BOOK VII - CHAPTER XI

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_ We have already mentioned, that both the city and all the country
should communicate both with the sea and the continent as much as
possible. There are these four things which we should be particularly
desirous of in the position of the city with respect to itself: in the
first place, health is to be consulted as the first thing necessary:
now a city which fronts the east and receives the winds which blow
from thence is esteemed most healthful; next to this that which has a
northern position is to be preferred, as best in winter. It should
next be contrived that it may have a proper situation for the business
of government and for defence in war: that in war the citizens may
[1330b] have easy access to it; but that it may be difficult of access
to, and hardly to be taken by, the enemy. In the next place
particularly, that there may be plenty of water, and rivers near at
hand: but if those cannot be found, very large cisterns must be
prepared to save rain-water, so that there may be no want of it in
case they should be driven into the town in time of war. And as great
care should be taken of the health of the inhabitants, the first thing
to be attended to is, that the city should have a good situation and a
good position; the second is, that they may have good water to drink;
and this not be negligently taken care of; for what we chiefly and
most frequently use for the support of the body must principally
influence the health of it; and this influence is what the air and
water naturally have: for which reason in all wise governments the
waters ought to be appropriated to different purposes, and if they are
not equally good, and if there is not a plenty of necessary water,
that which is to drink should be separated from that which is for
other uses. As to fortified places, what is proper for some
governments is not proper for all; as, for instance, a lofty citadel
is proper for a monarchy and an oligarchy; a city built upon a plain
suits a democracy; neither of these for an aristocracy, but rather
many strong places. As to the form of private houses, those are
thought to be best and most useful for their different purposes which
are distinct and separate from each other, and built in the modern
manner, after the plan of Hippodamus: but for safety in time of war,
on the contrary, they should be built as they formerly were; for they
were such that strangers could not easily find their way out of them,
and the method of access to them such as an enemy could with
difficulty find out if he proposed to besiege them. A city therefore
should have both these sorts of buildings, which may easily be
contrived if any one will so regulate them as the planters do their
rows of vines; not that the buildings throughout the city should be
detached from each other, only in some parts of it; thus elegance and
safety will be equally consulted. With respect to walls, those who say
that a courageous people ought not to have any, pay too much respect
to obsolete notions; particularly as we may see those who pride
themselves therein continually confuted by facts. It is indeed
disreputable for those who are equal, or nearly so, to the enemy, to
endeavour to take refuge within their walls--but since it very often
happens, that those who make the attack are too powerful for the
bravery and courage of those few who oppose them to resist, if you
would not suffer the calamities of war and the insolence of the enemy,
it must be thought the part of a good soldier to seek for safety under
the shelter and protection of walls more especially since so many
missile weapons and machines have been most ingeniously invented to
besiege cities with. Indeed to neglect surrounding a city with a wall
would be similar to choosing a country which is easy of access to an
enemy, or levelling the eminences of it; or as if an individual should
not have a wall to his house lest it should be thought that the owner
of it was a coward: nor should this be left unconsidered, that those
who have a city surrounded with walls may act both ways, either as if
it had or as if it had not; but where it has not they cannot do this.
If this is true, it is not only necessary to have walls, but care must
be taken that they may be a proper ornament to the city, as well as a
defence in time of war; not only according to the old methods, but the
modern improvements also: for as those who make offensive war
endeavour by every way possible to gain advantages over their
adversaries, so should those who are upon the defensive employ all the
means already known, and such new ones as philosophy can invent, to
defend themselves: for those who are well prepared are seldom first
attacked. _

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