§ 1. The virtues of soldiers are discerned either in the body or in the mind. The first virtue of a soldier is piety toward God, faith, and hope; for in this the soldier has the foundation of true courage. Wicked men, conscious of evil, cannot with a fearful conscience despise death, for wickedness is always timid. Therefore I would not wish a soldier to be such as Lucan describes:
The peoples whom the north beholds are happy in their error, whom that greatest of fears, the fear of death, does not press. Hence in their men the mind is prone to rush upon the sword, their souls capable of death, and it is cowardly to spare a life that will return.
Superstition has never had a firm foundation; and therefore their onset was greater than that of men, but their constancy less than that of women. Although superstition, anger, madness, and like things can produce in them what truth can produce, nevertheless constancy cannot exist in them. For this reason Tertullian rightly proves the courage of Christians from the fact that they are so ready to die. For it is impossible that a man should readily cast himself into the danger of death if he thinks that he will die badly. Accordingly, that error of the Gauls concerning a life that would return by no means made them so steadfast that they endured against Roman arms. I am not unaware that most soldiers are impious; but they fight either so as not to lose their life or from some other desire, which readily grows faint when a greater fear approaches. Nevertheless, I do not forbid the selection of wicked men when there is a great scarcity of good men.
§ 2. In a soldier I desire moderate prudence; in a commander, the greatest. At times a battle is restored or a city preserved by the counsel of a single soldier. The Eretrians were bad soldiers, who, like swordfish, did not possess a heart; Themistocles therefore understood that they could easily be conquered. Many things must be done extemporaneously by military prudence which cannot await a commander’s present order when he is farther away or when all things are in confusion. Next, unless a moderate degree of prudence exists, soldiers have no hope of military promotions.
§ 3. Let them be strangers to luxuries. A body going from the bedchamber to the battle line, from the shade into the sun, accustomed to a tunic, does not sustain the weight of a cuirass; a head covered with linen refuses a helmet; a hard sword-hilt chafes the hand softened by leisure. A stronger soldier, however, comes from rugged ground. Thus Jerome, to the monk Theodorus. Vegetius orders the limbs to be hardened to endurance by remaining under tents or beneath cold Jove. Delicacies of food were absent: bacon, cheese, and posca—vinegar mixed with water—were given. To this end vinegar was customarily distributed to the soldier, so that with it they might correct the taste and rawness of the water. They also wished a soldier to endure the sun and the injuries of the weather. Hadrian destroyed shelters made from branches because he wished the soldier to be enduring of sun and rains. Fulgosius, book 1, chapter 2.
§ 4. They ought also to be spirited and especially confident of victory. They chiefly become so when they judge their commanders experienced and approachable. Nothing gives a soldier equal courage with a good opinion of his commander, if they think that by some singular stratagem or prudence he will preserve his own men and defeat the enemy. When Fabius raised the spirits of his men against the Etruscans and adduced many arguments for victory, he added that one argument remained which could not yet be publicly set forth, lest it become known. Thus, when soldiers are otherwise brave in spirit, through confidence in their commander they encounter every danger very freely. For if they are hares in helmets, the commander’s speech will comfort their trembling in vain. The mention of danger strikes the fearful. All timid living things are useless for battle. In vain will you exhort a deer to fight against dogs when you cannot bear either to see a dog or to hear its barking, but shudder at the mention of a dog.
§ 5. Boldness has frequently given a fortunate outcome. A certain Moorish cornicularius of Caesar roused some watchmen and led Pompey’s garrison through the midst of Caesar’s forces. Let the soldier therefore be bold, but let him employ the prudence and spiritedness of his commander.
§ 6. Let soldiers be strong rather than tall, with watchful eyes and an upright neck. Marius requires a recruit who has six feet, or five feet and ten inches. Meanwhile stature too must be weighed, because it adds strength. Pyrrhus spoke altogether like a commander: “Choose the tall; I shall render them strong by exercise.” Brennus brought forward the most contemptible of the Greeks and compared them with the strongest of his own men; and thus he exhorted men so great to fight against men so small. Some tested courage by artifice.
When Chabrias was about to lead an army of recruits into battle, he issued an edict that those who were sick should lay down their arms. The timid pretended sickness. He sent them to preoccupy certain places, so that they might terrify the enemy by their multitude. Polyaenus, book 3.
§ 7. Experience itself also, acting as commander, separated the cowardly from the vigorous. When many men sought ranks from Theagenes, commander of the Athenians, he answered that he would grant them at Megara. Secretly, however, he sent cavalry ahead and ordered them to return against his own column in the guise of enemies. Then, as though alarmed, he exhorted them to battle and permitted each man to take his place wherever he wished. At this the brave and eager sprang forward into the first line, while the timid stood behind the standards. Theagenes promoted each man in the place where he found him. And when Iphicrates saw that many timid men were following him, he issued an edict that if anyone had left something behind, he should return in order to go against the enemy well equipped. When many used the opportunity, he rendered the rest more confident by saying that brave men would fight without slaves.
§ 8. Speed and agility are an indication of courage; anger is necessary in war. We remember no one swifter than Hazael, concerning whom Scripture speaks in the passage in question; and the matter itself shows that he nevertheless was a brave man.
§ 9. Finally, a multitude and crowd should be avoided. It has not strength but weight; it is more a hindrance than an aid. Hands are needed, not names. For in the greatest battles there are few who overthrow the enemy. If they preserve the ranks and fresh men are sent in, a battle line cannot be conquered unless all are slain. But now it generally happens through some accident that, when a very few have been slain, all are turned to flight.
§ 10. A multitude is harmful. The army of Xerxes so drained rivers that:
We believe that deep rivers failed, and that streams were drunk dry by the Mede.
Justin records three hundred seventy thousand; others five hundred myriads, that is, fifty times one hundred thousand. Ctesias records in the army of Ninus one million seven hundred thousand infantry, two hundred thousand cavalry, and a little fewer than ten thousand six hundred chariots. Darius led eight hundred thousand against the Scythians. A multitude impedes itself and renders itself exposed to the enemy. If there is a multitude, let it be divided into several armies.
§ 11. The Romans prepared suitable soldiers by varied exercise; for it was not permitted to obtain honors unless a great part of one’s periods of service had been completed, nor to take a wife before ten periods of service.
§ 12. The principal quality in a soldier is obedience, which is exercised in a most serious matter, since at a command one must go to death. Therefore those men must be restrained who prefer to interpret their commanders’ orders rather than carry them out, and who thrust themselves into command. Such was the Roman army in Macedonia. Plutarch, in Galba: “Most men assert that an army, like a body, ought to be moved by no impulse of its own, but only by the movements of its commander. For this reason they say that Aemilius Paulus, when he received the army in Macedonia full of talkativeness and curiosity and intruding itself into the cares and duties of the commander, instructed it that each man should furnish him a ready hand and a sharp sword; the remaining matters would be his care.” Myronides issued an edict that the Athenians should go out; and when not all had yet gone out, he began the battle, interpreting delay as fear. Agesilaus required a horse and a man from the wealthy at Ephesus, and thus received vigorous men in place of cowards.