executed; The inconvenience of not punisshynge; Cesar chaunsynge to
fall, made the same to be supposed to signifi good lucke; Religion
taketh away fantasticall opinions; In what cases a Capitaine ought not
to faight with his enemie if he may otherwyse choose; A policie of
Fulvius wherby he got and spoyled his enemies Campe; A policie to
disorder the enemie; A policie to overcome the enemie; A policie; How to
beguile the enemie; Howe Mennonus trained his enemies oute of stronge
places to bee the better able to overcom them.]
FABRICIO. To the first question I answer you, that if the armie be more
or lesse, then fower or sixe thousande souldiours, the orders of
lodgynges, may bee taken awaie or joined, so many as suffiseth: and with
this way a man may goe in more, and in lesse, into infinite:
Notwithstandynge the Romaines, when thei joigned together twoo consull
armies, thei made twoo campes, and thei tourned the partes of the
unarmed, thone against thother. Concernyng the second question, I say
unto you, that the Romaines ordinary armie, was about xxiiii. M.
souldiours: but when thei were driven to faight against the greatest
power that might be, the moste that thei put together, wer L. M. With
this number, thei did set against two hundred thousand Frenchemen, whome
assaulted them after the first warre, that thei had with the
Carthageners. With this verie same numbre, thei fought againste
Anniball. And you muste note, that the Romaines, and the Grekes, have
made warre with fewe, fortefiyng themselves thorough order, and thorough
arte: the west, and the easte, have made it with multitude: But the one
of these nacions, doeth serve with naturall furie: as doe the men of the
west partes, the other through the great obedience whiche those men have
to their kyng. But in Grece, and in Italy, beyng no naturall furie, nor
the naturall reverence towardes their king, it hath been necessary for
them to learne the discipline of warre, the whiche is of so muche force,
that it hath made that a fewe, hath been able to overcome the furie, and
the naturall obstinatenesse of manie. Therefore I saie, that mindyng to
imitate the Romaines, and the Grekes, the number of L. M. souldiers
ought not to bee passed, but rather to take lesse: because manie make
confucion, nor suffer not the discipline to be observed, and the orders
learned, and Pirrus used to saie, that with xv. thousande men he woulde
assaile the worlde: but let us pas to an other parte. We have made this
our armie to winne a field and shewed the travailes, that in the same
fight may happen: we have made it to marche, and declared of what
impedimentes in marchyng it may be disturbed: and finally we have lodged
it: where not only it ought to take a littell reste of the labours
passed, but also to thinke howe the warre ought to be ended: for that in
the lodgynges, is handeled many thynges, inespecially thy enemies as yet
remainyng in the fielde, and in suspected townes, of whome it is good to