part of his men prisoners so as Metellus was driuen to leuie his siege with dishonor The Spaniards being within Pauie made a salie out vpon Iohn Medices and foiled his guard To haue reuenge herof Iohn Medices laid a double ambush the one in ditches neere the town and the other further of The Spaniards spared not to make another saly out and when they had chased those good fellows a good way they perceiued the ambush a far off wherwith they began to retire But their way was cut off by the other ambush that was laid neerer the town insomuch that finding themselues assailed both waies at once they had no meane to saue themselues but were all put to the sword CHAP. XIX Of the taking of Towns THere are diuerse manners of taking of towns either by force or by policy We will treat here of policies and onely of some such policies as the men of old time haue vsed For new be daily deuised the which I ouerpasse with silence because it were vnmeet for me to giue counsell to such as haue bin at them and seene them and haue inuented and practised them Sometime great speed and suddain comming vnlooked for giue occasion of the taking of a towne as it did to Demetrius at the citie of Athens which had receiued the garrison of Ptolomie whom Demetrius was desirous to expulse to the intent that Ptolomie shuld not pruaile against him in so great a citie Wherfore he rowed thither so swiftly with his gallies that he was seene there ere his comming was heard of Insomuch that Ptolomies garison supposing they had bin Ptolomies gallies went out to receiue them But perceiuing too late what they were they had no way to defend thēselues for Demetrus was come within the hauen the entrance whereof he had found wide open And to bring his enterprise the easilier to passe he made proclamation by the sound of a trumpet that his father Antigonus had sent him to deliuer the Athenians from all garrisons and to set them free the which thing caused the Athenians to turn vnto him to yeeld him the town so as the garrison was put away and they were set at libertie Nicias intending to lay siege to Siracuse sent a man of Catana thither as a spie to tell them that if they would take the campe of the Athenians vnawares they should come with all their power towards Catana at a certain day that he appointed because the Athenians would for the most part of the time be within the citie wherein there were a number of natural citizens which fauoring the affairs of Siracuse were determined to seaze the gates of the citie as soone as they perceiued the Siracusanes to approch and at the same time to set fire vpon the ships of the Athenians and there were a great sort of the towns men of that confederacie who did but wait for the day houre of their comming By this policie he made the Siracusanes to come out into the fields with al their power so as they left their citie vtterly empty he in the mean season departing frō Catana with al their fleet took the hauen of Siracuse at his ease and chose a place to plant his camp in where his enemies could not indomage him The Athenians hauing secret conference with some of the citie Megara ceised one of the gates afore dailight by the which the citisens were woont to take in a Brigantine which they sent a nights to scoure the sea afore day brought it in again vpō a chariot within the inclosure of the wals which went frō the city to Nisey where was their hauē which was the cause that the gate could not be shut so soone but that the Athenians ceised it and mounted vpon their wals giuing a push to take their citie But the garrison of the Peloponnesians arriued there in that instant who had beene a sufficient impediment to the Athenians if the Athenians had not bethought them to make proclamation by the sound of a trumpet That al the Megarians which would yeeld themselues to the Athenians and lay away their weapons should be saued Which thing whē the Peloponnesians heard fearing least all the townesmen had bin of that confederacie they forthwith forsooke the sea and saued themselues at Nisey Alcibiades tooke the citie Celibrie in Hellespont by intelligence with some of the citizens but not without some perill of his owne person yea and to his confusion if he had not remedied the matter quickly He should haue bin neere the citie by a certaine houre and for his watchword a burning cresset should haue bin put vp about midnight But they that were within were constrained to put vp their token afore the houre for feare of one of the confederacie who repented him of his doing Which token when Alcibiades perceiued although he had not his troopes readie yet would he not let slip the occasion but taking with him thirtie men and appointing his troopes to follow him with all speed possible ran streight to the walles There was he receiued and the gate opened vnto him whereinto he entered with his 30. men and 20. others that came by chance But they were no sooner entred but they heard the townsmen cōming in arms against them so as there was no likelihood that he should haue escaped if he taried there On the otherside he was loth to flee and leaue the taking of the towne Wherfore he aduised himself vpon the sudden to cause silence to be made by the sound of a trumpet and when the noise was appeased he made it to be proclaimed that the Celibramians should not take weapon against the Athenians This did somewhat cool those that were desirous to fight because they doubted least all the armie of the Athenians had bin alreadie within the citie And so as they were parlying the rest of his armie came in by means whereof he became master of the towne Also he vsed another policie to get Bizance which is now called Constantinople For lying in siege afore the citie he had secret intelligence with two of the towne which had promised to betray it vnto him To bring this enterprise to passe he made a shew to leuie his siege and to go his way into Ionie with great diligence for some that had made an insurrection there And in verie deed he departed in the open day with all his gallies but the same night he returned back againe and comming on land with his men that were best armed approched near the wals without making any noise And he had appointed the rest of his men that were in the ships that in the meane while they should with all speed row into the hauen and there make as great noise as they could to the intent that the Bizantines should draw thitherward In which meane time he himselfe by the helpe of his intelligencers entred the citie and woon it howbeit not without fighting As Robert of Artois besieged Vannes
he caused an assault to be giuen in three places at once and the assault endured all the day long At night euery man retired and the French men put off their armor to rest and refresh themselues But Robert of Artois suffred not his men to vnarme them but onely to rest them a litle and to eat and drinke Afterward hauing set his three battels in order he began the assault againe in two places commanding the third battell to stand still vntill it were time to depart and because it was night the assailants had kindled so great fires that they which waked on the sudden went right whether soeuer they saw the fires without attending any commaundement of the captain and without putting themselues in order During the time that euery mans hands were full the third battel chose another part of the town vnfurnished of warders and there setting vp store of ladders did so much that they entred the citie and put the whole garrison of Vannes to flight The earle of Derby perceiuing that he could not win the citie of Naunts by assault vsed this policy by the aduice of one Alexander of Chaumount a Gascoin In the morning he made countenance to dissodge leauing onely a hundred men behind vnder the leading of the lord Wentworth telling thē what they shuld do And in a couert vally not far from the towne he laid a stale The men of Naunts ran with 400 men vpon the 100 who retiring to the passage drew the Frenchmen into the ambush And when they were passed one companie went right to the towne and took the gates which they found open for the Frenchmen thought them to haue beene their owne men and they that issued out were inclosed both afore and behind and vtterly ouerthrown The Seneschal of Beauquere vnderstanding that great store of rother beasts should passe by the towne of Athenie sent threescore men to driue them and in the mean while lay in ambush himselfe neere the towne The Englishmen with the more part of the garrison of the towne ran to the rescue so farre that they fell into the ambush who chased the Englishmen so lustily that they defeated them euery chone and therwithall went streight forth to the towne the which they tooke by assault for want of men to resist them Lucullus purposing to take the Mitelenians by policie besieged them with maine force Then suddenle in the open day and in the sight of the townes-men he mounted vpon the sea and rowed towards the citie Elea. But in the night he returned back sectetly and without making any noyse couched himselfe in ambush neere the towne The Mitilenians doubting nothing went out vnaduisedly and without order the next morning and without standing vpon their gard went to rifle the campe of the Romanes But Lucullus stepping out suddenly vpon them tooke a great number of them prisoners and slue about fiue hundred that stoode at defence and wan about six thousand slaues Fredericke vsed another policie to get Saminimat It happened that he had receiued a great losse before Parma where his armie was ouerthrowne and he was faine to take the way of Tuscan for to returne into his realme of Naples There was no likelihood that he minded thē of Saminimat that had plaid the traitors and rebels against him neither was he determined to rest there But to compasse them without great paine or studie he dissembled their treason and chose a number of his best most couragious and most loyall soldiers whom he caused to be chained together as if they had bin prisoners The which being done he caused his mules to be loden with a great sort of hampers full of all kind of armor and artillerie and couered them with the same sumpterclothes wherwith the sumpters of his chamber were woont to be couered These prisoners so made at the instant he sent vnto Saminimato with Peter of the Vineyard his steward of houshold secretarie and chauncelor who had the whole gouernment thereof and was a prisoner in deed accompanied with messengers of credence which should declare vnto the inhabitants of the towne that the emperour hauing not a more loyall towne seut them those prisoners men of importance and his preciousest stuffe with them praying them to keepe them carefully till his returne because that being now on his way into his kingdome of Naples he would not be troubled with such baggage The men of Saminimato seeing the emperour in armes round about them made good countenance notwithstanding that they mistrusted thēselues to be bewraid and thereupon shewing themselues verie obedient receiued all the traine with good cheere causing them all to come into the citie When the souldiers of Fredericke saw their conuenient time they cast off their chaines which were disposed in such sort as they might vnlinke them when they list and out of hand taking them to their weapons wan the gates whereat they let in the emperour Fredericks armie so that the towne was yeelded to his obeysance The Slauonians vsed another policie to take another town There approched a certaine of them to the wals so few in shew as were not sufficient to take the towne and yet did they incontinently giue an assault They that were within beholding the small number of them ran out vpon them folowed beating them a good way off from the towne And when they were a sufficient farnesse the residue shewed themselues behind them and slue a great sort of them so as they could not recouer into the citie againe Then the Slauonians comming to the assault entered at ease because there were none but the citizens left to defend the towne The king of Portugall perceiuing how the Britons that were within Feroll in Castile made often salies out laid fiftie men in ambush and a three daies after went with a few men and skirmished hard at the barriers of the towne The Britons failed not to come out against him and pursued the Portugals so hard that they tooke about fiue and twentie of them and were fain to open the barriers wide to let in the prisoners and to let out those that pursued them At length they that lay in ambush riding as fast as they could right to the barriers and making themselues masters of them entred mingled with the Britons into the towne The men of Capua being desirous to receiue the Imperials into the citie and to expulse the Frenchmen willed the Imperials to lay themselues in ambush neere the towne and when they knew them to be laid they would persuade the Frenchmen to make a rode out of the citie to fetch vittels afore they were more straitly besieged The Frenchmen perceiuing their reason to be apparant went out to do so But when they came backe againe they found the gates shut and vnderstood that the Capuans had receiued the Imperials in at another gate Sertorius vsed an other policie to win the Characitanians which did nothing but rob him and
spoile him and mocke him without feare because they retired themselues into rocks and caues that could not be come vnto He considered that right against their caues there was a light clay that fell to dust like sand the which the northwind blowing full into their caues did ordinarily carie vp that in dust and driue it into their dens When Sertorius had detected this in himselfe and vnderstood by the inhabitants of the countrie therabouts that the like was don customably he commaunded his men to gather togither a great quantitie of that light earth and thereof to make a huge mount right against their caues When this great mount was finished he made his horsmen trot vp and down on it and anon the wind taking the dust as soone as it was raised from the ground caried it full into their caues striking it right into the eies and eielids of them Wherby their eies were stopped and their caue was filled with a hote and sultrie aire Insomuch that being not able to take breath but with great paine they submitted themselues the third day after to his discretion When a man hath taken a citie it is not enough to enter into it and to sacke it except he set a good guard at the gates for feare of afterclaps as befell to the Castilians in Spaine who with the helpe of the Grisenians rebelled against the Romans for their ill vsing of them and slue a good sort of them As soone as Sertorius heard the vprore by and by he gat him out of the towne with a few of his men and assembling togither such as were escaped returned againe to the towne and finding the gate still open whereat the Grisenians were entered in he slipped in also and setting a good gard at the gates in which point the Grisenians had ouershot themselues and in other parts of the towne did put all to the sword that were of yeares to weare armour Then apparelled he his soldiers in the apparell and armour of those whom he had slain and went in that maner to the citie of the Grisenians from whence those came by whom they were surprised by night The Grisenians thinking at the sight of their owne furniture that they had beene their owne men opened them their gates and went out to meet them as their friends whom they thought to haue dispatched their matters verie well So the Romans slue a great number hard at the gates of their citie and the rest yeelding themselues to the mercie of Sertorius were by him sold. At such time as the prince of Orenge sacked the citie of Rome Guy Ranâ—on came to the gates with his light horses and eight hundred harquâ—buzers thinking to haue gone in to defend it but when he vnderstood those newes he retired backe Many were of opinion that considering the disorder of the Imperials if he had entered in by the castell which was vngarded he might haue done some notable feat or at leastwise he had deliuered the Pope But as it is commonly said little woteth a man what is done in his enemies host and it had bin a great hazard to haue put himself in daunger with so few men against so great a number of enemies Bellisarius perceiuing that he could not win Panormus by land made his ships to come into the hauen Then hauing manned certaine small vessels with crossebowes he made them to mount vp into the tpps the which were highâ—r than the wall and from those small ships to shoot incessantly at the townsmen whom they saw lie open insomuch that the townesmen seeing themselues so greatly annoyed by them were faine to yeeld the towne to Bellisarius The Lord of Estourney surprised the towne of Audenard in this maner He laid foure hundred chosen men in ambush neere the gate of Graundmount Then sent he two chariots laden with prouision and foure souldiers apparelled like carters to driue the chariots wel armed vnder their apparell who feigning them selues to come out of Henault caused the great gate to be opened vnto them Now when they came vpon the bridge they staied and plucked out the taypinnes that held the traces The warders being offended at their long tarying tooke the horses by the heads to make them go but the chariots abode behind because the horses were loosned Then the warders perceiuing themselues to be deceiued began to strike the carters who defended themselues so well that they slue two of the warders In the meane while the lord of Estourney hauing good leysure to approch came at the instant and tooke the gate whereby he became master of the town If they that enterprised to take the citie of Turin in the yeare 1542 had so vnyoked their oxen or turned a chariot within the gate the towne had bin lost For it was saued alonely by the letting downe of the portcullis which stopped a ten or twelue hundred men that came in good array while those that were entred into the town in chariots couered with hay were fighting at the gate and at the place The citie of Ortingas was taken after that maner Peter of Auchun who lay in garrison at Lourd sent in the moneth of May two good souldiers apparelled like seruingmen to seeke masters in the towne They had not beene long there but they were prouided of marchantmen whom they serued so well that their seruice was verie well liked About the middest of August a faire was kept in that towne wherevnto many marchant strangers resorted Now while the townesmen bought and sould and made good cheere Peter of Auchun went out about midnight and laid himself in ambush vvithin a vvood neere the towne hauing sent six men afore vvith two scaling ladders vvhereby they entred secretly into the towne by the helpe of the two souldiers while their masters was drinking As soone as they were entred the two soldiers brought theÌ„ to the gate where was the bodie of the gard ready to set forward assoon as they should whistle theÌ„ Herewithal the two seruing meÌ„ knocked at the gate telling the warders that their master had sent them for good wine The warders knowing them opened the gate and suddenly at a vvatchword the other six souldiers came running thither and slue the warders This being done they tooke the keyes of the gate and did let downe the bridge so softly that no man perceiued it As soone as the bridge was downe they began to sound a blast of deceit whereat Peter of Auchun and his companie set forward tooke the bridge and made himselfe master of the towne To famish the citie of Athens Lisander vsed this deuise After he had ouercome the Athenians by sea he determined to lay siege to Athens But afore the doing thereof he went with his fleet to all the sea-townes where he commaunded vpon paine of death that as many Athenians as were there should get them home to Athens which thing he did vpoÌ„ a policy to pester them vp close togither within the wals
them and not any other mens that are done against the common-weale as king Lewis the twelfth answered both Christianly and vertuously vnto one that whetted him to be reuenged of a certain wrong that had bin done vnto him when he was duke of Orleans It besemeth not a king of France quoth he to be auenged of iniuries done to a duke of Orleance Infinitly was Iulius Caesar commended for his clemency and that of good right For he did easily forgiue the offences that were committed against himselfe And Antonine was woont to say That there was not any thing which procured greater estimation to an emperour among strangers than clemencie did And as saith Statius it is an honourable thing to giue life to him that craueth it Neuerthelesse there is great difference between the pardoning of offences done to a mans own selfe and the pardoning of offences done to other men For it is not in you to forgiue the offences which are done against other men neither ought they to be forgiuen by any other than by such as are hurt by them neither can they also doe it to the preiudice of the common weale And therfore a prince cannot with a safe conscience giue pardon to murderers nor forgiue the offences of wicked persons to purchase himselfe the renowne of gracious and merciful For fauor and mercy graunted to naughty-packs is nought else but crueltie towards good men as Arcâ—idamidas was wont to say And therefore Cato said that those also which restrained not the wicked from euill doing if they might were to be punished because he accounted it as a prouocatioÌ„ to do euill Wherfore whatsoeuer is done against the law ought to be punished by the law the which hath no respect of seruant friend or kinsman Of which law the prince is the executor and is nothing else but a liuing law or rather the deputie or lieutenant of God the iust iudge Now it is not lawful for the deputie or vnder-agent of God to be lauish at his pleasure of that which belongeth to God because he hath not receiued it of him otherwise than in custody and vpon account and therfore he is not to bestow it vpon any man for friendships sake or for pitie Therupon it came that the Thebans to shew what iustice is did paint in their courts the images of iudges without haÌ„ds and the images of princes without eyes to shew that in Iudgment kings ought not to be surprised with any affection nor iudges carried with any couetousnes And although it be not lawfull for a Prince to be iudge in his owne cause for the auoiding of all passions yet is he not forfended to punnish the wrong that is offred him in cases of treason and rebellion but rather on the contrarie part it is a point of iustice to punish rebels as procurers of trouble to the state The emperor Maximilian espieng in a certaine vprore that was in his campe how a souldier strake vp a drum without commaundement of his captaine slew him with his own hand because the danger of his host being on a rore required the remedie of speedie and present crueltie Neuerthelesse such manner of dealing is to be done with great discretion for sometimes things may happen to bee in such case that dissimulation shall auaile more than punishmeÌ„t as it did with Pompey after the death of Sertorius For when Perpenna had sent him a cofer full of letters of Romanes that had written to Sertorius and had held on his side hee would not looke vpon any of them but cast them all into a fire for doubt least for one Sertorius then dead there should step vp twentie others at Rome when they perceiued themselues to be discouered because it falleth often out that when a man thinketh to ouerthrow one faction he multiplieth the number of his enemies And as Fabius Maximus was woont to say It is better to hold such folke in suspence by gentle and kind dealing than seuerely by rigor to seeke our all suspicions or to deale too sharpely towards such as are to be suspected In the citie of Athens there happened a conspiracie of certaine noble men against the state who had determined that if they could not compasse their purpose of themselues they would cal in the Persians to their helpe As these things were a brewing in the campe and many mo besides were guiltie of the conspiracie Aristides feeling the sent thereof stood in great feare by reason of the time For the matter was of too great importance to be passed ouer without care and there was no lesse danger in ripping vp the matter to the quicke for as much as he knew not how many might be found guiltie of the crime Therefore of a very great number he caused but only eight to be apprehended and of those eight two that were to be most deepely charged fled out of the campe and the other six he set againe at libertie Whereby he gaue occasion to such as thought not themselues to bee discouered to assure themselues of safetie and to repent them of their wicked purpose saieng that for iudgement they should haue battell whereby they might iustifie themselues At such time as Epaminondas came to besiege Lacedemon there were about two hundred of a conspiracie within the citie which had taken one of the quarters of the towne very strongly scituated wherein was the temple of Diana The Lacedemonians would haue run vpoÌ„ them out of hand in a rage But Agesilaus fearing least it might be a cause of some further great alteration commaunded all his company to keepe their places and hee himselfe vnarmed went vnto the rebels and cried vnto them Sirs ye haue mistaken my commaundment for this is not the place where I appointed you to meet in but my meaning was that some of you should haue gone to yonder place and othersome to other places pointing to diuers places with his hand The seditious persons hearing him say so were well apaid because they thought their euill purpose to haue bene vndiscouered whereupon leauing that place they departed by and by to the places hee had pointed them Then Agesilaus seizing that Fort into his hands the name whereof was Isorium caused fifteene of the Rebels to be apprehended whom he caused to bee all executed the next night One Badius hauing valeantly encountered the Carthaginenses at the battel of Cannas and being taken prisoner to requite the courtesie of Hannibal that had saued his life and giuen him his ransome as soone as he came home to his owne house to Nola made almost all his countrimen to rebell against the Romans Yet for all this Marcellus considering that the time required then to mollifie things rather than to corzie them sought not by any means to punish him but onely sayd vnto him Sith there bee in you so euident and honourable marks of your good will towards the Romans meaning the wounds that he had receiued in the
were faine to accept such conditions as their conquerours would giue vnto them Alexander would neuer giue himselfe to loue vntill he was lord of Asia for feare of being vanquished And therefore he would not see the wife and daughters of Darius for feare to be caught in loue by them saying commonly that the ladies of Persia were eye-sores vnto him And albeit that vain-glorie made him so to do for feare least he should haue beene hindered in his enterprise yet he saw well that a man which doth such things could not prosper And as long as he set not his mind that way his affaires went well and he purchased great praise yea euen at the hand of Darius himselfe who hearing of a truth how the world went with his wife and children besought God that he might haue none other successour but Alexander Thus ye see how Continencie doth good both to bodie â—oul worldly state that is to say euen to the getting of kingdoms and empires whereof there be so many examples that a man cannot reckon them vp without wearying of his readers I will but onely set downe the Continencie of Scipio towards Indibilis because comparison is made betweene that and Alexanders Now therefore Scipio hauing by the law of armes taken prisoner the wife of one Indibilis a noble man of Spaine and a great enemie of thâ— Romans a woman of rare beautie with diuers other faire ladies and gentlewomen of Spaine would not shut his eies but would haue a â—ight of them And after courteous entertaining of them sent them home to Indibilis without doing any wrong to their honor For which courtesie Indibilis finding himselfe infinitly bound vnto Scipio turned to the Romans with mo than fiue hundred Spaniards and was the cause that Scipio became maister of the whole countrie There haue bin few good captains which haue not abhorred if not simple fornication yet at leastwise adulterie sauing only Iulius Caesar who alwaies entertained some other mens wiues But he was punished by the sonne of one whom he held in adulterie who slue him in the senat And when he entred into any citie the souldiers would say Ye chiefe men of the towne keepe well your wiues for we bring vnto you the bald aduouterer Alexander shewed himselfe more staied in that respect for he would doe no wrong neither to mens wiues nor to their Lemans Vpon a time hauing long waited for a certaine woman when she was come and he had asked her why she came so late she answered because I was faine to tarie till my husband was abed Which thing Alexander hearing commanded his men to conuey her home againe out of hand saying that through their default it wanted but little that he had become an Adulterer He did as much to Antipater For seeing a faire wench that Antipater kept come to feast he began to cast a fancie to her But vnderstanding that she was Antipaters Noughty fellow quoth he why takest thou not this wench hence which enforceth wrong to be done vnto Antipater Francis Sforcia duke of Millane being offred a very faire woman whom he had taken to lie withall perceiued that as soone as he would haue come neere her she began to weepe and prayd the duke that he would not touch her but that he would send her back to her husband who also was a prisoner Of whose request the duke had such regard that hee cast himselfe downe from the bed for feare of touching her and deliuered her againe to hir husband the next morow Dennis the tyrant rebuked his sonne sharply for an adultery which he had committed asking him if he had euer seen him do the like When his sonne had answered no for he had not a king to his father hee could well skill to foretell him what would come of it that is to wit that he also should not haue a sonne that should be a king after him vnlesse hee changed his manners as I haue sayd in my first booke Agesilaus one day refused a kisse whereat when all men maruelled he said He had rather to fight against such affections than to take a good citie well fortified and well manned with men of war Alexander rebuked Cassander very sharply for kissing and was angrie wirh Philoxenus for seeming to inuite him to vnhonest things by his letters Antiochus beholding a very beautifull religious woman that was vowed to Diana was by and by surprised with her loue and for feare least ouer-great loue might inforce him to some incest hee went his way by and by out of the place for doubt least he should doe any thing that might not become him Heliogabalus not only defloured but also married a virgine vestall saieng it was reason that priests should marie nuns because that in times past he had ben priest to the sunne But he was so wicked that the rememberance of him ought to be wiped out of the world When Pompey had put Mithridates to flight he would not touch his concubines but sent them all home to their friends Iulian would not see the goodly ladies of Persia that were his captiues for feare least he should be taken in loue with them but sent them home euery chone Selim the emperor of the Turks did as much in the same countrie For when he had wonne the field against the sophie he found many noble women in his campe whom he sent home without touching them or without taking any ransome for them Dioclesian hauing taken the wife and daughters of the king of Persia did as Alexander had done Which deed caused the Persians to render vnto the Romans all that euer they had taken from them Totilas king of the Easterngoths hauing taken Naples and many Roman ladies that were there sent them all home to their friends without doing or suffering any wrong to be done vnto them He that would here reherse the tragicall histories that haue ensued of Adultrie should be faine to make a whole booke by itselfe Let vs but only bethinke vs of the euening-worke of Sicilie which befell vnto vs Frenchmen more for our incontinencie than for any thing else and let that be added vnto it which was done by Alexander the sonne of Amyntas vnto the Persians Amintas made a banket to the Persians whereat were present the noblemens wiues of Macedonie Whom when the Persians had before them they would aproch vnto them insomuch that when they were set downe by them they began to feele their brests and to doe diuers vnseemely things vnto them Wherat Alexander being extreamly grieued did neuerthelesse set a good countenance vpon the matter and told them that he would make them cheere to the full Whereupon when bed-time drue nigh he desired that the ladies might go aside to wash themselues and they should come againe by and by vnto them Anon the ladies departed in whose stead yong men attired like women were brought in to the banquet at whose comming the Persians began immediatly to
nothing holdeth men in awe so much as feare and that he which is dreaded is better obaied than he that maks himselfe beloued For nothing doth so soone wex stale as a benefit All men loue and commend him that doth them a pleasure and such a one is followed of all men but soone also is he forgotten whereas he that is feared and had in awe is neuer forgotten For euery man bethinketh him of the mischiefe that he shall run into if he faile to do the thing that he is commanded And this feare is of much greater force than loue In that respect Cornelius Tacitus said That to the gouerning of a multitude punishment auailed more than gentlenes When Tamerlan came to besiege a citie the first day he would haue a tent of white which betokened that he would take all the citie to mercy good cōposition The second day he would haue one of red which betokened that although they yelded themselues yet would he put some of thē to death at his discretion The third day he had a pauilion all blacke which was as much to say as that there was no more place for cōpassion but that he would put al to fire sword The fear of such cruelty caused al cities to yeeld thēselues at his first cōming And he could not deuise to haue don so much by frendly dealing as by that means Neuertheles it is the custom of war to deal hardly with that captaine which defendeth a place not able to be kept against an army roiall to the intent it may serue for example to such as would withstand an army in hope to come to cōposition For whē they see there is no mercy they yeeld thēselues afore it come to the canō-shot Which maner the Romans practised For had the battel-ram once begun to beat the wals ther was no great hope of any cōposition When Iulius Caesar had lost the battel at Dirrhachiū as he fled a litle town did shut their gates against him wherinto he entring by force sacked it to the intent to put others in feare that were minded to do the like Caesar was mild gentle but his gentlenes could nor procure the opening of the gates to him this cruelty of his was the cause that no mā durst deny him to come in And as for Scipio although he was a valiant and fortunat captain as gracious as could be yet was he not alway obeied but had rebellions of of his souldiers against him so as he was cōpelled to turne his gentlenes into rigor Machiauel handling this question is long time balancing of his discouse vpon Quintius Valerius Coruinus Publicola al which being mild gentle were good captains and did many noble feats of arms were wel obeied of their mē of war obtained many faire victories These he compareth with other valiant captains that were rough stowr cruel as Camillus Appius Claudius Manlius Torquatus others And in the end he maketh a good distinction saying That to men which liue vnder the laws of a publik-weale the maner of the proceeding of Mālius is cōmendable because it turneth to the fauour of the publick-weale For a man can win no partakers which sheweth himself so rough to euery man and he dischargeth himselfe of all suspicions of ambition But in the maner of the proceeding of Valerius and Publicola there may be some mistrust because of the friendship and good fauor which he purchased at his souldiers hands wherby they might worke some euill practises against the liberty of their countrie But when it commeth to the consideration of a prince as Xenophon painteth vs out a perfect prince vnder the person of Cyrus the maner of Publicola Scipio and such others is much more allowable and dangerlesse For the prince is to seeke for no more at his subiects and souldiers hands but obedience and loue For when a prince is well minded on his owne part and his armie likewise affection it only towards him it is conformable to all conditions of his state But for a priuat person to haue an army at his deuotion is not conformable to the rest of the parts whom it standeth on hand to make him liue vnder the lawes and to obey magistrats But there remaineth yet one doubt vndecided which is whether a lieutenant-generall of an host who is neither prince nor king but is sent by a king to cōmand ought to be gentle or rigorous For he cannot be suspected to make his army partiall And though he had it so which thing he can not do he should smally preuaile against his prince Wherfore in this behalfe I would hold as well the one as the other to the obseruation of the lawes I would be rigorous to the men of war For there is not so beautifull and profitable a thing to an armie as the execution of iustice and the keeping of the law vninfringed The which if ye once breake in any one man though he be a very braue and valeant fellow it must needs be broken in diuers others But the discipline of war being well kept and obserued the generall ought to be familiar towards al his souldiers Alexander was familiar gentle and courteous to the common souldiers Antonie was to them both gentle and louing Iulius Caesar was likewise and so were all the excellent emperours On the other side they also were welbeloued and yet in discipline they were rigorous I haue told you heretofore in the chapter of Iustice how the said Iulius Caesar Augustus Traian certain others winked at small faults but were rigorous in others as towards mutiners traitors and sleepers in the watch and such others aforealledged The reason was that they would not in any wise corrupt the discipline of war for feare of the mischiefe that might ensue and therfore they neuer pardoned the faults of them that infringed it It is a wonderous thing that Caesar being but a citizen and hauing his army but of such as serued him of good wil and being lately afore discomfited at the battell of Durazo and fleeing before the army of the senat was notwithstanding not afraid to punish such as had not done their dutie in the battell insomuch that whole legions were faine to sue to him for mercie Which doing sheweth the good discipline that was in the Roman armies and the faithfull seruice which they did to their generall to whom they had giuen their oth Anon after again when he gaue battell to Pompey with what cheerfulnes did all his souldiers accept it With what zeale and good will did they beare with their generall and with what feercenesse did they fight The which serueth to shew that seueritie taketh not away the loue of men of war when they perceiue that otherwise their chieftaine is valeant and worthie to rule For then they impute it not so much to his austeritie as to their owne faults Which ought to be punished
pleasure as Samuel told the Israelits when they chose their first king And as sayd Othanes he peruerteth the lawes and the customs of the countrie he rauisheth women and he putteth folke to death without sentence of condemnation If ye commend him modestly he is discontented that ye doe it not excessiuely and if you commend him out of measure he is offended as though ye did it of flatterie Policrates the tyrant of the Isle of Samos made warre vpon all his neighbours without any respect saying that he pleasured his friend the more in restoring to him that which he had taken from him than if he had not taken ought from him first Neuerthelesse it behoueth a Prince to thinke that if he forget himselfe and doe not his dutie ne performeth his charge as he ought to do besides that he shal yeeld an account for it before him that gaue him that charge he shall not leaue his kingdome to his posteritie Which thing Denis the tyrant of Siracuse did his son to vnderstand rebuking him for the adulteries and other crimes that he had committed and declaring vnto him that he himselfe had not vsed such maner of dealing when he was of that age Whereunto his sonne answered him that he had not had a king to his father neither shall you quoth his father haue a king to your son except you doe better And as he had said so it came to passe Peter king of Castile for his tyrannie and wicked demeanor towards his subiects was first driuen out of his realme by his bastard-brother aided with the helpe of such as hated Peter and afterward when he had recouered it againe by the means of the blacke Prince as soone as his brother the bastard came againe with any force all the countrie reuolted from him to the bastard and the Spaniards that were with him would neither put on armor nor mount on horse-backe at his commaundement by reason whereof he was faine to craue succour of strangers and yet notwithstanding he lost the battell with the battell both his kingdome and his life Alfons the yonger king of Naples hauing done many tyrannicall deeds fled dishonorably out of his kingdome at the comming of Charles the 8. king of France and as Guicciardine reporteth being tormented with the sting of his owne conscience found no rest of mind day nor night for a night-times those whom he had wronged appeared vnto him in his sleepe a day-times he saw his people making insurrectiō against him to be reuenged His son also to whom he left the kingdome felt himselfe pinched with the sins of his predecessors for the Neapolitanes forsooke him as wel as his father turned to the French kings side We see what befell to Roboam the son of king Salomon for exacting too much vpon his subiects to the duke of Guyen commonly called the blacke Prince for raising a fowage in the country of Aquitane Marcus Aurelius said that the cause why God suffered wicked Princes to be murthered rather than other wicked men is for that the priuat mans naughtinesse hurteth but himselfe and his owne familie for want of abilitie to extend his naughtinesse any further but the Prince that is tyrannous and wicked ouerthroweth the whole Common-weale To conclude the tyrannicall dominion is very dangerfull and noisome to all the people but the kingdome that is gouerned according to law passeth all other states of gouernment be it in comfort of the people or in the durablenesse of itselfe or in making of great conquests CHAP. IIII. Whether the State of a Kingdome or the State of a Publike-weale be the antienter MAnie be of opinion that the Kinglie authoritie had his beginning from the people and that the state of a Publike-weale was afore the state of a King Of that opinion is Cicero in his bookes of Duties saying that Kings were chosen at the first for the good opinion that men had of them And in another place he saith That when folke found themselues harried and troden vnderfoot by the richersort they were constrained to haue recourse to some man of excellent prowesse to defend them from the oppression of the mightier sort and to maintaine both great and small in a kind of equalitie Of the same opinion likewise is Aristotle Because the men of old time saith he were benefactors to the communaltie either by the inuention and practise of arts or by making warres in their behalf or by assembling them together into corporations and by allotting them their territories the multitude did willinglie create them Kings so they conueyed their kingdomes ouer by succession to their posterities Plinie saith that the Athenians were the first that brought vp the popular gouernment which neuerthelesse had been vsed long afore by the Iewes as Iosephus witnesseth in his books of their antiquities Indeede Thucidides in his first booke of the warres of Peloponnesus saith that when the countrie of Greece was become rich by reason of the nauigations there stept vp euerie day new tyrants in the cities by reason of the greatnesse of their reuenues For afore that time the kings came in by Succession and had their authorities prerogatiues and preheminences limited Whereby he doth vs to vnderstand that kingdomes were afore common-weales as indeed there is great likelihood that the state of a king was the foremost And it is not to be doubted but the first men that were after the the floud when the earth was repeopled againe did rule the lands which they possessed first in their owne housholds and afterward when they were increased in gouerning the whole off-spring that came of their race as we see was done by Sem Cham Iaphet Ianus Gomer Samothes and such others of whom some reigned in the West and some in the East And Nembroth of Chams linage was the first that troubled his neighbours by making warre vpon them and the first that made himselfe a king as S. Iohn Chrisostome affirmeth vpon the ninth of Genesis For afore that time time there could be no king because there were no store of people to be subiects Also Abraham hauing a great houshold tooke three hundred and eighteene of his owne men and pursuing those that had spoiled Lot discomfited them The fathers of old time therefore hauing many slaues and seruants which were multiplied afterward with the increase of their issue had them at commaundement as a King hath his subiects And of this opinion seemeth Iustine to be in his abridgement of Trogus Pompeius who saith in his first booke That at the beginning euery nation and euerie citie was gouerned by kings and that such as had none of their owne did chuse one either for the good opinion which they had of the person whom they chose or for some good turne which they had receiued at his hand or else for that they felt themselues misused by their head whom they themselues had set ouer them as it befell by the sonnes of
in examining his life notwithstanding that there is no comparison betweene mouable goods and a friend For a friend may helpe a prince both with counsell and comfort and also greatly aduance his profit as Zopirus did vnto king Darius vnto whom he recouered Babilon And therefore Darius said That he had leuer haue one Zopirus than to take tenne Babilons and that he wished hee had as many Megabisusses as there be kernels in a Pomgarnet For this cause were Pilades and Orestes exalted to the skies by the Poets and Damon and Pithias Pithagorians by the Historiographers And among others we must not let passe the friendship of Seruius Terentius towards Brutus For when Brutus should haue beene put to death this Terentius affirmed himselfe to be he and would haue bin killed for him in the darkenesse of the place neuerthelesse being discerned who he was he was suffered to liue whether he would or no. Neither is the wiâ—ely loue of one Hostes the wife of a Moore to be passed ouer in silence who seing hir husband dead absteined from food nine daies together that she might be buried with him Timagenides seing the citie of Thebes besieged for his sake chose rather to yeeld himselfe to the rest of the Greeks who were desirous of him than to abide the burning spoiling and sacking of his country Also there were a couple of Lacedemonians which offered to goe to the king of Persia to be put to torture for the rest of their countriemen who had killed the kings Embassadors But yet the loue of certaine Frenchmen towards their country shall put to silence the fables of Orestes and Pilades and whatsoeuer is reported of the Curtiusses and Deciusses of Rome When the king of England refused to take Callis to mercie except they would deliuer him six Burgesses of the towne with halters about their necks to doe his pleasure with them the people being assembled into one place and hearing this sentence fell to weeping Then stept vp among them one Eustace of S. Peters one of the richest men of all the town and told them that he would not suffer such a number of people to perish but would rather giue himselfe to the death for their safety than see them die for hunger or be slaine with the sword After him followed another named Iohn Daire and foure mo of the richest in Calis who vowed themselues euerychone to the death for the safegard of their people S. Ambrose in his second booke of Virgins reporteth a notable storie of a maid and a young souldier who offered themselues to die either for the other The maid was condemned either to doe sacrifice to the idols or else to be made a brothel in the stewes She vtterly refusing to doe sacrifice to the idols was led forthwith to the stewes where after she had made hir praiers vnto God there was brought vnto hir a young souldiour who altering his former purpose which he had to haue defiled her praied her to take his apparell and he would put on hirs that by that means shee might go hir waies vnknowne and so be saued When she was departed out of the brothel-house there came in other yoong men in hope to haue had their pleasure of that faire damsel But in hir stead they found the man and thought shee had bene turned into that shape by miracle In the end when the conueiance was discouered the yoong man was carried to be punished wherof the mayd hearing presented hirselfe to baile him body for body that he might escape but the yoong man would in no wise heare of that affirming that iudgement was giuen against him and not against hir The maid replied that he was there but as a pledge and that the sentence which was giuen against him ought to be executed vpon hirselfe To conclude they disputed so wel the one against the other that with their consents they were both put to death Let this be spoken as by the way because occasion thereof was offered He that is desirous to see more let him read Aristotles Morals Lucians Toxaris and Ciceros Laelius Now let vs proceed to Hope which is an affection wel beseeming a Prince When Alexander hauing of a bountifull mind giuen all to his friends was asked what should remaine to himselfe Hope quoth he because he hoped to get much more And this Hope is grounded vpon a certaine noblenesse of courage I know well inough that some Hope is but the dreaming of a man when he is awake for commonly we misse of the thing that we behight our selues Neuerthelesse I say that the valiant and well aduised prince sildome fayleth of his hope when it is grounded vpon reason and good fortune Philo sayth that Hope is the fountaine of all sorts and trades of life The merchant traffiqueth in hope of gaine the marener in hope to benefit himselfe by his sayling the ambitious in hope of glorie and honour and to attaine to these ends euery of them doth take maruellous pains The hope of the happie state draweth men to vertue But indeed the true and only hope is to hope in God as in him that is our Creator and is sufficient of himselfe alone to keepe vs safe and sound Afterward commeth Despaire or Distrust the contrary to Hope which may bee taken doublewise either as when a prince hauing lost a battell and broken his force letteth all go without consulting or taking aduice what to do through Despaire seeketh no remedie which oft befalleth for want of courage to maintaine the which nothing is comparable to stoutnesse of mind The other sort is not properly Despaire but a behauior proceeding of humilitie which maketh vs that we be not ouer-hastie in hoping for great and high things the which is conuenient enough for a prince for it restreineth him from hazarding himselfe and from vndertaking too great and hard things after the maner of Dauid who reioiceth that hee had not enterprised things ouer-great and exceeding his power In this case both Hope and Distrust are well befitting a king For the one maketh him to enterprise great things the other to moderat them in such sort as he vndertake not any thing aboue his abilitie or aboue that which he ought for to do so proceedeth either of vndiscreetnes or of rage or of some other inordinat passion Fearfulnesse and Foole-hardinesse are the two faultie extremities which inclose Prowes or valeantnesse of courage wherof I will speake more largely hereafter For whosoeuer through the greatnes of his courage doth put himselfe in perill yea euen of certaine death for a good cause he is to be esteemed hardie valeant and manly-minded And surely the Fearefull is worse than the Foole-hardie For as Thucidides saith Feare doth not only bereaue a man of his memorie but also of his strength and impeacheth the execution of the thing that he had determined Neuerthelesse the feare to do euil is euermore wel-beseeming according to this saying of
together with those ceremonies of theirs such as they were they had Religion also in singular reuerence and estimation insomuch that they would rather doe against their lawes than falsifie their oth because they deemed it a hainouser matter to offend God than to offend man So deeply had they Religion that is to say The loue and feare of God imprinted in their hearts without which a prince or a common-weale can neuer prosper For as Machiauel saith in the first booke of his discourse a little better than he speaks in his booke of a Prince whēsoeuer the fear of God once faileth needs must the kingdom decay Paul cōmandeth vs to honor the king because he hath his power of God Now if we ought to honor the king in respect of the power which he hath from God what ought the king himselfe to doe to whom God is so gratious as to place him in that dignitie and to make so many men obedient vnto him Certes seeing he is the image of God the least that he can doe is to lift vp the eies of his mind to behold him whom he representeth to worship that heauenly mirror wherin by looking on himselfe he must needs behold the goodnesse and maiestie of God S. Iohn Chrisostome writing vpon these words of Genesis God made man after his owne image and likenesse saith it is meant of the image of soueraigntie For like as God commaundeth all men so man commaundeth all the liuing things that God hath put into this world A prince commaundeth all inferior persons and God commaundeth the prince Which thing Dauid acknowledging in the 118 Psalm saith that he praised the Lord seuen times a day He had good store of businesse to doe but yet could they not turne him from the seruing of God As proud and high minded a prince as great Alexander was yet the first thing that he did euerie day after he was vp was to doe sacrifice to the gods There haue bin few princes which haue not at least wise pretended to be religious or bin religious indeed But there is as much difference betweene the one and the other as there is betweeene truth and vntruth or betweene the soule and the body Yet notwithstanding seeing that they which haue not any zeale of religion cannot forbeare the pretence therof it declareth vnto vs that religion is a thing most requisit for the maintenance of a state because men are of opinion that the prince which is religious is so guided by Gods hand that he cānot do amisse which causeth them to reuerence him obay him the more easily And to say truth we see not only that kings haue bin maintained vpheld by religion but also that princes haue obtained kingdomes and empires by religion As for example Numa the second king of Romanes being a Sabine borne was sought and sent for by the citie of Rome to be made king of Romans because they saw him wholly giuen to religion persuading thēselues that they could not speed amis if they were gouerned by a deuout and religious prince And in very deed it fell out according to their hope For he did so much that that people being then barbarous altogither giuen to the wars without law without religion attained to that greatnesse of state which we haue seen since wheras it had bin vnpossible for a warlik nation as that was to haue escaped frō vndoing thēselues had they not bin bridled by religiō the only means to hold the cruellest people of the world in peace and in obedience to the Magistrate That was the cause which moued Alexander to name himselfe the sonne of Iupiter For as Plutarch saith he was not so presumptuous to imagine that he was begotten of a god but he serued his owne turne with it to hold men vnder the yoke of obedience by the opinion of such diuine nature which hee by that means imprinted in them like as in his ceremonies also he had the feat to reuiue the foretellings of his soothsaiers which thing he shewed specialle at the siege of Tyre For wheras his soothsaier had assured him that he should take the citie before the end of that present month and euery man laughed at it because it was the last day of the month and the citie was impregnable he putting all his forces in a readines for the assault made proclamation that that day should be reckoned but for the 28 day of the moneth yet notwithstanding gaue present assault to the citie and wan it out of hand contrarie to his hope The emperor Charles the fift vsed the like feat whē he arriued at S. Lawrencis in Prouince For he considered that it was the 25 of Iuly which is S. Iames day and because he had landed in Affrike the same day twelue-month the yeare before he made great vaunt of his fortunat and happy lucke and handsell in arriuing the same day in France saying that his voiage was miraculously guided and directed by the will of God the disposer and orderer of humane affairs and that as on the like day he had put the Turke to flight at Argier so hee hoped to doe as much to the French king through the direction and fauor of God seeing they were arriued in France on the same day and vnder the same head Constantine made himselfe great by imbracing the Christian religion as the Ecclesiasticall historie witnesseth vnto vs. The thing that serued Pepins turne most was that he was reported to be religious and beloued of religious men because he had caused the churches to be reedified which had bin beaten down by the Sarzins and had restalled the bishops of Reines Orleans in their sees frō which they had bin put by his father and had restored the tenths to the clergie that Charls Martel had takē away giuen to his men of warre And to compasse his enterprise with the more ease he helped himselfe at his need with Religion that is to say by the Pope without whom he had come short of his purpose For the Pope dispensed with the Frenchmen for their oth which they had made to Childerik comming himselfe personably into France did put the realme into Pepins hand Which thing the Frenchmen had neuer agreed vnto as our histories beare witnesse if it had not bin vnder the cloke of Religion and by authoritie of the partie whom they deemed to haue power to dispence with mens consciences The same Religion made Charlemaine emperour and diuers persons kings of Naples and Sicilie by deposing the true heirs Religion gaue the kingdome of Ierusalem to Godfrey of Bulleine and made the Christians to trauell ouer seas and lands to conquer the holy land vnderzeale of Religion Vnder pretence of Religion and of an excommunication the kingdome of Nauarre was wrongfullie seazed by the Spaniards The kings of Persia lost their kingdome through disagreement in Religion and the Sophy because he was found deuout
in his Religion recouered all that his forefathers had lost We see at this day how the contempt and disagreement in Religion shaketh all the states of Christendome and will yet shake them more if the dissentious spirits be not reunited againe in the bosome of the church S. Lois got himselfe more glorie in Syria and Aegypt by his holy conuersation than by his wars wherein he had not any happie successe and the churches which we see of his building doe shew sufficiently how hee was giuen to Religion Philip the emperor was not so much renowned for his victories as for that after the battell of Bouvines he builded the church of Victorie neer vnto Senlis the which he dedicated to the virgin Marie and afterward did great good to the Clergi-men And whē his officers complained vnto him of his diminishing of his reuenues by enriching of the church-men he answered That he had receiued so much good at Gods hand that he could not denie any thing to his Temples and Ministers for the great goods which he had gotten and gained by helpe more than humane and euen by the fauor of God But now leauing our christian histories because my chiefe intent is not to speak of them let vs read Titus Liuius and there we shall see the deuotion that was in the Romanes of old time and among others the zeale of Lucius Albinus a commoner who hauing his wagon loaden with his wife and yoong children and with his mouables and fleeing from the Gauls that were come to Rome as soone as he espied the Nuns of Vesta on foot carrying their holy reliks with them immediatly he caused his wife and children to come downe and his goods to be vnloaden and lent his wagon to the virgins to ride in and to carrie their Relikes Numa Pompilius to the intent to make the people attentiue to the ceremonies of their religion made an herald to go before the priest that ministred the ceremonies and to crie with a loud voice Do this which was a commaunding of them to intend wholly to the diuine seruice without intermedling any other action The good ladies and personages of reputation did oft frequent the temples and the founders of them gate great fame and renowne amongst the people Scipio African was one of the happiest captains of Rome and best beloued of the people men of war because they deemed him to doe all things by the counsel of God for that he vsed to tarry long alone in the capitoll where their opinion was that he consulted with Iupiter concerning the affaires of the common-weale And generally all princes beeing of any good disposition haue had Religion in singular estimation as wee read by the answer that Alexander Seuerus made to certaine Inholders of Rome which would haue disappointed the Christians of the building of a chappell to make their prayers in The things that concerne God quoth the emperour are to be preferred before the things that concerne man and therefore let it be free for the Christians to build their chappell to their God who though he be vnknowne at Rome ought neuerthelesse to haue honour done vnto him euen in respect that he beareth the name of God And so he chose rather to apply the place to the worshipping of God than to worldly vses And for himselfe he made it not strange that the Bishops in cases belonging to their iurisdiction should giue other iudgement than he had done as who would say that in matters of Religion the emperour ought to giue place to the authoritie of priests and Bishops Plutarch in his treatise of Philosophicall discipline saith That common-weales honour and reuerence priests because they pray vnto God not for the welfare of themselues and their friends and acquaintance onely but in common for all men and yet the priests cause not the gods to doe vs good but they onely call vpon them as dooers of good We see in what reuerence the Romanes had them by their condemning of Cneus Cornelius a Pretor of Rome in a great fine for quarrelling vniustly with Emilius Lepidus their high priest Antiochus king of Syria lying in siege before Ierusalem at the feast of Tents or Boothes gaue the Iewes seuen daies truce at their request because he would not trouble their deuotion and moreouer sent an Oxe and certaine vessels of gold vnto the gate of the citie to be offered in sacrifice vnto God When Philip king of Macedonie was about to lay siege to Vdisitane a citie of Maesia belonging to the Gothes their priests came foorth to him clad all in white to whom he yeelded such honour and reuerence that hee retired without doing them any harme No lesse did Alexander to the high priest of the Iewes notwithstanding that he went against him in great choler and with full purpose to haue destroied the towne For when he saw him come in his priestly ornaments and attire he not only relented but also stepped forth alone vnto him with great honour and reuerence and worshipped God The same Alexander hauing taken the citie of Thebes razed it and sold all the citizens thereof sauing only the priests and men of Religion Darius caused an image of his to be set vp in the temple of Vulcane before the image of Sesostris the doing wherof Vulcans priest withstood saying that Sesostris had done mo deeds of arms than Darius and therefore deserued to be preferred before him for which free speech Darius did not the priest any harme but pardoned him Selim emperor of the Turks being in the citie of Ierusalem did reuerence to the monuments of the antient prophets And albeit that he was an enemie to the verie name of Christians yet for all that he letted not to giue the priests monie to find them six moneths as to deuout persons and men of good life When Alarik king of the Gothes had entered the citie of Rome by force he made proclamation by the sound of a trumpet that no harme should be done to such as were fled into the churches of the Apostles to saue themselues by reason wherof his souldiers touched not the religious persons nor the vessels which they carried with them Wheras Didier king of Lumbards intending to haue seazed Rome into his possession afore Charlemain should come there fained himselfe to haue a vow thither by reason whereof he found the gates open at his comming yet notwithstanding he durst not enter because Adrian the Pope forbad him vpon paine of excommunication And I beleeue that the feare which he had of Charlemaine helped him wel to the taking of that offer Attila had such regard of Pope Leo that as soon as he had heard him speake he forbare to go to Rome vtterly left vp all Italie Cabaon captaine of Tripolie finding himselfe too weake to withstand the Vandales gaue himselfe ouer to Religion and forbad his men of war to doe wrong to any man enioyning them to abstaine from women
ruine by it But Agrippa pacified the whole matter by his eloquence and brought the people backe to obedience when they had alreadie banded themselues in companies Pisistratus handled the Athenians so cunningly with the finesse of his toung that he made himself king of Athens Such as were sent by Cinna to haue slaine Antonie the Orator were so surprised with his eloquence that when they heard him speake they had no mind at all to kill him The eloquence of Cicero caused the disanulling of the law for the diuiding of lands whereof the people of Rome had conceiued so great liking and which had bene so often propounded in so much that when they had heard him speake they vtterly abolished it for euer whereof Plinie maketh a wonder The like grace of speech enforced Iulius Caesar to pardon Ligarius whome he was resolutly determined to haue put to death To be short it is a thing of so great power that a prince who hath many vnder his charge can in no wise forbeare it And if he fortune not to be eloquent inough of himselfe it would behoue him to haue some good orator about him as Moses tooke Aaron to persuade the people and to preach vnto them because he found himselfe vnfit for that purpose For it is to no purpose for a man to haue goodly conceits vnlesse he put them forth For according to the saieng of Themistocles Eloquence is like a peece of tapistrie wrought with figures and imagerie which shew themselues when the cloth is vnfoldâ—d and are hidden when it is lapped vp together and euen so a man cannot shew the goodly conceits of his mind vnlesse hee haue eloquence to vtter them Cicero saiih in his Orator that by the eloquence and persuasion of such as could handle their toungs well the people that were scattered abroad in the wild fields and forrests were first brought into cities and townes It is of such force that it maketh the things to be beleeued that were incredible and smootheth things that were vnpolished And as the mind is the beautie of a man so is Eloquence the beautifier of the mind The same author in the second booke of the Nature of gods saith thus A beautiful and diuine thing soothly is Eloquence for it maketh vs to learne the things we know not and to teach the things we know by it we persuade and comfort the sorrowfull by it we encourage them that bee dismaied by it we strike them dead that are too lustie by it we pacifie the angrie and kill folks lusts that is it that hath drawne vs into fellowship into societie into cities to liue according to equitie and law Yet is it not inough to haue learning and eloquence vnlesse they bee also matched with experience Bias in his lawes would haue a Prince to be chosen of the age of fortie yeares to the end he should gouerne well by good discretion and experience For it is well known that neither Phisitions nor Generals of war be they neuer so well instructed with precepts can well discharge their duties without experience And as the emperor Adrian was wont to say in the generall ordering and managing of matters of State One yeares experience is better woorth than ten yeares learning And for that cause he preferred Antonie to the Empire before Marcus Aurelius as making more account of Antonies experience than of Marks lerning Agamemnon desired not so much to haue learned and eloquent men of his counsell as to haue such as Nestor was that is to say men of great experience Plutarke saieth that the wise and valeant captaine Philopemen presuming that his skill which he had in ordering a battel vpon the land would also serue him alike vpon the sea learned to his cost what sway experience beareth in matters of chiualrie and how great aduantage they haue in all things which are well experienced The skill how to gard and defend a mans selfe is not learned saieth Thucidides by talking but accustoming himselfe to pains-taking and to handling of his weapon One asked Zeuxidamus why the Lacedemonians had no lawes written because quoth he they should rather enure themselues to the doing of noble and honorable things than to read of them Panthoidas said the same to the Anthenians that asked him what he thought of the Philosophers which had disputed before him assuring them that they had spoken goodly things but to themselues vnprofitable whereby he meant to doe the Athenians to vnderstand that they had vertue in their mouths but not in their deeds The knowledge that is gotten serueth to the ordering of mens affairs but if it be without practise it is like a body without a soule Very vnwise therfore was he which by his sophistrie would haue made Iphicrates beleeue that the Philosopher is the onely good captaine And we may well say with Anaxippus that such discoursers doe shew themselues wise in words but in effect are starke fooles Now therefore we conclude with Aristotle that such as will deale in matters of state must aboue all things haue experience and this experience is gotten by practise and exercise which is the perfecter of Learning For we see that by exercise a weake man becommeth strong and doth better away with trauell than he that being strong doth not vse exercise as Socrates sayth in Xenophon Againe they that bee practised in all things deeme truly of duties and vnderstandeth what belongeth to euery man And as saith Musonius Vertue is a science that consisteth not only in vnderstanding but also in action For euen as in Phisicke or Musicke it is not sufficient to be skilfull of the art but there must also be a practise of the actions that depend vpon the art and science so in the science of Gouernment a prince must be practised in that which concerneth action rather than in that which concerneth contemplation Can he thinke himselfe to be of good skil which when he is to go in hand with his worke findeth it cleane contrarie to his imagination Surely as Terence sayth there was neuer yet any man so well aduised afore-hand in his determinations whome age experience haue not crossed with some strange encounter so as he hath found himselfe to seeke in the things wherein he thought himselfe most skilfull and when he came to the execution hath reiected that which he thought to bee best afore he began to go in hand with it And that is allegorically the very tree of the knowledge of good and euill after the opinion of S. Austen in his thirteenth booke of the citie of God For in matter of State it is very dangerous to take white for blacke and to thinke a mans selfe to know that which hee knoweth not Therefore it behooueth a prince to be a dealer in his owne affairs and to exercise his mind at times in reading of bookes without forgetting to exercise his body He must so counterpeise his mind and his body as
not that one should su◠for it but made the suters themselues to come to his presence as well to gratifie them himselfe as also to know whom he gratified For he that receiueth not the benefit at the princes owne hand thinketh himselfe beholden to none but vnto him by whome he had it as wee haue found by experience in this our realme of Fraunce within this fiftie or threescore yeares LEt vs come now to the iustice of war which ought to be like the same that we haue spoken of and consisteth in penalties and rewards namely in punishing the wicked and in recompensing the good and valeant men with honour and regard For honour nourisheth the liberall arts and vertue In which behalfe the emperor Adrian did so greatly excell that he was both feared and loued of all his men of war feared because he chastised them and beloued because he paid them well Vpon a time one demaunded of Lisander What maner of common-weale hee liked best That qd he wherein both the valeant and the cowards are rewarded according to their deserts as who would say that vertue is furthered by reward and that men of no value are spurred vp to doe well by the shame and reproch which they receiue by doing amisse and in being despised Ennius Priscus demaunded of Traian What was the cause that hee was better beloued of the people than his predecessors Because qd he that commonly I pardon such as offend me and neuer forget them that doe me seruice But afore I speake of rewarding or recompensing we must know what is the law and discipline of arms wherof the first and principall point that is to wit to doe no man wrong dependeth vpon naturall iustice And yet-notwithstanding this seemeth so strange among vs that the cheefe and principall point of warlike behauiour seemeth to consist in pilling swearing rauishing robbing and that a souldier cannot be esteemed a gallant fellow vnlesse he be furnished with those goodly vertues Contrariwise if the Romans had any souldiers that were neuer so little giuen to loosenesse they would not vse their seruice no not euen in most extreme necessitie as is to be seen by the doings of Metellus in Affrike and of Scipio in Spain making more account of one legion that liued after the law and order of war than of ten that were out of order Now the lawes of armes were diuers according to the diuersities of the captains that haue had the leading of Armies The first consisteth in the obedience of the men of warre For as saith Plato it auaileth not to haue a good captaine vnlesse the souldiers bee discreet and obedient because the vertue of well-obeieng hath as great need of a gentle nature and of the helpe of good trainment as the princely vertue of commaunding All other precepts tend generally to naturall iustice the which will not haue wrong done to any man Alexander being aduertised that two souldiers which serued vnder Parmenio had rauished the wiues of certaine souldiers strangers wrate vnto Parmenio to informe him therof charging him that if he found it to be so he should put both the souldiers to death as wild beasts bred to the destruction of men When the Romanes marched vnder the leading of Marcus Scaurus there was found in their trenches at their departure thence a tree hanging ful of fruit so great conscience made they to take any thing that was not their owne And if any man went aside in any field farme or grange at such time as the campe marched he was punished immediatly and it was demaunded of him if he could find in his heart that a man should doe as much in his lands Whersoeuer Bellisarius went with his armie he restrained his men from doing wrong to laborers and husbandmen insomuch that they durst not eat the apples and peares that hung vpon the trees After the death of Campson the Soldan of Aegypt Selim king of Turks being possessed of Damasco and the rest of the cities of Syria would not suffer his men of war to come within them but lodged his camp by the wals of the towne and of all the time that he was there there was not any guard set to keepe the goodly and fruitfull Gardens that were without the citie because the rigorous iustice that Selim executed restrained the Turks from misdoing wherthrough the whole armie found themselues well apaid For they neuer wanted victuals but had plentie and aboundance of all things Traian caused a captaine to be banished for killing a husbandmans Oxen without need and awarded the husbandman for amends to haue the captaines horse and armor and also his quarters wages Tamerlane king of Tartarians made a souldier of his to be put to death for taking but a cheese from a poore woman Totilas was so seuere in the discipline of war that he would not leaue any one misdeed vnpunished He that rauished any woman was punished with death or at least wise forfaited his goods the which were giuen to the partie that was outraged Insomuch that he passed by the cities and townes that were in friendship and league with him without doing them any harme saying that kingdomes and empires were easily lost if they were not maintained by iustice Which thing Iustinian found to be very true who through the vniustice and disorder of his captaines lost the empyre of Italy Paulus Emilius was a sterne obseruer of the law of arms not seeking to purchase the loue of his souldiers by pleasing them but shewing them himselfe from point to point how auailable the ordinances of war were And this his austeritie and terriblenesse towards them that were disobedient and transgressed the law of arms vpheld the commonweale vnappaired For he was of opinion that to vanquish a mans enemies by force of arms is as ye would say but an accessorie or income in comparison of the well ordering and winning of a mans countrymen by good discipline The Lawes of arms haue bin diuerse according to the diuersitie of captaines the which we may learne in one word of the best and most valeant emperours that euer haue bin Iulius Caesar would make countenance as though he saw not the faults of his souldiers and let them goe vnpunished so long as they tended not to mutinie or that they forsooke not their ensigne and in those cases he neuer pardoned thē Insomuch that in the time of the ciuil wars he cashed a whole legion at once notwithstanding that he stood as then in great need of them and ere euer he would admit them againe he ceassed not till he had punished the misdoers Among the Aegyptians they that had disobayed their captains were noted with a reproch worse than death Augustus was so seuere towards such as recoiled in battel or disobayed his commaundements that he would put euery tenth man of them to death and vnto them that had done lesse faults he would giue barly bread in steed of wheaten
And therfore in that behalfe Iulius Caesar looked not too neerly to his souldiers because he did keepe them commonly occupied But when rhey lie in garison where they shall not need to fight nor stand in feare of any enemie It will not be good to accustome them to liue too delicatly and at too much ease For in so long continuance of time they become the more vnweeldie to war and if they pill the countrie where they lie there followeth vpon it the hatred of that people Charles of Aniou was esteemed and commended for his good fortune and for a good warrior But yet was this renowne somewhat defaced for that after his victories hee gaue his souldiers too much libertie in time of peace to the great domage of his subiects Therfore in time of peace is it wherin they haue most chiefly need of discipline and labour least they wex vnweeldie by weltering in idlenesse For by that are they often vndone And in very deed because the Legions in Germanie were very much marred by being too much nusled in licentiousnesse afore Adrian was driuen to doe in time of peace as in time of war and to set vp the order of war new againe which had bin discontinued from the time of Augustus And for example to his men of war he ate not any other victuals than such as were ordinarie and he marched on foote fiue or sixe leagues a day Also we read that after the time that Hanniball fell to maintaine his wars with lesse feare against the Romanes by reason of his victorie at Cannas and for that he had met with a delicate citie replenished with all sorts of pleasures he found not his souldiers so good a good while after as they had bin afore In that respect did one say That the vanquished Asia had vaÌ„quished the Romanes And of a truth the nations that haue had least things of delight haue euer bin the best warriors As for example Iulius Caesar deemed the Belgians to be the valiantest of all the Gauls because they were furthest off from the Romane prouince and had fewest of the things of delight brought out of the prouince to them The Greeks did alwais with small numbers make head against the Persians The Lacedemonians ouer-mastered all the rest of the Greeks and continued vnuincible so long as they kept their warlike discipline but as soon as they forwent that they were vanquished by the Thebans as Darius was by Alexander notwithstanding that Darius came with fiue hundered thousand men against a fiftie or threescore thousand Macedonians and that was because the one sort was tender and trained vp in pleasure and not in war and the other sort was enured to war and accustomed to pains taking The Turks obseruing some piece of the Romane discipline drinke no wine by meane wherof they be discharged of a great deale of baggage without the which our men could not liue so much as one day Pesennius Niger suffered not any wine to be brought into his campe And on a time when the garrison that lay in Aegypt desired leaue to haue wine he answered that the water of Nilus ought to content them So also did Augustus when complaint was made vnto him of the dearth of wine saying That his son in law Agrippa had well prouided for that want by the goodly conduits that he had made in Rome Thus much concerning the laws and discipline of war Now must I speake of rewarding which is the thing that most holdeth the noble and gentlemanly hearts in their dueties For as saith Titus Liuius there is not that thing which men will not vndertake to doe if the hardie and valiant aduenturers vpon great things may be rewarded accordingly In which behalfe the emperor Adrian bare the beâ— For he rewarded valiant persons bountifully yea he went and sought them out of far countries without sparing of monie horses or armor King Lewis the eleuenth did the like to men of seruice And the like maner of dealing ought to be obserued towards a mans houshold seruants to make them honest namely their seruices ought to be recompenced in time and place according to their deserts For nothing doth so much encourage houshold seruants as when they see that their master knoweth them and enquireth after them This maner of vprightnesse we call Houshold iustice wherin the emperor Antonine excelled For he would vnderstand the order of his house to the vttermost so as he would know who serued him and in what place or degree whether euerie man were paid his wages for his pains whether euerie man behaued himselfe faithfully whether all together did their dutie And this maner of recompensing rewarding we terme Iustice distributiue which is when preferments and coÌ„modities are distributed according to mens deserts that haue profited the coÌ„mon-weale done seruice to their maisters For this liberalitie being ioined with vprightnes taketh vnto it the nature therof insomuch that the recoÌ„pensing of deserts sheweth the iustice of him that raigneth as â—heoderik writeth vnto Arthemidorus But if wicked meÌ„ cowards iesters vnthrifts such as are vnmeet to haue the ordering of matters are void of skill in cases of iustice or feaâ—s of war do carrie away the reward of good men it may well be said that the state is very sore sicke that the prince doth vtterly loose al that he bestoweth thrusting from him his worthy good seruitors by his not recoÌ„pensing theÌ„ according to their deserts hauing no thanke for the good he doth to the vnworthie For as Budeus saith in his Institution of a prince the vnworthy perceiuing that the great benefits that they receiue of their master proceed of ignorance want of good discretion not of wise wel gouerned affection despise both the gifts the giuer of theÌ„ And therfore I purpose to speak here of the recoÌ„penses that ought to be made to those that deserue theÌ„ of which recoÌ„penses some be made with honor some with mony Of honorable titles many were giuen in old time as for example wal-garlaÌ„ds city-garlands such other without number And in these dais we haue the order of knight-hood the which within a while hath bin so shamfully abused that no account is made of it The rewards that coÌ„sist in profit are to be giuen to the peti-captains valiant souldiers in ready mony if the reuenues of the crowne wil beare it For to racke and rake from the people wherwith to recompence the men of war as did the emperour Seuerus is an euill king of dealing Not long since we haue had two kings of great fame namely Lewis the eleuenth who was liberall in pampering men with money howbeit at the cost of his commons And Lewis the twelfth who was of small liberalitie to his men of war but a great louer of his commons This man being well serued of all sorts of men died with the reputation of a good valiant and vertuous
the emperor of Asia he caused the walles of Platea to be reedified and in doing therof he made it to be proclaimed by a herault at the gaming 's of Olimpus that Alexander did that grace and honor to the Plateians in remembrance and recompence of their noble courage for that in the Persian wars they had liberally giuen their lands to the Athenians for the welfare of Greece wherein they shewed themselues to be men of great courage and wel-minded towards the defence of Greece Alexander was reputed the bountifullest and liberallest of all princes but I am of opinion that Fabricius Aristides Lisander Epaminondas and infinite other Greeks and Romanes had as liberal and princely hearts as he notwithstanding that they had lesse means to vtter it There are greatdeeds of liberalitie to be found in the life of Alexander and some also that passe the bounds of liberalitie but yet the ballance weigheth most on the side of liberalitie For he gaue to none but such as were worthie as to men of war to Philosophers to men of seruice and to men of councell as he shewed very well in a certaine iugler who by his subtill sleight threw a drie pease a great way off through the eye of a needle in hope to haue obtained some great reward for his labor at the kings hands But king Alexander making no reckoning of him commaunded one to giue him a bushell of those peason to practise his feat withall The thing that seemed most beautifull in Alexanders gifts was the cheerfulnesse that he vsed in giuing For the amiablenesse made his gifts the more acceptable A certaine Poeonian shewing vnto Alexander the head of an enemie whom he had cut off said vnto him such a present as this should in my country be recomponced with a cup of gold To whom Alexander answered smiling and said Yea mary an emptie cup but I drinke to thee in this cup full of good wine the which I giue vnto thee One day he found a poore Macedonian driuing of his mules loden with gold And when the mule began to faint the muleter laid the burthen vpon his owne shoulders and carried it a good way himselfe but in the end he felt himselfe so ouercharged that he was about to cast it to the ground Which thing Alexander beholding said vnto him Weary not thy selfe but take leisure that thou maist carie it to thine own tent for I giue it thee Intending vpon a time to encounter Taxilles with deeds of bountie and liberalitie he dranke to him at a certeine supper saieng I drinke to thee a thousand talleÌ„ts which are in value almost 600000 French crownes Hee more misliked of them that would not take of him than of them that craued of him Among his freinds he had one named Perillus to whom he gaue fiftie talents to marry his daughters withall Perillus said that ten would content him to whom Alexander replied It is inough for you to receiue but ten talents but it is to little for me to giue He had giuen his treasurer charge to giue to Anaxarchus the philosopher whatsoeuer he asked and when the philosopher had asked a hundred talents which are about threescore thousand French crowns the treasurer being astonished at such a demaund told it vnto Alexander who answered that Anaxarchus knew wel inough that he had a freind that both could and would bestow as much as that vpon him Hereby it must needs be confessed that he was too lauish in his gifts howbeit that his giuing was to such as were worthie whereby he made his freinds too great which thing turned to the hurt of his posteritie For his freinds were so great that after his death they made no reckoning of his wife nor of his mother nor of his children And that was afterward found true which his mother Olimpias had iustly warned him of afore by a letter that she wrate vnto him I like very well quoth she that you should doe good to your acquaintance and that you should hold theÌ„ in honor about you but you make them as great as kings and inable them to purchase themselues freinds to bereaue you of yours And afore that time his father also had checked him for the same saieng Who hath put thee in hope to think that those should be faithfull vnto thee whom thou thy selfe hast corrupted with mony wouldest thou haue the Macedonians to esteeme thee not as their king but as their briber Let vs come to Iulius Caesar who was a great counterfetter of Alexander and was reputed very liberall and let vs see iâ— he were coÌ„parable to Scipio who neuer bought ne sold and died poore with his small patrimonie notwithstanding that he had subdued sacked two mightie cities Numance Carthage or vnto Lisander a stirring man who hauing very great means to enrich himselfe made no account thereof wheras on the contrarie part Caesar owed more than he was woorth insomuch that being the pretor he said he needed three huÌ„dred talents which were more than ninescore thousand French crowns because he had nothing And when hee sued for the high-priesthood he wist not of what wood to make his arrows And going out one morning to preferre his sute he told his mother that she shuld see him that day either highpriest or dead Yet notwithstanding neither the pretorship nor the highpriesthood which he made easier than it had ben aforetimes nor the consulship were able to suffice and discharge his expenses without the helpe of the Gaules by whose means he set himselfe cleere and bribed one part of the citie of Rome Suetonius speaking of his liberall expenses sayth that hee gaue a great summe of money to euery souldier of the old bands and that after the vvarres in Spaine hee made them two feasts vvhereof because the first vvas not roâ—all ynough according to his liking he made them another more roiall within fiue daies after Such was the bountifulnesse of Iulius Caesar vvhich tended more to liberalitie than the other which he had vsed afore to get the Consulship the Pretorâ—ship and the High-priesthood For the lauishnes that he had vsed at those times sprang not from the fountaine of vertue and liberalitie but from extreme ambition But vvhen hee had discharged himselfe to the cost of the Gauls and vvas become â—ord of the whole world he might be liberall at the charges of the countries that he had conquered Verely we may well say hee did it not of his owne cost and that it had bene much better for him and for Alexander also to haue bene lesse liberall so they had left their pilling and polling of the world and that if fortune had not fauoured them the one of them must haue become a cruell tyrant and the other a woorse cittisen than Catilin for he had bene driuen to haue raised a more dangerous insurrection in Rome to scape from his creditors than Catilins was To spend prodigally of other mens goods and
man must needs lie Notwithstanding Darius said to his companions That it was meet that men should lie when it was for their behoof and that the liers and they that speake the truth tended all to one effect and it was for men to lie when there was any hope of gaine to be had by force of persuasion But it is no maruell though a Persian said that for that maner of lying was to a good end namely to deceiue the guard of the Magies who had vsurped the crown that they might be killed as they were afterwâ—rd And in this and such other like it is lawful to lie else not Dauid detesting this vice compareth it to murder saying in the fith Psalme The Lord abhorreth the blood thirstie and deceitfull man Periander ordained by his laws that he which had lied to another mans harm should carie a stone in his mouth the space of a month after The Gimnosophists of Caldie condemned liers to perpetuall prison the Scythians condemned al such to death or to some other grieuous punishmeÌ„t as tooke vpon theÌ„ to foretell things that were false And it is to be noted that bâ—bâ—ing lying inquisitiuenes are three grounds or vnder beings that resemble one another and may be reduced into one For the inquisitiue person is commonly talkatiue and the talkatiue person is a her and a lier is inquisitiue and the inquisitiue person is a lier And from this fountaine spring slaunderers talebearers mockers flatterers and backbiters The slaunderer and the tale-bearer are the impes of the inquisitiue of whom Ecclesiasticus speaking saith That the slaunderer desileth his owne soule and shall be hated in all things And he that so continueth shall be odious whereas the peacemaker and wise man shall be honoured And therefore he will haue vs to stop our eares with thornes to the end we may not heare the slaunderous tongue Dauid in the fourteenth Psalme reckoning vp many sorts of innocencie maketh great account of him that yeeldeth not his eare to heare the slaunder of his neighbour And in the hundred Psalme he saith That he pursued him that secretly slaundered his neighbour And Salomon in the eighteenth of the Prouerbs saith That the words of the tale-bearer are as wounds and do enter euen into the entrails For he that purposeth with himselfe to raise slaunders searcheth out all the euil that is in a house to publish it abrode afterward If a woman by her ouersight haue giuen any occasion of suspition by and by he blazeth her abroade as though she were the wickeddest woman in the world As for them that are vnchast indeed they besisted to the vttermost and their legend is disciphered without omitting anie thing If a man haue neuer so small a specke of vice or of euill grace in him the slaunderer faileth not to make euery flie an elephant They that offend in this case do sinne directly against that commaundement of the ten which prohibiteth vs to beare false witnesse against our neighbour For he that lieth saith Salomon is a false witnesse Also he sinneth against the law of the Gospell which saith It were better for a man to be drowned in the bottome of the sea than that he should giue occasion of offence or stumbling to his neighbour And in the nineteenth of the Prouerbs The false-witnesse shall not escape vnpunished and he that speaketh lies shall perish And in the fiue and twentith The man that beareth false-witnesse against his neighbor is as a club a sword and a sharpe arrow And in the sixt of the Prouerbs God hateth false lips and the false-witnesse that bringeth forth vntruth Saint Iames saith Speake not euill one of another He that speaketh euill of his neighbour speaketh euill of the law that is to say in speaking and iudging after his own fancie he vsurpeth the authoritie that belongeth to the law It is written in the first chapter of the booke of Wisdome That the spirit of wisdom is gentle and will not discharge him that speaketh euill with his lips For the sound of his words shall mount vp vnto God to the punishing of his iniquities Therefore beware of grudging which booteth nothing and refraine your tongues from slaunder And Saint Paule in the sixt to the Corinthians forbiddeth vs to eat meat with the slanderer The Psalmist saith That he that wil liue long must keep himselfe from mis-speaking and from speaking deceit reprouing them that set their mouthes to slaundering and euil speaking and their tongues to the kindling of fraud and anoyance And the seuen and fiftith Psalme saith My soule is among lions I dwell among firebrands euen among men whose teeth are speares and arrows and their tongue a sharpe sword By the teeth are meant false reports And in the threescore and fourth Psalme they shoot foorth their arrows euen bitter words that is to say False and stinging reports to smite the innocent in secret And in the 2â— of Ecclesiasticus The man that is nusled in wordes of reproch or wrong will receiue no instruction all the dayes of his life And in the eightenth chapter The backbiter and the double tongued man are accursed for they trouble many that are at peace A double tongue hath remooued many and dispersed them from nation to nation It hath destroied cities that were walled with riches and defaced the houses of great personages It hath disseuered the powers of peoples and set strong men at diuision And in the sixteenth of the Prouerbs The froward man setteth forth debate and the tale-bearer setteth princes at diuision Plâ—to saith in his Lawes That we must forbeare to offend against good men either in word or deed and that we must be wel aduised that we ouershoot not our selues when we either praise or dispraise any man because God is angrie when we blame him that resembleth him that is to say a good and honest man Solon as Plutarch reporteth of him in his life made an ordinance whereby he prohibited men to speake euill of those that were dead For it is well and deuoutly done to thinke that a man ought not to touch the dead no more than to touch things consecrated to God and to refraine from offending against them that are no longer in the world And it is wisdome euen in policie to beware that enmities grow not to be immortall sagely deeming that railing and slaundering proceed of vnreconcileable enmitie Alexander Seuerus said That princes ought to esteeme liers and slaunderers as great enemies vnto them as those that enter vpon their lands by force For these do but seize vpon their grounds and lordships but the others do rob them of their reputation and renowme In the citie of Naples there was one Demetrius who ceased not to raile vpon Totilus without cause and to do him all the spight he could But being taken afterward with all the residue he onely had his tongue and hands cut off Nicholas Scot was beheaded
that is within the mind heareth not that which is said without vnlesse it haue reason of it owne and such discretion of it selfe within as doth by and by set it selfe against the anger and suppresse it And that is the pallace which Homer in the first booke of his Iliads fameth to haue restrained Achilles from killing Agamemnon The second remedie is to retire frō the mischief aforehand as soone as a man perceyueth it cōming as they that be diseased with the falling sicknesse do withdraw themselues in due time for feare of falling into their disease afore companie The third remedie is to follow the counsel that Athenodorus gaue to Augustus which was to say ouer the whole alphabet or Apsie at our entring into choler to the end that that space of time may giue vs leasure to moderate our anger For the wise man saith Salomon delaieth his anger and it is a glorie vnto him to ouerpasse faults committed that is to let the offence passe and not to do as Darius did who being in an exceeding great rage against the Athenians for sacking the citie Sardus praied God that he might reuenge that iniurie and ordained that thrise euerie day when his meat was vpon the table one should say vnto him Sir remember the Athenians but rather as the Romans did who to shew that magistrats ought not to be angrie in hast tied the rods of their pretors vnto halberds to the intent that the delay which was made in the vntying of them should breake and appease the headines of the pretors wrath If the Pythagorians hapned to be angrie their custom was to touch one another in the hand afore they departed out of the place to the intent that they would not let their anger take place according to the precept of Saint Paule The fourth remedie is neuer to take vpon ones selfe the chastising of the partie that hath offended him but to put ouer the doing thereof to some other bodie as some philosophers haue don who praied their friends to chastise their bond-slaues saying That they themselues could not do it because they were too much moued with anger As for example Architas of Tarent who would not chastise his seruant because he was in anger with him Cicero in his Duties saith That a mā must be wel ware that he be not angry when he punisheth because anger neuer keepeth the meane that ought to be between too much and too little And magistrats ought to be like vnto lawes which punish men not for anger but for iustice The fift meane is to cōsider that we would be loth to be punished as we would punish others wherto agreeth the parable of the Receiuer in the Gospel who hauing obtained fauour for his debts at his masters hand yet neuertheles would needs play the tormētor towards a poore debter of his own By the which parable we be cōmanded to forgiue the wrongs that our neighbors do vnto vs as god forgiueth vs freely our misdeeds And for want of so doing we cānot haue grace at gods hand For thus saith Ecclesiasticus Doth man keepe anger against man and craue health of God If he that is a mortal man saith he do keepe anger and craue forgiuenes of God who shall forgiue him his sins Be mindfull of the feare of God and bear no anger to thy neighbor And in the 20. chap. Say not I will requite euill but wait thou the Lords leasure and he will deliuer thee Sixtly he must eschue all occasions of anger as Cotis king of Thrace did to whom one gaue verie faire and dilicate vessell but verie easie to be broken Cotis receiued the present willingly but he brake the vessels out of hand And being asked the cause he said he did it for feare least he should be angry with some other bodie for breaking them Seuenthly He must consider with himselfe the inconueniences that may come of anger seeing that as Ecclesiasticus saith Anger and wrath do shorten mens dayes Valentinian was so angrie at certaine ambassadours which brought him newes that misliked him that he brake a veine within his bodie whence the bloud issued so abundantly out at his mouth that he was immediatly choked with it Gaston earle of Fois had but one onely sonne against whom he was so outragiously fumish that the poore child died of it whereof the father repented him afterward at leysure as Froyssard reporteth at large in his hystorie As for manslaughters the most part of them come of choler Now to assure vs that manslaughter is detestable afore God we haue a precept in the ten Commaundements the which forbiddeth vs to kill Romulus called all manquelling Parricide because the one was villainous and detestable and the other was not tollerable Moyses appointed out fiue cities of refuge for them that had committed manslaughter so it were by chance and not vpon malice meaning that such as had their hands defiled with bloud should not be conuersant among other men Dauid being welbeloued of God and an earnest louer of God would haue builded him a temple but he was dissuaded from it by Nathan who had commaundement from God to bid him leaue the doing thereof to his sonne Salomon because his owne hands were defiled with the bloud of his enemies And as he himselfe saith in the fiue and fiftith Psalme Bloudie aud deceitfull men shal not liue out halfe their daies And we may say generally with Ecclasiasticus That a man full of anger kindleth strife and variance among friends and setteth enmitie among them that were at peace Of anger come iniuries discords disagreements and oftentimes the vtter ouerthrowes of cities whereof princes repent them afterward or at leastwise are blamed for it as Philip was for Olinthus And when some maruelled at his power that he had so soone rased so great a citie one Agesipolis said It would behoue Philip to haue a longer time to build vp such another whereby he meant that it is a far more princely act to build cities than to ouerthrow them and to destroy them when they be builded The same anger doth oftentimes make manie to passe the edge of the sword euen after the field is woon yea and sometime euen those that had yeelded themselues to the mercie of the conquerours which thing Cicero forbiddeth in his Duties Agesilaus said He thought it a wonder that men tooke not those for traitors to God which do euill to poore folke that crie for mercie and beseech them for the honour of God to pardon them and that they punish them not more grieuously than the robbers of churches deeming well and wisely that mens liues are dearer than all the ornaments of temples and churches Lastly let him read hystories and consider the blame that hath lighted vpon irefull persons I wil not speake of Coriolane and others who through that onely vice haue defaced great vertues and misguided their affairs Nor of Alexander who
it is doubted whether it be more daungerous to loose a battell at home oâ— in a forrain countrie Monsieur de Langey in his Discipline of warre is of opinion that it is lesse daunger for a captaine to fight in his owne countrie if he be a man of power as the king of Fraunce is than to fight in a straunge countrie And hereunto I will adde that which Paulus Iouius saith in his hystorie where he demaundeth Why Ismael Sophie king of Persland did let slip so faire an occasion of inuading the kingdome of Selim emperour of the Turks at such time as Selim was so sore incombred in Egypt The reason is that the king of Persia hath not sufficient power to make warre out of his owne countrie vpon so mightie a prince as the Turke is considering that the noble men and gentlemen in whom coÌ„sisteth a great part of the Persian strength are loth to go to the wars out of their countrie because they serue at their owne charges But when the case concerneth the defence of the realme and that they be to fight in that behalfe they imploy themselues wholy thereunto managing the warre fiercely and behauing themselues valiantly Also we haue seene how the Parthians afore them neuer passed so much to conquer out of their owne realme as to keepe their owne at home and that they haue discomfited all the armies of the Romans that euer came against them Neither hath the common saying beene verified of them That the assailants haue euer more courage than the defendants For that is not euer true Besides that there be means to assure the natural subiects by shewing them that the quarrell is iust and holy which men vndertake in defence of their countrie which ought to haue more force than the couetous hope of enriching mens selues by other mens losse And if it be said That the assailant bereaueth the prince defendant of the commodities which he had afore of his subiects to helpe himselfe withall because his subiects are destroyed A man may answer That the losse of goods turneth not the hearts and affections of the subiects away from theiâ— prince but contrariwise the harme that they recâ—yue maketh them fiercer against their enemies Whereas it is alledged That a prince dareth not to leuie mony of his subiects nor to taxe them at his will because of the neernesse of the enemie to whom they might yeeld themselues if they were molested by their prince Monsieur de Langey answereth thereunto That that prerogatiue cannot be taken from a priuce so long as his lands and friends be not taken from him as appeareth by the succours which the kings of Fraunce haue had of their subiects against the Englishmen and against the men of Nauarre True it is that he excludeth tyrannie saying That if a prince should misuse his subiects and outrage them for euery trifle he might doubt whether he should be well followed well obeyed of his people or no. And as for that which is said That the assâ—ilants being in a strange countrie do make necessitie a vertue because they be driueÌ„ to open the waies by force of armes The same necessitie lieth also vpon the defendants whom it standeth on hand to fight stoutly because they be in daunger to endure many mo things than the assailants For the raunsome or the prison makes their budget good for the assailants but the defendants lose their goods and the honor of their wiues and children and moreouer looke for perpetual bondage with an infinit number of other mischiefs Furthermore he that is assailed may wait vpon his enemies to his great aduauntage and distresse them with famin without perill of enduring any scarcitie his owne side and therwithall he may the better withstand the enterprises of his enemies by reason that he hath better knowledge of the countrie and of the passages Besides that he may assemble great coÌ„panies of men in few houres because there is not any subiect of his that is not readie at need to fight in his owne defence And if the defendant do chaunce to take a foile in his owne countrie he will relieue himselfe againe within few dayes to be at the pursute and new succours shall not need to come to him from farre To be short the defendant needeth to hazard but a peece of his force But if the assailant lose he putteth hir men and the goods and wel-â—are of himselfe and his subiects in perill though he be out of his owne countrie considering that if he be taken he must either continue a prisoner all his life time or else accomplish the will of his conquerour Yet notwithhanding for all the good reasons of Monsieur de Langey a learned and valeant knight and of great experience in feats of armes I will follow the opinion of them that say That it is better to go fight with a mans enemie farre from home than to tarrie his comming home to him Craesus counselled Cyrus not to tarrie for the Massagets in his owne countrie but to giue them battell in their owne because quoth he if you should lose one battell in your owne countrie you should be in daunger being once chased to lose your whole countrie for the Massagets hauing gotten the victorie will pursue it and enter into your prouinces And if ye win the battell you shall not gaine thereby an inch of land But if ye ouercome them in their owne land you may follow your good fortune and be master of the whole realme of Thomiris This fashion did the Romans vse who were the most politike and best aduised men in war-matters that euer were in the world For they neuer suffered the enemie to approch neare their gates but encountered him aloofe Which thing Hanniball knowing well by the proofe that he himselfe had had of their policies and â—orce counselled Antiochuâ— not to tarry the comming of the Romans into his country but to go and assail them in their owne because that out of their owne countrie they were inuincible And in verie deed they were euer assailants and seldome times defendants At the beginning when their territory was verie small they went made war vpon the Fidenats Crustuminians Samâ—ates Falisks and other neighbor-people from whom they alway got the victorie And whensoeuer they were assailed it was to their extreme daunger As for example When Horatius Cocles sought vpon the bridge of the citie and sustained the whole force of the enemie while the bridge was â—ut asunder behind him wherwith he fell into the Tiber and by that means saued the citie Also they were in extreme daunger against Porsenna and the Volses and they were faine to employ all their priests and all the women of the citie to raise the siege of Coriolanus who our of all question had made himself master of the towne if the intreatance of his mother had not letted him It was neuer in their power to ouercome Hannibal in
touching the aduantage of a hill it is very great so there be nothing aboue it that may command it Perseus had planted his campe to great purpose on a high ground of aduantage neere the mountaine Olimpus and had caused all the passages of the hill to be warely kept sauing one that seemed vnapprochable By reason wherof it behoued the Romans to be ill lodged and vnable to do any exploit of war For Perseus stood vpon his defence intending to wearie them by protracting of time for he assured himselfe that he could not be assailed in so strong a place Paulus Emilius vnderstanding that there was but that onely one passage whereat to distresse Perseus bethought himselfe how he might winne it Whereupon feigning to fetch about by the sea and to come vpon his enemies at their backs he dispatched Nasica secretly with eight thousand footmen and six hundred horsmen to get the the passage and he himselfe tooke his way towards the seas side But when night came he led them cleane the contrarie way from the sea vntill he came to the top of the hill where he lodged himselfe vpon a plaine in the sight of Perseus who was so astonished thereat that he remoued his campe immediatly Iulius Caesar hauing to do with the Belgians who were the hardiest and of greatest number of all the Gauls tooke a certaine little hill the which he caused his men to intrench in two places beneath least the Gauls who were without comparison mo in number than the Romans should enuiron him But neither the one nor the other durst go find out his enemie because there was a maris betwixt them But aboue all things a captaine must beware that he lodge not in the midst of a hill vnlesse he be sure from aboue sor by that means he may easily indomage his host as Salomon a captaine of the Romans endomaged the Maurusians whom being incamped vpon the middest of a high hill to their great aduauntage he was come to assaile from below But yet he bethought himselfe to take first the toppe of the hill and for the doing thereof appointed Theodericke with certaine footmen to climbe the hill ouer night by a way most difficult and whereof his enemies had least doubt commaunding his men not to make any noise when they were come nigh them but to keepe themselues close till the sunne-rising In the dawning of the day he marched with his armie directlie vp the hill and at the same instant the other part of his armie shewed themselues to the enemies vpon the toppe of the hill so as the Maurisians perceiuing themselues to be betweene the two armies and hauing their enemies both aboue them on the toppe of the hill and beneath them at the foot were constrained to take them to flight through the thick forrest with the losse of siue thousand men and not one Roman slaine Sylla to compasse Mithridates got the back of a hill that was almost vnapprochable in the day of the battell and there shewing himselfe to his enemies aboue them did put them all to flight to the chase Lucullus being within the view of the campe of Tigranes who was imbattelled vpon a high ground somewhat neere the citie Cabyra durst not come downe into the plaine because he had but a handful of men in comparison of Tigranes But by good hap one Arthemidorus offering himselfe vnto him promised that if he would follow him he would bring him into a place where he should lodge his campe safely and where he had a castle aboue the citie Cabyra As soone as night was come Lucullus making great store of fires in his campe departed thence and after he had passed some dangerous places came by the next morning to the top of the mountaine wherat his enemies were sore abashed to see him aboue them in a place where he might come down vpon them with aduauntage if he listed to fight and could not be forced to fight except he listed Quintus Flaminius perceiuing that he could not giue his enemies battell by reason of a certaine streight found the means to discouer a way which within three dayes brought him to his enemies campe And for his guides he tooke the shepheards who assured him that that way was not garded Vpon trust of whose word Flaminius sent three thousand footmen and thirteene hundred horsmen who marching by moone light and resting a day times came the third day to the top of the hill All that while he stirred not vntill the said third day and then he caused his armie to march vp the hill against the cragged cliffs And as he marched he espied his owne men vpon the top of the hill which doubled the courage of the Romans that were with him And on the other part his companions that were aboue perceiuing him so mounting vp against the hill began to raise a noise behind their enemies wherewith they put them in such â—eare that by and by they tooke them to flight The constable of France considering the sortification of the passage of Suze how that vpon two little hils on either side of the streight his enemies had made two sconses and had cut a great and deepe trench betwixt them perceiued that by winning two other hils higher than those were where his enemies had their fortifications a man might force them with the shot of harquebusses to abandon their fortification Wherupon he ceised immediatly vpon those hils The which thing when his enemies perceiued they forsooke the passage and betooke themselues to flight When the commodity of woods hils and riuers is not to be had and a small company of men is to deale with a great number they must intrench themselues with all speed and if it be possible they must chuse a place vneasie to be comne vnto â—ull of hedges and vineyards as the prince of Wales did at Poitiers when he tooke king Iohn priâ—soner For he had put himselfe into a place of such aduantage as there was but one way to come at him and that was full of hedges and bushes and he had laid the hedges full of archers And as for his horsmâ—n they were all alighted on foot in the vineyards in so strong a place as no men on hors-back could enter into For when an army is to be assailed in their hold neither horsmen nor footmen can approch theÌ„ without breaking their owne aray as it happened to the Frenchmen at Bicock through the wilfulnes of the Suissers and to the king of Castile against the king of Portugall at the battell of Iuberoth The Entalits seeing themselues to weake for the Persians incamped themselues veâ—y sharply in a place of great aduantage and inclosed themselues about with great deepe and large trenches leauing only one way to passe at with ten men a â—ront and when they had so done they couered the trenches with leaues and russhes And when they saw the Persians approch they sent out certain
Iustine led the one part and Martin the other Martin to encourage his people and to sow a false report among his enemies That Iustinian the emperor had sent succors vnto them assembled the whole armie as it had beene to consult what was to be done And as they were so all assembled suddenly comes in a post whom he had procured as coÌ„ming from Constantinople with letters which he presented wherein the emperour sent them word that he had sent them another armie as great or greater than that they had alreadie The post was asked whether the armie was farre off or no and he answered that the armie was not much abone foure and twentie furlongs off Then captaine Martin as if he had bin throughly angrie said He had not to do with it and that it was no reason that they should reape the honour and profit of his trauel Whereupon he demaunded of his people whether they thought his saying good or no and they all answered yea In the meane while the report of fresh succours was blowne abrode into the enemies campe who thereupon disposed some of their men to the straits to stop the new armie from passing to ioyne with the other and at the same instant brought their whole power before the citie to giue assault vnto it Now it fortuned that the same day captaine Iustine had a fâ—ncie to go make his praiers in a certaine church of the Christians that was neare the towne and for his conuey caried with him fiue thousand horses vnperceiued of the enemies who by chaunce tooke another way to come to the campe before the towne When Iustine vnderstood by the noise that his enemies were afore the towne setting vp scaling ladders digging and making a great assault to enter in immediatly he turned head and with his horsemen went and charged vpon his enemies that were at the point to haue woon the towne Whereas they being greatly amazed and thinking that it had beene the fresh succours which they had heard of tooke themselues to sight and being pursued by the men of the citie were almost all put to the sword Eumenes vsing dissimulation wisely got the victorie against Craterus For when he vnderstood that Neoptolemus and Craterus came against him in hope to cause his souldiers to turne to their part by the onely brute of their comming and also to take them vnawares as they were making good cheare becaue they came then freshly from the discomfiting of Neoptolemus he held his armie in good order and readie to fight and therewithall caused a report to run abrode that it was Neoptolemus and Pigres that came backe vpon him a fresh with certaine horsemen gathered at aduenture out of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia And to keepe his countrimen from knowing Craterus he set not one Macedonian against him in the forefront but placed there two companies of straungers that were men of armes commaunding them expresly to run vpon their enemies as soone as they saw them and to charge vpon them immediatly without giuing them leysure to parlie or to retire and without giuing any eare to the heraults and trumpetters that should be sent vnto them because he feared least the Macedonians would turne against him if they once knew that Craterus was there Wherefore as soone as Eumenes men espied their enemies they failed not to run against them a full gallop as they had beene commaunded At the sight wherof Craterus was greatly abashed for he thought that the Macedonians should haue turned on his side as Neoptolemus had promised him Neuerthelesse dealing like a man of valor he also spurred his horse against his enemies and did so well that the battel was fought a long time with doubtful ballance but in the end Eumenes woon the field and Craterus and Neoptolemus the chieftanes of his enemies were both slaine Sometime a valiant captaine that hath the report to be fortunat and a great taker of towns doth euen by his menaces strike a feare into the hearts of soldiers that are inclosed in a place make theÌ„ to yeeld it vp as Glesclin did who sent word to the men of Hannibout that he would sup within their towne that night and that if there were any of them that threw but a stone whereby any of the least of his pages were hurt it should cost them their liues With the which menace the townsmen were so scared that they stirred not out of their houses and the Englishmen being too few to abide the assault were ouerlaid with force and put all to the sword The countie of Fois intending to go from Bolonia to Bresse the nearest way to recouer it tooke his iourney through the duke of Mantuas territorie And because he was to passe by certaine sluces which were fast shut vp and well garded he sent to the duke of Mantua to desire passage who notwithstanding that he was against the Frenchmen yet being abashed at his so sudden comming was faine to open him the passage the which he would haue denied him if he had not seene his power CHAP. XIII Of Skirmishes WHen two armies come within sight one of another they caÌ„not be kept from skirmishing the which is somtime necessary and somtime verie daungerous And this poynt as saith Machiauell is one of that number wherein the euill is so neare vnto the good that the one is easily taken for the other I haue often heard this fashion of making skirmishes blamed by Monsieur Tauannes who would not put any thing in perill but all to profit For he would either fight in good earnest or hold himselfe quiet without fighting and reserue his forces to some good occasion Some will say that such skirmishes giue the more courage to men of war and make them as it were to record their lessons and the things that are to be done in battell It is a making of theÌ„ to look vpon the wolf that by beholding of him throughly they should not be afraid of him But on the contrarie part also if the wolfe bite them it is to be doubted least they will become the colder in hunting him Three dayes afore the battell of Moncounter the armie of the Monsieur and the armie of the princes skirmished vpon the banke of the riuer Dine but that skirmish was so rough for them that they began that day to despair of the victorie to be shie of the encounter which they had anon after But now to make some resolution vpon the discourse of the hystorie which is the thing that I pretend I say that skirmishes are of two or three sorts Sometimes when men lie in garrison and warres are prolonged they skirmish with a few men to giue a stroke with the speare or to make some gallant enterprise as was done at Bolloyne against the Englishmen For they that were in the great fort and in the fort of the Chastilion did often times issue out against the Englishmen that lay in garrison in Bolloyne and there
went thither with the rest of his armie and gaue a great assault to haue driuen away those that defended the hill Then Hanniball perceiuing that his enemie had cast himselfe into his nets gaue the watchword to his men that were in ambush who brake out with a great noyse vpon the taile of the Romans of whom they slue a great number at the first dash and had put the rest out of aray but for the readie succour of Fabius who aided him at need and wrested the victorie out of Hannibals hand Insomuch that Hanniball sounding the retreit said smiling to his friends concerning Fabius Did not I tell you that yonder cloud which we see houering vpon the top of the hils would one day breake out into a stormie tempest that should light vpon vs Also Flaminius the Roman consul was discomfited by a like policie For Hanniball suffered him to win the passage that was in the hils aboue the lake of Trasimenus but yet higher aboue theÌ„ he had laid his men in ambush Now beyond the passage that was kept by the Romans there was a faire plain where Hannibals armie was so as the Romans being cooped vp in a place where they had their enemies both before and behind lost the battell The same Hanniball perceiuing that Marcellus neither by vanquishing nor by being vanquished could hold himselfe from troubling him vsed this policie when he saw him nie him Betweene the two camps was a certain peece of ground of strong situation couered round about with bushes therin were high places where a man might discouer them far of towards both the camps and at the foot of it ran mâ—ny springs and brookes insomuch that the Romans marueled that Hanniball who was come first had not seazed it But his so doing was for that it seemed to him a very fit place to lay â—tâ—les in to which purpose he chose rather to reserue it Therefore he 〈◊〉 the woods the watersprings and the valley throughout with a good number of men of armes of all sorts assuring himselfe that the place it selfe would draw the Romans thither wh◠〈◊〉 was not deceiued For the two consuls Marcellus and Criâ—pâ—â—â— went both thether with two hundred and twentie horses to view the place Which thing when the Carthaginenses perceiued they suffered them to come on vntil they were ful against them and then suddainly stepping vp and winding Marcellus in began to draw to him both with shot and with handblowes so long til he lay dead vpon the ground and his fellow being wounded to death recouered to his campe by the swiftnesse of his horse where he died by and by after The countie of Anguien was discomfited almost after the same manner as he would needs giue battell almost hard at the bars of Gaunt For the men of Gaunt being desirous to intrap him because he was valeant in battell laid a hundred men in ambush for him without the towne who hemmed him in so close when he was come a litle too forward that there was no meane to saue him and so fighting valeantly he died vpon the field and all his men with him Sometime a stale is made by occasion of a preteÌ„ded feare As for examâ—â—e Hanniball taking occasion to flee vpon the discomfiâ—â—◠〈◊〉 ten or twelue hundred of his men withdrew himselfe be 〈◊〉 the hils as a man dismaid leauing in his campâ— from whence he was dâ—lodged great abundance of riches and vitteâ—â— and dâ—pâ—rting in the night left the burning fires in his campe as 〈◊〉 his meaning had ben to conceale his departure fâ—om the Romans But this trick was discouered by 〈…〉 it stood him in no stead Thomyri queene of the Mâ—ssagets aâ—ter the destruction of hir army wherwith she lost hir sonne had great reason to flee and to 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 that flight she made a bait to draw Cyrus forth into the mountains from whence it was not easie for him to get back againe and so it came to passe For Cyrus courageously pursuing the Queene found himselfe hemmed in on all sides in the mountains where he lost an armie of two hundred thousand men and his owne life with them The emperour Aurelian seeing his enemies too strong for him in horsemen and better weaponed and armed than his prohibited the Romane knights to abide the battell and willed them to flee as soone as they were charged vpon vntill they saw their enemies horses wearie and tired with the pursute and then to turne head The which thing they did so handsomely that the emperour wan the victorie Paulus Vitellius hauing beene troubled two whole daies together by the pesants on the coast of Genes who flang stones and darts and shot arrowes at him from the hils yea and some of them were so bold as to come downe into the plaine and to fight with him bethought himselfe to pretend as though he would saue himselfe by flight and retired so farre that he was chased in full race by infinit pezants But when he saw his game at the best he made all his troopes to mount on horsebacke and to turne their faces insomuch that all at once they charged vpon the pezants of the mountaines and discomfited them Secco a Florentine beeing desirous to draw Monfronk captaine of the Pisanes to battell who of his owne nature was forward enough to it laid an ambush betweene Bientina and Pisa commanding them not to stir vntill he gaue them their watchword Then sent he foorth certaine light horsemen into the fields euen into the view of the citie Pisa who a long while pursued the forragers of Pisa. When Monfronk out of the higher part of the towne saw these forragers and theÌ„ that did coÌ„uoy them to be pressed by the ouergreat number of them he also made certaine of his light horsemen to go foorth and anon he himselfe followed them with his men of armes and footmen Secco did the like on his part so as the fight was full and well foughten At length Secco of set pupose began to recoile and turne his backe as it had ben for feare Monfronk folowed after him liuely not giuing him any respit to assemble his men together againe vntill he came to the stale where issued out men both on horsebacke and on foot which so inclosed the Venetians and Pisanes on al sides that hauing hemmed them in euery way in the end they ouerthrew a great number of them Malâ—testa Balion to make his enemies that were in garrison at Veron to fal into his snare commanded his Albans to go into the marches of Veron and to gather all the cattell that they found and to driue them towards the stale which he had laid a good way off from thence The which the Albans did with such noise that the garrison of Veron vnderstood it out of hand Wherupon some of them mounted vpon their horses to pursue those robbers The Albans to conceale their craft the better did fiâ—st shock themselues on a heape
of Athens that they might the sooner be famished and so it came to passe For whereas he was not able to ouercome them by force he suffered them to rest a while and afterward when he knew that vittails began to wax scant he besieged them so narrowly that they were faine to yeeld the citie to the Lacedemonians To attempt the taking of the rocke of Vandois which was impregnable the vicount of Meaus laid a stale of 1200 men in a caue neare the fort and sent others to skirmish with them at their bars charging them that if any came out of the towne against them they should retire softly vntill they came to the stale The Frenchmen failed not to make countenaÌ„ce but went slowly to the skirmish as if they had beene men vnwilling and smally trained which thing gaue courage to Guion du sel who had the gouernment of the fort in the absence of Amerigoll Marcell to sallie out with certaine of the garrison And he chased the Frenchmen so farre that he was inclosed betweene their ambush and their campe so as he could not saue himselfe nor any of his companie Whereupon the Frenchmen approched nearer the castell and told him that he and all his companions should die if the â—ortresse were not yeelded and that if it were yeelded they should all be saued They that were within perceiuing that they were like to lose the best men of all their companie yeelded themselues at his persuasion The earle of Arminak was discomfited almost after the same sort by Iaques of Berne before Alexandria which was the cause that the siege of Alexandria was broken vp CHAP. XX. Of the defending of Townes THere is not so great a mischief but there is a remedie for it And as the common saying is Well assailed well defended For when he that is within a towne knoweth that another would haue it then by good watch and carefull diligence he keepeth himselfe from being taken on the sudden And if he be aduertised of his enemies comming he doth what he can to keepe them from comming neere the ditches vntill the greatnesse of their number enforce him to retire The like is done when a citie is to be assailed by sea and by land For he that is within doth either by force or by policie impeach their landing as much as he can as did that gallant pyrat named Franday at Port Venerie The Arragonians intending to haue taken that place vpon the gate toward the sea approched with the prowes of their gallies to the hauen to haue set their soldiers a land But Franday had caused the great stones whereupon they were to leape in comming downe from their gallies to be besmeared with greace so as the most part of them fell downe through the slippernesse of their footing and the cumbersomnesse of their armor among the stones which were verie high Sometimes a citie is in hard case for that they cannot certifie their state by reason of the straitnesse of the siege In this case they must do as the Gothes did who being straitly besieged by Bellisariu and not able to giue intelligence of their distresse to Vitigis made a great noise one midnight whereat Belâ—â—sarius wondring and fearing some ambush or treason commanded that euery man should stand vpon his guard without remouing out of his place While Bellisarius was thus musing more to gard himselfe than to looke to the wals of his enemies the Goths sent out two men to giue knowledge to Vitigis in what state they stood But Bellisarius did yet much better when he himselfe was besieged in Rome For vvhen he vnderstood that succors were comming to him fearing least the Goths should set vpon them by the vvay he caused a certaine vvall vvherwith one of the gates of the citie vvas dammed vp to be beaten downe in the night and set a good number of men of vvar at it causing a thousand horsemen to issue out at one of the other gates whom he coÌ„manded to returne to the same gate againe vvhen they vvere charged by their enemies Now vvhile they vvere in hand vvith their enemies Bellisarius vvent out vvith a great power at the gate that vvas towards the sea vvhereof his enemies had no mistrust and easily putting those to flight that encountered him on that part he vvent on till he came right against the other gate vvhere he assailed his enemies behind as they vvere fighting vvith his men that had issued out first in vvhich conflict many of his enemies vvere slaine vvho being sufficiently occupied in defending themselues gaue leisure to the Greekes to ioine vvith the armie of Bellisarius vvithout any let Sometimes there is scarcetie of vittels in a towne so as it needeth to be vittelled And therfore he that hath the charge therof seeketh by all means to get some in vvithout the enemies priuitie Bellisarius intending to vittell the citie of Rome which was streitlie besieged by the Gothes vnder the leading of Totilas deuised this shift Totilas had made two towers of timber to be builded vpon a bridge ouer the riuer Tiber to keepe men from comming to Rome by water And without the ouerthrowing of these towers there was no way to passe To do it by plaine force it was not possible for him for he had too few men Wherfore he took two lighters and ioined them togither with rafters vpon the which he builded a tower of timber of equall heigth to the other two vpon the top wherof he had a little boate full of pitch and brimstone After this tower boat followed two hundred other boats couered ouer with boord and made full of loope holes that his men standing surely fenced in them might shoot at their enemies Within those boats he put great abundance of vittels garded by the choisest of his souldiers by whom vpon either banke of the riuer as neere as might be he sent of his souldiers both on horsebacke and on foot When he came at the towers of the bridge he cast vpon them the said little boat that was full of brimstone which immediatly burned vp the towers and the two hundred men that were within them In the meane while the Romans brake downe the bridge and made way for the litters that conueied the vittels the which had out of all doubt gone forth to the citie had it not ben for the fault of Isaces one of Bellisarius captains who by his rash going out of the hauen towne of Ostia contrarie to Bellisarius appointment was discomfited and taken prisoner by the Goths For Bellisarius being abashed therat and thinking that the towne it selfe had ben taken wherin was his wife and all his mouables returned suddainly back thither without accomplishing his enterprise Sometimes either men or monie be to be conueyed into a towne in whch behalfe example may be taken at the doings of Bellisarius who bearing that monie was brought him from Constantinople to the intent that the bringer thereof
to shun the fire By reason vvherof the Venetians falling vpon those dismaied people defeated a great part of them and bending their artillerie vpon them tha◠fled killed a great number of them and so returned with a verie great bootie of horse and men The Plateians being streitly besieged by the Peloponnesians and hopelesse of all succour found this shift to get out of the towne The Peloponnesians had made a double wal about the citie Plateia one towards the towne to keepe them from comming out and the other along the side of the camp to keep the succours of the Athenians from going in which walles were distant sixteene foot asunder Betweene the two walles were the lodgings of thē that garded thē and at euery tenth battlement were towers that coupled the two wals together so as a man could not passe along the wall but he must go through those towers into the which those that kept the watch a nights withdrew themselues when it rained To compasse their determination the Athenians made skaling ladders full as high as the wals the heigth whereof they tooke by considering the thicknesse of the brickes whereof it was made numbering them from the top to the foot The townesmen therefore hauing gotten intelligence of the manner of the watch spied a night when it rained and the wind blew lowd and the moone shined not and came to the foot of the wall vnperceiued because of the darkenesse of the night and went seuerally by themselues one from another least the iustling of their harnesse togither should make any noise When they had set vp their ladders against the void spaces where they vnderstood that no man warded they that brought the ladders mounted vp first and after them the rest Now when a good sort of them were vp they that watched within the towers perceiued them by a crannie of one of the battlements that was cast downe in their comming vp Insomuch that at the first alarme all the campe came to the wall not knowing wherfore by reason of the night and the foule wether On the other side the Plateians that abode in the citie went out and assailed the walles in other places to busie their enemies heads who were all sore amazed what the matter should be so as neither they nor those that garded the towers stirred not out of their places Neuerthelesse they that had the charge to releiue the watch lighted vp beacons on the side towards Thebes to betoken the comming of enemies Which thing the townsmen perceiuing lighted vp a great sort of them vpon their walles also to the intent that their enemies should not know wherfore those fires were made and that their companions might saue themselues afore any rescues came to the watch In the meane time those that mounted vp first wonne two towers and hauing slaine them that were within got vp them fellowes that remained yet beneath putting those backe with shot and throwing of stones which came to rescue the wall Insomuch that all they which were to salie out of the towne mounted vp the wall and then going downe from the towers came to the ditches on the outside vpon the brim whereof they found those that should haue succoured the watch who had lighted vp the beacons by means whereof being well and perfectly seen they were ouerthrowne by the Athenians and by the townesmen with shot of arrowes And so the Plateyans passing the ditch with ease did knit themselues well and close together and so passed all in good order by the way that leadeth to Thebes because they doubted that the way to Athens was garded But when they had gone that way a vvhile they turned aside the way of the hill and by a priuie path came all to Athens without disturbance Sometime to commaund a towne they make a mount and in old time it vvas vvoont to be made against the vvall because there vvas none other fighting but vvith handblowes for artillarie vvas not yet inuented Cabades king of Persia made such a mount of earth to be cast vp against the vvall of Amyda which he saw to be impregnable But the Amydans to defend themselues from it made a mine within their wall whereby they drew away a good peece of the ground that vpheld the mount and vnderpropped it with timber-worke that it might not be perceyued And when they saw the mount couered all ouer with Persians they let it sinke so as all that were vpon it were slaine which caused them to raise their siege Spartacus hauing but a few men with him vvhen he rebelled against the Romans tooke a mountaine that was verie strong and vnapprochable where he was besieged by three thousand Romans who garded well the passage that hee should not scape For there was but onelie one place to goe vp or downe at the residue vvas a rocke cut steepe Spartacus finding that there grew wilde Vines aloft vppon the rocke did cut off all the biggest twigges and with them made ladders of coards so stiffe and long that beeing fastened aboue they reached downe to the bottome of the plaine Vpon the which they went all downe secretly sauing one who taried casting downe their armour after them and when he had so done he also saued himselfe by the same means The Romans mistrusted it not By reason whereof they that were besieged coasting round about the hill came and assailed them behind putting them in such feare with their sudden comming vpon them that they all tooke them to flight so as he tooke their campe CAHP. XXI Of diuerse policies and sleights I Can not passe with silence certain other policies and sleights that diuerse braue captains haue vsed the which I will set here vnorderly Eumenes being put to flight by Antigonus as he retired found Antigonus stuffe the which he might easily haue taken and diuerse prisoners therewithall But he would not because it vvould haue hindered his flight And besides that he saw it vvas vnpossible to haue kept the Macedonians by direct means from rifling so great goods offred into their hands for so goodly a prise Therefore he commaunded them to ease themselues a vvhile and to bait their horses and then vpon the sudden to go and distrusse the baggage But in the meane vvhile he sent aduertisement by a secret messenger to Menander who had the charge of conueying the said stuffe that he should vvith all speed get him out of the plaines to the hanging of a hill neere hand vvhich vvas not to be approched by horsemen and there to fortifie himselfe telling him that his giuing of this aduertisement vnto him was in respect of the friendship that he had erst had at his hand Menander vnderstanding the perill vvherein he vvas made the stuffe to be trussed vp out of hand and then Eumenes sent out his foreriders openly to discouer him and therewithall commaunded euerie man to put on his armour and to bridle his horse as if he had bin minded to haue led
effect and who dissembling his purpose intended to take the place of Dennis and to do as much as he sent messengers to Timoleon desiring him not to passe his men into Sicilie because the warre began to draw to an end and the Carthagenenses with whom he had secret intelligence would not that his men should passe into Sicilie but that he himselfe should come alone to aid them with his counsell in such affairs as should be offered to deale in And because he doubted least Temoleon would not consent to his request he had desired the Carthaginenses who lay neare vnto the hauen of Rhegium with twentie gallies to stop his passage ouer and to fight with him if he attempted to enter by force Timâ—leon seemed to like well of the saying of the messengers neuerthelesse he said it behoued him for his discharge to haue the same decreed in the assemblie of the Rhegians and in their presence as of them that were friends to them both The which thing he did of set purpose to hide his owne intent the better by making the Rhegians priuie to the matter The next day all the parties met in the Mootehall where the whole day was purposely spent in talke that Timoleons gallies might haue leysure to prepare themselues vnsuspected of the Carthaginenses forasmuch as they saw Timoleon present with them Who assoon as he vnderstood that his gallies were departed all sauing one that staid behind for him went his way secretly through the prease by the Rhegians who being secretly made priuie to the matter by him had staid him from speaking any more And so embarking himselfe without any disturbance he arriued within lesse than an houre at Tauromenion where Andromachus waited for him Sylla in the ciuill warres seeing his enemies to be many in number thought it stood him on hand to vse policie as well as force Wherupon he solicited Scipio one of the consuls to come to agreement with him the which thing Scipio refused not Hereupon many goings and commings were about the matter because Sylla protracted the conclusion verie long finding still some occasion of delay that in the meane while his souldiers who were made and accustomed to such policies as well as their captaine might practise with Scipios souldiers to forsake him For they going into Scipios campe inueigled some of his men with mony some with promises and other some with necessitie so that in the end when this practising had continued a certaine time Sylla approched to their campe with twentie Antsignes where his souldiers fell to saluting Scipios and they saluting them again turned and yeelded themselues vnto them so as Scipio abode alone in his tent where he was taken and not suffred to go away any more Thus like the fowler with his fine birds made to the stale Sylla with his twentie Antsignes drew fortie Antsignes of his enemies into his net whom he led all into his owne campe Which thing when Carbo saw he said That in Sylla he had to deale with a fox and lion both togither and that the fox did him more harme than the lion The emperour Iulian to keepe himselfe from being disappointed of the number of prisoners that he demaunded vsed such a policie as this to the Almans whom he had vanquished and to whom he had graunted peace vpon condition that they should deliuer him all such prisoners as they had of his For doubting least they would not deliuer him all but keepe some good number of them he demaunded of euerie of them that were escaped and saued out of prison what were the names of them that were prisoners because it could not lightly be but that they were either of kin or of alliance or neighbours or friends vnto them and he wrate their names in a paper In the meane season the ambassadours came with their prisoners of whom Iulian caused the names to be set downe in writing and the secretaries conferring the one paper with the other marked those whom the ambassadours mentioned not and named them secretly to the emperor behind him The emperor began to be angrie with the ambassadours for that they had not brought him all his prisoners telling them that they had kept backe such and such of such a citie or towne naming them all by their names whereat the Almans were sore abashed supposing that it came by reuelation from God Whereupon they failed not to deliuer all Triuulce perceiuing the garrison of Millan and specially the Millaners themselues to be astonished at the comming of Maximilian and the Swissers into Lumbardie bethought himselfe of this policie to put a suspition into the emperours head of some cause of distrust in the Swissers He wrate letters with his owne hand and sealed them with his seale to the chiefe leaders and captains of the Swissers that he might bring them in suspition with the emperour and sent them by a seruant of his owne that spake the Swissers tongue well By these letters he willed them to performe within two daies the thing that he and they were agreed vpon for he should then haue all things readie according to their platfourme The messenger offered himselfe of purpose be taken by the emperours scouts and being examined wherfore he came thither without the watchword he praied pardon promising to tel the truth and therupon confessed that he brought letters to the captains of the Swissers At that word his pardon was graunted him and he plucking off his neatherstocke tooke out the letters which were sowed in the sole of it the which were caried to the emperour immediatly When he had read them although he was in great perplexitie yet was he not of opinion that they should be shewed to the cardinall of Sion because he would not accuse a captaine of so great authoritie among the Swissers and much lesse cause them to be attached for feare of putting his affaires in daunger But in his heart he distrusting the disloyaltie of the Swissers he repassed the mountaines againe without making any further speech of it and returned home into Germanie Cyrus by the counsell of Croesus vsed this policie to saue Sardis from sacking He caused it to be cried by the sound of a trumpet That no man should conuey away the bootie because a tenth part thereof was to be giuen of necessitie to Iupiter And for that cause he set warders at euery gate to see that nothing should be conueyed away He did this to hold them at a bey for feare of som mutinie if he should haue taken it from them by force But when they saw the king did it of religion and deuotion they obeyed him without gainsaying by meanes whereof the greatest part of the goods of the citie was saued Thus haue you a part of the feats of warre of times past the which I thought good to adde vnto the antient quicke sayings and to the principall points of the goodliest hystories to the intent that a prince may find in one place and take out of
countries To beare and forbeare The vntemperat man is vniust After what maner pleasure is to be â—ought The difference of the fiue sences Concupiscence the cause of verie great sins Temperance consisteth most in eating and drinking and in vse of women The lust of women is within vs and therfore hard to oueâ—come Coâ—â—tousnes an ordinary fault in princes Wherin Temperance consisteth Voluptuousnes like to a dog Temperance increaseth pleasure A notable precept for Temperance What pleasure is to be sought Voluptuousnes maketh men nice and effeminat Lacedemonians trained vp from the shell in TemperaÌ„ce Quintius won mo cities by Temperance than by the sword Demetrius expâ—lâ—ed for 〈…〉 The sober maÌ„ hath his wit the more at will Cicero in his Tuscâ—lan questions A man of moderat diet prolongeth his life A poore table is the mother of health Of feasts and baâ—quets The Sobrietie of the Lacedemonians A spare diet is the Schoolmistâ—es of wiâ—e counsell The sawces of the Lacedemonians The pampering of the body sâ—arueth the soule A fat belly afordeth not a good wit A Glutton A Drunkard The drunkard is vnmâ—et to beget childreÌ„ Wine is the milk of Venuâ— Wine dimmeth and ouercommeth wisdome The inconueniences of drinking too much Drunkennesse is a peti-madnesse A mans disposition is bewrayed by wine A remedie for drunkennesse Of the sobrietie of diuerse princes The way to eschew gluttonie Through disorder of diet we depriue our selues of the health which we pray for The greatest personages haue eschued mariage and women The continencie of Xenocrates The continencie of Ioseph The prodigious lechery of a certaine Spaniaâ—d The profit of chastitie and the harme of vnchastitie Women shorten mens liues The lawes of Solon and Licurgus concerning mariage Incontinencie maketh men to grow out of kind The Continencie of Scipio The Continency of Alexander Many examples of the chastitie of princes The good turne that Alexander the sonne of Amintas did The punishment of adulterie The means to remedie Incontinencie Cicero in his Cato Of the veiling of maidens and maried women Sight is an intisement to adulterie Speeches is an other inticement By a mans speech is his disposition knowne Law makers ought to banish all filthie talke out of their coÌ„mon-weals The ornaments of a good woman A woman in stripping her selfe out of her clothes strippeth her selfe of all shamefastnes The greatest speakers be not the greatest doers Secrecie a most behooffull thing to a frato An orator is known by his speaking and a philosopher by his silence in due time He that giueth a man eare inuiteth him to speake The man that speaketh little shall be honoured Many words are not without fault The vices of the toung punished aboue all vices amoÌ„g the Persians He cannot wel speake that cannot skill to hold his peace Euill words corrupt good maners Of the maner of speaking The vnbridled toung findeth euer misâ—ortune The words of great talkers are vnfruitfull Of curiositie The property of a babler Men conceale not any thing but that which is euill The law of the Locrians The remedy of curiositie The lier Lying is the foundation and substance of all vice The first sort of lies The second sort of lying The third sort of leasing The maners of liers are without honor A theefe is better than a her The benefit of suffeâ—ing 〈◊〉 in princes courts Lying lips become nor a prince All good men hate lying He that is mutable in words deludeth princes Why the Persians hate 〈◊〉 debters We must not eat with the slaunderer The man that accustometh himself to euil speaking shall receiue no instruction The tale bâ—â—â—er setteth princes at variance Railing and slandering do bring foorth vnrecoÌ„cilable enmitie A backbiter cannot be reclaimed Wrong returneth to him that telleth it A wicked life draweth wroÌ„gs vnto it Princes must not haue tickle toungs not ticklish eares Of mockers and scornets Scornfulnesse procureth a prince the ill will of his people Admonishâ—ments must be tempered with some sweetnesse 〈◊〉 â—asting Ieaâ—â—iâ—g doth ill beseeme a great lord Of the flatterer The allurements of flatterers are more daungâ—rous than the wounds of foes The prince that loueth flatterie loueth not the truth Two sorts of flatterers The flatterer seeketh but credit The description of a flatterer The talebearer or backbiter Talebearers were first brought vp by euill princes Anger vnseparably matched with rashnes Impatiency Meeldnesse and clemeÌ„cy and the difference betwixt them What anger is The leauing of wicked men vnpunished is cruelty against good men Of clemency or mercy Examples of clemency or mercy It is in our owne power to haue good or ill report He that most can least should in seeking reuenge The meeldnes of Dauid Meeldnes wel beseemeth kings and great states The benefit of meeldnes Two sorts of cholerik persons An argument of the cholericke Câ—olericke pursons aptest for learning Cholâ—ricknes is a token of a readie wit Arguments against choler That which is done through perturbation cannot be don steadily Anger is the mother of hatred Cholericknes procedeth of weaknes of the mind To subdue anger is a point of a noble and valiant corage Irefulnes likened to the crampe Cholerick persons vnfit for gouernment That man is vnworthie of authoritie which cannot beare iniuries The vnpatient are forsaken or else haue few followres The cholerick are vnmeete to teach children Anger is a medly of all the passions of the mind Anger a furor of short continuance The inconuenience that insueth of cholerickneâ— The praise of meeknesse Anger dangerous in a prince Among princes men are oft condemned afore ought be prooued against them Remedies against anger The first remedie Naturally we couet reuenge and esteeme wrongs to be greater than they be Reason must be applied to anger The troubled mind heareth not what is said without The second remediâ—â— The third remedie The fourth remedie The fift remedie The sixt remedie The seuenth remedie Of manslaughter Bloudie men shall not liue out halfe their dayes Anger causeth the ouerthrow of cities The eight remedie A prince is pacified with patience A mild toung breaketh all hardnesse The choleâ—iknes of Marius and Syllâ— A man may command anger seeing it harbereth within him Anger impaireth the health both of bodie and soule Reason staieth the first brunts The prince that is valiant is esteemed and had in feare The art of war vpholdeth the coÌ„mon-weale Nothing is done which had not ben 〈…〉 In maâ—ters of 〈…〉 hours 〈…〉 The way to disiâ—ine leagues Leaguers respect their owne peculiar profit Leagues broken by diuers means The drawing backe of one leaguer disappointeth the whole leâ—gue The danger of suffering one gouernor continually in a prouince Too great a mightinesse is daungerous in a coÌ„monweale In monarchies needeth no chaunge of gouernors It is not good to haue many commaunders in an armie It is hard for two generals to agree in one armie There must be no equals to the generall in an armie For gentlenes and courtesie For rigor and crueltie Nothing
larger discouery therof to such as deale with arms Wherin if I keepe some order and fashion of precepts it is but to treat of those things in some method which are dispersed in the histories and not to giue any certaine iudgment what is to be done in that behalfe For I hope that when the matter is once set downe a prince may vpon this discourse chuse what he thinketh good as bees do vpon flowers I know that the most part of the stratagemes that were found good in time past are now out of vse and that as Cambyses said vnto Cyrus like as in musick the newest songs such as were neuer heard afore do like men best so in warre the policies that haue not earst ben practised haue best successe because the enemie doth least suspect them But we may also say that many times old songs are renewed and song for new and likewise in warre old policies may be renewed and taken for new For there is not any thing done which hath not ben done afore By means wherof I haue gathered and compacted together a part of the old policies of time past to the intent that among many the prince may chuse that which he shall find best or at leastwise not be ignorant to keepe himselfe from them For the knowledge of the policies of times past together with those which he hath seene by experience wil giue him a great iudgment in the feat of war and will make him to call to mind againe and bethinke him of the things that he hath seene at other times Wherfore to keepe the order that I began with it is to be vnderstood that to raigne happily and to maintaine himselfe and his subiects in peace and tranquility it is not inough for a prince to stablish good laws and ordinances if he do not likewise set good order for matters of war which may light vpon his armie whether he will or no and sometime the wrong that shall be offered him shall compell him to warre vpon his neighbour So that it is hard for a prince to raigne long without some warre either in assailing or in defending whereof it commeth to passe that he increaseth and diminisheth his state and reputation according to his fortunate or vnfortunate successe And to make himselfe the stronger he maketh leagues with his freinds and allies or else his enemie preuenteth him who hauing made an offensiue league with his associats commeth with great power to enter into his countrie For the which a prince must prouide afore hand as it shall be easie for him to doe in time if he haue strength howbeit that it be a terrible thing to see so many nations against him alone Neuerthelesse we haue seene almost continually that he which hath stood vpon his defence hath had the skill to vntwist such knots well inough And the reason is â—or that the princes or common-weales that are neighbours do neuer yeeld mutuall loue one to another and that which they do is for their owne peculiar profit fearing nothing so much as the aduauncement of 〈…〉 By reason wherof such leagues are easie to be broken by a prince that hath courage and some small meane to prolong time and a little skill to sway with the time Wherfore when a prince is assailed by a puisaÌ„t army he must oppose another against him he must furnish well his holds and he must incampe himselfe in a place of such aduantage as his enemie may not be so bold as to aduenture vpon him And in the meane while he must attempt by all means to disioine the whole league or at leastwise to get some one out of the league which is so easie a thing to be done that as many as haue bent themselues vnto it haue almost neuer failed King Lois the eleuenth was very excellent in this feat Euery man knows how he accorded with the countie of Charolois at Constans so that when he was once taken out of the play it was of necessitie that the dukes of Berry and Bretaine should be comprised in the accord because they were not of sufficient power to encounter the king of France without the helpe of the Burgonions Another time hauing to doe with two mightie neighbours the king of England and the duke of Burgoine when he saw that the duke of Burgoine was not yet knit to the king of England he made peace with the king of England so as hee had no mo to deale with but the duke of Burgoine King Francis the first was assailed by the emperour and by the king of England in the yeare 1544. By reason whereof he opposed against the emperour a strong host and against the king of England towns well fortified And in the mean while he found means to agree with the emperour without calling the king of England therto and by that means it was the easier for him to agree with the Englishmen afterward The emperor was sore combred in hauing to deale with two mightie armies at once to wit king Henrie the second and the Protestants By reason whereof he aduised himselfe to graunt the Protestants their demands that he might afterward bend himselfe vpoÌ„ the king Which thing maketh me to thinke that in leagues there is somewhat to be feared and that there is danger in entring into them the which it standeth a prince greatly on hand to prouide for But it is not hard to vndo them because the leguers looke more to their owne peculiar profit than to the common profit of them all and the societie which all of them do make is lion-like as they terme it for euerie of them respecteth his owne peculiar profit And if ye set that aside by and by all is laid a water But if there befall too happie successe to any one that is in league and the prince see that fortune smileth vpon his companion he must not by and by giue him ouer there and make league against him as the Pope and the duke of Millan and all Italie did for king Francis the first vpon his taking of the emperour Charles prisoner with whom they had bene lincked in league afore against the king The Leontines and Rhegines hauing entered into armes against the Syracusanes made a league with the Athenians by whose ayd they maintained the warre along time But in the end when they vnderstood by the report that Hermocrates made vnto all the Sicilians in generall that all that the Athenians did was to make themselues lords of Sicilie they gaue ouer the league and made peace among themselues Moreouer in most of these leagues there is alwayes some one that draweth backward and commeth lagging behind as the emperour Maximilian did when he was allied with king Lois the twelfth against the Venetians For king Lois was in the field at the day appointed and had spoyled the Venetians of the places that should haue faln to his share by agreemeÌ„t of the league afore the
emperor was entered into Italie And this slacknesse of his saued the citie Padoa and a good part of the state of Venice And had the Venetians beene warriers and well prouided they had put king Lois to a plunge For they had as then no mo but him to deale with so that his league did him small seruice The duke of Burgoine should haue ioyned with the king of England to inuade the countrie of king Lois the eleuenth but he lingred so long at the siege of Nuis that the king of England was faine to returne and make peace as I haue said alreadie The league of the Spanish king and the Venetians against the Turke turned by and by into smoke by reason of distrust that rose betwixt them notwithstanding that the Turke was ouercome vpon the sea by the confederats at Lepanto Many times did the Italians and Spaniards ioyntly conspire to driue the Frenchmen out of Italie But one while the Spaniards departed from the confederacie another while the Pope shrunke backe and another while the Venetians fell in with vs which was a cause that we held our footing stil notwithstanding their leagues These examples with a hundred others which I leaue for briefnesse sake may warne vs that a puissant and well aduised prince shall neuer want means to disseuer such as confederat themselues against him CHAP. II. Of Gouernors sent into the frontiers of countries and whether they should be changed or suffered to continue still WHen a prince hath associated himselfe with his friends and neighbors to defend himselfe or to assaile his enemies It behoueth him to take order for his frontiers and to prouide himselfe of a good wise and valiant chieftaine to lie ordinarilie with a good number of souldiers in the prouince that is most subiect to the inuasion of enemies But here some man might demaund whether such a Gouernour or chieftaine ought neuer to be chaunged or whether he ought to be chaunged as the pretors proconsuls and presidents of prouinces were among the Romans I haue declared in the title of Iustice that the emperour Alexander Seuerus chaunged his officers oft and that Augustus altered not the custome of the Romans in sending senators into prouinces for a certaine time Aristotle in his bookes of Common-weale matters reproued the Candiots for suffering one of their magistrats whom they called Consuls to be perpetuall whereas they should haue beene shifted from time to time And it is not to be doubted but that that maner of dealing was verie behooffull in a Common-weale where euerie man lookes to beare office of honour which few should haue enioyed if the charge of gouernment should haue beene tied to one alone to occupie the place of many good citizens who could haue discharged the office as well as he And thereof would haue ensued a great inconuenience namely that an armie being gouerned ouerlong by one citizen would haue growne partiall in his behalfe and not haue acknowledged any other for their head than him vnder whom they had so long serued Moreouer the Generall or chiefe captaine of an armie that shall haue continued so long together in office would become so rich and increased in honour that he could not find in his heart to liue as meane citizen afterward Whervpon it would follow of necessitie that the citizens should fall to warre among themselues That was the cause that Silla and Marius found men at their deuotion whch durst maintaine their ambition against the welfare of the common-weale The prorogation of the fiue yeares which was giuen to Iulius Caesar for the gouerning of the Gauls and the ouer-great number of offices of honour that were bestowed vpon Pompey were the cause of the ruine of Rome For there was not in his time any goodly enterprise whereof he was not the executor And although there was great reason that the Senate should prorogue the consull Philoes authoritie before Palepolis and likewise of Lucullus Metellus without sending Pompey to be successor to the one and Marius to be successor to the other Yet had it beene better for the common-weale to haue forborne that gaine and to haue left the warre vnfinished than to haue suffered the seed of tyrannie to grow vp to the ouerthrow of the publike-weale And I maruell not that Epaminâ—ndas was put to his necke-verse for executing the Pretorship contrarie to the law but onely three moneths beyond his appointed tearme though in that while he finished the war that had bin begun and deliuered the Thebans from bondage For as on the one side the greatnesse of the benefit encountered the law so on the other side there was as an apparant breach of the law which might procure great preiudice in time to come Now in a free citie this ouer-great mightines is to be feared and therefore it is no wonder though Publicola was in good time redoubted of the Romans and compelled to shew that he ment to make himselfe equall with the meanest And in mine opinion the Ostracisme of Athens which afterward was mocked at for banishing a fellow that was nought worth was not without great reason For had not the excellent citizens beene brideled by exile they would at length haue growne so proud that they would haue made themselues kings and maisters of the citie as Pericles might well haue done if he had beene of an ambitious mind and as others did afterward that were meaner than he And therefore I make no doubt of it but that in common-weals there ought to be no such thing But in Monarchies where one alone commaundeth it is better to set a gouernor or viceroy that shall continue there all his life After that maner haue our kings done in Piemont with happie successe But if the people of the prouinces make any complaints of the couetousnesse of their Gouernour or of his extortion and great crueltie or if the prince doubt of his loyaltie in such cases the prince must reuoke him and send a new in his roome Consaluo was called home from Naples by the king of Aragon who was so iealous of him that he feared least he should abuse his authoritie and defeat him of the realme But if a Gouernour be not too full of vice it is much better that he continue still For he shall learne how to behaue himselfe towards the men of his prouince by acquainting himselfe long time with their humors And for his knowledge of the countrie he shall do goodlier exploits than a new lieutenant could do besids that he shall be more loued and regarded of the Souldiers with whom he shall haue spent his yong yeares CHAP. III. Of a Lieutenant-generall and that there behoueth no mo but one to commaund an armie FOrasmuch as a prince cannot be alway with his armie it behoueth him to choose some excellent captaine to haue the commaunding thereof Now it may be demanded whether it were better to appoint two or three to that charge or to be contented with