Machiavelli, Volume I — Niccolo Machiavelli — John Shaqi
Machiavelli, Volume I
Niccolo Machiavelli · en
shewe you distinctly how thei incamped, but to tell you onely with what
order, I at this presente would incampe my armie, whereby you shall then
knowe, what parte I have taken out of the Romaine maners. You knowe,
that in stede of twoo Romaine Legions, I have taken twoo maine battailes
of footemen, of sixe thousande footemen, and three hundred horsemen,
profitable for a maine battaile, and into what battailes, into what
weapons, into what names I have devided theim: you knowe howe in
orderyng tharmie to marche, and to faight, I have not made mencion of
other men, but onely have shewed, how that doublyng the men, thei neded
not but to double the orders: but mindyng at this presente, to shew you
the maner of incampyng, me thinketh good not to stande onely with twoo
maine battailes, but to bryng together a juste armie, made like unto the
Romaines, of twoo maine battailes, and of as many more aidyng men: the
whiche I make, to the intent that the forme of the incampyng, maie be
the more perfect, by lodgyng a perfecte armie: whiche thyng in the other
demonstracions, hath not semed unto me so necessarie. Purposing then, to
incampe a juste armie, of xxiiii. thousande footemen, and of twoo
thousande good horsemenne, beeyng devided into fower maine battailes,
twoo of our owne menne, and twoo of straungers, I would take this waie.
The situacion beyng founde, where I would incampe, I would erecte the
hed standarde, and aboute it, I would marke out a quadrant, whiche
should have every side distante from it xxxvii. yardes and a half, of
whiche every one of them should lye, towardes one of the fower regions
of heaven, as Easte, Weste, Southe, and Northe: betwene the whiche
space, I would that the capitaines lodgyng should be appoincted. And
bicause I beleve that it is wisedom, to devide the armed from the
unarmed, seyng that so, for the moste parte the Romaines did, I would
therefore seperate the menne, that were cumbered with any thing, from
the uncombered. I would lodge all, or the greatest parte of the armed,
on the side towardes the Easte, and the unarmed, and the cumbred, on the
Weste side, makyng Easte the hedde, and Weste the backe of the Campe,
and Southe, and Northe should be the flanckes: and for to distinguishe
the lodgynges of the armed, I would take this waie. I would drawe a line
from the hedde standarde, and lead it towardes the Easte, the space of
CCCCC.x. yardes and a half: I would after, make two other lines, that
should place in the middeste the same, and should bee as longe as that,
but distante eche of theim from it a leven yardes and a quarter: in the
ende whereof, I would have the Easte gate, and the space that is betwene
the twoo uttermoste lines, should make a waie, that should go from the
gate, to the capitaines lodging, whiche shall come to be xxii. yardes
and a halfe broad, and CCCClxxii. yardes and a halfe longe, for the
xxxvii. yardes and a halfe, the lodgyng of the Capitaine will take up: