CHAP. VII.
Which way a Battel is to be avoided, though pressed never so earnestly by the Enemy.
IF I be not mistaken I have discoursed to some of you before, how he that is in the field cannot avoid fighting when pressed by an Enemy who will fight upon any terms; and that the best way he can take, is to keep himself at fifty miles distance, that he may have time to remove when he hears of his advance. Fabius Maximus did not refuse fighting with Hanibal, but would fight at his own time, and advantage; and Hanibal was too wise to attack him, where he was sure he could do no good; for had he believed he could have conquered him, Fabius would have been constrained to have fought him, or fled. Philip King of Macedon, Father of Perseus, being at war with the Romans, posted his Army upon an high mountain, that he might not be compelled to fight; but the Romans assaulted, and defeated him. Cingentorix General of the Gauls to avoid fighting with Cae∣sar who had passed a river contrary to his expectation, quitted the Country, and march'd away with his Army. The Venetians in our times, if they had had no mind to have fought the French King, they should not have staid till his Army had passed the Adda, but have removed farther off, as Cingentorix did before them; but they staid so long that they had time neither to draw up handsomely to fight, nor to make their retreat; for the French were so near before the Venetians dislodged, that the French fell upon them, and put them to the rout. So then by what I have said, it is manifest that a Battel cannot be avoided, when the Enemy presses it upon any disadvantage; and let not any body tell me of Fabius, for Hanibal refused to fight in that case as much as he.