knowledge of the great captains of the Age. Moreover, he saw in Italy
troops of every country, of every quality, in every stage of discipline,
in every manner of formation. His love of ancient Rome led him naturally
to the study of Livy and Vegetius, and from them with regard to
formations, to the relative values of infantry and cavalry and other
points of tactics, he drew or deduced many conclusions which hold good
to-day. Indeed a German staff officer has written that in reading the
Florentine you think you are listening to a modern theorist of war. But
for the theorist of those days a lion stood in the path. The art of war
was not excepted from the quick and thorough transformation that all
earthly and spiritual things were undergoing. Gunpowder, long invented,
was being applied. Armour, that, since the beginning, had saved both man
and horse, had now lost the half of its virtue. The walls of fortresses,
impregnable for a thousand years, became as matchwood ramparts. The
mounted man-at-arms was found with wonder to be no match for the
lightly-armoured but nimble foot-man. The Swiss were seen to hold their
own with ease against the knighthood of Austria and Burgundy. The Free
Companies lost in value and prestige what they added to their corruption
and treachery. All these things grew clear to Machiavelli. But his
almost fatal misfortune was that he observed and wrote in the mid-moment
of the transition. He had no faith in fire-arms, and as regards the
portable fire-arms of those days he was right. After the artillery work
at Ravenna, Novara, and Marignano it is argued that he should have known
better. But he was present at no great battles, and pike, spear, and
sword had been the stable weapons of four thousand years. These were
indeed too simple to be largely modified, and the future of mechanisms
and explosives no prophet uninspired could foresee. And indeed the
armament and formation of men were not the main intent of Machiavelli's
thought. His care in detail, especially in fortifications, of which he
made a special study, in encampments, in plans, in calculations, is