 Underscoring the classical elements of the fresco is the Latin inscription , added on December 17 , 1436 and penned by Bartolomeo Fortini de Orlandini , son of Benedetto di Ser Landi Fortini , former treasurer of Florence and apprentice of Spinello Alberti , one of the chief negotiators of Florence during the War of the Eight Saints — the first such inscription on an antique sarcophagus in a Florentine painting . The inscription reads : " Ioannes Acutus eques brittanicus dux aetatis suae cautissimus et rei militaris peritissimus habitus est " ( John Hawkwood , British knight , most prudent leader of his age and most expert in the art of war ) . The epitaph , likely a reference to Hawkwood 's aforementioned cautissimus ( " most prudent " ) retreat across the Oglio , is borrowed from the eulogy of Roman general Fabius Maximus , who wore down Hannibal by tactical retreat and avoiding battle . The eulogy of Fabius Maximus comports so distinctly with Quattrocento humanism that some scholars have even dubbed it a " Renaissance fake " . 
