[hprints-00683151, v2] Enea Silvio Piccolomini (Pius II ... - Hprints.org

hprints-00683151, version 2 - 19 Mar 2013
[31] However, so as not to fail you in any way at all, the duke has decided to provide
triremes, too. It would be unworthy of us to inquire where and how he will obtain
them, for whatever he promises holds true. Still, I shall tell you why it is easy for him
to provide ships. As you know, the duke is bound in close friendship 379 with His most
serene and magnanimous Highness, the King of Aragon 380 , who would like nothing
better – as his orator has stated so eloquently – than to make his ships available for
the sake of the council and of the duke. To whom could this matter be better
entrusted than to the King of Aragon? Who would more diligently deal with this
matter of the Faith than he who has fought so long against the infidels? Or do you
not know that this Catholic King, zealous in matters of the faith, often fought - with
a large force and a large fleet - against the Africans, who are inveterate enemies of
Christianity? Indeed, it is his honour and glory to have, by his own efforts, made the
Mediterranean Sea safe from the infidel pirates. Pompey the Great 381 was equally
meritorious, and for the same reason we honour the king who frequently made his
trumpets sound when the Libyan ships and the hostile fleets of the infidels roamed
that very sea and right up to the Tuscan shore. They fear this excellent King of the
Ionian Sea and Guardian of the Tyrrhenian Sea, who has freed Sardinia, Corsica,
Sicily and the Balearic and the Vulcanic Islands 382 from all the attacks of the
Saracens. For him it would be worse not to be asked for assistance in this great
cause of the Faith than to have his entire fleet devoured by a terrible storm. In
conclusion, either the king’s ships will be made available or else ships will be
provided in another manner.
I have now said enough about the first and most important part of my subject.
379 The king fell into the hands of the duke when he was defeated by the Genovese fleet in the sea battle of Ponza in
1435. The king was treated honourably by the duke, and then the two princes concluded an alliance which completely
upset the political and military balance of Italy
380 Alfonso V the Magnanimous (b. 1396, k. 1416, d. 1458: King of Aragon and Sicily. As King of Sicily (the island part of
the Kingdom of Naples) he had been adopted as heir to the queen of Naples (i.e. the mainland part of the Kingdom of
Sicily) in 1421 and henceforth campaigned systematically to get effective control of mainland Sicily, which he acquired
in 1443
381 Gnaeus Pompejus Magnus (b. 106-48 BC): Roman general and statesman
382 Islands in the Mediterranean Sea East of Italy
83