Quod milites durius castigandi sunt, si militiae
The Necessity of Discipline
Those in positions of privilege and authority must be held to a higher standard of accountability and correction.
They abuse their privileges by holding the law in contempt. If, however, someone slips into theft and robbery against the prohibition of John and the legitimate laws, he must be punished more severely, as someone who has always handled iron and hard things; his audacity must be restrained so that he learns firsthand with what severity those must be struck who attack the law they had taken up to defend. For just as the military enjoys many immunities and superior privileges, so it must be subjected to harsher penalties if it is convicted of having forfeited those privileges. Ignorance of the law is no excuse for them here, for even if one is permitted to be ignorant of public laws, one isn't permitted to be ignorant of one's own duty. Although a priest might be ignorant of the difficulty of his own order at the time of his ordination, the very fact that he succeeds to an onerous office without contradiction means he is compelled to bear the burdens of the priesthood he has taken on. If, however, he is negligent or malicious, he is punished more severely, because those are worthy of a greater penalty to whom much honor is owed, yet who are found to be in crime, whether secretly or openly. Crimes and excesses are, however, punished differently, since the former usually demand the penalty of blood, while the latter require a medicinal care appropriate to the nature of the offense. It is sometimes simple, and sometimes it mixes in a certain bitterness.
Lessons from Military History
Historical examples of military leaders demonstrate how order and vigilance prevent the corruption of the soul and the ranks.
However, while discipline is necessary in every profession, it is nowhere more so than in the clergy and in military life; yet military matters, which are less exercised in the spirit, must be punished more severely in the body. Nothing, however, attacks both more than lust, because all intemperance is deeply opposed to order. Furthermore, where there is no order, confusion takes hold, and unless it is checked by the spur of correction, it undoubtedly brings about disgrace by necessity. For what will a man do with strength if lust and intemperance have not so much disarmed him as they have drained the life out of him? The fourth book of Julius Frontinus’s Strategemata reports that Publius Scipio corrected an army at Numantia that had been corrupted by the laziness of previous commanders; he dismissed a huge number of camp followers and reduced the soldiers to their duties through daily exercise, ordering them—since they frequently carried millstones and ropes—to carry thirty days' worth of flour on their necks when they went out on summer campaigns. Gaius Marius, to cut down on the baggage that most heavily burdens an army's march, placed the soldier's gear and rations into bundles fitted onto poles, which provided both a manageable load and an easy rest; from this, the proverb was born: 'Marius's mules.' Lysander the Lacedaemonian punished a man for wandering off the road. To the man who claimed he had left the ranks for no reason of plunder, he replied: 'Don't even provide the appearance of being about to plunder.'
Steadfastness in Adversity
The virtue of maintaining one's duty and faith is tested most severely in times of extreme hardship and siege.
While in winter quarters, Publius Nasica decided to build ships—even though there was no real need for a fleet—so the soldiers wouldn't be corrupted by laziness or use their idle time to cause trouble for their allies. Frontinus, among many other examples of steadfastness, reports that when Hannibal was besieging Casilinum, the people suffered such extreme hunger that history records a mouse being sold for a hundred denarii. The seller died of starvation, but the buyer lived, and even in such dire straits, he kept his word to the Romans. When the people of Petilia were besieged by the Carthaginians, they sent away their parents and children because of the food shortage, and they themselves endured the siege for ten months by sustaining their lives on soaked leather, fire-dried leaves, and every kind of animal. The Spanish people of Fabrateria suffered all the same things, yet they didn't surrender their town to Herculeius. When Mithridates was besieging Cyzicus, he brought out captives from the city and showed them to the besieged, thinking that by the pity they felt for their own people, he could force the townspeople to surrender. But they, having encouraged the captives to face death bravely, kept their faith with the Romans. The people of Eglon, when their children and wives were being returned to them by Luriatus, chose to watch the suffering of their own loved ones rather than defect from the Romans. The people of Numantia, so they wouldn't have to surrender, chose to die of hunger with the doors of their homes barred; and according to Orosius, they would have defeated the Romans if they hadn't been fighting under Scipio.
Read the original Latin
lege contempta priuilegiis abutuntur. Si uero contra prohibitionem lohannis et legitimas sanctiones in furta dilabitur et rapinas, durius castigandus est ut qui semper ferrum duraque tractauit; et ita cohibenda est audacia eius ut in seipso discat quanta animaduersione feriendi sint qui legem impugnant quam susd ceperant defendendam. Sicut enim multis immunitatibus et eminentioribus priuilegiis militia gaudet, ita acerbioribus penis subdenda est, si sua demeruisse priuilegia conuincatur. Nec in ea sibi parte prodest ignorantia iuris, cum etsi iura publica permittatur, suum tamen officium non liceat ignorare. Licet enim sacerdos in ordinatione ordinis sui difficultatem ignoret, eo ipso quod sine contradictione oneroso succedit officio, suscepti sacerdotii onera cogitur sustinere. Si uero negligit aut malignatur, corripitur grauius; eo quod maiori pena digni sunt ii quibus cum multum debeatur honoris aut occulto aut manifesto inueniuntur in crimine. Aliter tamen crimina, aliter puniuntur a excessus, quoniam illa plerumque penam irrogant sanguinis, haec quasi medicinalem pro qualitate delicti exigunt curam. Ipsa uero nunc simplex est, nunc quasi quandam acrimoniam miscet.
Verumtamen, cum in omni professione disciplina necessaria sit, nusquam magis quam in clero et re militari; at res militaris, quae minus exercitatur in spiritu, acerbius est corporaliter punienda. Nichil est autem quod utramque magis impugnet quam luxuria, quia omnis intemperantia ordinationi plurimum aduersatur. Porro, ubi ordo non est, confusio locum habet et, nisi reprimatur correctionis stimulo procul dubio ignominiam ex necessitate importat. Quid enim faciet fortiter quem luxuria et intemperantia non tam exarmauit quam exanimauit? Quartus liber Strategemmaticorum lulii Frontini refert quod Publius Scipio ad Numantiam corb ruptum superiorum ducum socordia exercitum correxit dimisso ingenti lixarum numero, redactis ad munus cotidiana exercitatione militibus, quibus cum frequens inqui molas et funes ferrent; in estiua exeuntibus triginta dierum farinam collo portari imperauit. Gaius Marius recidendorum impedimentorum gratia, quibus maxime exercitus agmen oneratur, uasa et cibaria militis in fasciculos aptata furcis praeposuit, sub quibus et habile onus et facilis requies esset; unde prouerbium natum est: Multi milites Mariani. Lisander Lacedemonius egressum uia quendam castigabat. Cui dicenti ad nuUius rei rapinam se ab agmine recessisse respondit: Ne speciem quidem rapturi praebeas duolo.
Publius Nasica in hybernis, quamuis classis usus non esset necessarius, ne tamen miles desidia corrumperetur aut per licentiam otii sociis inferret iniuriam, naues edificare instituit. Idem quoque Frontinus inter multa constantiae insignia refert quod Cassilini obsidente Hannibale tantam inopiam perpessi sunt ut murem ueniisse centum denariis memoriae proditum sit eiusque uenditorem fame periisse, emptorem autem uixisse et in tanta angustia fidem seruasse Romanis. Petilini a Penis obsessi parentes et liberos propter inopiam eiecerunt, ipsi coriis madefactis et igne siccatis foliisque arborum et omni genere animalium uitam trahentes una decim menses obsidionem tolerauerunt. Hispani Fabrenses omnia eadem perpessi sunt nec tamen oppidum Herculeio tradiderunt. Cizium cum oppugnaret Metridates, captiuos eius urbis produxit ostenditque obsessis, arbitratus futurum ut miseratione suorum ad deditionem compelleret opidanos. At illi, cohortati captiuos ad mortem fortiter excipiendam, fidem seruauere Romanis. Egloninenses, cum a luriato his liberi et coniugos redderentur, praeoptauerunt spectare supplicia pignorum suorum quam a Romanis deficere. Numantini, ne se dederent, fame mori praefixis foribus domuum suarum maluerunt; uicissentque Romanos auctore Orosio nisi illi sub Scipione pugnassent.
Policraticus companion
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