# CHAPTER XXXVI —_Why it has been and still may be affirmed of the Gauls,

CHAPTER XXXVI.—_Why it has been and still may be affirmed of the Gauls,
that at the beginning of a fray they are more than Men, but afterwards
less than Women_.


The bravery of the Gaul who on the banks of the Anio challenged any
among the Romans to fight with him, and the combat that thereupon
ensued between him and Titus Manlius, remind me of what Titus Livius
oftener than once observes in his history, that “_at the beginning of a
fray the Gauls are more than men, but ere it is ended show themselves
less than women_.”

Touching the cause of this, many are content to believe that such is
their nature, which, indeed, I take to be true; but we are not,
therefore, to assume that the natural temper which makes them brave at
the outset, may not be so trained and regulated as to keep them brave
to the end. And, to prove this, I say, that armies are of three kinds.
In one of these you have discipline with bravery and valour as its
consequence. Such was the Roman army, which is shown by all historians
to have maintained excellent discipline as the result of constant
military training. And because in a well-disciplined army none must do
anything save by rule, we find that in the Roman army, from which as it
conquered the world all others should take example, none either eat, or
slept, or bought, or sold, or did anything else, whether in his
military or in his private capacity, without orders from the consul.
Those armies which do otherwise are not true armies, and if ever they
have any success, it is owing to the fury and impetuosity of their
onset and not to trained and steady valour. But of this impetuosity and
fury, trained valour, when occasion requires, will make use; nor will
any danger daunt it or cause it to lose heart, its courage being kept
alive by its discipline, and its confidence fed by the hope of victory
which never fails it while that discipline is maintained.

But the contrary happens with armies of the second sort, those, namely,
which have impetuosity without discipline, as was the case with the
Gauls whose courage in a protracted conflict gradually wore away; so
that unless they succeeded in their first attack, the impetuosity to
which they trusted, having no support from disciplined valour, soon
cooled; when, as they had nothing else to depend on, their efforts
ceased. The Romans, on the other hand, being less disquieted in danger
by reason of their perfect discipline, and never losing hope, fought
steadily and stubbornly to the last, and with the same courage at the
end as at the outset; nay, growing heated by the conflict, only became
the fiercer the longer it was continued.

In armies of the third sort both natural spirit and trained valour are
wanting; and to this class belong the Italian armies of our own times,
of which it may be affirmed that they are absolutely worthless, never
obtaining a victory, save when, by some accident, the enemy they
encounter takes to flight. But since we have daily proofs of this
absence of valour, it were needless to set forth particular instances
of it.

That all, however, may know on the testimony of Titus Livius what
methods a good army should take, and what are taken by a bad army, I
shall cite the words he represents Papirius Cursor to have used when
urging that Fabius, his master of the knights, should be punished for
disobedience, and denouncing the consequences which would ensue were he
absolved, saying:—“_Let neither God nor man be held in reverence; let
the orders of captains and the Divine auspices be alike disregarded;
let a vagrant soldiery range without leave through the country of
friend or foe; reckless of their military oath, let them disband at
their pleasure; let them forsake their deserted standards, and neither
rally nor disperse at the word of command; let them fight when they
choose, by day or by night, with or without advantage of ground, with
or without the bidding of their leader, neither maintaining their ranks
_nor observing the order of battle; and let our armies, from being a
solemn and consecrated company, grow to resemble some dark and
fortuitous gathering of cut-throats._” With this passage before us, it
is easy to pronounce whether the armies of our times be “_a dark and
fortuitous gathering_,” or “_a solemn and consecrated company_;” nay,
how far they fall short of anything worthy to be called an army,
possessing neither the impetuous but disciplined valour of the Romans,
nor even the mere undisciplined impetuosity of the Gauls.