and a capitaine
is avoided of, and how moche commoditie shall bee given, to what so ever
enterprise is to bee dooen.

ZANOBI. We have overcome thenemie in the field, marched afterward upon
his countrie, reason would, that spoiles be made, tounes sacked,
prisoners taken, therefore I would knowe how the antiquitie in these
thynges, governed them selves.

[Sidenote: The occasions why the warres made nowe adaies, doe
impoverishe the conquerors as well as the conquered; The order that the
Romaines toke, concerning the spoile and the booties that their
souldiours gotte; An order that the antiquitie tooke, concernyng their
soldiours wages.]

FABRICIO. Beholde, I will satisfie you. I beleve you have considered,
for that once alredie with some of you I have reasoned, howe these
present warres, impoverishe as well those lordes that overcome, as those
that leese: for that if the one leese his estate, the other leeseth his
money, and his movables: the whiche in olde time was not, for that the
conquerour of the warre, waxed ritche. This groweth of keepyng no compte
in these daies of the spoiles, as in olde tyme thei did, but thei leave
it to the discreacion of the souldiours. This manner maketh twoo moste
great disorders: the one, that whiche I have tolde: the other that the
souldiour becometh more covetous to spoyle, and lesse observeth the
orders: and manie times it hath been seen, howe the covetousnesse of the
praye, hath made those to leese, whome were victorious. Therefore the
Romaines whiche were princes of armies, provided to the one and to the
other of these inconvenienses, ordainyng that all the spoyle should
apertaine to the publicke, and that the publicke after should bestowe
it, as shoulde be thought good: and therfore thei had in tharmie the
questours, whom were as we would say, the chamberlaines, to whose charge
all the spoyle and booties were committed: whereof the consull was
served to geve the ordinarie pay to the souldiours, to succour the
wounded, and the sicke, and for the other businesse of the armie. The
consull might well, and he used it often, to graunte a spoyle to
soldiours: but this grauntyng, made no disorder: for that the armie
beyng broken all the pray was put in the middest, and distributed by
hedde, accordyng to the qualitee of everie man: the which maner thei
constituted, to thintente, that the soldiours should attend to overcome,
and not to robbe: and the Romaine Legions overcame the enemies, an