footmen. And for those that are chosen to be about the general,
their armor no way differs from that of the horsemen belonging to
other troops; and he always leads the legions forth to whom the
lot assigns that employment.

6. This is the manner of the marching and resting of the Romans,
as also these are the several sorts of weapons they use. But when
they are to fight, they leave nothing without forecast, nor to be
done off-hand, but counsel is ever first taken before any work is
begun, and what hath been there resolved upon is put in execution
presently; for which reason they seldom commit any errors; and if
they have been mistaken at any time, they easily correct those
mistakes. They also esteem any errors they commit upon taking
counsel beforehand to be better than such rash success as is
owing to fortune only; because such a fortuitous advantage tempts
them to be inconsiderate, while consultation, though it may
sometimes fail of success, hath this good in it, that it makes
men more careful hereafter; but for the advantages that arise
from chance, they are not owing to him that gains them; and as to
what melancholy accidents happen unexpectedly, there is this
comfort in them, that they had however taken the best
consultations they could to prevent them.

7. Now they so manage their preparatory exercises of their
weapons, that not the bodies of the soldiers only, but their
souls may also become stronger: they are moreover hardened for
war by fear; for their laws inflict capital punishments, not only
for soldiers running away from the ranks, but for slothfulness
and inactivity, though it be but in a lesser degree; as are their
generals more severe than their laws, for they prevent any