The New Fortification

...that war was then so furious and continuous that it never ceased to trouble poor Asia. For the Assyrians and Babylonians, having seized the empire of the earth from other men, were succeeded by the Medes and Persians who cast them down; these in turn were treated in the same fashion, being reduced to obedience under the Greeks, who finally lost both their liberty and their empire through the glorious conquests of the Romans. From this consideration, it will not be difficult to judge the origin of this craft; for one might say that this science rose in the same place where the Sun rises. And the lands of the Levant The "Levant" refers to the countries bordering the eastern Mediterranean, considered the "East" in the 17th century. were undoubtedly the first inhabited and cultivated. From Asia, we have since seen colonies derive into the rest of the earth, from whence peoples came in great abundance to make the rest of the world feel the weight of their empire.

We also have the description of that miracle, the Walls of Babylon, in the history of Herodotus. Likewise, we read of the enormous size of the walls and towers of the city of Ecbatana in Media; all of which is recorded in the Holy Scriptures Ecbatana is mentioned in the Book of Judith and the Book of Ezra.. But the spirit of the Greeks was indubitably more elevated and more skillful in this matter; for they not only surrounded their cities with an enclosure capable of sustaining every effort, but also guarded the mountain passes very well, and fortified the Isthmus with a Traverse original: "Traverse" — a defensive work built across a line of approach to block an enemy's advance or protect against enfilade fire and certain Citadels. They also entrenched their camps and gave the Romans the means to learn Castrametation The art of designing and laying out a military camp., of which the Romans later took the model and practiced in their wars.

And these latter people were so cunning that they foresaw the necessity of defense coming from the side; and thus Julius Caesar fortified the city of Thapsus with a camp that had an enclosure in the form of a serpentine line. Even the Jews themselves knew such advantages; for we find in the histories of the great author Likely a reference to Flavius Josephus, the primary historian of the Jewish-Roman wars. that they had purchased with a great sum of money the privilege of fortifying their city; and this happened through the avarice of the age of the Emperor Claudius. Furthermore, they built the walls in such a fashion, and with such artifice, that those who were in formation to give the assault could be damaged from the side.

Finally, the age of our fathers fell into a most horrible accident, and into the most appalling invention that was ever practiced by a desperate fury; by which the "eternal walls" (as Vitruvius Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, the Roman architect whose ten-volume work served as the foundation for Renaissance and Baroque architecture. called those made of brick) were leveled from top to bottom. This "new Prometheus," having not only stolen the thunderbolt of Jove original: "Jupin" — a poetic or archaic form of Jupiter, king of the gods., but also taught men the composition of the thunderbolt by finding the means to cast down every kind of defense, has robbed them of the vain hope of eternity.

Against this thunderbolt, Italy was the first to seek a remedy by giving support to the walls by means of a dike or mound of earth which they placed behind them; but their method is always practiced with excessive expense, and furthermore, many unbearable faults are found therein. We have seen that our own Century has had the good fortune that this art has been brought to its highest point, favored by the Netherlands original: "Païs-bas". During the 17th century, the Low Countries were the global center for military engineering due to the ongoing Eighty Years' War.; where inventions are not all esteemed simply as they are found in books, but are examined by the greatest military commanders, upon whose foundations we shall build our teachings.

Now, it is clear enough what we mean by such Architecture: namely, the art of building works as they ought to be, and of being able to win them from the enemy. Such a description encompasses both parts of the Science, the defensive as well as the offensive; for although there is no work in which defense and offense are separated, or one without the other, it remains that one will always be the principal, and from it shall be given the...