# CHAPTER XXXIX —_That a Captain should have good knowledge of Places._

CHAPTER XXXIX.—_That a Captain should have good knowledge of Places._


Among other qualifications essential in a good captain is a knowledge,
both general and particular, of places and countries, for without such
knowledge it is impossible for him to carry out any enterprise in the
best way. And while practice is needed for perfection in every art, in
this it is needed in the highest degree. Such practice, or particular
knowledge as it may be termed, is sooner acquired in the chase than in
any other exercise; and, accordingly, we find it said by ancient
historians that those heroes who, in their day, ruled the world, were
bred in the woods and trained to the chase; for this exercise not
merely gives the knowledge I speak of, but teaches countless other
lessons needful in war. And Xenophon in his life of Cyrus tells us,
that Cyrus, on his expedition against the King of Armenia, when
assigning to each of his followers the part he was to perform, reminded
them that the enterprise on which they were engaged, differed little
from one of those hunting expeditions on which they had gone so often
in his company; likening those who were to lie in ambush in the
mountains, to the men sent to spread the toils on the hill-tops; and
those who were to overrun the plain, to the beaters whose business it
is to start the game from its lair that it may be driven into the
toils. Now, this is related to show how, in the opinion of Xenophon,
the chase is a mimic representation of war, and therefore to be
esteemed by the great as useful and honourable.

Nor can that knowledge of countries which I have spoken of as necessary
in a commander, be obtained in any convenient way except by the chase.
For he who joins therein gains a special acquaintance with the
character of the country in which it is followed; and he who has made
himself specially familiar with one district, will afterwards readily
understand the character of any strange country into which he comes.
For all countries, and the districts of which they are made up, have a
certain resemblance to one another, so that from a knowledge of one we
can pass easily to the knowledge of another. He therefore who is
without such practical acquaintance with some one country, can only
with difficulty, and after a long time, obtain a knowledge of another,
while he who possesses it can take in at a glance how this plain
spreads, how that mountain slopes, whither that valley winds, and all
other like particulars in respect of which he has already acquired a
certain familiarity.

The truth of what I affirm is shown by Titus Livius in the case of
Publius Decius, who, being military tribune in the army which the
consul Cornelius led against the Samnites, when the consul advanced
into a defile where the Roman army were like to be shut in by the
enemy, perceiving the great danger they ran, and noting, as Livius
relates, a hill which rose by a steep ascent and overhung the enemy’s
camp, and which, though hard of access for heavy-armed troops,
presented little difficulty to troops lightly armed, turned to the
consul and said:—“_Seest thou, Aulus Cornelius, yonder height over
above the enemy, which they have been blind enough to neglect? There,
were we manfully to seize it, might we find the citadel of our hopes
and of our safety._” Whereupon, he was sent by the consul with three
thousand men to secure the height, and so saved the Roman army. And as
it was part of his plan to make his own escape and carry off his men
safely under shelter of night, Livius represents him as saying to his
soldiers:—“_Come with me, that, while daylight still serves, we may
learn where the enemy have posted their guards, and by what exit we may
issue hence._” Accordingly, putting on the cloak of a common soldier,
lest the enemy should observe that an officer was making his rounds he
surveyed their camp in all directions.

Now any one who carefully studies the whole of this passage, must
perceive how useful and necessary it is for a captain to know the
nature of places, which knowledge had Decius not possessed he could not
have decided that it would be for the advantage of the Roman army to
occupy this hill; nor could he have judged from a distance whether the
hill was accessible or no; and when he reached the summit and desired
to return to the consul, since he was surrounded on all sides by the
enemy, he never could have distinguished the path it was safe for him
to take, from those guarded by the foe. For all which reasons it was
absolutely essential that Decius should have that thorough knowledge
which enabled him by gaining possession of this hill to save the Roman
army, and to discover a path whereby, in the event of his being
attacked, he and his followers might escape.