The Art of War

The Borgias 1×8

& Cesare: You know me, brother. I disapprove of lechery, debauchery, drunkenness.
    Juan: Which is why our father made you the cardinal.
    Cesare: Why, then, did he make you a duke?
    Juan: Because lechery and debauchery are the very marks of nobility.

& General: We have pikes for 2,000 footmen, lances for 1,000 horse, bows for 1,500 bowmen... if we can find the soldiers to wield them.
    Borgia: What about cannon?
    General: Nobody worthy in the art of war ever uses cannons.
    Borgia: I have heard it rumored that the French do.
    General: And I have heard that they are vulgarians, my lord.
    Borgia: Their cannon was vulgar, indeed, when they brought Lucca to its knees.

& Juan: I have a stratagem, Holy Father, to outwit their cannon.

& Cesare: Will the good Lord see the justice in our cause, Micheletto?
    Micheletto: Where warfare is concerned, Your Eminence, our good Lord will take a holiday.

& Juan: My God.
    General: So our stratagem was, Gonfaloniere, a feint to their left.
    Juan: But I can see no left...
    General: Or right...
    Juan: Their army fills the whole horizon.

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& King Charles VIII: The pikes of our infantry are 12 feet long. Can you see them there, my dear?
    Lucrezia: Why are the blades hooked so, my lord?
    King Charles VIII: So they can tear out the guts of their opponents. But we begin battle with the cannon.
    Lucrezia: The cannon?
    King Charles VIII: Yes. Never risk a man until you’ve used your artillery. Learned that against the English.

& Lucrezia: Would you survive this day, dear Juan?
    Juan: We have a battle to fight!
    Lucrezia: Believe me, you have lost it already.
    Juan: It has hardly begun.
    Lucrezia: I have heard one roar of cannon. A hundred more and your whole army will be dead and bleeding. And you have yet to see their pikes.
    Juan: I will not accept defeat!
    Lucrezia: Then do not call it that. Call it common sense.

& Lucrezia: It was my brother, Your Highness!
    King Charles VIII: Your brother?
    Lucrezia: The Gonfaloniere of the papal armies. He thought you meant to sack Rome. Like the Goths and Vandal hordes. I told him you were a gentleman. You had no such idea. You had no such idea, had you?
    King Charles VIII: No such idea.
    Lucrezia: Your goal is Naples.
    King Charles VIII: Naples... Of course.
    Lucrezia: So, my brother, the Duke of Gandia, the Gonfaloniere of the papal armies, bids you welcome to Rome.

& Cardinal Sforza: You could ride with us, Holy Father, to the safety of Ostia.
    Borgia: Our place is here. As is yours, Cardinal Sforza.
    Cardinal Sforza: You should leave, Holy Father.
    Borgia: We will stay here. And we shall be here when you return. IF you return.

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