be protected by their own valour only, and by no other defence. So
that when a Spartan was asked by an Athenian what he thought of the
walls of Athens, he answered "that they were fine walls if meant to hold
women only."

If a prince who has a good army has likewise, on the sea-front of his
dominions, some fortress strong enough to keep an enemy in check for a
few days, until he gets his forces together, this, though not necessary,
may sometimes be for his advantage. But for a prince who is without a
strong army to have fortresses erected throughout his territories, or
upon his frontier, is either useless or hurtful, since they may readily
be lost and then turned against him; or, supposing them so strong that
the enemy is unable to take them by assault, he may leave them behind,
and so render them wholly unprofitable. For a brave army, unless stoutly
met, enters an enemy's country without regard to the towns or fortified
places it leaves in its rear, as we read of happening in ancient times,
and have seen done by Francesco Maria della Rovere, who no long while
ago, when he marched against Urbino, made little of leaving ten hostile
cities behind him.

The prince, therefore, who can bring together a strong army can do
without building fortresses, while he who has not a strong army ought
not to build them, but should carefully strengthen the city wherein he
dwells, and keep it well stored with supplies, and its inhabitants well
affected, so that he may resist attack till an accord be agreed on, or
he be relieved by foreign aid. All other expedients are costly in time
of peace, and in war useless.

Whoever carefully weighs all that has now been said will perceive, that
the Romans, as they were most prudent in all their other methods, so
also showed their wisdom in the measures they took with the men of
Latium and Privernum, when, without ever thinking of fortresses, they
sought security in bolder and more sagacious courses.

CHAPTER XXV.--_That he who attacks a City divided against itself, must
not think to get possession of it through its Divisions._

Violent dissensions breaking out in Rome between the commons and the
nobles, it appeared to the Veientines and Etruscans that now was their
time to deal a fatal blow to the Roman supremacy. Accordingly, they
assembled an army and invaded the territories of Rome. The senate sent
Caius Manlius and Marcus Fabius to meet them, whose forces encamping
close by the Veientin