The Great Art of Artillery, Part One

...it is its perpetual companion, and follows it like a shadow, wherever it may step. It is better, therefore, to endure the envy of many than to implore their mercy.

Our mind also foresees certain rivals: and not only those sciolists original: "sciolos"; meaning those who have only a superficial knowledge and delicate critics, who reduce all words to the most exquisite standard and will find the elegance of the Latin language lacking in these pages of ours; they will mark certain neologisms with a black coal original: "carbone nigro"; an allusion to the Roman practice of marking days of ill omen with black charcoal (as the proverb goes). But let them learn that not every subject is to be expressed in words suitable only for the tragic stage, but also for the comic (to speak with Horace); furthermore, words are like the keys to things, they serve the subjects, not the other way around. It should also be known that we did not write these things so that someone might learn eloquence from them. The subjects we treat are of the kind that are content to be taught, and do not sustain being adorned with a more elegant style. We do indeed occasionally introduce foreign or barbaric words original: "barbaras"; here meaning non-Classical, likely technical jargon or loanwords from vernacular military usage, but this was done because there were no Latin words available to express everything we wished; nor was the care of words on my mind as a military man. If soldiers read this, they will want to learn the subject, not the words; for to speak little and perform much is the hallmark of a soldier. Furthermore, men of a more recondite discipline will forgive our efforts, and if they find anything that does not suit their palate, they will kindly correct it, polish it, and prepare it for a second edition, which is the only remedy for errors that we commit, either through our own weakness or by the printer's hand. Finally, let those rigid Aristarchuses original: "Aristarchi"; a reference to the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace, used here to denote overly pedantic critics and those too puffed up with their own importance original: "suffeni"; a reference to the poet Catullus's Suffenus, a man obsessed with his own amateurish writing know that only one Cicero was born, abundant with the fountain of golden eloquence, which is the source of elegance and propriety, whom though others admire, no one imitates successfully.

The last thing, my Reader, in which we ask for your kindness, is that you correct with your pen certain errors which, beyond all our hope and expectation and in our absence, have crept into this work through the ignorance of the workmen, and have marred it to some extent, before you prepare yourself to read: for something of that sort could occur which might render the reading less fruitful. Just as on page 57, in the thousandth number which represents the equal parts into which the Rhineland foot pes Rhinlandicus a standard unit of measure in 17th-century Northern Europe is divided, for easier comparison with the feet of other provinces and cities, the last digit on the right was omitted: and on the same page, line 8, for 1/100 you will find 1/10. Therefore, while proofreading these, we have collected several such errors of greater importance and moved them to the end of the work. We have also corrected some with the pen and with typographical letters; leaving the rest to your candor and judgment. Farewell, and be favorable to us and our efforts. Given at Amsterdam, the first of February, in the year of our restored salvation, 1650.

Vegetius, book 3, chapter 18.

All arts and all works profit from daily use and constant practice. If this is true in small things, how much more does it behoove us to observe it in the greatest? But who would doubt that the art of war is superior to all other things, through which liberty is retained, dignity is propagated, provinces are preserved, and empire is held? This the Lacedaemonians once pursued, abandoning all other learning, and the Romans followed them. This alone the Barbarians of today still believe must be preserved; they trust that all other things either consist in this art or can be attained through it. Finally, this is necessary for you, through which you may retain your lives and achieve victory.

Lipsius in the preface to the book On Roman Military Affairs.

For what is greater than Military Service? It alone tempers the world, and it not only gives or takes away Kingdoms, but life itself. No republic or state has flourished without it, none has endured; and as each one had better laws or customs, so it had better military organization.