ound, very
large cisterns must be prepared to save rain-water, so that there may
be no want of it in case they should be driven into the town in time of
war. And as great care should be taken of the health of the inhabitants,
the first thing to be attended to is, that the city should have a good
situation and a good position; the second is, that they may have good
water to drink; and this not be negligently taken care of; for what
we chiefly and most frequently use for the support of the body must
principally influence the health of it; and this influence is what the
air and water naturally have: for which reason in all wise governments
the waters ought to be appropriated to different purposes, and if they
are not equally good, and if there is not a plenty of necessary water,
that which is to drink should be separated from that which is for other
uses. As to fortified places, what is proper for some governments is
not proper for all; as, for instance, a lofty citadel is proper for a
monarchy and an oligarchy; a city built upon a plain suits a democracy;
neither of these for an aristocracy, but rather many strong places. As
to the form of private houses, those are thought to be best and most
useful for their different purposes which are distinct and separate
from each other, and built in the modern manner, after the plan of
Hippodamus: but for safety in time of war, on the contrary, they should
be built as they formerly were; for they were such that strangers could
not easily find their way out of them, and the method of access to
them such as an enemy could with difficulty find out if he proposed
to besiege them. A city therefore should have both these sorts of
buildings, which may easily be contrived if any one will so regulate
them as the planters do their rows of vines; not that the buildings
throughout the city should be detached from each other, only in some
parts of it; thus elegance and safety will be equally consulted. With
respect to walls, those who say that a courageous people ought not to
have any, pay too much respect to obsolete notions; particularly as
we may see those who pride themselves therein continually confuted by
facts. It is indeed disreputable for those who are equal, or nearly so,
to the enemy, to endeavour to take refuge within their walls--but since
it very often happens, that those who make the attack are too powerful
for the bravery and courage of those few who oppose them to resist,
if you