would not suffer the calamities of war and the insolence of the
enemy, it must be thought the part of a good soldier to seek for safety
under the shelter and protection of walls more especially since so many
missile weapons and machines have been most ingeniously invented to
besiege cities with. Indeed to neglect surrounding a city with a wall
would be similar to choosing a country which is easy of access to an
enemy, or levelling the eminences of it; or as if an individual should
not have a wall to his house lest it should be thought that the owner
of it was a coward: nor should this be left unconsidered, that those who
have a city surrounded with walls may act both ways, either as if it had
or as if it had not; but where it has not they cannot do this. If this
is true, it is not only necessary to have walls, but care must be taken
that they may be a proper ornament to the city, as well as a defence
in time of war; not only according to the old methods, but the modern
improvements also: for as those who make offensive war endeavour by
every way possible to gain advantages over their adversaries, so should
those who are upon the defensive employ all the means already known, and
such new ones as philosophy can invent, to defend themselves: for those
who are well prepared are seldom first attacked.

CHAPTER XII

As the citizens in general are to eat at public tables in certain
companies, and it is necessary that the walls should have bulwarks and
towers in proper places and at proper distances, it is evident that
it will be very necessary to have some of these in the towers; let the
buildings for this purpose be made the ornaments of the walls. As to
temples for public worship, and the hall for the public tables of
the chief magistrates, they ought to be built in proper places, and
contiguous to each other, except those temples which the law or the
oracle orders to be separate from all other buildings; and let these be
in such a conspicuous eminence, that they may have every advantage of
situation, and in the neighbourhood of that part of the city which
is best fortified. Adjoining to this place there ought to be a large
square, like that which they call in Thessaly The Square of Freedom, in
which nothing is permitted to be bought or sold; into which no mechanic
nor husbandman, nor any such person, should be permitted to enter,
unless commanded by the magistrates. It will also be an ornament to this
place if the