The art of fencing is most ancient, and was discovered in the times of Nino, King of the Assyrians, who, through use of the advantage of arms, was made monarch and patron of the world; from the Assyrians the monarchy passed to the Persians; the praise of this practice, through the valor of Ciro, from the Persians, came to the Macedonians, from these to the Greeks, from the Greeks it was fixed in the Romans, who (as testifies Vegetius) brought to the field masters of fencing, whom they named “Campi ductores, vel doctores” which is to say, guides, or masters of the field, and these taught the soldiers the strikes of the thrust and the cut against a pole. — Ridolfo CapoFerro
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