doest and in place nere to the rootes of the same, where the enemies
armie maie come: For that in this case, havyng respecte unto the
artillerie, the higher place shall gette thee disadvauntage: Bicause
that alwaies and commodiously, thou mightest of the enemies artillerie
bee hurte, without beyng able to make any remedy, and thou couldest not
commodiously hurte thesame, beyng hindered by thine owne men. Also, he
that prepareth an armie to faight a battaile, ought to have respecte,
bothe to the Sunne, and to the Winde, that the one and the other, doe
not hurte the fronte, for that the one and the other, will let thee the
sight, the one with the beames, and the other with the duste: and
moreover, the Winde hindereth the weapons, whiche are stroken at the
enemie, and maketh their blowes more feable: and concerning the Sunne,
it sufficeth not to have care, that at the firste it shine not in the
face, but it is requisite to consider, that increasyng the daie, it
hurte thee not: and for this, it should bee requsite in orderyng the
men, to have it all on the backe, to the entente it should have to passe
moche tyme, to come to lye on the fronte. This waie was observed of
Aniball at Canne, and of Mario against the Cimbrians. If thou happen to
be moche inferiour of horses, ordaine thine armie emongeste Vines, and
trees, and like impedimentes, as in our time the Spaniardes did, when
thei overthrewe the Frenchmenne at Cirignuola. And it hath been seen
many times, with all one Souldiours, variyng onely the order, and the
place, that thei have become of losers victorers: as it happened to the
Carthageners, whom havyng been overcome of Marcus Regolus divers tymes,
were after by the counsaill of Santippo a Lacedemonian, victorious: whom
made them to go doune into the plaine, where by vertue of the horses,
and of Eliphantes, thei were able to overcome the Romaines. It semes
unto me, accordyng to the auncient insamples that almoste all the
excellente Capitaines, when thei have knowen, that the enemie hath made
strong one side of his battaile, thei have not set against it, the moste
strongest parte, but the moste weakest, and thother moste strongest thei
have set against the most weakest: after in the beginning the faighte,
thei have commaunded to their strongest parte, that onely thei sustaine
the enemie, and not to preace upon hym, and to the weaker, that thei
suffer them selves to be overcome, and to retire into the hindermoste
bandes of the armie. This breadeth twoo greate disorders to the enemie:
the firste, that he findeth his strongest parte compassed about, the
second is, that semyng unto him to have the victorie, seldome tymes it
happeneth, that thei disorder not theim selves, whereof groweth his
sodain losse. Cornelius Scipio beyng in Spain, againste Asdruball of
Carthage, and understanding how to Asdruball it was knowen, that he in
the orderyng the armie, placed his Legions in the middest, the whiche