t are ordered, for
that thorder driveth awaie from men feare, the disorder abateth
fiercenesse. And to the entente you maie the better perceive that,
whiche here folowyng shalbe declared, you have to understande, how every
nation, in the orderyng of their men to the warre, have made in their
hoste, or in their armie, a principall member, the whiche though thei
have varied with the name, thei have little varied with the nomber of
the menne: for that thei all have made it, betwene sixe and viii. M.
men. This nomber of men was called of the Romaines, a Legion, of Grekes
a Fallange, of Frenchemen Caterva: this verie same in our tyme of the
Suizzers, whom onely of the auncient warfare, kepe some shadowe, is
called in their tongue that, whiche in ours signifieththe maine
battaile. True it is, that every one of them, hath after devided it,
accordyng to their purposes. Therefore me thinkes beste, that wee
grounde our talke, upon this name moste knowen, and after, according to
the aunciente, and to the orders now adaies, the beste that is possible
to ordaine it; and bicause the Romaines devided their Legion, whiche was
made betwene five and sixe thousande men, in ten Cohortes, I will that
wee devide our main battaile, into ten battailes, and that we make it of
sixe thousande menne on foote, and we will give to every battaile,
CCCCL. men, of whiche shall be, CCCC. armed with heavie armour, and L.
with light armour: the heavie armed, shall be CCC. Targettes with
sweardes, and shalbe called Target men: and C. with Pikes, whiche shalbe
called ordinarie Pikes: the light armed shalbe, L. men armed with
Harkabuses, Crosse bowes, and Partisans, and smal Targaettes, and these
by an aunciente name, were called ordinarie Veliti: all of the ten
battailes therefore, comes to have three thousande Targaet men, a
thousande ordinarie Pikes, CCCC. ordinarie Veliti, all whiche make the
nomber of fower thousande and five hundred men. And we saied, that we
would make the maine battaile of six thousande; therefore there must be
added an other thousande, five hundred men, of whiche I will appoinet a
thousande with Pikes, whom I will call extraordinarie Veliti, and thus
my menne should come (as a little before I have saied) to bee made halfe
of Targaetes, and halfe of Pikes and other weapons. I would appoinete to
everie battaile, or bande of men, a Conestable, fower Centurions and
fouretic peticapitaines, and moreover a hedde to the ordinarie Veliti.
wi