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The Florentines, having occupied San Miniato, held a council of

war to decide whether they should attack Pisa or the army of

Castruccio, and, having weighed the difficulties of both courses,

they decided upon the latter. The river Arno was at that time low

enough to be fordable, yet the water reached to the shoulders of

the infantrymen and to the saddles of the horsemen. On the

morning of 10 June 1328, the Florentines commenced the battle by

ordering forward a number of cavalry and ten thousand infantry.

Castruccio, whose plan of action was fixed, and who well knew

what to do, at once attacked the Florentines with five thousand

infantry and three thousand horsemen, not allowing them to issue

from the river before he charged them; he also sent one thousand

light infantry up the river bank, and the same number down the

Arno.