The wonders of the internet...

I love history. Anything to just after Reconstruction, so I dabble constantly. Some of my current meanderings are through Grant's Memoirs, A History of the Presidents, Pagan Europe and Medieval Britain.

Another of my current interests is Roman history. A broad topic. Cruising the internet, I found a fascinating treatise on its army's strategy, training and structure. De Re Militari, written by Vegitius in 390 CE. Still quite contemporary in its application and highly readable. He has a lot to say on what an army needs to 'get the job done.'

"Victory in war does not depend entirely upon numbers or mere courage; only skill and discipline
will insure it. We find that the Romans owed the conquest of the world to no other cause than continual military training, exact observance of discipline in their camps and unwearied cultivation of the other arts of war...

"But to all these advantages the Romans opposed unusual care in the choice of their levies and in their military training. They thoroughly understood the importance of hardening them by continual
practice, and of training them to every maneuver that might happen in the line and in action. Nor were they less strict in punishing idleness and sloth. The courage of a soldier is heightened by his knowledge of his profession, and he only wants an opportunity to execute what he is convinced
he has been perfectly taught."

Personally, I want our troops back from Iraq now. I am not interested in blood for oil or a new age of imperialism, setting up puppet democracies, etc. But this read is timely and, interestingly, the wisdom is apparently ageless--only 1,600 years old.

And lastly,

"... No great dependence is to be placed on the eagerness of young soldiers for action, for fighting has something agreeable in the idea to those who are strangers to it. ..."

Enjoy.