The Art of War - Khamkoo

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COSIMO Since we are changing the discussion, I would like the questioner to be changed, so that I may not be held to be presumptuous, which I have always censured in others. I, therefore, resign the speakership, and I surrender it to any of these friends of mine who want it. ZANOBI It would be most gracious of you to continue: but since you do not want to, you ought at least to tell us which of us should succeed in your place. COSIMO I would like to pass this burden on the Lord Fabrizio. FABRIZIO I am content to accept it, and would like to follow the Venetian custom, that the youngest talks first; for this being an exercise for young men, I am persuaded that young men are more adept at reasoning, than they are quick to follow. COSIMO It therefore falls to you Luigi: and I am pleased with such a successor, as long as you are satisfied with such a questioner. FABRIZIO I am certain that, in wanting to show how an army is well organized for undertaking an engagement, it would be necessary to narrate how the Greeks and the Romans arranged the ranks in their armies. None the less, as you yourselves are able to read and consider these things, through the medium of ancient writers, I shall omit many particulars, and will cite only those things that appear necessary for me to imitate, in the desire in our times to give some (part of) perfection to our army. This will be done, and, in time, I will show how an army is arranged for an engagement, how it faces a real battle, and how it can be trained in mock ones. The greatest mistake that those men make who arrange an army for an engagement, is to give it only one front, and commit it to only one onrush and one attempt (fortune). This results from having lost the method the ancients employed of receiving one rank into the other; for without this method, one cannot help the rank in front, or defend them, or change them by rotation in battle, which was practiced best by the Romans. In explaining this method, therefore, I want to tell how the Romans divided each Legion into three parts, namely, the Astati, the Princeps, and the Triari; of whom the Astati were placed in the first line of the army in solid and deep ranks, (and) behind them were the Princeps, but placed with their ranks more open: and behind these they placed the 62
Triari, and with ranks so sparse, as to be able, if necessary, to receive the Princeps and the Astati between them. In addition to these, they had slingers, bow-men (archers), and other lightly armed, who were not in these ranks, but were situated at the head of the army between the cavalry and the infantry. These light armed men, therefore, enkindled the battle, and if they won ((which rarely happened)), they pursued the victory: if they were repulsed, they retired by way of the flanks of the army, or into the intervals (gaps) provided for such a result, and were led back among those who were not armed: after this proceeding, the Astati came hand to hand with the enemy, and who, if they saw themselves being overcome, retired little by little through the open spaces in the ranks of the Princeps, and, together with them, renewed the fight. If these also were forced back, they all retired into the thin lines of the Triari, and all together, en masse, recommenced the battle; and if these were defeated, there was no other remedy, as there was no way left to reform themselves. The cavalry were on the flanks of the army, placed like two wings on a body, and they some times fought on horseback, and sometimes helped the infantry, according as the need required. This method of reforming themselves three times is almost impossible to surpass, as it is necessary that fortune abandon you three times, and that the enemy has so much virtu that he overcomes you three times. The Greeks, with their Phalanxes, did not have this method of reforming themselves, and although these had many ranks and Leaders within them, none the less, they constituted one body, or rather, one front. So that in order to help one another, they did not retire from one rank into the other, as the Romans, but one man took the place of another, which they did in this way. Their Phalanxes were (made up) of ranks, and supposing they had placed fifty men per rank, when their front came against the enemy, only the first six ranks of all of them were able to fight, because their lances, which they called Sarisse, were so long, that the points of the lances of those in the sixth rank reached past the front rank. When they fought, therefore, if any of the first rank fell, either killed or wounded, whoever was behind him in the second rank immediately entered into his place, and whoever was behind him in the third rank immediately entered into the place in the second rank which had become vacant, and thus successively all at once the ranks behind restored the deficiencies of those in front, so that the ranks were always remained complete, and no position of the combatants was vacant except in the last rank, which became depleted because there was no one in its rear to restore it. So that the injuries which the first rank suffered, depleted the last, and the first rank 63
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The Art of War Machiavelli, Niccol
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Preface Many, Lorenzo, have held an
Page 5 and 6:
Part 1 5
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time gloriously for the Catholic Ki
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You have excused him strongly in th
Page 11 and 12: that this being a profession by whi
Page 13 and 14: members (of the army) returned with
Page 15 and 16: Rome in a fort adjacent to that Cit
Page 17 and 18: to govern prudently; for if he has
Page 19 and 20: COSIMO Would you introduce any anci
Page 21 and 22: own be organized except in this way
Page 23 and 24: glory and happiness. As to the erro
Page 25 and 26: military orders, that the old (vete
Page 27 and 28: proposition does not do any harm ei
Page 29 and 30: authority over the same men generat
Page 31 and 32: Part 2 31
Page 33 and 34: on the sword. Therefore I want to l
Page 35 and 36: heaviness of the arms (armor) and t
Page 37 and 38: legs with armor, is much more apt t
Page 39 and 40: of) the cavalry can be sustained by
Page 41 and 42: But, as it is time to pass on to th
Page 43 and 44: train them always on their free day
Page 45 and 46: thousand five hundred infantry, of
Page 47 and 48: men which you have to put together
Page 49 and 50: guide (lead) the pikemen ought to h
Page 51 and 52: from one flank to the other there i
Page 53 and 54: moved with the fifteen files of shi
Page 55 and 56: I believe that Heads assigned by yo
Page 57 and 58: the former, men of virtu are raised
Page 59 and 60: suffice to have said in showing the
Page 61: Part 3 61
Page 65 and 66: have arranged that each company hav
Page 67 and 68: arranged as I have previously descr
Page 69 and 70: assembled into your two Battalions
Page 71 and 72: create an arrangement that cannot b
Page 73 and 74: mention of it was made, as somethin
Page 75 and 76: showed you a short time ago. But le
Page 77 and 78: the more he should penetrate into i
Page 79 and 80: told you that the second rank had t
Page 81 and 82: Constables and Heads of companies t
Page 83 and 84: LUIGI Since an engagement has been
Page 85 and 86: of the ancients, that almost all th
Page 87 and 88: eing occupied by the Triari, there
Page 89 and 90: distinction: either they are entire
Page 91 and 92: an event; for example, when you see
Page 93 and 94: Army had crossed the Adda, but shou
Page 95 and 96: Maid of France, and who was the cau
Page 97 and 98: FABRIZIO I have shown you how to or
Page 99 and 100: as these companies so arranged all
Page 101 and 102: etween the one and the other flank,
Page 103 and 104: the command is given by voice or by
Page 105 and 106: This arises from not keeping track
Page 107 and 108: engagement. And therefore, when mar
Page 109 and 110: that of Caesar, who, having his arm
Page 111 and 112: Part 6 111
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the mode of encamping and the form
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quarter the light cavalry, which, s
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the said length in the middle, ther
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one to the herdsmen, another to Art
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But let us return to the discussion
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from other desires he longs for his
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it with diligence, giving each one
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apprehensive, and conceal those thi
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that it should not do so, he gave o
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easily. A little while ago, I said
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other hand, there is nothing more i
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You ought to know that towns and fo
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hills outside the City, which, as s
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ombardiers built that way are easil
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what he has to do in any incident.
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esieged must also guard themselves
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in various ways. The ciphers are ac
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esieged either in their encampment
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example, how and in how many ways t
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merited who with a army which was (
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this, then, in the year one thousan
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Loved this book ? Similar users als
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of Utopia) or more simply Utopia is
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www.feedbooks.com Food for the mind
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