Machiavelli, Volume I — Niccolo Machiavelli — John Shaqi
Machiavelli, Volume I
Niccolo Machiavelli · en
purpose, with thirtie or fourtie chosen men about hym, that knewe by
prudence, how to execute a commission, and by force, to withstande a
violence, and thei to be also betwen the Drumme and the Ansigne: this is
thorder, with the whiche I would dispose a maine battaile, whiche should
bee the disposyng of halfe the armie, and it should take in breadth
three hundred fourscore and twoo yardes, and in length as moche as above
is saied, not accomptyng the space, that thesame parte of the
extraordinarie Pikes will take, whiche muste make a defence for the
unarmed, whiche will bee aboute lxxv. yardes: the other maine battaile,
I would dispose on the righte side, after the same maner juste, as I
have disposed that on the lefte, leavyng betwene the one main battaile,
and thother, a space of xxii. yardes: in the hedde of whiche space, I
would set some little carriages of artillerie, behynde the whiche,
should stande the generall capitaine of all the armie, and should have
about hym with the Trumpet, and with the Capitaine standerde, twoo
hundred menne at least, chosen to be on foote the moste parte, emongest
whiche there should be tenne or more, mete to execute all
commaundementes, and should bee in soche wise a horsebacke, and armed,
that thei mighte bee on horsebacke, and on foote, accordyng as neede
should require. The artillerie of the armie, suffiseth ten Cannons, for
the winning of Townes, whose shotte shoulde not passe fiftie pounde: the
whiche in the fielde should serve mee more for defence of the campe,
then for to fight the battaile: The other artillerie, should bee rather
of ten, then of fifteene pounde the shotte: this I would place afore on
the front of all the armie, if sometime the countrie should not stande
in such wise, that I mighte place it by the flancke in a sure place,
where it mighte not of the enemie be in daunger: this fashion of an
armie thus ordered, may in fighting, use the order of the Falangi, and
the order of the Romane Legions: for that in the fronte, bee Pikes, all
the men bee set in the rankes, after such sorte, that incountering with
the enemie, and withstanding him, maye after the use of the Falangi,
restore the firste ranckes, with those behinde: on the other parte, if
they be charged so sore, that they be constrayned to breake the orders,
and to retire themselves, they maye enter into the voide places of the
seconde battailes, which they have behinde them, and unite their selves
with them, and making a new force, withstande the enemie, and overcome
him: and when this sufficeth not, they may in the verie same maner,
retire them selves the seconde time, and the third fight: so that in
this order, concerning to fight, there is to renue them selves, both
according to the Greeke maner, and according to the Romane: concerning
the strength of the armie, there cannot be ordayned a more stronger: for
as much, as the one and the other borne therof, is exceedingly well