their knights to me in chains._" For though this saying came from the
mouth of a most excellent soldier, still, if we are to regard authority,
we ought rather to follow the authority of a commonwealth like Rome, and
of the many great captains who served her, than that of Hannibal alone.
But, apart from authority, there are manifest reasons to bear out what I
say. For a man may go on foot into many places where a horse cannot go;
men can be taught to keep rank, and if thrown into disorder to recover
form; whereas, it is difficult to keep horses in line, and impossible if
once they be thrown into disorder to reform them. Moreover we find that
with horses as with men, some have little courage and some much; and
that often a spirited horse is ridden by a faint-hearted rider, or
a dull horse by a courageous rider, and that in whatever way such
disparity is caused, confusion and disorder result. Again, infantry,
when drawn up in column, can easily break and is not easily broken by
cavalry. This is vouched, not only by many ancient and many modern
instances, but also by the authority of those who lay down rules for the
government of States, who show that at first wars were carried on by
mounted soldiers, because the methods for arraying infantry were not yet
understood, but that so soon as these were discovered, the superiority
of foot over horse was at once recognized. In saying this, I would not
have it supposed that horsemen are not of the greatest use in armies,
whether for purposes of observation, for harrying and laying waste the
enemy's country, for pursuing a retreating foe or helping to repulse his
cavalry. But the substance and sinew of an army, and that part of it
which ought constantly to be most considered, should always be the
infantry. And among sins of the Italian princes who have made their
country the slave of foreigners, there is none worse than that they have
held these arms in contempt, and turned their whole attention to mounted
troops.