CHAP. XXXIII.
To the obtaining a Victory, it is necessary your Army has a confidence not only in one another, but in their General.
TO win a Battel, and overcome an Enemy, it is necessary to give your Army such a confidence, as may make them believe that nothing is able to withstan•• them; and the way of infusing this confidence is, by Arming, and exercising them well, and giving them a knowledge and acquaintance one with the other; which confidence and acquain∣tance is not to be expected, but where your Soldiers are your own Subjects, and have been brought up together. The General is to be so qualified, that the Soldiers may have confi∣dence in his Wisdom, and Conduct; and they will always have such a confidence if they see him careful, and regular, and couragious, and one who preserves the majesty of his command with discretion and reputation; which he will do, if he punishes strictly, and put his Soldiers upon no over-hard and impertinent duty; keeps his promises; represent victory easie, either by concealing or extenuating the dangers, or by encouraging them bravely against them; and these things rightly observed, are of great consequence both to the Authority of the General, and the obtaining the Victory. The way which the Ro∣mans took to give this assurance to their Armies, was, by pretence of Religion; for which cause before the creation of their Consuls; the raising, or marching, or engaging of their Armies, their Augures and Auspices were consulted: and without some of these, no wise General would undertake any great Enterprize, believing they should certainly miscarry, unless the Soldiers were thorowly convinced that the Gods were on their side. And when any of their Consuls or other Commanders fought in defiance of these Auspi∣ces, he was punished, as Claudius Pulcher for despising the Omen of the Chickens. And although this is obvious in every part of the Roman History; yet it is better prov'd by the complaint of Appius Claudius to the people, against the insolence of their Tribunes, where he tells them that by their means, the Auspices, and other religious Customs were neglected or corrupted, His words are these, Eludant nunc licet Religionem; quid enim interest si pulli non pascentur, si ex cavea tardirts exierint, succinuerit avis? Parvasunt haec, sed parvaista non contemnendo, Majores nostri maximam hanc Rempublicam fecerunt. Let them laugh at Religion as they please, and cry, what are we concerned if the Pullets won't eat, if they come lazily out of their Penns; or if a bird be disposed to sing? 'Tis true they are but trifles, yet by not dispising those trifles, our Ancestors brought this Commonwealth to the Gran∣deur it is at. And it was true; for those little things were sufficient to keep the Soldiers confident and united, which are two things go very far in a Victory, though without vir∣ture and valour, they are not always successful. The Prenestini being in the Field with their Army against the Romans, they went and lodged themselves upon the River Allia (in a place where the Romans had been beaten by the French) that the consideration of the place might be an encouragement to their own men, and a terror to the Romans. And though this design was not improbable for the reason abovesaid, yet it apeared by the success, that true courage is not disturbed by every little accident, as was well expressed by the Dictator to his Master of the House, Vides tu, fortuna illos fretos, ad Alliam consedisse, at tu fretus armis, animis{que} invade mediam acien. You see, by their posting themselves upon the Allia, they rely wholly upon Fortune; do you trust to your Arms, end your courage and attack their main Battel. And he was in the right; for true courage, good discipline, and a confidence arising from so many Victories, cannot be discomposed by such frivolous stratagems; light things will not dismay them, nor every disorder distract them. For even in the absence of their Officers, Soldiers that are expert, and accustomed to Arms, are not easily beaten. As appeared by the two Manlii (both Consuls, and making War upon the Volsci) who having indiscreetly sent part of their Army to forrage, it fell out, that both the commanded party, and those which were left behind, were encompassed by the Enemy, and as it were besieged both at a time, out of which danger the Soldiers were delivered, more by their own courage, than any conduct in the Consuls; whereupon Livy tells us Militum, etiam sine Rectore stabilis virtus tutata est. The stedfast courage of the Soldiers defended them, without any help from their General. Fabius had likewise an