he was kindly to his country. Fail not to make such as he thine example, my son.
“Should war threaten, see first that thy soldiers are exercised in the practices of war and prepare them for the rigours of service. The ease of winter months spent in winter quarters must not weaken nor unnerve their hands. Establish thy camps in healthy places and see that watchful sentries guard the ramparts. Learn how to know when to mass your troops and when it is better to extend them or face them round; study the formations suitable for mountain warfare and those for fighting on the plain. Learn to recognize what valleys may conceal an ambush and what routes will prove difficult. If thine enemy trusts in his walls to defend him then let thy catapults hurl stones at his battlements; fling rocks thereat and let the swinging ram and shield-protected testudo[157] shake his gates. Your troops should undermine the walls and issuing from this tunnel should rush into the town. Should a long siege delay thee, then take care thou unbend not thy purpose in security or count thine enemy thy prisoner. Many ere this have found premature triumph their undoing, scattered or asleep they have been cut to pieces; indeed victory itself has not seldom been the ruin of careless troops. Not for thee let spacious tents o’erflow with princely delights nor luxury don arms and drag to the standards her unwarlike train. Though the storm winds blow and the rain descends yield not to them and use not cloth of gold to guard thee from the sun’s fierce rays. Eat such food as thou canst find. It will be a solace to thy soldiers that thy toil is as heavy as theirs; be the first to mount the arduous hill and, should
[157] A well-known Roman method of attack by which the troops advanced to the point of attack in close formation, each man holding his shield above his head. The protection thus afforded to the assaulting band was likened to the shell of the tortoise (_testudo_).
primus ini; silvam si caedere provocat usus, sumpta ne pudeat quercum stravisse bipenni. 345 calcatur si pigra palus, tuus ante profundum pertemptet sonipes. fluvios tu protere cursu haerentes glacie, liquidos tu scinde natatu. nunc eques in medias equitum te consere turmas; nunc pedes adsistas pediti. tum promptius ibunt te socio, tum conspicuus gratusque geretur 351 sub te teste labor.” Dicturum plura parentem voce subis: “equidem, faveant modo numina coeptis, haec effecta dabo, nec me fratrique tibique dissimilem populi commissaque regna videbunt. 355 sed cur non potius, verbis quae disseris, usu experior? gelidas certe nunc tendis in Alpes. duc tecum comitem; figant sine nostra tyrannum spicula; pallescat nostro sine barbarus arcu. Italiamne feram furiis praedonis acerbi 360 subiectam? patiar Romam servire clienti? usque adeone puer? nec me polluta potestas nec pia cognati tanget vindicta cruoris? per strages equitare libet. da protinus arma. cur annos obicis? pugnae cur arguor impar? aequalis mihi Pyrrhus erat, cum Pergama solus 365 verteret et patri non degeneraret Achilli. denique si princeps castris haerere nequibo, vel miles veniam.” Delibat dulcia nati oscula miratusque refert: “laudanda petisti; 370 sed festinus amor, veniet robustior aetas; ne propera. necdum decimas emensus aristas adgrederis metuenda viris: vestigia magnae