FLAVIUS VEGETIUS RENATUS "MILITARY MATTERS" BOOK ONE The Selection and Training of New Levies Table of Contents | The Library | Next SIGNS OF DESIRABLE QUALITIES Those employed to superintend new levies should be particularly careful in examining the features of their faces, their eyes, and the make of their limbs, to enable them to form a true judgment and choose such as are most likely to prove good soldiers. For experience assures us that there are in men, as well as in horses and dogs, certain signs by which their virtues may be discovered. The young soldier, therefore, ought to have a lively eye, should carry his head erect, his chest should be broad, his shoulders muscular and brawny, his fingers long, his arms strong, his waist small, his shape easy, his legs and feet rather nervous than fleshy. When all these marks are found in a recruit, a little height may be dispensed with, since it is of much more importance that a soldier should be strong than tall. Table of Contents | Next Home | The Library | The Temple | Top of Page Site Map Copyright © 1999 - 2010 Sonshi.com. All Rights Reserved.