the waye in Sicilie, a daye or twoo, and at a tyme standing with a great man of Sicilie, and looking on his souldiers howe they exercised them selues in kepyng of araye, and other feates, the gentleman of Sicilie asked Scipio, wherein laye hys chyefe hope to ouercome Cartage: He answered, in yonder feloes of myne, whom you se play: And why sayth the other, bycause sayeth Scipio, that if I cōmaunded them to runne in to the toppe of this high castel, and cast them selues doune backeward vpon these rockes, I am sure the[y] woulde do it.

Salust also doth write, yt there were mo Romanes put to death of theyr captaynes for setting on theyr Sal. in. Cat. enemyes before they had licence, than were for running away out of the fyelde, before they had foughten. These two examples do proue, that amonges the Romaynes, the obedience of the souldyer was wonderfull great, and the seueritie of the Captaynes, to se the same kepte wonderfull strayte. For they wel perceyued that an hoste full of obedyence, falleth as seldome into the handes of theyr enemies as that bodye fawleth into Jeoperdye, the whiche is ruled by reason. Reason and Rulers beynge lyke in offyce, (for the one ruleth the body of man, the other ruleth the bodye of the cōmon wealthe) ought to be lyke of condicions, and ought to be obeyed in all maner of matters. Obedience is nourysshed by feare and loue, Feare is kepte in by true iustice and equitie, Loue is gotten by wisdome, ioyned wt liberalitie: For where a souldyer seeth ryghteousenesse so rule, that a man can neyther do wronge nor yet take wronge, and that his capitayne for his wysedome, can mayntayne hym, & for his liberalitie will mayntayne him, he must nedes both loue him & feare him, of the whiche procedeth true & vnfayned obedience. After this inwarde vertue, the nexte good poynt in a souldier, is to haue and to handle his weapō wel, whereof the one must be at the appoyntment of the captayne, the other lyeth in the courage and exercise of the souldier: yet of al weapōs the best is, as Euripides doth say, wherwt with leest dauger of In Herc. fu. our self we maye hurt our enemye moost. And that is (as I suppose) artillarie. Artillarie now a dayes is taken for .ii. thinges: Gunnes & Bowes, which how moch they do in war, both dayly experience doeth teache, and also Peter Nanius a learned man of Louayn, in a certayne dialoge doth very well

set out, wherin this is most notable, that when he hath shewed excedyng commodities of both, and some discōmodities of gunnes, as infinite cost and charge, combersome carriage: and yf they be greate, the vncertayne leuelyng, the peryll of them that stand by them, the esyer auoydyng by them that stande far of: & yf they be lytle, the lesse both feare and ieoperdy is in them, besyde all contrary wether and wynde, whiche hyndereth them not a lytle: yet of all shotyng he can not reherse one discommoditie. PHI. That I meruayle greatly at, seing Nannius is so well learned, & so exercised in the authours of both the tuges: for I my selfe do remembre that shotying in war is but smally praysed, and that of diuers captaynes in dyuers authors. For first in Euripides (whom you so highly prayse) and very well, for Tullie thynketh euerye verse in him to be an authoritie, what I praye you, doth Lycus that ouercame Thebes, say as concernyng shoting? whose words as farre as I remembre, be these, or not muche vnlyke.

Eurip. in

Herc. furent.

What prayse hath he at al, whiche neuer durst abide,
The dint of a speares poynt thrust against his side
Nor neuer bouldlie buckeler bare yet in his lefte hande
Face to face his enemies bront stiffelie to wythstande,
But alwaye trusteth to a bowe and to a fethered sticke
Harnes euer most fit for him which to flie is quicke,
Bowe and shafte is Armoure metest for a cowarde
Which dare not ones abide the bronte of battel sharpe & harde.
But he a man of manhode most is by mine assent

Which with harte and corage boulde, fullie hath him bent,
His enemies looke in euery stoure floutelie to a bide,
Face to face, and fote to fote, tide what maye be tide.

Soph in Aia. flag. hym selfe

Agayne Teucer the best Archer amonges all the Grecians, in Sophocles is called of Menelaus, a boweman, & a shooter as in villaynie and reproche, to be a thing of no price in warre. Moreouer Pandar the best shooter in the worlde, whome Apollo taught to shoote, bothe he and his shotynge is quyte contemned in Homer, in so much that Homer (which vnder a made fable doth alwayes hyde hys judgement of thinges) doeth make Pandarus him selfe crye out of shooting, and cast his bowe awaye, and take him to a speare,

Iliad. 5.

makynge a vowe that if euer he came home, he woulde breake his shaftes, & burne his bowe, lamentyng greatly, that he was so fonde to leaue at home his horse and charyot wyth other weapons, for the trust yt he had in his bowe. Homer signifieng therby, that men shoulde leue shoting out of warre, and take them to other wepons more fitte and able for the same, and I trowe Pandarus woordes be muche what after thys sorte.

Xen. Cyri Inst. 6.

Ill chaunce ill lucke me byther broughte

Ill fortune me that daye befell,

Whan first my bowe fro the pynne I roughte
For Hectors sake, the Grekes to quell.
But yf that God so for me shap
That home agayne I maye ones come,
Let me neuer inioye that hap,
Nor euer twyse looke on the sonne,
If bowe and shaftes I do not burne

Whyche nowe so euel doth serue my turne.

But to let passe al Poetes, what can be sorer said agaynst any thing, than the iudgement of Cyrus is agaynst shotynge, whiche doth cause his Persians beyng the best shooters to laye awaye theyr bowes and take them to sweardes and buckelers, speares and dartes, and other lyke hande weapons. The which thing Xenophon so wyse a philosopher, so experte a captayne in warre hym selfe, woulde neuer haue written, and specially in that booke wherin he purposed to shewe, as Tullie sayeth in dede, not the true historie, but the example of a perfite wise prince and cōmon welthe, excepte that iudgement of chaügyng Artillerie, in to other wepons, he had alwayes thought best to be folowed, in all warre. Whose counsell the Parthians dyd folowe, whan they Plutarch chased Antonie ouer the moutaines of Media, whiche being the best shoters of the worlde, lefte theyr bowes, and toke them to speares and morispikes.

Epist. 1. ad
Q. Fra.

M. Ant.

And these fewe examples I trowe, of the best shooters, do well proue that the best shotinge is not the best thinge as you call it in warre. TOX. As concernynge your first example, taken oute of Euripides, I maruayle you wyl bring it for ye

disprayse of shotyng, seyng Euripides doth make those verses, not bicause he thinketh the true, but bicause he thinketh them fit for the person that spake them. For in dede his true iudgement of shoting, he doth expresse by & by after in the oratio of the noble captaine Amphytrio agaynste Lycus, wherein a man maye doubte, whether he hath more eloquentlye confuted Lycus sayenge, or more worthelye sette oute the prayse of shootynge. And as I am aduised, his woordes be muche hereafter as I shall saye.

Against the wittie gifte of shotinge in a bowe Fonde and leude woordes thou leudlie doest out throwe, Herc. fur. Eurip. in Whiche, if thou wilte heare of me a woorde or twayne Quicklie thou mayst learne howe fondlie thou doest blame,

Firste he that with his harneis him selfe doth wal about, That scarce is lefte one hole through which he may pepe out, Such bondmen to their harneis to fight are nothinge mete But sonest of al other are troden under fete.

Yf he be stronge, his felovves faynt, in whome he putteth his trust, So loded with his harneis must nedes lie in the dust,

Nor yet fro death he can not starte, if ones his weapon breke, Howe stoute, howe strong, howe great, howe longe,

so euer be suche a freke.

But who so euer can handle a bowe

sturdie stiffe and stronge

Wherwith lyke hayle manie shaftes he shootes

into the thickest thronge :

This profite he takes, that standing a far his enemie he maye spill

Whan he and his full safe shall stande

out of all daunger and ill.

And this in War is wisedome moste, which

workes our enemies woo.

Whan we shal be far from all feare

and ieoperdie of our foo.

Secondarily euen as I do not greatlye regarde what Menelaus doth say in Sophocles to Teucer, bycause he spake it bothe in anger, and also to hym that he hated, euen so doo I remembre very well in Homer, that when Hector and the Troians woulde

haue set fyre on the greke shippes, Teucer with his bowe made them recule backe agayne, when Menelaus tooke Iliad. 8. hym to his feete, and ranne awaye.

Thirdlye as concerning Pandarus, Homer doth not disprayse the noble gyfte of shotynge, but therby euery man is taught, that whatsoeuer, and how good soeuer a weapon a man doth vse in war, yf he be hym selfe a couetouse wretche, Hom. Ili. 5. a foole wythoute counsell, a peacebreaker as Pandarus was, at last he shall throughe the punishment of God fall into his enemyes handes, as Pandarus dydde, whome Diomedes through the helpe of Minerua miserablye slue.

And bycause you make mencion of Homer, & Troye matters, what can be more prayse for anye thynge, I praye you, than that is for shootyng, that Troye coulde neuer be destroyed without the helpe of Hercules shaftes, whiche thinge doeth signifie, that although al the worlde were gathered in an army togyther, yet without shotinge they can neuer come to theyr purpose, as Vlysses in Sophocles very plainlye doth saye vnto Pyrrhus, as concernyng Hercules shaftes to be caried vnto Troye.

Xen. Cyri. Instit. 6.

Soph. phil. Nor you without them, nor without you they do ought. Fourthlye where as Cyrus dyd chaunge parte of his bowemen, wherof he had plentie, into other me of warre, wherof he lacked, I will not greatlye dispute whether Cyrus did well in that poynt in those dayes or no, bycause it is not playne in Xenophon howe strong shooters the Persians were, what bowes they had, what shaftes and heades they occupyed, what kynde of warre theyr enemies vsed.

Plu. i M.
Anton.

But trulye as for the Parthians, it is playne, in Plutarche, that in chaungyng theyr bowes in to speares, they brought theyr selfe into vtter destruction. For when they had chased the Romaynes many a myle, through reason of theyr bowes, at the last the Romaynes ashamed of their fleing, and remembrynge theyr owlde noblenesse and courage, ymagined thys waye, that they woulde kneele downe on theyr knees, and so couer all theyr body wyth theyr shyldes and targattes, that the Parthians shaftes might slyde ouer them, & do them no harme, whiche thing when the