MILITARY SCIENCES. 



Plates V. 1— -51. 



INTRODUCTION. 



War, that destructive strife of parties, a strife for life and death, has ever 

 been the lot of nations, for even the longest peace has been only a prepa- 

 ration for war. Immeasurable is the evil war has brought upon the world, 

 immeasurable that which it will still bring, and yet we maintain that w^ar 

 must be ; war is the spur of nations. Assuredly we would not deny the 

 blessings of peace, we would not dispute that arts, sciences, commerce, and 

 industry flourish only where it prevails ; but in peace too the unused 

 strength grows languid ; in peace the most corrupting luxury, the most 

 enervating indolence are born and nursed. Only that state, only that peo- 

 ple, which in peace provides for war, will be prepared for every contin- 

 gency ; therefore should we study the art of war, therefore should we 

 practise military sciences, and every citizen should be also a soldier. And 

 is not this impulse to warfare based in man's very nature ? Is it not mani- 

 fested even in the sports of thoughtless, unconscious boyhood ? 



As war, then, occupies so important a place in the circle of human 

 activity, we would in what follows show by general outlines the character 

 and manner of warfare among the earliest nations, and how in process of 

 time this has been brought to the degree of perfection which we now find 

 it displaying. 



Sources of accurate information respecting the warfare of ancient nations 

 are not wanting. The poets sang at first the deeds of warriors, and 

 Homer and Virgil are rich in such materials. Historians related the strife 

 of heroes, traits of heroism, and artifices of war ; they described the equip- 

 ments, the war-machines, and the field-equipages. The sculptures also of 

 Thebes, Luxor, and Nineveh, of the Grecian monuments, of Trajan's pil- 

 lar, &c., the fresco paintings of Pompeii and Herculaneum are, besides the 

 works of a Polybius, of a Vegetius, and others, excellent sources of 

 knowledge. 



Much nearer to us are the middle ages ; and our armories and arsenals 

 still contain in abundance the weapons and armor of that time. But even 

 the interior arrangements of the middle-age warfare, since the brave George 

 of Frondsberg, have been described for us in a large work by a citizen of 

 Ulm, Leonard Fronsperger. 



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