The Art of War - Khamkoo

heaviness of the arms (armor) and the annoyance of having to carry
them; which inconveniences they overcame by accustoming the body to
hardships and inducing it to endure hard work. And you know we do
not suffer from things to which we are accustomed. And you must understand
this, that the infantry must be able to fight with infantry and
cavalry, and those are always useless who cannot sustain the (attacks of
the) cavalry, or if they are able to sustain them, none the less have fear of
infantry who are better armed and organized than they. Now if you will
consider the German and the Roman infantry, you will find in the German
((as we have said)) the aptitude of overcoming cavalry, but great
disadvantages when fighting with an infantry organized as they are, and
armed as the Roman. So that there will be this advantage of the one over
the other, that the Romans could overcome both the infantry and the
cavalry, and the Germans only the cavalry.
COSIMO
I would desire that you give some more particular example, so that we
might understand it better.
FABRIZIO
I say thusly, that in many places in our histories you will find the Roman
infantry to have defeated numberless cavalry, but you will never
find them to have been defeated by men on foot because of some defect
they may have had in their arms or because of some advantage the enemy
had in his. For if their manner of arming had been defective, it was
necessary for them to follow one of two courses: either when they found
one who was better armed than they, not to go on further with the conquest,
or that they take up the manner of the foreigner, and leave off
theirs: and since neither ensued, there follows, what can be easily conjectured,
that this method of arming was better than that of anyone else.
This has not yet occurred with the German infantry; for it has been seen
that anytime they have had to combat with men on foot organized and
as obstinate as they, they have made a bad showing; which results from
the disadvantage they have in trying themselves against the arms of the
enemy. When Filippo Visconti, Duke of Milan, was assaulted by eighteen
thousand Swiss, he sent against them Count Carmingnuola, who was his
Captain at that time. This man with six thousand cavalry and a few infantry
went to encounter them, and, coming hand to hand with them,
was repulsed with very great damage. Whence Carmingnuola as a
prudent man quickly recognized the power of the enemy arms, and how
much they prevailed against cavalry, and the weakness of cavalry
against those on foot so organized; and regrouping his forces, again went
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