, called Quintus Icilius, an able writer on military tactics, was born
, called Quintus
Icilius, an able writer on military tactics, was born at
Magdeburg, and studied at the universities of Halle, Marpurg, and Leyden, where he applied to the classics, theology, and the oriental languages. He first carried arm*
in the service of the United Provinces, and while thus
einployed found leisure to prepare materials for his “Memoirs
Militaires sur les Grecs et les Remains,
” which induced
him to obtain permission to visit England, where he re^mained a year. The work was at length published, in two
volumes quarto, 1757, received with much approbation, and
went through five editions in France and Holland. In the
same year he entered as a volunteer in the allied army,
acquired the esteem of Ferdinand of Brunswick, and was
recommended to the notice of Frederic II. of Prussia, who
kept him near his person, often conversed with him on the
art of war, and on account of his great knowledge on this
subject, gave him the name of Quintus Icilius, the com*
mander of Caesar’s tenth legion, when he appointed him
to the command of a regiment formed out of the refuse of
all nations, during the heat of the war. At the general
peace he was one of the few persons whom his majesty admitted into his convivial parties at Potsdam, and to whom
he gave the freest access to his library and coins, which
latter Guise-hard increased so much, that he valued both
at the sum of a hundred thousand dollars. The king, however, in his latter days, treated him with much disrespect,
and took every opportunity to mortify him in the presence
of others. Giiiscliard died May 13, 1775. Frederic purchased his library of his heirs for the sum of 12,000 dollars.
Besides the work already mentioned, he was author of a
very useful work to military or classical students, entitled
“Memoires Critiques et Historiques sur plusieurs Points
d'Antiquites Militaires,
” in 4 vols. Hvo. Gibbon, who
read his “Military Memoirs
” with great attention, bestows
high encomiums on him, and considers him as very superior
to Folard, whom however Guischard affected too much to
undervalue.