295 
On Signals made by Fire , 
may pass over if he finds it tedious. I shall repeat it ah 
most literally as I find it in Polybius. Livy, in his ac- 
count of the particulars above related, and which he co- 
pied almost verbatim from Polybius,* mentions the same 
signals made by fire : but then he only hints at them, be- 
cause as they were not invented by the Romans, conse- 
quently this was a subject which did not relate so imme- 
diately to the history he was.Avriting. But this artifice 
of the signals, w hich is a part of the art of war, belongs 
properly to the history of the Greeks, and shows to how 
great a perfection they had carried all the parts of that 
noble art, the judicious reflections they had formed in all 
things relative to it, and the astonishing progress they 
had m|ide,t in respect# to the construction of machines 
of war, different kinds of armour, and military signals. 
As the making signals by fire, says Polybius, though 
of great use in war, has hitherto not been treated with 
any accuracy, I believe it will not be proper to pass over 
them superficially, but to dwell a little upon that head, in 
order to give my readers a more perfect idea of it. 
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that opportu- 
nity is of great advantage in all things, but especially in 
war. Now, among the several things which have been 
invented to enable men to seize it, nothing can be more 
conducive to that end than signals made by fire. Whe- 
ther transactions have happened but a little before, or are 
then transacting, they may, by this method, be very ea- 
sily made known, at places distant three or four days 
journey from where they happened, and sometimes at a 
* Philippus, lit ad omnes hostium motus posset occurrere, in Phocidem atque 
Euboeani, et Peparethum mittit, qui loca alta eligerent, unde editi ignes appa= 
rerent: ipse in Tisseo (mons est in altitudinem ingentem cacuminis editi) spec- 
ulum posuit, ut ignibus procul sublatis, signum, ubi quid molirentur hosted 
moment© temporis acciperet. Liv, 1. xxyiii, n ,5» 
f Polyb. 1.x. p, 614—618, 
