If this man had taken Pisa, nobody can deny that it would have been proper for the Florentines to keep in with him, for if he became the soldier of their enemies they had no means of resisting, and if they held to him they must obey him.

The Venetians, if their achievements are considered, will be seen to have acted safely and gloriously so long as they sent to war their own men, when with armed gentlemen and plebians they did valiantly.

This was before they turned to enterprises on land, but when they began to fight on land they forsook this virtue and followed the custom of Italy.

And in the beginning of their expansion on land, through not having much territory, and because of their great reputation, they had not much to fear from their captains; but when they expanded, as under Carmignuola,( #) they had a taste of this mistake; for, having found him a most valiant man (they beat the Duke of Milan under his leadership), and, on the other hand, knowing how lukewarm he was in the war, they feared they would no longer conquer under him, and for this reason they were not willing, nor were they able, to let him go; and so, not to lose again that which they had acquired, they were compelled, in order to secure themselves, to murder him.

They had afterwards for their captains Bartolomeo da Bergamo, Roberto da San Severino, the count of Pitigliano,( &) and the like, under whom they had to dread loss and not gain, as happened afterwards at Vaila,( $) where in one battle they lost that which in eight hundred years they had acquired with so much trouble.