Quod postremum, etsi non usque adeo semper verum sit, nisi viribus tamen victum cedere certum est: contra fit in plerisque aliis animalibus, quorum fere semper alia aliis ante initam pugnam sua sponte cedunt.

Although this last statement is not always true to such a degree, nevertheless it is certain that he yields only if subdued by force: the opposite happens in the best part of other animals, some of whose spontaneously submit to others before the combat began.

Quod intelligens Miltiades Atheniensium imperator, cum Rex Persarum excito Asiae robore tam multa mil{l}ia traiecisset in Europam, quasi ad primum clamorem oppressurus Graeciam, convocatis in {Panatheniacum} <Panathenaicum> conventum sociis pugnantes ostendit has alites, ut Philo Iudaeus scriptum reliquit[1], ratus hoc spectaculum maiorem vim habiturum, ad promovendum eorum animos, quam orationem. Nec eum fefellit sua opinio. Spectata enim, inquit Philo, in brutis patientia, pertinacique contentione usque ad necem pugnantibus invicto pectore, correptis armis eam expeditionem susceperunt, quasi bellaturi cum ingenti strage hostium, contemptis mortibus, et vulneribus, ut saltem insepelirentur libero solo patriae. Nihil enim ad rem gnaviter gerendam excitat, ac deteriorum victoria maior, quam sperari poterat. Tradit item Diogenes Laërtius[2], Socratem Iphicrati duci animos adiecisse, cum ei ostendisset Gallos Gallinaceos tonsoris Mid<i>ae adversus eos, qui erant Calliae, pennis, ac rostro dimicantes. Quam utilitatem agnovit et Chrysippus[3], dum Gallorum aemulatione inijci nobis ad fortitudinem stimulos, et subijci calcaria prodidit.

Aware of this, Miltiades, strategist of Athenians, since after the king of Persians - Darius 1st - aroused the Asian strength and ferried to Europe so many thousand of men as if he were about to subjugate the Greece at the first shout of war, having called his allies together in the panathenaic meeting showed them these birds in combat, as Philo Judaeus - Philo of Alexandria - related in his writings, being Miltiades persuaded that this sight would have more power to stir up their spirits than an oration. Nor did he fail in his expectation. When they observed the endurance of the animals, says Philo, and their stubborn fighting up to cause the death of opponents with invincible spirit, they took up arms and undertook that expedition with intent to fight at the cost of a great overthrow of enemies, scorning death and wounds if only they might find burial in the free soil of their fatherland. For nothing stirs one to a zealous undertaking, and the victory of those who are inferior is greater than it should be hoped. Diogenes Laertius likewise reports that Socrates filled the strategist Iphicrates with courage when he showed him the cocks of the barber Midias, fighting with feathers and beak against those of Callias. Chrysippus also recognized their utility, since he handed down that the incitements to be strong are inculcated in us through the emulation of the roosters, and that spurs must be lifted up.

Quinim<m>o fuisse apud antiquos historia docet, qui Gallos ad certamen instituerent, quos Columella[4] <rixosarum> avium {lauistas} <lanistas> vocavit. Plinius[5] author est Pergami Gallorum spectaculum velut gladiatorum quotannis {a}edi. Apud Tarnasaros[6] Indiae populos, nobiliores pugna eorum, ad quam tantummodo eos nutriunt, non oblectantur tantum, sed centum etiam aureos deponunt, quos ille, cuius Gallus in certamine superior evasit, domum victor reportat. Aiunt vero qui eas regiones peragrarunt, Gallorum eorum certamen quinque quandoque horas durare, et victum victori nisi morte cedere quam saepissime. Idem certamen colunt Iavae insulae incolae, necnon qui Pulaoan insulam habitant.

History, nonetheless, teaches us that there were men among the ancients who trained cocks to fight, whom Columella called trainers of fighting birds. Pliny says that every year at Pergamum a spectacle was organized as of gladiators. Among the Tarnasari people of India, the nobility not only enjoy their fighting, only for which raise them, but also make available a hundred gold coins, which the man whose cock has proved stronger in combat takes home with him as winner. Actually those who traveled in those regions say that their cockfights sometimes last five hours, and very often the defeated yields to his winner only with death. The inhabitants of the island of Java cultivate the same kind of cockfighting, as do those who dwell on the island of Pulaoan - or Palawan.

Verum nunquid id longo tempore fecerint, ut saltem verisimile est, mihi nondum cognitum est: Graecos id olim observasse tum ex allata Plinii authoritate, tum ex Aeliano[7] etiam clarum est, qui Themistoclem contra barbaros exercitum ducentem duos in itinere Gallos forte pugnantes vidisse prodit, ac imperasse, ut miles desisteret, acceptaque de hac pugna occasione, docuisse bonis, et strenuis civibus, pluris patriam, liberos, uxores, parentes, Deosque penates aestimandos, quam Gallis solam victoriae opinionem. Qua de re consule Caelium[8]. Cum igitur victor redisset, instituisse, ut quotannis Gallinaceorum pugna Athenis publice exiberetur. Quem morem etiamnum apud Bohemos in hunc diem durare audio, ubi primores praeparare Gallos aiunt pugnae, quasi gladiatoriae, fierique sponsiones pretii non parvi, dum unusquisque pecuniae summam largam deponit, quam dominus victoris Gallinacei aufert[9]. Et Io. Goropius[10] id Ambivaritis populis, teste Caesare, Galliae Belgicae in usu fuisse refert, magna ambitione duabus inter se certantibus factionibus, atque id cum in pagis, tum maxime in ipsa urbe, cui a Ducis sylva nomen est, (vulgo Tshertighen bos: est autem Brabantiae nobilis urbs, et regi catholico adversus Hollandos semper maximis in belli periculis fidem servans) per octo integros dies in ipsa curia Gallos ad pugnam committi, ingenti partium studio, et solicita victoriae expectatione: in hac vero tantum exardescere, ut ipse viderit ex Gallinaceorum certamine ad equestre duellum aliquem alium provocasse, in eoque alterum virum in primis strenuum, et veteranum equitem lancea in fronte ictum occubuisse eodem fere modo, quo Henricus Rex Franciae, cui per oculi alterius cavitatem pars fractae lanceae in cerebri sedem est adacta. Legimus denique apud Gallos eiusmodi Gallinaceorum pugnantium spectacula in scholis edi: quod forte et ipsi fecerint, ut non alacriores tantum iuvenum suorum ad pugnam animos reddant, sed etiam speratae, ac optatae victoriae cupidos.

To tell the truth, whether they did so for a long time, as it is at any rate likely, is not yet known to me: that Greeks once esteemed cockfighting is clear from the quoted evidence of Pliny, as well as from Aelian, who relates that Themistocles, when he led an army against the barbarians, while marching saw by chance two fighting roosters, and he ordered the army to stop and took the opportunity given him by this fighting to teach that by virtuous and diligent citizens must be esteemed fatherland, children, wives, parents, and household gods more highly than by cocks is esteemed the only renown coming from the victory. Consult Lodovico Ricchieri on this matter. So, when he went back as victor decreed yearly a cockfight to be held in public at Athens. I hear that this custom continues even now among Bohemians, where, they say, the nobility prepare cocks for as it were a gladiatorial combat, and large bets are made since each man places at disposal a large sum of money which the master of the winner cock bears away with him. And Ioannes Goropius – Jan van Gorp - reports that this practice, according to Caesar, was in use among the Ambivariti people of Belgic Gaul, since two factions were vying each other because of a great ambition, both in the villages and especially in the city itself whose name comes from the forest of their ruler, (commonly called 's-Hertogenbosch: for it is a renowned city of Brabant, and which always preserves its faith to the Catholic king against the Dutch, despite the greatest perils of war) and for eight entire days in the curia itself the cocks were set to fight each other amid huge enthusiasm of opponents and anxious expectation of victory: and during the expectation their spirits burnt up so greatly that Jan van Gorp himself saw that because of the cockfight somebody else challenged another to a duel on horseback, and in this duel either man, a very valiant and skilled horseman, fell hit with a lance in the face, almost in the same way as Henry 2nd king of France, who died when a portion of a broken lance was driven through one of his eye sockets into his brain. We read finally that such fighting cocks’ spectacles were organized among Gauls in the schools: perhaps they did so not only in order to make their young people more ready-spirited for a fight, but also desirous of a hoped- and longed-for victory.

Veteres, ut Gallinacei in pugna facilius adversus hostes suos tutarentur, stimulis ferreis aeneisque, quos Sipontinus plectra dici asserit, illos armabant: unde etiamnum extat adagium αἶρε πλῆκτρον ἀμυντήριον, id est tolle calcar ultorium: in eum nimirum, qui iam ultionem parat: sumptum autem est adagium ex Aristophane[11], cum ait: αἶρε πλῆκτρον εἰ μάχῃ, hoc est tolle calcar, si pugnas.

In order that roosters protect themselves more easily against their adversaries, the ancients armed them with iron and bronze spurs, and  Sipontinus - Nicolò Perotto - affirms they were called plectra - plucks: hence even now exists the adage aîre plêktron amyntërion, that is, Put on the avenging spur: obviously addressed to the man who already is preparing a vengeance: but the saying is drawn from Aristophanes, when he says: aîre plêktron ei máchëi, that is, Put on the spur if you fight.

Iucundum vero, inquit Caelius[12], quod observatum hac parte non reticebimus, Gallinaceis mox compugnaturis allium in cibis obijci solitum, quo acrius decertarent, ex quo facetissime in veteri {comediae} <comoedia>[13] ἐσκοροδισμένος, id est, allio pastus, quod scorodon vocant, pro vehementi, ac nimis in pugnam proclivi quandoque dicitur. Eodem modo proficiscentes, iique qui bella, et castra sequuntur, allium gustant quod eos agiles reddat, vires addat, et animum acuat. Exhibetur etiam equis una cum pane, et vino, ut ad praelium euntes facilius labores futuros sustineant, ferocioresque fiant.

But at this point we shall not keep silent about a funny observed fact. Lodovico Ricchieri says:, that is, when cocks were about to fight they were usually given garlic in their food so that will fight harder. Hence in a very funny way sometimes in ancient Greek comedy they say eskorodisménos, that is, fed with garlic, which they call skórodon, to mean a person vehement and too much prone to clash. In the same way, those who are about to set out and those going to warfare and camps eat garlic because it makes them nimble, energizes and sharpens their mind. It is also given to horses with bread and wine, so that when they go to battle may sustain more easily their future efforts and become more impetuous.