What example for the ancient world does Machiavelli open this section with?

Directions: read the following excerpt from Machiavellis The Art of War, and answer the questions that follow.

It is also proper to teach your men to hold the enemy in contempt, as Agesilaus the Spartan did when he showed his men some naked Persians so that, having seen their soft, white skins, his men would no longer have cause to fear them.

Some commanders have forced their men to fight by depriving them of all means of saving themselves except victory; this is certainly the best method of making them fight desperately. This resolution is commonly heightened either by the confidence they put in themselves, their arms, armor, discipline, good order, and lately won victories, or by the esteem they have for their general. Such esteem is the result of the opinion they have of his virtu; rather than of any particular favor they have received from him; or it is a result of the love of their country, which is natural to all men. There are various ways of forcing men to fight, but that is the strongest and most operative, it leaves men no alternative by to conquer or die.

1. What example for the ancient world does Machiavelli open this section with?

2. How have some commanders forced their men to fight?

3. What other means may cause men to fight?

4. Which of these means does Machiavelli see as the best?

5. Does his reasoning seem like that of a Renaissance civic humanist? Why or why not?

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