 <unk> the classical elements of the fresco is the Latin inscription , added on December 17 , 1436 and penned by Bartolomeo Fortini de <unk> , son of Benedetto di Ser Landi Fortini , former treasurer of Florence and apprentice of <unk> 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 <unk> eques <unk> dux aetatis <unk> <unk> et rei militaris <unk> 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 <unk> ( " 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 <unk> so distinctly with Quattrocento humanism that some scholars have even dubbed it a " Renaissance fake " . 
