# CHAPTER 33 — To Win a Battle, It Is Necessary to Make an Army Confident, Both in Itself and in Its Commander

In order for an army to win a battle, it is necessary to make it confident, so that it will believe that it must win in any event. The things that make an army confident are that it be well armed and organized, and that the soldiers know each other. Nor can this confidence or this organization come about except among those soldiers who have been born and raised together. The commander must be admired in such a way that the soldiers trust in his prudence and will always trust him when they see him to be organized, attentive, and courageous, and to uphold well and reputably the dignity of his rank. He will always maintain this dignity when he punishes mistakes and avoids making the soldiers work at useless tasks, when he keeps his promises to them and shows them the easy path to victory, concealing or making light of those things that from a distance can appear to be dangerous. These rules, when effectively observed, give an army strong reason to trust him, and, trusting him, to win.

The Romans used to instil this confidence in their armies by means of religion. Hence, it came about that they created the consuls, drafted soldiers, marched off with their armies, and joined in battle with auguries and omens. And without having done any of these things, a good and wise commander would never have attempted any military action, realizing that he could easily lose if his troops had not first understood that the gods were on their side. If any consul or any of their other commanders fought contrary to the omens, they would have punished him as they punished Claudius Pulcher. * Although this point can be found in all the Roman histories, none the less, it proves itself more certainly through the words that Livy places in the mouth of Appius Claudius, who, in complaining to the plebeians about the arrogance of the tribunes of the plebeians and demonstrating that they were allowing the omens and other matters relating to religion to become corrupted, spoke in this manner: ‘“What does it matter,” they say, “if the sacred chickens will not feed and are slow to come out of the coop or a bird gives an ill-omened squawk?” These are trivial matters, but it was because they did not scorn those trivial matters that your forefathers could build up this republic to be so great.’ * For in these small things there is the power to keep the soldiers united and confident, which is the primary reason for every victory. Nevertheless, such things must be accompanied by exceptional ability, otherwise they are worth nothing. The Praenestines, having their army in the field against the Romans, went off to set up camp by the Allia River, the place where the Romans were defeated by the Gauls. They did this to inspire confidence in their soldiers and to frighten the Romans by the ill fortune of the place. Although this decision of theirs was appropriate for the reasons discussed above, the outcome of the affair demonstrated, none the less, that true ability does not fear every minor circumstance. The historian expresses this very well with these words placed in the mouth of the dictator, who speaks in this way to his master of horse: ‘Do you see how they have taken their stand at the Allia, trusting to the ill fortune of the place? ... put your trust in arms and morale, and charge their centre at the gallop.’ *

Thus, true ability, good organization, and security gained from so many victories cannot be extinguished by things of such little moment, nor can some empty thing frighten them, nor some disorder harm them. This is made clear by the example of the two Manlii who were consuls against the Volscians; they recklessly sent part of the camp out to plunder, with the result that at the same time both those who had gone off and those who had remained found themselves under attack; it was not the prudence of the consuls but the exceptional skill of their own soldiers which saved them from the danger. Here Livy says these words: ‘what survived of the good fortune of the Roman people was saved by the soldiers’ courage, which did not waver even when they had no leader to direct it.’ * I do not want to leave out a device employed by Fabius to make his army confident when he first led it into Etruria, in the belief that such confidence was all the more necessary since he was leading it into a new territory against new enemies: that is, in speaking to the soldiers before the battle, and claiming that he had many reasons for thinking they could expect victory, he said that he could indeed tell them certain good things from which they would see that victory was certain, if it were not dangerous to reveal them. This method, as it was wisely employed, thus deserves to be imitated.