True, there is little courage shown in
seeking for safety behind a rampart when an enemy is similar in
character and not much superior in number; but the superiority of
the besiegers may be and often is too much both for ordinary human
valor and for that which is found only in a few; and if they are to be
saved and to escape defeat and outrage, the strongest wall will be the
truest soldierly precaution, more especially now that missiles and
siege engines have been brought to such perfection. To have no walls
would be as foolish as to choose a site for a town in an exposed
country, and to level the heights; or as if an individual were to
leave his house unwalled, lest the inmates should become cowards.
Nor must we forget that those who have their cities surrounded by
walls may either take advantage of them or not, but cities which are
unwalled have no choice.
If our conclusions are just, not only should cities have walls,
but care should be taken to make them ornamental, as well as useful
for warlike purposes, and adapted to resist modern inventions. For
as the assailants of a city do all they can to gain an advantage, so
the defenders should make use of any means of defense which have
been already discovered, and should devise and invent others, for when
men are well prepared no enemy even thinks of attacking them.
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