The works of the famous Nicholas Machiavel, citizen and secretary of Florence written originally in Italian, and from thence newly and faithfully translated into English.

CHAP. II.

The form of a Camp.

Fabr.

HAving found a place convenient for my Camp, I would set up my Standard in the midst of a square of fifty yards deep. The four sides of that square should respect the four quarters of the World, and look East, West, North, and South. In this square I would set up the Generals Pavilion: and because I think it discreet, and in part the practice of the Ancients, I would divide my men which carry arms, from them who have none; and those who are free, from those who are incumbred. All or the greatest part of my arm'd men I would lodge towards the East; my men that were disarm'd and incumbred, I would lodge towards the West, making my front towards the East, and my rear towards the West; and the North and South should be my flanks. To distinguish the quarters of those which bore arms, I would take this course, I would draw a line from the Standard towards the East of 680 yards long. Then I would draw two other lines, (with the first in the middle) of the same length, but each of them at a distance of fifteen yards from the first; at the end of these lines I would have my Eastern Port, and the space betwixt the two outward lines should make a Street which should go from that Gate to the General's quarters, and take up a space of thirty yards in bredth, and 630 in length, (for the General's quarter would take up fifty) and this should be called the General's street. Then I would cause another street to be drawn out from North to South, and it should pass by the end of the General's street, not far from the General's quarter towards the East, which should contain in length 1250 yards, (for it should take up all the bredth of the Camp) and be called the Cross-street. Having design'd the General's quarters, and these two Streets, I would mark out quarters for the two Battalions that were my own Subjects, and one of them I would dispose on the right hand of the General's street, and the other on the left. And then passing over the Cross-street, I would assign 32 lodgments on the left hand of the General's street, and as many on the right, leaving betwixt the sixteenth and seventeenth lodgment a space of thirty yards wide, as a traverse way to pass thorow all the lodgments of the Battalions. I would lodge the Captains of the men at Arms at the front of those two orders of lodgments which joyn to the Cross-street, and their men at Arms in

the fifteen lodgments that are next them; so as every lodgment should contain ten men at Arms, the whole number that I have allotted to each Battalion, being an hundred and fifty. The Captains lodgments should ••••orty yards wide, and ten in lenght; and you must take notice that when I say wide, I mean from North to South; and when long, from East to West. The lodgment for the private men at arms should be fifteen yards long, and thirty wide. In the other fifteen lodgments which follow on both sides of the street, (which be∣gin at the traverse way, and should have the same allowance of ground as I have given to the other) I would dispose my light horse. And because there are likewise of them be∣longing to each Battalion 150, I would put ten of them into each of the fifteen lodgments, and the sixteenth I would reserve for the Captain with the same space of ground as is al∣lowed to the Captain of the men at arms; and so the lodgments of the horse of the two Battalions should come down to the middle of the General's Street, and be a direction to the quartering of the foot, as I shall shew. You have seen how I have lodged the 300 horse of both Battalions, with their Officers in 32 lodgments set up near the General's Street, and beginning at the Cross-street; and how betwixt the sixteenth and the seven∣teenth there was res••rved a space of thirty yards to make a cross-way. Being therefore to lodge the twenty Battalia's or Companies in the two ordinary Battalions, I would ap∣point lodgments for every two Battalia's behind the lodgments of the horse, and they should each of them contain in length 15 yards, and in bredth thirty, according to the dimensions of the horse-lodgment, and they should be so close that they should touch one another.

In the first lodgment on each side butting upon the Cross-street, I would lodge the Cap∣tain of each Company over against the lodgment of the Captain of the men at Arms: and this lodgment alone should be twenty yards wide, and ten long. In the other fifteen lodgments which succeed on both sides as far as the traverse way, I would quarter a Com∣pany of foot, which being 450, should be disposed 30 to a lodgment. The other 15 lodgments should be set up on each side by the lodgments of the light horse, with the same dimensions of ground; and on each side I would place a Battalia of foot.

In the last lodgment on each side I would place the Captain of the Company (right over against the Captain of the light horse) with a space of ten yards in length, and twen∣ty in bredth: and so these two first ranks of lodgments would be half horse, and half foot: but because (as I said before) these horses are all horses of service, which have no proper persons either to dress or to feed them, I would have the foot which are quartered behind, obliged to look to them, and for so doing they should be exempt from other du∣ties in the Camp; and this was the method of the Romans. After this I would leave a space of thirty yards on each side, which should make streets, and be called, one of them, the first Street on the left hand, and the other the first Street on the right. I would then on each side set up another row of 32 lodgments, with their backs one to the other, with the same spaces as I assigned to the other; and having separated sixteen of them, (as with the rest) to make a traverse way, I would dispose in each side four Companies with their Captains at the head of them, and other Officers in the rear. After I had left on both sides a distance of thirty yards for a way, which on one side should be called the second Street on the right hand, and on the other side the second Street on the left hand; I would set up another rank of 32 lodgments with the same distances and separations, where I would lodge on each side four Companies with their Officers: and by doing this, all the Cavalry, and the Companies of both the Battalions would be lodged in three rows of lodgments, and the General's quarter in the middle. The two Battalions of Auxiliaries (having made them to consist of the same number of men) I would quarter on both sides of the two ordinary Battalions, with the same number of rows, and in the same or∣der as they, placing first one order of lodgments consisting half of horse, and half of foot, distant from the next order thirty foot, which distance should make a Street, and be called on one side, the third Street on the right hand; and on the other side the third Street on the left hand. And then I would make on each side two more rows of lodgments with the same distances and distinctions as in the lodgments of the other Battalions, which should make two other Streets, and be called according to their number, and the hand on which they are placed; so that this whole Army will be lodged in twelve double rows of lodgments, and there will be thirteen Streets, reckoning the General's Street, and the Cross-street: when I have design'd my circumference, and appointed my lodgments for my four Battalions, I would leave a space betwixt the lodgments and the trenches of an hundred yards broad, which should go round my Camp: and if you compute all the spaces, you will find that from the middle of the General's lodgment, to the East Gate, are 680 yards. There are two other spaces, one from the General's quarter to the South Gate, and the

other from the same place to the North Gate, each of them 635 yards commencing at the Center. Substracting afterwards from each of these spaces fifty yards for the General's quar∣ter, and five and forty more on each side for a Piazza, and thirty yards for a Street that di∣vides each of the said spaces in the middle; and an hundred yards round betwixt the lodg∣ments and the trenches; there remains on all sides for lodgments a space of four hundred yards wide, and an hundred long, measuring the lenght with the space which is taken up by the General's quarter; then dividing the said length in the middle, there will be on each side of the General forty lodgments, in length fifty yards, and twenty wide, which in all will be 80, in which the general Officers of the Battalions should be quartered; the Tr••••su∣rers, the Mastres de Campe, and all such as have any Office in the Army, leaving some spaces empty for strangers, or such Voluntiers as follow the Wars meerly out of affection to the General: on the back-side of the General's quarters I would make a Street from South to North thirty yards broad, and it should be called Front-street, and run along all the 80 lodgments abovesaid. From this Front-street, by the General's quarter I would have ano∣ther Street that should go from thence to the West Gate, thirty yards wide, answering both for situation and length to the General's Street, and it should be called the Piazza-Street. Having settled these two Streets, I would order a Piazza or Market-place, and it should be at the end of the Piazza-street over against the General's lodging, and not far from the Front-street. I would have it square, and every square to contain 121 yards: on the right and left hand of this Market-place I would have two rows of lodgments, each of them double, and consisting of eight lodgments, in length twelve yards, and in bredth thirty: so that on each side of the Piazza I would have sixteen lodgments, with that in the middle, so that in all they would be 32; in which I would place those horse which re∣main undisposed of, that belong to the Auxiliary squadrons: if these would not be suf∣ficient to receive them, I would consign them some of the lodgments about the General's quarters, especially those which look towards the trenches. It remains now that we lodge the Pikes, and the Velites extraordinary which I have assigned to each Battalion, which as you know consisted (besides the ten Companies) of a thousand Pikes extraordinary, and five hundred Velites. So that the two Battalions had 2000 Pikes extraordinary, and 1000 Velites extraordinary, and the Auxiliaries had the same, so that we have still 6000 foot to lodge, which I would dispose in that part toward the West, and along the ditch. From the end of the Front-street towards the North, leaving a space of 100 yards betwixt that and the ditch, I would have a row of five double lodgments, which should contain in length all of them 75 yards, and 60 in bredth: so as when the bredth is divided, there shall belong to each lodgment 15 yards in length, and thirty in breadth; and because there will be but ten lodgments in this rank, there shall be lodged 300 foot, 30 in a lodgment. After that, leaving a space of 31 yards; I would set up in the same manner, and with the same distances another row of five double lodgments, and after that another, till they came to be five rows of five double lodgments, in all fifty, placed in a right line from the North, all of them ten yards from the foss, and should entertain 1500 foot. Turning then to∣wards the West Gate, in all that space from them to the said Gate, I would have five other double orders, in the same manner, and with the same spaces, (but with a distance of but 15 yards from one row to another) where I would lodge 1500 foot more. And so all the Velites, and Pikes extraordinary of both the proper Battalions should be lodged from the North Gate to the West Gate, according to the turning of the trenches, and should be di∣stributed into 100 lodgments in ten rows, ten lodgments in a row. The Pikes and the Velites extraordinary of the two Auxiliary Battalions should be lodged in the same man∣ner betwixt the West Gate and the South, as the trenches incline in ten rows, ten lodgments in a row, as I said of the other: the Captains or their Lieutenants may take such quarters as they think most convenient on that side towards the trenches. The Artillery I would dispose every where upon the banks of the trenches, and in all the other space which re∣mains towards the West I would bestow all the baggage, and servants, and impediments of the Army. By impediments you must understand (and you know it very well) the anci∣ents intended all their train, and whatever else was necessary for an Army, besides the Soul∣diers, as Carpenters, Smiths, Shoomakers, Engineers, and Cannoneers, (though these in∣deed might be numbred among the Soldiers) Butchers with their Beefs and their Muttons, Cooks, Pastry-men, and all that prepared meat for the Army; and in short, all other pro∣fessions which followed the Camp for subsistence: they reckoned likewise among them all the carriages for publick provisions, and arms. I would not make any particular distinction of lodgments, only I would order the Streets so as that they might not be taken up by them. As to the other spaces betwixt the Streets, which would be four in all, I would con∣sign them in general to all the said impediments, that is, one to the Butchers, another to

the Artificers and Masters of several Professions; a third to the carriages for Provisions; a fourth for the carriages for Arms. The Streets that I would have left free, should be the Street to the Piazza; the Front-Street, and another Street called the middle Street, which should begin in the North, and pass thorow the middle of the Market-street (or Street to the Piazza) towards the South, which on the West side should do the same service as the Traverse-street does on the East. And besides this, I would have another back-street along by the lodgments of the Pikes and the Velites extraordinary, and I would have all these Streets thirty spaces wide. The Artillery I would place afterwards upon the trenches on the hinder part of the Camp.

Battista.

I do acknowledge my ignorance, nor do I think it reproachful where it is not my profession to be otherwise: nevertheless I am very well pleased with your order, only I would desire you to resolve me two doubts: one is, why you make the Streets and the spaces about the lodgments so large; the other (which troubles me most) is, how you would employ the spaces which you design for the lodgments.

Fabr.

You must understand I assign 30 yards to the breadth of the Streets, that a Battalia of foot may march together a breast; for (if you remember) I told you often that each Company took up in breadth betwixt 25 and 30 yards. That the space betwixt the trench and the lodgments should be 100 yards broad, is very necessary for drawing up the Batta∣lia's, managing the Artillery, conveying and disposing of the booty, besides the conveni∣ence of retiring upon occasion, and making new Ramparts, and new Intrenchments with∣in. Moreover, the lodgments are better at that distance from the trenches, as being farther from fire-works and other things which an enemy might cast in among them: as to your second demand, I do not intend that every space that I have designed for a lodgment should be covered with one Tent, or one Pavilion only, but that it should be employed as is most commodious for those who are to lodge there with more or fewer Tents as they please, pro∣vided they do not exceed their allowance of ground.

To make a just distribution of these lodgments, you must have persons that are well vers'd and experienced in that affair, and good Architects, who as soon as the General has made choice of his place, can immediately put it into form, distribute the lodgments by dividing the Streets, and distinguishing the places for the several lodgments with a cord and pikes thrust into the ground, with so much dexterity, that all things shall be presently in order. And if you would prevent confusion, you must turn your Camp always one way, that every man may know in what Street, and in what quarter he may find his Tent. This must be observable in all times and places, and in such manner that it may seem a moving City, which, where-ever it moves, carries with it the same Gates, the same Streets, the same Houses, and the same Figure; which is a thing that cannot be practised by those who make choice of places of natural strength, for they must frame their Camp according to the variety of the situation. But the Romans fortified their Camps with Trenches, and Ramparts, and Mounts; for they left a good space round about their Camp, and before it they made a ditch commonly six yards wide, and three yards deep. They made these spaces greater or less, according to the time which they design'd to stay there, or according to their apprehension of the Enemy: for my own part I would not enclose my Camp with Stoccado's, unless I intend to winter in it: I would have my Trench and my Parapet not less than theirs, but bigger upon occasion. Upon every corner and side of the Camp I would raise a kind of half-moon, from whence my Artillery might play, and flank any Ene∣my that should attempt the ditch. In this exercise, to understand how to mark out a Camp, your men are to be trained frequently, and your other Officers are by practice to be made ready in designing, and your Soldiers as dexterous in knowing their own quarters, nor is there any great difficulty in it, as I shall shew else-where, for at present I shall pass to the Guards of the Camp, because without them all the other pains and punctilio's would be vain.

Battista.

Before you proceed to the Guards, I would be informed when you would pitch your Camp near your Enemy, what method you would use; for I cannot imagine that you should have time enough to do it without manifest danger.

Fabr.

You must know no man incamps near an Enemy, but he who is desirous to fight when ever the Enemy will give him opportunity; and when the Enemy is disposed to it as well as he, the danger is no more than ordinary; for two parts of the Army are drawn out to fight, and the third orders the Camp. In this case the Romans committed the fortification and ordering of their Camp to the Triarii; whilst the Principes and Ha∣sta••i stood to their Arms. And this they did, because the Triarii being to fight last, had time (if the Enemy advanced) to leave their work, stand to their Arms, and fall every man into his place.

You, if you would imitate the Romans, must cause your Camp to be made by the Battalia's in your Rear, which are instead of the Triarii; but now to the Guards of the Camp.