Joyeux Anniversaire !

La ruse de guerre est fréquemment désignée chez Tite-Live par le terme dolus. Après avoir relevé les différents sens du mot dolus dans les cadres militaire et politique, nous analyserons le jugement porté sur le dolus à la guerre, par les héros romains mis en scène dans le texte de Tite-Live. Enfin, nous examinerons en particulier l’expression juridique dolus malus, appliquée chez Tite-Live à l’activité guerrière. Nous développerons notamment un exemple représentatif du point de vue négatif porté sur le dolus malus, avec l’épisode des Horaces et des Curiaces.

Mots-clés : Bellum iustum, Dolus, Dolus malus, Horaces, Rome, République romaine, ruse, Tite-Live, Vis, uirtus.

Abstract : War trick is frequently nominated by Livius with the term dolus. We will examinate different meanings of word dolus in military and political life, then we will watch Roman opinion about dolus in war. At last, we will observe juridical terms dolus malus, that Livius uses for military world. We particularly want to study one characteristic example of negative point of view about dolus malus, in Horaces’ and Curiaces’ story.

Keywords : Bellum iustum, Dolus, Dolus malus, Horaces, Livius, Rome, Roman Republic, Trick, Vis, uirtus.

Il contributo, nel ripercorrere la vicenda storica dei Longobardi dalle loro mitiche origini scandinave sino al loro stanziamento in Italia, individua nell’Historia Langobardorum di Paolo Diacono non pochi brani utili ad inquadrare il valore dell’inganno come strumento bellico. I duces e i reges longobardi, come si evince dall’analisi della fonte, ricorsero ad astuti stratagemmi per avere la meglio sia dei nemici con i quali ebbero a confrontarsi durante la loro migrazione dalla Scandinavia verso l’ Europa centrale e poi nella penisola italiana sia per risolvere le lotte interne al regnum.

Parole chiave : Paolo Diacono, Guerra, Inganno, Longobardi, Historia Langobardorum.

Abstract : This paper, in retracing the history of the Lombards from their mythical Scandinavian origins until their settlement in Italy, focuses in the Historia Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon some useful passages aimed at contextualizing the value of deception as a war instrument. The Lombard duces and reges, as can be deduced from the analysis of the source, resorted to cunning stratagems both to defeat the enemies with whom they had to fight during their migration from Scandinavia to Central Europe and then to Italy, and also to settle internal struggles in the regnum.

Keywords : Paul the Deacon, War, Deception, Lombards, Historia Langobardorum.

Le azioni militari, e in particolare il duello cavalleresco, sono l’elemento narrativo più frequente nel Lancelot propre, il fulcro del ciclo del Lancelot-Graal. Nella loro risoluzione ha solitamente un ruolo il valore dei combattenti ma, in diversi casi, l’elemento dell’inganno si rivela decisivo. Ripercorrere il romanzo seguendo il tema della ruse – presente fin dalle prime scene – apre a un’ampia serie di interrogativi: in primo luogo a causa del suo carattere di ambiguità morale, talvolta difficile da illuminare appieno a causa delle caratteristiche di inde- terminatezza cronologica dell’ opera e della nostra scarsa conoscenza delle convenzioni militari di riferimento; ma anche per quanto rivela dei meccanismi narrativi e di costruzione dei personaggi del romanzo. Alcuni esempi mostrano come la ruse sia presente nelle imprese militari tanto individuali quanto collettive, accompagnata di norma da una caratterizzazione negativa che dipende dall’universo morale cavalleresco che fa da sfondo al testo.

Parole chiave : Guerra, Inganno, Etica cavalleresca, Lancelot, Lancelot-Graal.

Abstract : Military endeavours, and especially knightly duels, are the most frequent narrative element in the Lancelot propre, central romance of the Lancelot-Graal cycle. Their outcome is usually decided by the combatants’ value but, in various instances, an element of mischief is crucial. Reading the text following the theme of the ruse - which appears even in one of its first scenes - elicits a long list of questions: first of all because of its moral ambiguity, sometimes difficult to understand completely because of the chronological vagueness of the Lancelot propre and our scarce knowledge of the relevant military conventions. Additionally, narrative mecha- nisms and characters’ definition in the romance also contribute to its difficult understanding. Some relevant examples show how the ruse is present in both individual and collective military confrontations, usually with a negative characterization that derives from the moral code set out in the text for knights.

Keywords : War, Ruse, Ethics, Lancelot, Lancelot-Graal.

Au Moyen Âge, l’art du stratagème promeut la ruse au rang de qualités intellectuelles les plus prisées sur le plan militaire. Habituellement associée à la perfidie et au péché de tromperie, la ruse s’intègre aussi au code chevaleresque, se prétend meilleure que la violence brute, honorant le célèbre adage, « mieux vaut ruse que force ». Au contraire, dans le Livre des faits et bonnes mœurs du Roi Charles V de Christine de Pizan en particulier, mais aussi dans la littérature des croisades et au XIII^e siècle, la ruse militaire se révèle cultiver un face-à-face dangereusement mimétique avec la force, qu’elle permet de rentabiliser, pour renforcer et exalter le geste meurtrier.

Mots-clés : Chevalerie, Dieu, Engin, Éthique, Force, Fortitudo, Prudence, Sagesse, Stratégie militaire.

Abstract : In the Middle Age, the art of stratagem advances deception as a precious and intellectual quality in the military area. Deception, usually associated with perfidy and fraud sin, can be integrated into the chivalrous code of honour too and claims that she is much better than war violence, illustrating the famous adage “better deception than force”. On the contrary, in the Livre des faits et bonnes moeurs du Roi Charles V of Christine of Pizan, but in the literature of the Crusades and in the 13th century too, military deception seems to be very complementary of force in order to get the most businesse value from her and glorify the murderous act.

Keywords : Chivalry, God, Machine, Ethic, Strength, Fortitudo, Prudence, Wisdom, Military strateg y.

Au Moyen Âge, la ruse de guerre ne jouissait globalement pas d’une appréciation positive, au moins dans le cadre culturel qui se fondait sur les valeurs de l’éthique chevaleresque. Sous l’effet de l’émulation humaniste de l’Antiquité, notamment, l’image des stratagèmes et autres astuces de guerre évolua cependant à la Renaissance, comme en atteste par exemple l’Arte della guerra de Machiavel. Au XVI^e siècle, la péninsule italienne fut l’épicentre de la production théorique et textuelle en matière de guerre laquelle, abordant fréquemment la thématique de la ruse – bien que souvent de façon marginale –, a contribué de façon déterminante à la caractérisation moderne de ce concept et à la définition du lexique qui, de près ou de loin, servait à la désigner. La ruse de guerre représente un nœud thématique extrêmement intéressant, où se croisent, parmi d’ autres, l’ éthique, le droit et l’ art de la guerre, véhiculés par le discours. Afin de fournir la base théorique nécessaire à l’étude de la ruse dans ces différentes perspectives, notre contribution vise à mettre en valeur les traits caractéristiques essentiels du concept de ruse militaire à travers l’ étude des “noms” et des “mots” de la ruse tels qu’ ils sont employés dans un certain nombre d’ ouvrages militaires du xvie siècle italien.

Mots-clés : Ruse, Stratagèmes, Renaissance, Italie, Art de la guerre, Littérature militaire, Éthique, Lexique.

Abstract : During the Middle Ages, military deception was globally despised, at least in the cultural frame based upon the values of chivalric ethics. Stratagems and other military deceits began receiving a different treatment during the Renaissance, under the effect of the emulation of Ancient culture typical of Humanism, as attested by Machiavelli’s Arte della guerra. During the sixteenth century, Italy was at the center of theoretical activity concerning military matters, giving birth to a literature which, frequently referring to deception – albeit in a marginal manner, more often than not –, highly contributed to the modern characterization of the concept and to the definition of the vocabulary used to refer to it. Military deception represents an extremely interesting thematic knot where ethics, law and military arts – among others – meet, carried by the written word. In order to provide a theoretical basis to the study of deception considered according to those different perspectives, this paper intends to underline the essential characte- ristics of the concept of military deception through the analysis of the “names” and “words” of deception used in a certain number of military books of sixteenth century Italy.

Keywords : Deception, Stratagems, Renaissance, Italy, Art of war, Military Literature, Ethics, Vocabulary.

Il saggio esamina la natura dello stratagemma classico, la sua ambiguità morale e la sua natura potenzialmente narrativa di “fabula” e da creazioni personali e gli strategemmi si ricordano con il nome dei loro inventori. Quindi identifica nel libro di Bernardino Rocca Imprese, stratagemmi ed errori (1566) una dimenticata collezione di novelle basate sugli stratagemmi di Frontino, dando vita ad un nuovo tipo di novella che si potrebbe definire “stratagemmatica”.

Parole chiave : Stratagemma, Bernardino Rocca, Novella, Ambiguità, Astuzia.

Abstract : The essay examines the classical stratagem, its moral ambiguity and its narrative potentiality being a sort of “fabula”. It is always a personal creation remembered by the name of its creator. The essay identifies an hitherto unnoticed collection of short stories under the title Imprese, stratagemmi ed errori (1566) by Bernardino Rocca who bases his tales on Frontino’s stratagems. Rocca creates a sort of narrative genre that could be called “novella stratagemmatica”.

Keywords : Stratagem, Bernardino Rocca, Short story, Ambiguity, Canniness.

On examine la ruse de guerre dans le théâtre de Shakespeare en observant Henri V, pièce considérée comme singulière. La guerre s’apparente ici à un moment de désordre et de chaos préliminaire à une régénération du socius. La bataille d’Azincourt donne lieu à une double ruse. Militaire d’ abord car Henri a une bonne intelligence du contexte, métaphysique ensuite car en donnant l’ordre d’exécuter les prisonniers nobles français il surprend son ennemi et effraie ses propres troupes en rompant l’ordre chevaleresque qui prévaut à l’ère médiévale. Il ébranle ainsi la cosmologie de son époque, ouvrant la porte d’un nouvel ordre pour des temps nouveaux, ceux de la modernité.

Mots-clés : Ruse, Guerre totale, Masque, Shakespeare, Caillois, Fête noire, Henri V, Azincourt, Renaissance, Degree.

Abstract: Cunning at war in Shakespeare’ s plays is examined here, more particularly in Henry V, which stands out as emblematic. War is defined as a moment of disorder and chaos preliminary to a regeneration of society. The battle of Azincourt evidences two types of cunning: from a purely military point of view Henry understands the context better than the French. But from a metaphysical point of view, when he orders to slaughter the French prisoners belonging to the nobility, he outwits his enemy and scares his own troops by abolishing the chivalric code of the Middle Ages, thus disturbing the whole cosmology of his times and opening the way to an unprecedented sort of order for a new era, for our modern times.

Keywords : Cunning, Total war, Mask, Shakespeare, Caillois, Black festivities, Henry V, Azincourt, Renaissance, “Degree”.

Il n’est pas aisé de parler de la ruse dans un contexte en langue espagnole. En effet, parmi les langues romanes, ce mot existe en tant que tel uniquement en français. C’est d’autant plus étonnant que les étymologies traditionnelles font remonter ce mot au latin. Nous émettons ici quelques réserves quant à ces étymologies et en proposons une autre, germanique. Certes les Espagnols peuvent désigner ce que le mot ruse recouvre, mais ce sera avec d’autres mots et en particulier ardid lui aussi d’origine germanique dont est issu le français « hardi ». On voit tout l’écart qu’il peut exister entre la ruse et la hardiesse, mais cependant, autour du syntagme « ruse et stratagème », on observe à quel point il s’agit bien de l’équivalent espagnol le plus précis du mot ruse. Il en existe d’ autres que l’ on étudie ici dans un corpus constitué des principaux textes de la conquête espagnole de l’Amérique. La ruse, même si ce n’ est pas un terme particulièrement fréquent dans cette littérature pourtant émaillée de récits d’affrontements belliqueux, y est évoquée aussi bien dans le camp des conquérants que celui des autochtones. On peut considérer que globalement, elle y est valorisée positivement (sans doute plus du côté espagnol que de celui des Indiens), comme si, entre autres raisons, l’ origine « hardie » de cette ruse espagnole la rendait plus digne d’ être employée.

Mots-clés : Ruse, Ardid, Histoire de l’Amérique au XVI^e siècle, Chroniques de la Conquête.

Abstract : It is not easy to talk about the ruse in a Spanish language context. Indeed, among the Romance languages, this word exists as such only in French. This is all the more surprising since traditional etymologies trace the word back to Latin. We have some reservations about this etymologies and propose another, Germanic one. Certainly the Spaniards can designate what the word ruse covers but it will be with other words and in particular ardid also of Germanic origin from which the French word hardi (bold) comes from. We can see all the difference that can exist between ruse and boldness, but nevertheless, around the syntagm “ruse and stratagem”, we can see to what extent it is the most precise Spanish equivalent of the word ruse. There are others that are studied here in a corpus consisting of the main texts of the Spanish conquest of America. The ruse, although not a particularly frequent term in this literature, nevertheless full of accounts of bellicose confrontations, is evoked both in the camp of the conquerors and that of the natives. It can be considered that, on the whole, it is valued positively (probably more on the Spanish side than on the native side), as if, among other reasons, the “bold” origin of this Spanish ruse made it more worthy of being used.

Keywords : Ruse, Ardid, History of America in the 16th Century, Chronicles of the Conquest.