with those,
thei renued the faight if these also wer repulced, thei retired al in
the rarenesse of the orders of the Triarii, and al together on a heape,
began againe the faight: and then, if thei were overcome, there was no
more remeady, bicause there remained no more waies to renue them again.
The horses stoode on the corners of the armie, to the likenes of twoo
winges to a bodie, and somewhiles thei fought with the enemies horses,
an other while, thei rescued the fotmen, according as nede required.
This waie of renuyng theim selves three tymes, is almoste impossible to
overcome: for that, fortune muste three tymes forsake thee, and the
enemie to have so moche strengthe, that three tymes he maie overcome
thee. The Grekes, had not in their Falangi, this maner of renuyng them
selves, and although in those wer many heddes, and many orders,
notwithstandyng, thei made one bodie, or els one hedde: the maner that
thei kepte in rescuyng the one the other was, not to retire the one
order within the other, as the Romaines, but to enter the one manne into
the place of the other: the which thei did in this maner. Their Falange
brought into rankes, and admit, that thei put in a ranke fiftie menne,
commyng after with their hedde againste the enemie, of all the rankes
the foremoste sixe, mighte faight: Bicause their Launces, the whiche
thei called Sarisse, were so long, that the sixt ranke, passed with the
hedde of their Launces, out of the first ranke: then in faightyng, if
any of the first, either through death, or through woundes fell,
straight waie there entered into his place, thesame man, that was
behinde in the second ranke, and in the place that remained voide of the
seconde, thesame man entred, whiche was behind hym in the thirde, and
thus successively, in a sodaine the rankes behinde, restored the faultes
of those afore, so that the rankes alwaies remained whole, and no place
of the faighters was voide, except the laste rankes, the whiche came to
consume, havyng not menne behinde their backes, whom might restore
theim: So that the hurte that the first rankes suffered, consumed the
laste, and the firste remained alwaies whole: and thus these Falangi by
their order, might soner be consumed, then broken, for that the grosse
bodie, made it more immovable. The Romaines used at the beginnyng the
Falangi, and did set in order their Legions like unto them: after, this
order pleased them not, and thei devided the Legions into many bo