those motions that can be shown generally. Those trumpets would then be followed by drums. [221] His army would indeed have to train in this drill, for it is very important. [222] As to the cavalry, one would likewise want to use trumpets, but with less volume and with a different sound68 from those of the captain. [223] This is as much as occurs to me about the order of the army and about its training.



63. See Vegetius II 21.

64. See Thucydides V 70.

65. The source for this passage would seem to be Aulus Gellius I 11, in which case Machiavelli has replaced Cretans with Carthaginians. No ancient source asserts that the Carthaginians used cytheras (see L. Arthur Burd, “Le fonti letterarie di Machavelli nell’Arte della guerra,” Atti della Reale Academia dei Lincei, 5th ser., Cl. di scienze morali, storiche efilologiche 4 (1896): 208–9).





LUIGI. [224] I pray that clarifying something else for me is not a burden69for you: for what cause did you have the light cavalrymen and extraordinary velites move with cries and noise and fury when they attacked, and then, in engaging the rest of the army, you showed that the affair continued in very great silence? [225] And because I do not understand the cause of this variety, I would desire that you clarify it for me.

FABRIZIO. [226] There have been various opinions among the ancient captains about coming to blows: whether one should accelerate the pace with noise or go slowly in silence. [227] This last mode helps in keeping the order firmer and in understanding better the commandments of the captain; the first helps more in inflaming the spirits of the men. [228] And because I believe that one must have respect for the one and the other of these two things, I had some move with noise and others in silence. [229] Nor does it seem to me that continual noises are to the purpose, because they impede the commandments, which is a very pernicious thing. [230] Nor is it reasonable [to suppose] that the Romans continued making noise after70the first assault. For it is seen to have happened many times in their histories that soldiers who were fleeing were stopped by the speeches and encouragements71 of the captain, and in various modes their orders were varied by his own commandments. This would not have happened if their noises had overcome his voice.



66. Halyattes, king of Lydia. See Herodotus I 17; Vegetius II 22; cf. Xenophon, Anabasis II 2.4.

67. Battaglione where one would expect battaglie.

68. Lit.: voice.

69. Lit.: heavy.





70. Lit.: outside of.

71. Lit.: comfortings.