# BOOK TWO1

BOOK TWO1



[1] I believe that it is necessary, once the men have been found, to arm them; and wanting to do this, I believe it is necessary to examine the arms that the ancients used, and to select the best of these. [2] The Romans divided their infantries into heavy and light armed.2 [3] Those with light arms they called by the one term velites. [4] Under this name are understood all those who shot with the sling, with the crossbow, and with darts. For their defense, the greater part of them had their heads covered and a kind of round shield on the arm. [5] These men fought outside of the orders and at a distance from the heavily armed. The latter3 had a helmet that came down to the shoulders and a cuirass that came down to the knees with its layers; they had their legs and arms covered with greaves and arm plates and on their arms a shield two-braccia4 long and one[-braccio] wide that had an iron rim on top so as to be able to sustain a blow, and another on the bottom, so that it was not worn out when it rubbed along the ground. [6] For offense they had a sword one-and-a-half-braccia long strapped to their left side and a dagger on their right side. [7] They had a spear in hand which they called a pilum, and at the outset of battle they threw it at the enemy. [8] This was the chief thing about5Roman arms, with which they occupied all the world. [9] And although some of the ancient writers give them, besides the aforesaid arms, a spear in hand in the mode of a javelin,6 I do not know how a heavy spear can be used by one who is holding a shield. For in managing it with two hands, the shield impedes him; with one, he can do no good because of its weight. [10] Besides this, to fight in crowds and in orders with a weapon on [the end of] a spear is useless, except in the first front where one has the free space to be able to extend the spear completely. One cannot do this in the orders within because the nature of the battalions is to tighten continually, as I will tell you7while ordering them. For although this is inconvenient, it is less feared than their widening, the danger of which is very evident. [11] Hence, all arms that exceed two braccia are useless in the constricted [orders]. For, supposing that the shield does not hinder you, if you have the spear and you want to use it with two hands, with it you cannot harm an enemy who is nearby you. [12] If you take the spear with one hand so as to use the shield, so much of the rear part sticks out, since you cannot hold it except in the middle, that those who are behind impede you in managing it. [13] And read all the battles celebrated by Titus Livy in his history [to see] that it is true either that the Romans did not have these spears or that, having them, they rarely availed themselves of them. In these you will see mention made of spears very few times; indeed, he always says that, the pila having been thrown, they put hands to swords. [14] But I want to leave these spears and, regarding the Romans, keep to the sword for offense and, for defense, to the shield and the other arms mentioned above. [15] The Greeks were not armed as heavily for defense as the Romans. But for offense they founded themselves more onthe spear than on the sword, and especially the Macedonian phalangites, who carried spears a good ten-braccia long, called sarisses, with which they opened the enemy ranks and kept the orders in their own phalanxes.8[16] And although some writers say that they also had a shield,9 I do not know how the sarisses and the shields could be together for the reasons given above. [17] Besides this, in the battle that Paulus Emilius had with King Perseus of Macedon, I do not recall that mention was made there of shields, but only of the sarisses and of the difficulty that the Roman army had in defeating them.10 [18] So I conjecture that a Macedonian phalanx was not otherwise than is a battalion of Swiss today, who have all of their force and all of their power in their pikes. [19] Besides arms, the Romans ornamented their infantries with plumes, which things make the sight11of an army beautiful to friends, terrible to enemies. [20] In that first Roman antiquity, the armor of the men on horseback was a round shield and they had their heads covered; the rest was unarmored.12[21] They had a sword and a spear, long and slender, with the iron on the front end only. Hence they ended up being unable to steady the shield, and the spear was broken in the fray; and by being unarmored, they were exposed to being wounded. [22] Then in time they were armed like the infantrymen; but they had a shorter, square shield and a firmer spear with two iron [spearheads] so that when one part came offthey could avail themselves of the other.13 [23] With these arms, on foot as well as on horse, my Romans occupied the whole world. And because of the fruit that was seen from them, it is believable that they were the best armed armies that ever were. [24] And Titus Livy vouches for this many times in his histories, when he comes to a comparison with the enemy armies, where he says: “But the Romans, through virtue, through the kind of arms and discipline, were superior.”14And, therefore, I have reasoned more particularly about the arms of the victors than of the vanquished. [25] It seems well to me only to reason about the present mode of arming. [26] For their defense, the infantrymen have a breast[plate] of iron; and for offense a lance nine-braccia long which they call a pike, and at their side a sword, somewhat more round than sharp at the point. [27] This is the ordinary arming of the infantries of today, for few of them have armored their backs and arms, none the head. Instead of a pike, those few [who are in armor] carry a halberd whose spear, as you know, is three-braccia long and has the iron retracted like a hatchet. [28] They have among them arquebusiers, who, with the vehemence of their fire, do the office that the slingers and crossbowmen did anciently. [29] This mode of arming was discovered by the German peoples, especially the Swiss. Since they were poor and wanted to live freely, they were and are necessitated to fight against the ambition of the princes of Germany; because [the latter] were rich, they were able to raise horses, which these peoples were not able to do because of poverty. From this it arises that, since they were on foot and wished to defend themselves from their enemy who was on horseback, they had to search the ancient orders again and find arms that might defend them from the fury of horse. [30] This necessity has made them either maintain or rediscover ancient orders, without which, as every prudent [man] affirms, infantry is altogether useless. [31] They therefore took for arms these pikes, arms most useful not only for withstanding cavalrymen, but for conquering them. [32] By virtue of these arms and orders, the Germans have attained so much audacity that fifteen to twenty thousand of them would assault any number of cavalrymen, however large. During the past twenty-five years, many experiences of this have been seen here. [33] And there have been so many powerful examples of their virtue founded upon these arms and these orders, that when King Charles passed into Italy,15 every nation imitated them; so much so that the Spanish armies have come into very great reputation.



1. The translation of the complete title of book II parallels that of book I: “Book Two of the Art of War by Niccolò Machiavegli, Florentine Citizen and Secretary, to Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi, Florentine Patrician.” The titles of books III and VII follow the same form.

2. For the following discussion of light arms, see Polybius VI 22; Vegetius I 20, II 2, IV 22; cf. Livy XXXI 34, XXXVIII 21; for that of heavy arms, see Polybius VI 23; Josephus III 5 5.

3. That is, the heavily armed soldiers.

4. One braccio is equal to 22.84 inches.

5. Lit.: the importance of.





6. Spiedo, a long, slender spear used for war and hunting and as a spit.

7. See AWIII 156.

8. For a discussion of the Macedonian phalanx, see Polybius XXVIII 12–16.

9. See Plutarch, Aemilius Paulus 19–20; Livy XXXI 39.

10. The battle of Pydna (168 b.c.) See Livy XLIV 36–43; Plutarch, Aemilius Paulus 16–23. Both authors report that the Macedonians used shields.

11. Lit.: aspect.





12. Disarmato, translated as either unarmed or unarmored, depending on context; see the glossary.

13. Polybius VI 25.

14. Quotation not found. For related discussions, see Livy IX 17 and 18.





COSIMO. [34] Which mode of arming is praised more by you, this German one or the ancient Roman?

FABRIZIO. [35] TheRomanwithoutadoubt; and I will tell you the good and the bad of the one and the other. [36] The German infantrymen thus armed can withstand and conquer; they are more expeditious on the road and in being ordered, because they are not laden with arms. [37] On the other hand, by being unarmored they are exposed to every blow, both distant and near. They are useless in battles against towns and in any fight where there is hardy resistance. [38] But like the former, the Romans withstood and conquered cavalrymen; they were secure against blows from near and far by being covered with armor; they could charge and were better able to withstand charges, since they had shields; they could more ably avail themselves of the sword at close quarters than the former [could avail themselves] of the pike; and if [the former] have a sword as well it becomes useless in such a case because they are without a shield. [39] They were able to assault towns securely, since their heads were covered and could be better covered with their shields. [40] Thus, they had no other inconvenience than the weight of their arms and the annoyance of having to carry them, which things they overcame by habituating the body to hardships and by hardening it to be able to endure fatigue. [41] And you know how men do not suffer from things [to which they are] accustomed. [42] And you have to understand this: infantries may have to fight against infantrymen and cavalrymen; and always will theybe useless who are unable either to withstand cavalrymen or, being able to withstand them, nonetheless have to be afraid of infantries that are better armed and better ordered than they. [43] Now if you consider the German infantry and the Roman, you will find in the German the ability to beat cavalrymen, as we have said, but a great disadvantage when it fights with an infantry ordered like them and armed like the Roman. [44] Such that this will be the advantage of the one and the other: that the Romans will be able to overcome infantrymen and cavalrymen, the Germans only cavalrymen.



15. Charles’s invasion in 1494 marks the beginning of what came to be called the Italian Wars, in which Italy became the battlefield of various European powers, especially France and Spain, until 1559.





COSIMO. [45] I would desire that you come to some more particular example, so that we may better understand this.

FABRIZIO. [46] I say this: in many places of our histories you will find that the Roman infantries defeated innumerable cavalrymen, and never will you find that they have been defeated by men on foot either through a defect they may have had in arming or through an advantage their enemy had had in arms. [47] Because, if the mode of arming them had had a defect, it was necessary that one of two things happen. Finding that someone was better armed than they were, either they would not have gone any further with their acquisitions, or they would have taken up the foreign modes and left their own. [48] And because neither the one thing nor the other happened,16 it arises that one can easily conjecture that their mode of arming was better than that of anyone else. [49] It has not yet happened with the German infantries. For one has seen them make a bad showing any time they have had to fight with men on foot ordered and obstinate like themselves. This arose from the advantage that they had encountered in the enemy arms. [50] Filippo Visconti, duke of Milan, being assaulted by eighteen thousand Swiss, sent against them Count Carmignuola,17 who was then his captain. [51] With six thousand cavalrymen and a few infantrymen, he went to find them. Upon coming to blows with them, he was beaten back to his own very grave harm. [52] Then Carmignuola, as a prudent man, immediately recognized the power of the enemy arms—how much they prevailed against cavalrymen and the weakness of cavalrymen against [men] on foot so ordered. He put his men together again, went to find the Swiss again, and when he came near them made his men-at-arms get down from their horses. Fighting with them in such a manner, he killed all of them except for three thousand who, seeing themselves consumed without having a remedy, threw their arms to the ground and surrendered.18

COSIMO. [53] From what does so much disadvantage arise?

FABRIZIO. [54] I told you a little while ago;19 but since you didn’t understand, I will repeat it for you. [55] As you were told a little while ago, the German infantries, almost without armor for defending themselves, have the pike and the sword for offense. [56] They come with these arms and in their order to find the enemy, who comes with his sword and in his orders to find them if he is well armored for defense, as were Carmignuola’s men-at-arms who were made to get down on foot. And he has no other difficulty than getting near enough to the Swiss to join them with his sword, since he fights them securely once he has joined them. For a German20 cannot stick an enemy who is close to him with his pike because of the length of his spear, and he must put his hand to his sword, which is useless to him since he is unarmored and has to meet an enemy who is completely armored. [57] So whoever considers the advantage and the disadvantage of the one and of the other will see how the unarmored [man] has no remedy at all for this; and winning the first clash and passing the first pike points is not very difficult, if whoever fights them is well armored. For the battalions advance (you will better understand how once I have shown you how they are put together),21 and while advancing of necessity they draw near to one another so that their chests hit; and if anyone is killed or thrown to the ground by the pikes, those that remain on foot are more than enough for victory. [58] From this it arose that Carmignuola won with so much slaughter of the Swiss and so little loss of his own.22



16. See Polybius VI 25 for the Roman discovery of the superiority of Greek arms and their subsequent imitation of them.

17. Filippo Maria Visconti, duke of Milan (1412–47); Francesco Bussone (1390–1432), count of Carmignuola. Filippo Visconti figures prominently in the Florentine Histories, especially Books IV–VI; for Carmignuola, see P 12.51; D II 18.4.

18. The battle of Arbedo (1422); cf. D II 18.4.

19. Presumably at AWII 34–44.





COSIMO. [59] You observe23 that Carmignuola’s men were men-at-arms who, although they were on foot, were completely covered with iron and were therefore able to pass the test they passed. So I think that one needs to arm infantry like them, if one wants to pass the same test.

FABRIZIO. [60] If you recalled how I said the Romans were armed, you would not think so. For an infantryman who has his head covered with iron, his chest defended by a cuirass and a shield, his legs and arms armored, is much more able to defend himself against pikes and to enter among them than is a man-at-arms on foot. [61] I want to give you a brief modern example.24 [62] The Spanish infantries had gone from Sicily to the kingdom of Naples so as to go to find Gonsalo,25 who was besieged at Barletta by the French. [63] Against [the Spanish] were Monsieur d’Aubigny26 with his men-at-arms and with around four thousand German infantrymen. [64] [The Spanish] came to blows27 with the Germans. [65] With their pikes low, [the Germans] opened up the Spanish infantries. But the latter, helped by their bucklers and by the agility of their bodies,28so mixed themselves with the Germans that they were able to join them with their swords. From this arose the death of almost all [the Germans] and the victory of the Spanish. [66] Everyone knows how many German infantrymen died in the battle of Ravenna,29 which arose from the same causes. For the Spanish infantries had drawn to within sword-range of the German infantries and would have completely consumed them if the German infantrymen had not been aided by the French cavalrymen. Nonetheless, the Spanish, having drawn together, retired to a secure place. [67] I conclude, therefore, that good infantry must not only be able to withstand cavalrymen, but it must not be afraid of infantrymen. As I have said many times, this proceeds from arms and orders.



20. Machiavelli alternates between discussing the Swiss and the Germans, who used similar armaments and tactics. The Swiss are sometimes treated as a subset of the Germans.

21. Parentheses in the original.

22. Cf. D II 18 for another account of Carmignuola.

23. Lit.: consider.

24. Lit.: a little of a modern example.

25. Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (1453–1515) (see D I 29.2). At the battle described below, known as that of Cerignuola or Seminara (1503), Fabrizio Colonna fought on the Spanish side.





COSIMO. [68] Then say how you would arm them.

FABRIZIO. [69] I would take from the Romans and from the Germans, and I would want half to be armed like the Romans and the other half like the Germans. [70] For if among six thousand infantrymen, as I will tell you a little later,30 I had three thousand infantrymen with shields like the Romans’ and two thousand pikes and a thousand arquebusiers like the Germans’, they would be enough for me. For I would place the pikes either in the front of the battalion or where I most feared cavalrymen; and those with shield and sword I would use to back up the pikes and to win the battle, as I will show you.31 [71] Hence I believe that an infantry so ordered would today overcome any other infantry.

COSIMO. [72] What you have just said is enough for us as to infantries, but as to cavalrymen we desire to understand which seems to you more hardily armed, ours or the ancient?

FABRIZIO. [73] I believe that, in these times, on account of 32 the arched saddles and the stirrups not used by the ancients, one remains more firmly on horseback than then. [74] I believe that one is also more safe, such that today a squadron of men-at-arms, by weighing so much, is resisted with more difficulty than were ancient cavalrymen. [75] With all of this, nonetheless, I judge that one should not set more store by horse than was set by it in antiquity. For, as was said above,33 they have been put to shame many times in our times by infantrymen, and they will always be put to shame if they encounter infantry armed and ordered as above. [76] Against a Roman army whose captain was Lucullus, Tigranes, king of Armenia, had 150 thousand cavalrymen, among whom very many, called cataphracts, were armed like our men-at-arms. On the other side, the Roman [cavalrymen] did not reach six thousand, with 25 thousand infantrymen, such that Tigranes, upon seeing the enemy’s army, said: “These are cavalrymen enough for an embassy.”34 Nonetheless, having come to blows, he was beaten. [77] He who writes of that battle deprecates these cataphracts by showing their uselessness. For he says that by having their faces covered they were hardly able to see and to harm the enemy, and by being weighed down by arms, they could not get up once they had fallen nor avail themselves of their bodies35 in any manner. [78] I say, therefore, that those peoples and kings who esteem cavalry more than infantry must always be weak and exposed to every ruin, as has been seen in our times in Italy, which has been plundered, ruined, and overrun by foreigners for no other sin than having taken little care of the military on foot and having put all of its soldiers on horses.36 [79] One should indeed have cavalrymen, but as the second and not as the first foundation of one’s army. For they are necessary and very useful for scouting, overrunning and wasting the enemy’s country, keeping his army worried and harassed and always under arms, and cutting offhis provisions. But as to the battle and the open-field fight, which are the important thing37 in war and the end for which armies are ordered, they are more useful for following the enemy once he is beaten than for doing anything else one does with them. And in virtue they are very much inferior to foot soldiers.



26. Robert Stuart D’Aubigny (1470–1544).

27. Lit.: hands.

28. Or: body.

29. The battle of Ravenna (April 11, 1512). After losing many of his men to field artillery in this battle, Fabrizio was taken prisoner by the French. The Spanish went on from this loss to the victory over Machiavelli’s militia at Prato, leading to the reinstallation of the Medici in Florence. For the battle of Ravenna, see P 13.54, 26.105; D I 12.2, II 16.2, 17.3, 17.4.

30. This relatively high one-to-five ratio of arquebus to other weapons is not repeated when Fabrizio discusses the composition of his forces at AWII 147 ff.

31. See AWIII 90–96.

32. Lit.: with respect to.





COSIMO. [80] Two doubts occur to me: one is that I know that the Parthians used nothing other than cavalrymen in war, and yet they divided the world with the Romans. The other is that I would like you to tell me how cavalry can be withstood by infantrymen, and from what the virtue of the latter and the weakness of the former arise.



33. See AWII 29–58.

34. Lucius Licinius Lucullus (110–56 b.c.) in the battle of Tigranocerta (69 b.c.) during the Romans’ Third Mithridatic War (74–63 b.c.) defeated Tigranes (94–56 b.c.). See Plutarch, Lucullus 26 ff., where Tigranes is said to have had one hundred fifty thousand heavy infantry and fiftyfive thousand cavalry, Lucullus approximately ten thousand heavy infantry and one thousand cavalry. Tigranes says of Lucullus’s troops as a whole that they are too many for ambassadors, and too few for soldiers. Cf. D II 19.1.

35. Lit.: of their person.

36. Cf. D II 18; P 12.

37. Lit.: the importance.





FABRIZIO. [81] Either I told you38 or I meant to tell you that my discussion39 of the things of war does not exceed the limits of Europe. [82] When it does so, I am not obligated to give reasons for what is customary in Asia. [83] However, I have to say this: the Parthians’ military was entirely contrary to that of the Romans, because the Parthians all soldiered on horseback, and in fighting they proceeded confused and dispersed. It was an unstable mode of fighting and was full of uncertainty. [84] The Romans were, it can be said, almost all on foot and fought together, tight and solid. One or the other alternately won according to whether the site was wide or tight. For in the latter the Romans were superior; in the former, the Parthians. [The Parthians] were able to make a great showing with that military thanks to40the region they had to defend, which was very wide because it had seas a thousand miles41 apart, rivers two or three days from one another, and towns as well as inhabitants dispersed. So a Roman army, heavy and slow because of its arms and orders, was not able to cross it without heavy harm, as he who defended it was on horseback and very rapid, so that one day it was in one place and the next it was fifty miles away. From this it arose that the Parthians were able to prevail with cavalry alone, both to the ruin of the army of Crassus and to the peril of that of Marc Antony.42 [85] But, as I told you,43 I do not intend this discussion44 of mine to speak of the military outside of Europe. Therefore, I want to remain with what the Romans and the Greeks ordered in the past, and what the Germans do today. [86] But let’s come to the other question of yours, where you desire to understand what order or what natural virtue makes infantrymen surpass cavalry. [87] And I say to you, first, that cavalrymen cannot go every place like infantrymen. [88] They are slower to obey than infantrymen when their orders happen to vary. For if while they are going forward they need to move back, or while moving back they need to go forward, or they need to move when they are standing still, or when they are going they need to stop, without doubt cavalrymen cannot do so as precisely as infantrymen. [89] If they have been disordered by some thrust, even once that thrust is over, cavalrymen cannot return to their orders except with difficulty. Infantrymen do this very rapidly. [90] Besides this, many times it happens that a spirited man will be on a vile horse or a vile [man] on a spirited [horse]. Hence these disparities of spirit must make for disorder. [91] Nor may anyone marvel that a maniple45 of infantrymen withstands every thrust of cavalrymen. For a horse is a feeling animal and recognizes the dangers and enters them unwillingly. [92] And if you will consider which forces make it go forward and which keep it back, without doubt you will see that those which keep it back are greater than those which push it on. For the spur makes it go ahead, and, on the other side, either the sword or the pike keep it back, [93] such that a maniple of infantrymen is seen through ancient and through modern experiences to be very secure, indeed insuperable, against cavalrymen. [94] And if against this you argue that the impetus with which it comes makes it more furious in charging whoever wants to withstand it, and makes it esteem the pike less than the spur, I say that if the horse begins to see from afar that it has to hit the points of the pikes, either it checks its course on its own, so that as it feels itself pricked it will stop entirely, or as it approaches them it will turn to the right or left. [95] If you want to make an experiment of this, try to run a horse into a wall with whatever impetus you want: rarely will you find that it goes into it. [96] Caesar, having to fight with the Swiss in France, got down and made each individual get down on foot and remove the horses from the line, as more apt to flee than to fight.46 [97] But, notwithstanding these natural impediments that horses have, the captain who leads infantrymen should select ways that have the most impediments they can for horses; rarely will it happen that a man will be unable to secure himself through the quality of the country. [98] For if one walks through the hills, the site will free you from the charges that you47 fear.48 If one goes through a plain, there are few plains that do not secure you with cultivation and with woods. For every marsh, every embankment however weak, prevents that charge, and every cultivation, where there are vines and other trees, impedes horses. [99] And if you come to battle, the same thing happens for you as when you are marching, because every little impediment that a horse has takes away its impetus. [100] I nonetheless do not want to forget to tell you one thing: so much did the Romans esteem their orders and so much did they trust in their arms, that if they had to choose either a place so rough—so as to guard against cavalrymen—that they were not able to deploy their orders, or one where they had more fear of cavalrymen but were able to spread out, they always took the latter and let the former go. [101] But because it is time to pass to their training, having armed these infantries according to ancient and modern usage, we should see what training the Romans made them do before the infantries are led to do battle. [102] Even though they are well selected and better armed, they must train with very great attention,49 for without this training no soldier was ever good. [103] These drills50 must have three parts: one, to harden the body and make it fit for hardship and faster and more dexterous; next, to learn to use arms; third, to learn to observe the orders of the army, as much in marching as in fighting and encamping. [104] These are the three principal actions that an army makes. For if an army marches, encamps, and fights in an ordered and practiced way, the captain retains his honor therein, even if the battle does not have a good end. [105] All ancient republics provided for these drills so that through custom and through law not any part of them was left behind.51 [106] Thus they used to drill their youths to make them fast in running, to make them dexterous in jumping, and to make them strong in heaving the post and in wrestling. [107] And these three qualities are virtually necessary for a soldier, because speed makes him fit to occupy places before the enemy, to come upon him unhoped for and unexpected, and to follow him when he is beaten. [108] Dexterity makes him fit to dodge a blow, to jump a ditch, and to get over an embankment. [109] Strength makes him carry his arms, hurt the enemy, and withstand a thrust better. [110] And above all, to make his body more fit for hardship, they got used to carrying great weights. [111] This custom is necessary because in difficult expeditions many times a soldier must carry, in addition to his arms, supplies for extra days; and if he were not accustomed to this trouble he wouldn’t be able to do so, and through this he would be unable to flee a danger or to acquire a victory with fame. [112] As to learning how to use arms, they trained him in this mode. [113] They wanted the youths to wear arms that weighed more than double the true ones, and for a sword they gave them a lead-weighted club which was very heavy in comparison to the former.52 [114] They had each of them drive a post into the ground threebraccia high and in such a strong mode that blows would not pierce it or knock it to the ground. Against this post, as if against an enemy, the young man drilled himself with his shield and club: sometimes he stabbed it as if he wanted to wound the head or the face, sometimes as if he wanted to hit it in the side, sometimes in the legs, sometimes he drew back, sometimes he moved forward. [115] In this exercise they had this purpose: to make themselves fit to cover themselves and to strike the enemy; and by having very heavy fake arms, the true ones seemed lighter after those. [116] The Romans wanted their soldiers to strike with the point and not with the edge, both because the blow is more deadly and there is less defense against it, and because he who strikes [with the point] exposes himself less and is more able to strike again than he is with the edge. [117] Do not marvel that those ancients thought about these little things, considering53 that every little advantage is of great moment when men have to come to blows.54 And I remind you of what the writers say of this, rather than teach it to you myself. [118] Nor did the ancients esteem anything to be happier in a republic than for there to be many men in it trained in arms; for the splendor of gems and gold does not make your enemies submit themselves to you, but only the fear of arms. [119] Then the errors that are made in other things can at some time be corrected, but those that are made in war cannot be amended, since the penalty happens immediately. [120] Besides this, knowing how to fight made men more bold, because no one fears doing what it seems to him he has learned to do. [121] Therefore, the ancients wanted their citizens to be trained in every warlike action, and had them throw darts heavier than the true ones against the post. Besides making men expert in throwing, this drill also makes the arms55looser and stronger. [122] They also taught them to shoot with the bow and the sling. And over all of these things they had placed teachers so that later, when they were selected to go to war, they already had spirit and a soldierly disposition. [123] Nothing remained for them to learn other than to move in their orders and to maintain themselves in them, whether marching or fighting; they learned this easily, since they were mixed with those who knew how to stay in their orders through having soldiered longer.



38. Fabrizio does not speak of this limitation earlier. On the contrary, the discussion at AWI 121–23 would seem to presume that his reasoning would apply outside of Europe (cf. that earlier discussion with AWVI 162–63).

39. Lit.: reasoning.

40. Lit.: respect to.

41. The Tuscan and ancient Roman mile was slightly shorter than ours. The seas referred to are the Caspian Sea to the north and the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the south. The territory of ancient Parthia roughly corresponds to contemporary Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Judea, on the other hand, was successfully conquered by Rome.

42. Marcus Lucinius Crassus (115–53 b.c.) was defeated by the Parthians in 53 b.c. In 36 b.c. Mark Antony (ca. 83–32 b.c.) led an expedition against the Parthians, which concluded with a disastrous retreat. See Plutarch, Crassus 16 ff., and Mark Antony 37–52; cf. D II 18.3, III 12.2.

43. SeeAWII81.

44. Lit.: reasoning.





45. The maniple roughly corresponds to our company and consisted of two centuries of sixty men each.

46. See Caesar, Gallic War I 25.

47. The only formal or plural “you” in the Italian sentence.

48. Lit.: doubt.





49. Lit.: study.

50. The words translated as “drill,” “train,” “exercise,” and “army” have the same root.

51. For the following discussion of infantry training, see Vegetius I 9, 11–16; cf. Vegetius I 1, III 4.





COSIMO. [124] What drills would you make them do at present?

FABRIZIO. [125] Many of those that were mentioned, like running and having them wrestle, having them jump, having them toil under arms heavier than the ordinary ones, having them shoot with the bow and the crossbow. To this I would add the arquebus, a new instrument, as you know, and a necessary one. And I would accustom all the youths of my state to these drills, but with greater industry and more solicitude for that part I had designated as military. And they would always be trained on holidays. [126] I would also want them to learn to swim, which is very useful because there are not always bridges over rivers, nor are there always ships at the ready, such that if your army does not know how to swim, it is left deprived of many advantages, and many opportunities for doing good are taken from you. [127] The Romans ordered that the young men be trained in the Campus Martius for nothing else if not [these things]: because, having been exhausted in drills on land, they were able to refresh themselves in the water since it was near the Tibur and, on the other hand, to train themselves in swimming.56 [128] I would also, like the ancients, train those who soldier on horseback. This is very necessary, for besides knowing how to ride, they must know how to handle themselves on horseback. [129] For this they had ordered wooden horses upon which they made themselves adroit by jumping on them armed and unarmed, without any help from any hand. This made it that at a stroke and at a sign from the captain the cavalry was on foot, and likewise at a sign it remounted its horses. [130] And as such drills, both on foot and on horse, were easy then, so now they would not be difficult for that republic and that prince which wants to make its youth put them into practice, as is seen by experience in some cities of the West57 in which they keep alive similar modes with this order. [131] They divide all of their inhabitants into various parts, and they name every part by the kind of arms they use in war. [132] And because they use pikes, halberds, bows, and arquebuses, they call them pikers, halberdiers, arquebusiers and archers. [133] Thus, every inhabitant must declare the order in which he wants to be enrolled. [134] And because through old age or through other impediments not everyone is fit for war, they make a levy from each order and call them the Sworn. On holidays they are obligated to train with those arms for which they are named. [135] And each has his place, designated by the public, where such training should be done. Those who are of that order but are not among the Sworn contribute money for those expenses that are necessary in such training. [136] Therefore, what they do, we could do. But our lack of prudence does not allow us to take any good policy. [137] From these drills it arose that the ancients had good infantries and that now those of the West have better infantrymen than ours. For the ancients trained them either at home, as the republics did, or in the armies, as the emperors did, for the causes spoken of above. [138] But we do not train them at home; in camp, we cannot because they are not our subjects and we can oblige them to do only those drills that they themselves want to do. [139] This cause has made first the drills and then the orders to be neglected, and [made] kingdoms and republics, especially Italian ones, live in so much weakness. [140] But let’s return to our order. Following this matter of drills, I say that to make good armies it is not enough to have hardened the men, to have made them hardy, fast, and dexterous; there is also the need for them to learn to be in their orders, to obey the signals by sound and at the words58 of the captain and, while standing, withdrawing, going forward, fighting, and marching, to know how to maintain them. For without this discipline, observed and practiced with utmost care [and] diligence, never was an army good. [141] And without doubt, ferocious and disordered men are much weaker than timid and ordered ones. For order chases fear from men and disorder lessens ferocity.59 [142] So that60you may better understand what will be said below,61 you have to understand that in ordering its men for war every nation has made one principal group62 within its army or its military. If they have varied its name, they have varied its number of men little. For all have composed it of six to eight thousand men. [143] This group was called legion by the Romans, phalanx by the Greeks, and caterva by the French.63[144] In our times the Swiss, who alone retain some shadow of the ancient military, call this same thing in their language what in ours signifies brigade. [145] It is true that each has then divided it into various battalions and has ordered it to its purpose. [146] It seems [well] to me that we base our discussion64 on this name as better known and then, as well as is possible, order it according to ancient and modern orders. [147] And because the Romans divided their legion, which was composed of five to six thousand men, into ten cohorts, I want us to divide our brigade into ten battalions and compose it of six thousand men on foot. And we should give to each battalion 450 men, of whom 400 should be armed with heavy arms and fifty with light arms. [148] The heavy arms should be 300 shields with swords, and they should be called shieldmen; one hundred with pikes, and they should be called ordinary pikes; and the light arms should be fifty infantrymen armed with ar



52. That is, in comparison to a real sword.

53. Lit.: reasons.

54. Lit.: hands.

55. Upper limbs, not weapons.





56. See Vegetius I 10.

57. It is not clear to which cities Machiavelli refers. Perhaps it is to German and Swiss cities (see Machiavelli’s Rapporto delle cose della Magna, in Tutte le opere, ed. Mario Martelli [Firenze: Sansoni, 1992] , p. 65).





58. Lit.: voice.

59. Cf. DIII 36.

60. Or: because.

61. Presumably Fabrizio refers to the discussions of the ordering of the army in books II and III.

62. Lit.: member (here and below).

63. See Vegetius II 2.

64. Lit.: found our discussion.





quebuses, crossbows, and partisans and bucklers; and these should be called by the ancient name of ordinary velites. [149] Therefore, altogether the ten battalions end up having three thousand shieldmen, one thousand ordinary pikes, and 500 ordinary velites; which all together make the number of four thousand five hundred infantrymen. [150] And we say that we want to make a brigade of six thousand. So we must add one thousand five hundred infantrymen, of which I would have one thousand with pikes, which would be called extraordinary pikes, and five hundred armed lightly, which I would call extraordinary velites. [151] Thus, my infantries, according to what was just said, would end up being composed half of shields and half of pikes and other arms. [152] I would place a constable, four centurions, and forty decurions65 over each battalion; and in addition, a head over the ordinary velites, with five decurions [per battalion]. [153] I would give three constables, ten centurions, and one hundred decurions to the one thousand extraordinary pikes; to the extraordinary velites, two constables, five centurions, and fifty decurions. [154] I would then order a head-general of the entire brigade. [155] I would want each constable to have a flag and music. [156] Therefore, one brigade of ten battalions would be composed of three thousand shieldmen, one thousand ordinary and one thousand extraordinary pikes, five hundred ordinary and five hundred extraordinary velites. So they would end up having six thousand infantrymen, among whom would be six hundred decurions66 and, in addition, fifteen constables with fifteen musicians and fifteen flag-bearers, fifty-five centurions, ten heads of ordinary velites, and one captain of the entire brigade with his own flag and his own music. [157] And I have gladly67 repeated this order to you a number of times so that later you will not get confused when I show you the modes of ordering the battalions and armies. [158] Therefore, I say that that king or republic which wants to order its subjects in arms should order them with these arms and with these parts, and should make as many brigades as its country is capable of. [159] And when he has ordered them according to the above-mentioned distributions, if he wishes to exercise them in their orders, it would be enough to exercise them battalion by battalion. [160] And although the number of men in each of these cannot by itself form a complete army,68 nonetheless, each man can learn to do what pertains to him particularly. For in the armies one observes two orders: one, what the men in each battalion must do; the other, what the battalion must then do when it is with the others in one army. [161] And those men who know the first well observe the second easily; but without knowing how to do the former, one can never reach the discipline of the second. [162] Thus, as I have said,69 each of these battalions can by itself learn to keep the order of its files in every quality of motion and rest70 and then, so as to learn to know how to put itself together, to understand the music by means of which it is commanded in battle. From the latter, like a galley oarsman from the whistle,71 they learn to know how to recognize what they have to do, whether they have to stand firm, or go ahead, or turn back, or where to turn their arms and faces. [163] So since they know how to keep their files such that neither rest nor motion disorders them, and since they understand well the commands of the head by means of the music, and they know how to return to their place immediately, when many are put together, these battalions can then, as I said,72 easily learn to do what their entire body is obliged to do together with the other battalions in a complete73 army. [164] And because such general practice is also of no small esteem, one could bring together the whole brigade once or twice a year when there is peace, and give it the form of one entire army, drilling it some days as if it had to do battle, putting the front, sides, and followers in their places. [165] And because a captain orders his army for battle either on account of an enemy he sees or for one of which he is afraid without seeing it,74 he should train his army in the one mode and in the other, and instruct it so that it can march and, if need be,75to fight, showing your76sol- diers how they have to govern themselves when they are assaulted by the latter or by the former band. [166] And when he instructs it in fighting against an enemy they see, he shows them how to join battle, where they have to retreat if they are repelled, who has to follow in their place, and what signs, what sounds, and what words77 they must obey, and to practice them thus so that by fake battles and assaults they have to desire true ones. [167] For a spirited army is not made so by having spirited men in it but by having well-ordered orders. For if I am among the first combatants, and I know where I have to retreat once I have been overcome and who has to follow in my place, I will always fight with spirit, seeing succor nearby. [168] If I am among the second combatants, when the first ones are pushed and repelled I will not be afraid, because I will have presupposed that it can be so and I will have desired it so as to be the one who gives victory to my master, and not they. [169] These exercises are very necessary where one makes a new army; and where an old army is, they are necessary. For even though the Romans knew the orders of their armies from childhood, nonetheless one sees how those captains continually exercised them in them. [170] And Josephus in his history says that the continual exercises of the Roman armies made it that the whole mob that follows the camp so as to profit was useful in battles.78 For they all knew how to stay in their orders and to fight while keeping them. [171] But in armies of new men, either those you put together to fight then or those you make into a militia so as to fight in time, nothing is done without these exercises, as much for a battalion by itself as for a whole army. For since orders are necessary, one must show them with a double industry and effort to those who do not know them and maintain them with those who do know them, as one sees that by maintaining them and by teaching them many excellent captains have exhausted themselves without any hesitation.79



65. Lit.: heads of ten.

66. The first edition (1521) gives fifteen hundred, but Marchand et al. follow the two manuscripts that give six hundred.

67. Lit.: willingly.

68. Lit.: make the form of a just army.





69. See AWII 123; cf.AWII 88–89.

70. Lit.: place (here and in the next sentence).

71. Cf. Dante, Paradiso XXV 133–35.

72. See AWII 160–61.

73. Lit.: just.

74. For training to fight an unseen but always feared enemy, see D III 38.

75. Lit.: if the need were to seek [the army] out.

76. Fabrizio switches to the familiar second person in the midst of repeated use of the third person.

77. Lit.: voices.





COSIMO. [172] It seems to me that this reasoning has somehow transported you. For, having not yet described the modes in which the battalions are trained, you have reasoned about the entire army and about battles.

FABRIZIO. [173] You speak the truth; and truly the cause of this has been the affection I bear for these orders, and the sadness I feel at seeing that they are not put into action. Nonetheless, do not doubt that I will return to the mark. [174] As I said to you,80 to know how to keep files well is of the first importance in training a battalion. [175] To do this it is necessary to exercise them in the orders they call the snails. [176] And because I told you that one of these battalions should be of 400 infantrymen armed with heavy arms, I will stay with this number. [177] They must therefore be arranged in 80 files of five per file. [178] Then, going either quickly or slowly, one must knot them together and open them out; how one does this I can demonstrate more with deeds than with words. [179] Then it is less necessary, because each one who is experienced81 in armies knows how this order proceeds, which is good only for accustoming soldiers to keep their files. [180] But let’s put together one of these battalions. [181] I say that one gives them three principal forms. [182] The first, and the most useful, is to make it altogether solid and to give it the form of two squares;82 the second is to make the square with the horned front;83 the third is to make it with a vacuum in the middle, which they call a piazza.84 [183] The mode of putting together the first form85can be of two kinds. [184] One is to make the files double. That is, the second file enters into the first, the forth into the third, the sixth into the fifth, and so on successively; so that where there used to be eighty files of five per file, they become forty files of ten per file. [185] Then make them double another time in the same mode, byjoining them together, one file into the other; and so there are twenty files of twenty men per file. [186] This makes about two squares.86 For even though there are as many men on one side as on the other, nonetheless, on the side [on which] the heads are conjoined, one side touches the other, but on the other side, they are at least two braccia distant from one another, of a quality that the square is longer from back to front than from one flank to the other. [187] And because today we have to speak many times of the part in front, behind, and on the side of these battalions and of the whole army together, know that when I say either head or front, I mean the parts in front; when I say back, the part behind; when I say flanks, the parts on the side. [188] The fifty ordinary velites of the battalion are not mixed with the other files; rather, when the battalion is formed, they are extended along its flanks. [189] The other mode of putting together the battalion is this—and because it is better than the first, I wish to put before your eyes exactly how it should be ordered. [190] I believe that you remember the number of men, the heads it is composed of, and the arms it is armed with. [191] Thus, as I said,87 the form that this battalion should have is of twenty files with twenty men per file: five files of pikes in front and fifteen files of shields in back. Two centurions are at the front and two behind at the back who do the office of those whom the ancients called tergiduttori. The constable with the flag and music is in the space that is between the five files of pikes and the fifteen of shields. One of the decurions is on each flank of the file so that each has his men at his side; those that will be on the left-hand side [of the file have their men] on their right-hand side, those that are on the right-hand side [of the file have their men] on their left-hand side. [192] The fifty velites are on the flanks and at the back of the battalion. [193] To want this battalion now to be put together in this form while the infantrymen are going ordinarily, it must be ordered thus: have the infantrymen be arranged in eighty files of five per file, as we said a little while ago,88 leaving the velites either at the head or at the tail, still staying outside of this order; and it should be ordered so that each centurion has behind his back twenty files, and immediately behind each centurion are five files of pikes, and the rest are shields. [194] The constable is with the music and with the flag in the space that is between the pikes and the shields of the second centurion, and occupying the places of three shieldmen. [195] Of the decurions, twenty of them are on the flanks of the files of the first centurion, on their lefthand side, and twenty of them are on the flanks of the files of the last centurion, on their right-hand side. [196] And you have to understand that the decurions that guide the pikes should have a pike, and those that guide the shields should have similar arms. [197] Thus, having arranged the files in this order and wanting to arrange them on the march in a battalion so as to make a front, you have to make the first centurion stop with the first twenty files, and the second continue to march and, turning around to the right, go along the flanks of the twenty stopped files, so that hecomes abreast of 89the other centurion, where he stops as well. The third centurion continues to march and, turning to his right as well and along the flanks of the stopped files, marches so that he comes abreast of the other two centurions. When he too stops, the other centurion continues with his files, turning to his right along the flanks of the stopped files as well, so that he arrives at the front with the others, and then stops. At once two of the centurions leave the front alone and go to the rear of the battalion, which is made in the mode and with the exact order that we demonstrated a little while ago.90 [198] The velites are extended along its flanks, according to the first mode [in which] it is arranged. The latter mode is called doubling by line; the former is said [to be] doubling by flank. [199] That first mode is easier. The latter is more orderly and comes out more exact and you are more able to correct it in your own mode. For in the former, one must obey the numbers, because you make five ten, ten twenty, twenty forty, such that, by doubling directly you cannot make a front of fifteen or of twenty five, nor of thirty or thirty five, but you need to go where that number leads you. [200] However, in particular actions it happens everyday that one must make a front with sixty or eighty infantrymen, so that doubling by straight line would disorder you. [201] Therefore, I like the latter one better; and the greater difficulty that it gives you must be made easy with practice and with training. [202] Therefore, I tell you that it is more important than anything to have soldiers who know how to put themselves in their orders quickly. And it is necessary to keep them in these battalions, to train them in them, and to make them go quickly either forward or backward, and to pass through difficult places without disturbing their order. For soldiers who know how to do this well are practiced soldiers, and even though they have never seen the enemy face to face, they can be called old soldiers. [203] And those, on the contrary, who do not know how to keep these orders would always be esteemed as new soldiers [even] if they found themselves in a thousand wars. [204] This is with regard to putting them together when they are in small files while marching. [205] But having been put [together], and then, having been broken by some accident that arises either from the site or from the enemy, the important thing and the difficulty is to have them reorder themselves at once; this is where much training and much practice are needed, and where the ancients used to put forth much attention.91[206] It is therefore necessary to do two things: first, to have this battalion full of markers; the other, always to keep this order: that the same infantrymen always stay in the same files. [207] For instance, if one individual began standing in the second [file], he then always remains in that one; and not only in that same file, but in that same place; and to observe this, as I have said,92 many markers are necessary. [208] First, it is necessary that the flag be marked so that when it comes together with the other battalions it is recognized by them. [209] Second, that the constable and the centurions have different and recognizable crests on their heads; and, what is more important, to order it that the decurions be recognized. [210] The ancients gave so much care to this that they even used to write the number on the helmet, calling them first, second, third, forth, etc. [211] And they were not content even with this, for each of the soldiers used to write on his shield the number of his file and the number of the place that he had in that file.93 [212] So if the men are marked in this way and accustomed to stay within these limits, it is an easy thing immediately to reorder all of them when they have been disordered. For when the flag is firm, the centurions and the decurions can judge their place by eye; and the left ones having arranged themselves on the left and the right ones on the right at their accustomed distances, the infantrymen, guided by their rule and from the different markers, can be in their own places immediately. [This is] not otherwise than when you disconnect the staves of a barrel that you have first marked: you reorder it with very great ease; [but] having not marked it, it is impossible to reorder it. [213] With diligence and with training these things are quickly taught and quickly learned, and having been learned, are forgotten with difficulty. For the new men are guided by the old ones, and with these drills a province would in time become altogether practiced in war. [214] It is also necessary to teach them to turn themselves around and, if need be, to make the front with their flanks and their back, and the flanks and the back from their front. [215] This is very easy, because it is enough that each man turn his person toward the part he is commanded; and where they turn their faces ends up being the front. [216] It is true that when they turn to the flank, the orders go out of proportion, because from chest to back it is a small distance, and from one side to the other it is a long distance, which is altogether against the ordinary order of the battalion. [217] Therefore, practice and discretion must rearrange them. [218] But this is a small disorder because they remedy it easily by themselves. [219] But what is more important, and where more practice is needed, is when one wants a battalion to turn around altogether as if it were a solid body. [220] Here much practice and much discretion are needed. For wanting to turn to the left, for instance, the left horn94 needs to stop, and those who are nearer to whomever [it is that] is standing still walk so slowly that those who are on the right do not have to run; otherwise, everything would be confounded.



78. See Josephus, The Jewish War III 4 69 to 5 71, where the military training of slaves rather than camp followers is discussed.

79. Lit.: respect.

80. See AW II 162 and note 69.

81. Lit.: practiced.

82. See figure 1, page 169.





83. See figure 2, top, page 170.

84. See figure 3, bottom, page 171.

85. See figure 1, page 169.

86. That is, a rectangle.

87. See AW II 185.

88. See AW II 177.





89. Lit.: makes a head with. In its transitive form, this verb, which Machiavelli uses again later in this sentence, means “attest to, certify, witness.”

90. See AWII 191.





91. Lit.: study.

92. SeeAWII206.

93. Vegetius II 13, 18.





[221] But because it always happens, when an army marches from place to place, that the battalions which are not posted in the front have to fight not at the head but at the flank or the back, so that a battalion at once has to make the front from the flank or from the back (and wanting battalions like these in such a case to keep their proportion, according to what was demonstrated above,95 it is necessary that they have the pikes on the flank that has to be the head, and the decurions, centurions, and constables, balanced with it in their places)—to want to do this, in putting them together you therefore need to order the eighty files of five per file thus:96 put all the pikes in the first twenty files, and put five of their decurions in the first place and five of them in the last place. The other sixty files, which come behind, are all shields that come to be three centuries. [222] Thus one wants the first and the last file of each century to be decurions, the constable with the flag and with the music to be in the middle of the first century of shields, and the centurions to be at the head of each century. [223] Ordered thus, if you want the pikes to come to the left flank, you have to double them century by century on the right flank;97 if you want them to come on the right flank, you have to double them on the left. [224] So this battalion winds up with its pikes on one flank, with the decurions at the head and at the back, with the centurions along the head, and the constable in the middle. [225] It keeps that form while on the go; but as the enemy, as well as the time at which it wants to make its flank its head, approach, it has nothing to do except to turn the faces of all the soldiers toward the flank where the pikes are. And then the battalion winds up with the files and with the heads in the mode [in which] it was ordered above. For all, except the centurions, are in their places, and the centurions at once and without difficulty enter theirs.



94. That is, the left wing, as in figure 3, page 171, where each wing protrudes.

95. See AW II 214–17.

96. See figure 2, page 170.

97. That is, each century stops in turn and the following one moves around to the left of the stopped one as described in AWII 197.





[226] But when it has to fight at its back while marching ahead, in putting them into a battalion, one must order the files so that the pikes come along behind. To do this, one does not have to keep another order, except that where, in ordering the battalion, every century ordinarily has five files of pikes in front, it has them in back; and in all the other parts [one has] to observe the order that I mentioned first.98

COSIMO. [227] You said, if I remember well, that this mode of training is for being able to order these battalions together into one army later, and that this practice serves to enable them to order themselves into the latter. [228] But if it were to happen that these 450 infantrymen had to make a separate action, how would you order them?

FABRIZIO. [229] Then whoever guides them must judge where he wants to locate the pikes and put them there. [230] This is not inconsistent in any part with the order written above.99For even though that is the mode that is observed for doing battle together with the other battalions, it is nonetheless not a rule that is of use for all those modes in which you may happen to have to manage. [231] But in showing you the other two modes of ordering the battalions I placed, I will satisfy your question even more. For either they are never used or they are used when a battalion is alone and not in the company of others. [232] And so as to come to the mode of ordering it with two horns,100 I say that you must order the 80 files of five per file in this mode: put a centurion there in the middle, and after him, 25 files that have two pikes on the left and three shields on the right. And after the first five, twenty decurions are placed in the following twenty [files], all between the pikes and the shields, except for those that carry pikes, who can stay with the pikes. [233] After these 25 files so ordered, another centurion is placed who has behind him 15 files of shields. [234] The constable, between the music and the flag, [is placed] after these. He also has behind him another 15 files of shields. [235] After these is placed the third centurion, and he has behind him 25 files. In every one of the latter are three shields on the left and two pikes on the right; and after the first five files [of this last group of twentyfive files] are twenty decurions posted between the pikes and the shields. [236] After these files is the fourth centurion. [237] Therefore, in wanting to make a battalion with two horns from these files so ordered, the first centurion has to stop with the 25 files that are in back. [238] Then the second centurion has to move with the 15 shieldmen files that are at his back, and has to turn around to the right hand [of the first twenty-five files] and go along the right flank of the twenty-five files until it arrives at the fifteenth file, and has to stop here. [239] Then, with the fifteen files of shields that are behind him, the constable has to move; and turning to the right as well, he marches along the right flank of the fifteen files first moved, until he arrives at their head, and stops here. [240] Then the third centurion moves with his twenty-five files and with the fourth centurion that was in back, and turning to the right as well, marches along the right flank of the last fifteen files of shieldmen, and does not stop when he is at its head but continues marching until the last of the twenty-five files is even with its last file. [241] And, having done this, the centurion who was the head of the first fifteen files of shieldmen leaves where he was and goes to the back on the left corner. [242] So a battalion will wind up with 15101 firm files of twenty infantrymen per file, with two horns, one on each side of the front. And each [horn] will have ten files of five per file, and between the two horns a space will remain that is as much as ten men take up who turn their sides to one another. [243] The captain will be between the two horns; [and] one centurion [will be] on each point of a horn. [244] Also, on each side of the back will be one centurion. [245] Two files of pikes and twenty decurions are on each flank. [246] These two horns serve to keep between them the artillery, when this battalion has it with it, and the wagons. [247] The velites have to remain in place on the flanks along the pikes. [248] But to want to arrange this horned battalion into a piazza,102 one needs to do nothing other than to take 8 of the 15 files of 20 per file and put them on the points of the two horns, which, from [being] horns, then become the back of the piazza. [249] In this piazza the wagons are kept and the captain and the flag stay there, but no longer the artillery, which is put either in the front or along the flanks. [250] These are the modes of a battalion that one can keep when it must pass alone through suspected places. [251] Nonetheless, the solid battalion, without horns and without a piazza, is better. [252] However, if you wish to secure the unarmed, the horned one is necessary.



98. See AWII 191 ff.

99. Apparently a reference to figure 1, page 169.

100. See figure 3, top, page 171.





[253] The Swiss make many forms of the battalion as well. Among these they make one in the mode of a cross. For in the spaces that are between its arms,103 they keep their arquebusiers from the charge of the enemy. [254] But because battalions like these are good for fighting by themselves, and my intention is to show how several united battalions fight together against the enemy, I do not want otherwise to fatigue myself in demonstrating them.



101. Following Marchand et al. and figure 3 rather than the text of the original 1521 edition, which gives the number twenty-five.

102. See figure 3, bottom, page 171.

103. Ramo, neither weapons (arme) nor the upper limbs of the body (braccia).





COSIMO. [255] It seems to me that I have understood very well the mode that one must hold to train men in these battalions. But if I remember well, you said104 that besides the ten battalions you would add to the brigade a thousand extraordinary pikes and 500 extraordinary velites. [256] Wouldn’t you want to conscript and train these?

FABRIZIO. [257] I would, and with very great diligence. [258] And the pikes at least I would exercise flag by flag in the orders of their battalion, like the others. For I would make use of these more than of the ordinary battalions in all particular actions, such as escorting, plundering, and similar things. [259] But the velites I would train at home without bringing them together. For since it is their office to fight scattered, it is not necessary that they come together with the others in the common drills. So it would be enough to train them well in their particular drills. [260] Thus, as I said at first105—and it does not seem tiresome to me to repeat it now—one must make one’s men train in these battalions, so that they know how to keep their files, to recognize their places, and to return to them at once when either the enemy or the site perturbs them. For when one knows how to do this, one then easily learns the place that a battalion has to keep and what its own office in the army is. [261] And when a prince or a republic endures exertion and puts diligence into these orders and these drills, it will always happen that the soldiers in his country will be good, and they will be superior to their neighbors and will be those who give laws and not those who receive them from other men. [262] But, as I have said to you,106 the disorder in which one lives [today] makes it that these things are not cared for and are not esteemed. And, therefore, our armies are not good. And even if there were heads or members naturally virtuous, they could not demonstrate it.

COSIMO. [263] What wagons would you want each of these battalions to have?

FABRIZIO. [264] First, I would want neither centurions nor decurions to have to go on horseback. And if the constable wants to ride, I would want him to have a mule and not a horse. [265] I would, indeed, allow two wagons for him and one for each centurion and two for every three decurions. For we quarter that many in the encampment, as we will say in its place,107 such that each battalion would come to have 36 wagons. Of necessity, these I would want to carry the tents, the cooking vessels, hatchets, and enough iron stakes to make the camps, and then, if they can, other [things] for their comfort.



104. SeeAWII150.

106. See AWI 132, II 137–39.

105. SeeAWII140ff.;cf.AWII123.

107. No mention is made of wagons in the discussion of the encampment at AW VI 8 ff.





COSIMO. [266] I believe that the heads ordered by you in each of these battalions are necessary; nonetheless, I would doubt that so many commanders would not confuse one another.

FABRIZIO. [267] This would be so if they were not responsible to one individual; but since they are responsible, they make order. Indeed, without them it is impossible to stand firm. For a wall that leans in every part wants many and frequent supports, even if they are not so strong, rather than a few, even if hardy. For the virtue of one alone cannot remedy its ruin at a distance. [268] Therefore, in the armies, and among every ten men, there must be one of more life, of more heart, or at least of more authority, who with his spirit, with his words, and with his example keeps the others firm and disposed to fight. [269] And one sees that we have in our armies the things said by me to be necessary in an army, like heads, flags, and musicians. But no one does his office. [270] First, to want decurions to do that for which they are ordered, it is necessary, as I said, that each one have his own distinct men, lodge with them, take actions and be in the orders with them. For, located in their places, they are like a line and a guide108 to maintain the files straight and firm. And it is impossible that they disorder them or, being disordered, that they not rearrange them in their places. [271] Butwe do not use them today except to give them more money than the others and to have them take particular actions. [272] The same thing happens with the flags, for they are held to make a beautiful show rather than for another military use. [273] But the ancients used them as a guide and for reordering. For when the flag had stopped, each knew the place that he kept near his flag and always returned there. [274] [Each] also knew that, when it moved or109 stood still, they had to stop or to move. [275] Therefore, it is necessary that there be many bodies in an army, and that each body have its own flag and its own guide. For having this, it must have many souls and, as a consequence, many lives. [276] Thus the infantrymen must march according to the flag, and the flag move according to the music. The music, having been well ordered, commands the army, which, while going with steps that correspond to its time, ends up keeping the orders easily. [277] This is why the ancients had pipes, fifes, and perfectly modulated instruments. For just as he who dances proceeds with the time of the music and while going with it does not err, so an army, while obeying that music in moving, does not get disordered. [278] And, therefore, they used to vary the music in accord with how they wanted to vary the motion, and in accord with how they wanted to enflame or quiet or firm up the spirits of the men. [279] And as the music varied, they used to name them variously. [280] The Dorian music generated constancy, the Phrygian, fury; hence they say that while Alexander was at table and one individual played Phrygian music, it so inflamed his spirit that he put his hand to his arms.110[281] It would be necessary to find all of these modes again, and if this were difficult, one would at least not want to leave behind those that teach the soldier to obey. Each can vary and order these to his own mode, as long as with practice he accustoms the ears of his soldiers to recognize them. [282] But today for the most part no fruit is gained from this music other than the making of the noise.



108. Or: a staff and a timbre.

109. Lit.: and.





COSIMO. [283] I would like to understand from you, if you yourself have ever discoursed on it, from where so much vileness and so much disorder and so much neglect of this training arise in these times.

FABRIZIO. [284] I will willingly tell you what I think about this. [285] Of the many men excellent in war, you know how there have been many so named in Europe, few in Africa, and less in Asia. [286] This arises because these last two parts of the world have had one or two principalities and few republics; but Europe alone has had several kingdoms and infinite republics. [287] Men become excellent and show their virtue according to [whether] they are used and brought forth by their prince, be he a republic or a king. [288] Therefore, where there are many powers, many valiant men must spring up; where there are fewofthem, few. [289] In Asia one finds Ninus, Cyrus, Artaxerxes, and Mithridates,111and very few others who keep company with these. [290] In Africa, leaving Egyptian antiquity be, Massinissa, Jugurtha,112 and those captains who were raised by the Carthaginian republic are named. These too, with respect to those of Europe, are very few. For in Europe there are excellent men without number, and there would be many more if together with them the others were named who have been extinguished by the malignity of time. For the world has been more virtuous where there have been more states that have favored virtue, either by necessity or by another human passion. [291] Thus, few men sprang up in Asia, because that province was altogether under one kingdom in which, due to the magnitude [of the province of Asia], men excellent in their deeds could not arise, since [that kingdom] was idle most of the time. [292] The same happened in Africa. If it raised more of them there, however, it is on account of113 the Carthaginian republic. [293] For excellent men come from republics more than from kingdoms, because in the former most of the time virtue is honored; in kingdoms it is feared. From this it arises that, in the one, virtuous men are born, in the other, they are extinguished. [294] Thus, whoever considers the case of Europe will find it to have been full of republics or principalities which, through the fear that one had of the other, were constrained to keep military orders alive and to honor those who most prevailed in them. [295] For in Greece, besides the kingdom of the Macedonians, there were many republics, and in each of these very excellent men arose. [296] In Italy were the Romans, the Samnites, the Tuscans, and the Cisalpine Gauls. [297] France and Germany were114 full of republics and princes; Spain, the same. [298] And although compared to the Romans one can name few others, this arises from the malignity of the writers, who follow fortune, and for them most of the time it is enough to honor the victors. [299] But it is not reasonable that among the Samnites and the Tuscans, who fought for a hundred and fifty years with the Roman people before they were conquered, very many excellent men did not arise. [300] And, likewise, so [it is] in France and Spain. [301] But that virtue which the writers do not celebrate in particular men, they celebrate in peoples, where they exalt all the way to the stars the obstinacy that was in them for defending their liberty.115 [302] Since it is true that where there are more empires, more valiant men spring up, it follows of necessity that, when the former are extinguished, virtue is extinguished little by little, since the causes that make men virtuous come less. [303] Therefore, when the Roman Empire later grew, and when it had extinguished all the republics and principalities of Europe and of Africa and the greater part of those of Asia, it did not leave any way to virtue, except Rome. [304] From this it arose that virtuous men began to be as few in Europe as in Asia. That virtue then came to ultimate decline. For, when all virtue was brought to Rome, as it was corrupt, almost all the world ended up being corrupt. And the Scythian peoples were able to come to prey upon the empire that had extinguished the virtue of the others and did not know how to maintain its own. [305] And although that empire was then divided in several parts through the inundation of these barbarians, this virtue was not reborn there. One reason for this is that116 one suffers a bit to recover orders when they are spoiled; the other reason is that117 today’s mode of living, on account of118 the Christian religion, does not impose that necessity to defend oneself that there was in antiquity. For then, men conquered in war were either killed or remained in perpetual slavery, where they led their lives miserably. Their conquered towns were either dissolved or, their goods taken, the inhabitants were driven out and sent dispersed throughout the world. So those overcome in war suffered every last misery. [306] Frightened by this fear, men kept military training alive and honored whoever was excellent in it. [307] But today this fear is for the most part lost. Of the conquered, few of them are killed; no one is kept in prison for long, because they are freed with ease. [308] Even though they have rebelled a thousand times, cities are not demolished and men are left with their goods, so that the greatest evil that is feared is a ransom. So men do not want to submit themselves to military orders and to struggle along beneath them so as to flee those dangers they little fear. [309] These provinces of Europe are then under very few heads, as compared to119 before. For all France obeys one king, all Spain another, and Italy is in few parts, so that the weak cities defend themselves by siding with whoever wins, and the hardy states, for the causes mentioned, do not fear an ultimate ruin.



110. See Seneca II 2; Roberto Valturio, De Rei Militari II 3.

111. Ninus is the legendary founder of the Assyrian empire (cf. L’Asino, lines 88 ff.); Cyrus (559–486 b.c.) was the founder of the Persian Empire and the subject of Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus (cf. P 6.22–23, 24, 14.60, 16.64, 26.102; D II 12.1, 13.1, III 20, 22.4, 22.5, 39.1); the reference is most likely to Artaxerxes II, king of Persia (404–359 b.c.) and the subject of Plutarch’s Artaxerxes; Mithridates VI was king of Pontus (ca. 132–63) (cf. DIII 13.3, AW IV 68).

112. Massinissa was king of Numidia (213–206) and an ally of Rome during the Second Punic War (218–201 b.c.) (cf. D II 1.3, 30.2); Jugurtha was king of Numidia (118–103 b.c.) (cf. D II 8.1).





113. Lit.: with respect to.

114. The verb is singular in Italian.

115. Cf. DII 2.

116. Lit.: one, because.

117. Lit.: the other, because.





COSIMO. [310] However, during the last twenty-five years120 one has seen many towns put to sack here, as well as the loss of kingdoms. That example should teach the others how to live and recover some of the ancient orders.

FABRIZIO. [311] It is as you say; but if you note which towns have been put to sack, you will find that they are not the heads of states but among their members, as one sees that Tortona was sacked and not Milan, Capua and not Naples, Brescia and not Venice, Ravenna and not Rome.121 [312] These examples do not make whoever governs change their presupposition. Indeed, it makes them stay more in their opinion of being able to buy themselves back with ransoms; and because of this they do not want to undergo the exertions of the training for war, since, on the one hand, it seems to them unnecessary and, on the other hand, a tangle they do not understand. [313] Those others who are servants, whom such examples should make afraid, do not have the power to remedy things. The latter princes have no more time through having lost their states; and those that have [time], do not know how and do not want [to remedy things]. For they want to remain without any hardship by fortune and not by their own virtue. For they see that, through there being little virtue here, fortune governs everything, and they want it to be the lord of them, not themselves to be the lord of it. [314] [As evidence] that what I have discussed122 is true, consider Germany: in it there is much virtue through there being many principalities and republics, and all that is good in the present military depends on the example of those peoples, who, since they are altogether jealous of their states and since they fear servitude (which is not feared elsewhere),123 all maintain themselves lords and honored. [315] I want having said this to be enough to show the causes of the present vileness, according to my opinion. [316] I do not know if it seems the same to you, or if some doubt arose in you though this reasoning.



118. Lit.: with respect to.

119. Lit.: respect to.

120. Twenty-five years before the time of the narration of the dialogue would be 1494, the year that Charles VIII invaded Italy; twenty-five years before the apparent time of the setting of the dialogue would be 1491; see the introduction, pages xvii–xviii.

121. The French sacked Tortona in 1499, Capua in 1501, and Brescia and Ravenna in 1512 (for Capua, see P 25.104; for Brescia, see D II 17.1, 24.3, III 44.3; and for Ravenna, see note 29).





COSIMO. [317] None. Indeed, I understand everything very well. [318] Returning to our principal matter, I desire only to understand from you how you would order the cavalrymen in these battalions, and how many [they would be] and how [they would be] captained and how [they would be] armed.

FABRIZIO. [319] Perhaps it seems to you that I have left them behind. Do not marvel at that, for I am speaking little about it for two reasons: one, because the sinew and the important thing about the army is the infantry; the other, because this part of the military is less corrupt than that of the infantrymen. For if it is not stronger than the ancient [cavalry], it is equal. [320] Also, the mode of exercising them was mentioned a little earlier.124 [321] And as to arming them, I would arm them as is done at present, the light cavalrymen as well as the men-at-arms. [322] But I would want all the light cavalrymen to be crossbowmen with some arquebusiers among them who, although in the other managements of war are not very useful, are very useful in this: frightening peasants and removing them from a pass that had been guarded by them. For one arquebusier will make them more afraid than twenty other armed [men]. [323] But coming to their number, and having taken the Roman military to imitate, I say that I would not order more than three hundred useful cavalrymen for each battalion. Of these, I would want 150 to be men-at-arms and 150 to be light cavalrymen. And I would give one head to each of these parts, making then 15 decurions per band among them, giving to each one musician125 and one flag. [324] I would want every ten men-at-arms to have five wagons and every ten light cavalrymen two, which, like those of the infantrymen, carry tents, vessels, and axes and stakes, and other tools of theirs, if [room] is left over. [325] And do not believe that this is disorderly, seeing how the men-at-arms nowadays have four horses in their service. For such a thing is a corruption. For in Germany one sees those men-at-arms alone with their own horses, every twenty having only one wagon that carries behind them their necessary things. [326] The cavalrymen of the Romans were likewise alone. It is true that the triarii lodged near by the cavalry and were obliged to administer aid to it in the governance of the horses. This can be easily imitated by us, as will be shown to you in the distribution of the encampments.126 [327] Thus, what the Romans did and what the Germans do today, we too can do. Indeed, by not doing it, one errs. [328] These cavalrymen, ordered and conscripted together with the brigade, could sometimes be put together when the battalion is assembled, and made to make some show127 of a fight between them; this would be more for them to get to know one another than for another necessity. [329] But enough has now been said of this part. Let us descend to give form to an army so as to be able to present battle to the enemy and hope to conquer him, which thing is the end for which the military is ordered and for which so much study is put into it.



122. Lit.: discoursed about.

124. See AWII 128–29.

123. Parentheses in original.

125. Lit.: one sound; translated elsewhere as “music.”





126. SeeAWVI8ff.

127. Lit.: sight.