# CHAPTER 48 — When an Enemy Is Seen Committing a Gross Error, It Should Be Assumed that There Is a Trick Behind It

When Fulvius was left as legate in the army that the Romans had in Etruria, and the consul had gone to Rome for some ceremonies, the Etruscans, to see if they might catch him, set up a trap near the Roman fortifications, and sending some soldiers disguised as shepherds with a large flock, they had them move into view of the Roman army; disguised in this fashion, they drew near to the stockades of the camp whereupon the legate, amazed at their presumption, which did not appear reasonable to him, managed to discover their treachery, and in this way the plan of the Etruscans was thwarted. Here it is easy to note that a commander of armies must not trust an error that is committed by the enemy in an obvious way; there will always be some form of deceit behind it, since it is not reasonable for men to be so incautious. But the desire to win often blinds the minds of men, so that they see nothing but what seems to suit their purposes.

The Gauls, having defeated the Romans at the Allia River, came to Rome and found the gates open and unguarded, and they all remained there that day and night without entering, fearing deceit, unable to believe that there might be so much cowardice and so little counsel in Roman hearts that they would abandon their native city. When in 1508* the Florentines were besieging Pisa, Alfonso del Mutolo, a Pisan citizen, found himself a prisoner of the Florentines, and he promised that if he were freed, he would deliver one of Pisa’s gates over to the Florentine army. He was released; then, to work out the plan, he came many times to speak with the commissioners’ legates, arriving not in secret but openly and accompanied by Pisans, whom he left to one side when he spoke with the Florentines. Thus, they could have assumed his two-faced nature, because it was not reasonable, if the planning were real, for him to carry it out so much in the open. But their desire to take Pisa blinded the Florentines in such a way that, after they had reached the Lucca gate, according to their agreement with him, they left behind a number of their leaders and other soldiers, to their great dishonour, because of the double-dealing of this Alfonso.