I. Perceiving them all now eager to listen to him, Scipio thus began to
speak. “It was old Cato, to whom as you know I was singularly attached,
and whom I admired in the highest degree: to whom, either through the
advice of both my parents, or from my own prepossession, I devoted
myself entirely from my youth; whose conversation never could satiate
me. Such was the experience of the man in public affairs, which he had
for a long time successfully conducted in peace and war. His manner of
speaking too, a facetiousness mixed with gravity: his constant desire
also to improve himself and others; indeed his whole life in harmony
with his maxims. He was wont to say, that the condition of our country
was pre-eminent above all others for this cause. That among other
people, individuals generally had respectively constituted the
government by their laws and by their institutes, as Minos in Crete,
Lycurgus in Lacedemon. At Athens, where the changes were frequent, at
first Theseus, then Draco, then Solon, then Clisthenes; afterwards many
others. Finally exhausted and prostrated, it had been upheld by that
learned man Demetrius, of Phalera. But that the constitution of our
republic was not the work of one, but of many; and had not been
established in the life of one man, but during several generations and
ages. For he said so powerful a mind had never existed; from which
nothing had escaped; nor that all minds collected into one, could
foresee so much at one time, as to comprehend all things without the aid
of practice and time. For which reason, as he was wont, so shall my
discourse now repeat the origin of the people; for I have a pleasure in
using the very words of Cato. But I shall more easily follow up my
proposition in describing our own republic to you, in its infancy, its
growth, in its adult, and its present firm and robust state; than if I
were to create an imaginary one, as Socrates is made to do in Plato.
II. When all had approved of this, he proceeded. “What beginning,
therefore, have we of the establishment of a republic so illustrious and
so known to you all, as the origin of the building of this city by
Romulus, born of his father Mars? For let us concede to the common
opinion of men, especially as it is not only well established, but also
wisely recorded by our ancestors, that those who have deserved well of
us on account of our common interest, be deemed not only to have
possessed a divine genius, but also a divine origin. He therefore after
his birth, with Remus his brother, is said to have been ordered to be
exposed on the Tiber, by the Alban king, Amulius, apprehensive lest his
kingdom should be shaken. In which place, having been sustained by the
teats of a wild beast, the shepherds took him, and brought him up in the
labour and cultivation of the fields. It is said, that when he had grown
up, he was distinguished above the rest by his corporeal strength, and
the daringness of his mind. So that all who then inhabited the fields,
where at this day stands the city, obeyed him willingly and without
dissent. And being constituted their leader, that we may now come from
fables to facts, with a strong force he took Alba-longa, a powerful and
well constructed city in those times, and put the king Amulius to death.
III. Having acquired which glory, he is said first to have auspiciously
thought of building a city, and of establishing a government. In regard
to the situation of the city, a circumstance which is most carefully to
be considered by him, who endeavours to establish a permanent
government; he chose it with incredible skill. For neither did he remove
to the sea, although it was a very easy thing for him with his forces,
to march through the territory of the Rutulians and Aborigines; neither
would he build a city at the mouth of the Tiber, to which place the king
Ancus led a colony many years after. For he perceived, with an admirable
foresight, that maritime situations were not proper for those cities
which were founded in the hope of continuance, or with a view to empire.
First, because maritime towns were not only exposed to many dangers, but
to unseen ones. For the ground over which an expected enemy moves, as
well as an unexpected one, announces his approach beforehand by many
indications: by sound itself of a peculiarly tumultuous kind. No enemy
can make a march, however forced, without our not only knowing him to be
there, but even who he is, and whence he comes. But a maritime enemy and
a naval force may be before you, ere any one can suspect him to be come.
Nor even when he does come, does he carry before him any indication of
who he is, or from whence he comes, or even what he wants. Finally by no
kind of sign can it be discerned or determined whether he is a friend or
an enemy.
IV. In maritime cities, too, a sort of debasing and changeable manners
prevail. New languages and new customs are mingled together, and not
only productions but manners are imported from abroad; so that nothing
remains entire of the pristine institutions. Even they who inhabit those
cities are not faithful to their homes, but with capricious inclinations
and longings are carried far from them; and although their persons
remain, their minds are rambling and wandering abroad. Nor did Carthage
or Corinth, long before shaken, owe their ruin to any thing more than to
the unsettled scattering of the citizens, who abandoned the study of
agriculture and arms through their cupidity of gain and love of roaming.
Many pernicious excitements too to luxury, are brought over the sea to
cities by commercial importation or by conquest. Even the very amenity
of the situation suggests many costly and enervating allurements. What I
have said of Corinth, I know not if I may as truly say of all Greece;
for almost all Peloponnessus lies on the sea, and except the
Phliuntians, there are none whose lands do not extend to the coast.
Beyond Peloponnessus, the Enianes, the Dorians, and the Dolopians are
the only people in the interior. What shall I say of the islands of
Greece? which surrounded with billows, float about as it were with the
institutions and manners of their cities. These things as I said before,
relate to ancient Greece; but of the colonies brought by the Greeks into
Asia, Thrace, Italy, Sicily, and Africa, except Magnesia alone, which of
them is not washed by the ocean? Thus a part of the Grecian shores
seemed to be joined to the lands of the barbarians. For among the
barbarians themselves, none were a maritime people, except the Etruscans
and the Carthagenians; the one for the sake of commerce, the other for
the sake of piracy. A most obvious cause of the evils and revolutions of
Greece, arising from the vices of these maritime cities, which awhile
ago I slightly touched upon. Nevertheless among these evils there is a
great convenience. The products of every distant nation can be wafted to
the city you inhabit; and in return the productions of your own lands
can be sent or carried into whatever countries you choose.
V. Who then more inspiredly than Romulus could secure all the maritime
conveniences, and avoid all the defects? placing the city on the banks
of a perennial river, broadly flowing with an equal course to the sea.
By which the city might receive what it wanted from the ocean, and
return whatever was superfluous. Receiving by the same channel all
things essential to the wants and the refinements of life, not only from
the sea, but likewise from the interior. So that it appears to me, he
had foreseen this city, at some period, would be the seat and capital of
a mighty empire: for a city placed in any other part of Italy would not
easily have been able to acquire such a powerful influence.
VI. As to the native defences of the city, who is so unobservant as not
to have them marked and fixed in his mind? Such is the alignment and
direction of the wall, which by the wisdom of Romulus, as well of
succeeding kings, was bounded on every part by lofty and craggy hills:
so that the only entrance, which was between the Esquiline and the
Quirinal hills, was defended by a huge mound, and a very wide ditch. The
citadel, surrounded by this craggy and seemingly hewn rock, had such a
gallant position, that in that furious invasion of the terrible Gauls,
it remained safe and intact. He choose also a place abounding in
springs, and salubrious even in a pestilent region. For there are hills
which while they enjoy the breezes, at the same time throw a cool shade
upon the vallies.
VII. These things were done too with great celerity. For he not only
founded a city, which he ordered to be called Rome, from his own name;
but to establish it, and strengthen the power of the people and his
kingdom, he adopted a strange and somewhat clownish plan, but worthy of
a great man, whose providence extended far into futurity. When the
Sabine virgins, descended from respectable families, were come to Rome
to see the games, whose first anniversary he had then ordered to be
celebrated in the circus, he ordered them to be seized during the
sports, and gave them in marriage to the most honourable families. For
which cause, when the Sabines had made war upon the Romans, and when the
success of the battle was various and doubtful, he struck a league with
Tatius, king of the Sabines, at the entreaty of the very matrons who had
been seized: in consequence of which he admitted the Sabines into the
city: and mutually having embraced each others sacred rites, he
associated their king with him in the government.
VIII. After the death however of Tatius, all the power came back into
his hands: although he had admitted some chiefs into the royal council
with Tatius, who were called fathers, on account of the affection borne
to them. He also divided the people into three tribes, named after
himself, after Tatius, and after Lucumon, a companion of Romulus, who
had been slain in the Sabine war: and into thirty curia, which curia he
called by the names of those from among the Sabine virgins seized, at
whose entreaties the peace and league had been formed. But although
these things were done before the death of Tatius, yet after that event,
his government became much better established, aided by the authority
and counsel of the fathers.
IX. In the which he saw and judged as Lycurgus at Sparta had done, a
little while before him: that states were better governed by individual
command and royal power, if the authority of some of the better class
were added to the energy of that kind of government. Thus sustained, and
as it were propped up by the senatorial authority, he carried on many
wars very successfully with his neighbours; and appropriating to himself
no part of the spoil, he never ceased to enrich the citizens. At that
time Romulus paid in most things attention to auspices, a custom we
still retain, and greatly advantageous to the republic. For he built the
city under the observance of auspices at the very beginning of the
republic; and in the establishment of all public affairs, he chose an
augur from each of the tribes to assist him in the auspices. He also had
the common people assigned as clients to the principal men, the utility
of which measure I will afterwards consider. Fines were paid in sheep
and cattle: for then all property consisted in flocks, and in
possessions of lands, whence the terms pecuniary[12] and landholders[13]
were derived. He did not attempt to govern by severity or the infliction
of punishments.
X. When Romulus had reigned thirty-seven years, and had established
those two excellent foundations of the state, the auspices and the
senate, he obtained this great meed: for when he had disappeared upon a
sudden obscuration of the sun, he was deemed to have been placed among
the number of the gods. A belief which no mortal had ever inspired
without the greatest pre-eminence in virtue. And this is most to be
admired in Romulus, that others who are said to have been deified out of
the mortal state, lived in the less civilized ages of man, when the
proneness to fiction was great, and the unenlightened were easily led to
believe in it. But during the period of Romulus, not quite six hundred
years ago, we know that learning and literature existed, and that the
ancient errors peculiar to the uncultivated ages of mankind were
removed. For if Rome, according to an investigation of the annals of the
Greeks, was built in the second year of the seventh olympiad; the reign
of Romulus occurred at that period when Greece was full of poets and
musicians; and when but little faith would be given to fabulous stories,
unless they were concerning very ancient things. For one hundred and
eight years after Lycurgus ordained laws to be written, the first
olympiad was established: which through a mistake in the name, some have
thought to be founded by Lycurgus. Homer, however, by those who take the
lowest period, is made to precede Lycurgus about thirty years. From
which it may be gathered that Homer flourished many years before
Romulus. So that there was scarce room in so intelligent an age, and
amid so many learned men, for any one to establish fictions. Antiquity
sometimes has received fables crudely devised, but that age already
refined, and especially deriding improbable events, has rejected * * *
[About 230 letters wanting.]
* * * * Simonides was born in the fifty-sixth olympiad, by which the
credit given to the immortality of Romulus may be more easily
understood, seeing that the institutions of society were then so well
established, organized, and known. But really so great was the force of
his genius and virtue, that what men would have given no credit to for
many ages in favour of any other man, was believed of Romulus upon the
evidence of Proculus Julius, a countryman, who at the instigation of the
fathers, in order to repel from themselves every suspicion of the death
of Romulus, is said to have declared in the assembly, that he had seen
Romulus on that mount which is now called Quirinal; and that he had
commanded him to request the people to erect a temple for him upon that
hill; that he was a god, and was called Quirinus.
XI. “Do not you perceive therefore a new people not only sprung from the
wisdom of one man, and not left crying in leading strings, but already
grown up, and almost an adult?” “Indeed we perceive it,” said Lælius,
“and that you have entered upon a new method of discussion, which is no
where to be found in the writings of the Greeks. For that pre-eminent
person,[14] whom no one has excelled in writing, has imagined to himself
a situation, in which he might construct his city after his own
pleasure: admirable enough perhaps, but foreign to the conduct and the
manners of men. Others have discussed the subject in relation to the
kinds and causes of governments, but not under any particular example of
a form of government. You seem to me to be about to do both, for
according to your method, you appear to prefer to attribute to others
what you yourself have observed, than to imagine a state of things, as
Socrates is made to do in Plato. And these matters respecting the
foundation of the city, you suppose to be part of a system, which were
only adopted by Romulus through necessity or chance. And your discourse
is not of a desultory kind, but concerning a particular commonwealth.
Wherefore proceed as you have begun, for already I perceive you are
about to follow on with the other kings, as perfecting the government.”
XII. “Wherefore,” said Scipio, “when the senate, which Romulus had
instituted out of the better class, and which had been so much favoured
by the king, as to cause them to be called fathers, and their children
patricians; endeavoured after the death of Romulus, to carry on the
government itself without any king; the people would not endure it, and
in their regret for Romulus did not cease to demand a king. Upon which
the leading men prudently imagined a mode of interregnum, new and
unknown to other nations. So that until a regular king was proclaimed,
neither the city should be without a king, nor with one too long a
period. Fearing lest from too long an enjoyment of the government, the
interrex should be reluctant to lay it down, or strong enough to
maintain himself in it. Even in these times, this new people perceived
what had escaped the Lacedemonian Lycurgus; who esteemed it best not to
choose a king, if this were indeed in the power of Lycurgus to do, but
rather to be governed by any one whatever descended from the race of
Hercules. But our ancestors, rude as they appear to have been, thought
it behoved them rather to look to royal wisdom and virtue, than to
descent.
XIII. When the great fame of Numa Pompilius had reached them, the
people, leaving aside their own citizens, called in by the authority of
the fathers, a king not born among them, and sent to the Curians for a
Sabine to reign over Rome. When he arrived, although the people had
decided that he should be king in the conventions of the curia,
nevertheless he himself had a law passed in the curia concerning his own
power; and as he saw the Romans through the institutions of Romulus were
eager after warlike pursuits, he deemed it proper to wean them somewhat
from that propensity.
XIV. And first, the lands which Romulus had acquired in war, he divided
equally among the citizens; and pointed out to them, that without
depopulating and pillaging, they might possess all the necessaries of
life, by the cultivation of their lands. He inspired them also with the
love of peace and repose, under which justice and good faith most kindly
flourish; and under the protection of which, the cultivation of the
fields, and the gathering of the harvest are most secure. The same
Pompilius having established auspices of a superior kind, added two
augurs to the ancient number, and placed five priests over sacred things
from the class of the chief men. And having established those laws which
we possess in our monuments, he softened, by the ceremonies of religion,
minds which were inflamed by the habit and inclination of making war. He
added also Flamens, Salii, and Vestal Virgins; and established with
great solemnity all the branches of religion: ordaining many ceremonies
to be learnt and observed, but without any expense. Thus he increased
the duty of religious observances and diminished the cost of them. In
like manner he established markets, games, and all the stated occasions
of assembling the people together. Under which institutions, he recalled
the minds of men become fierce and wild in warlike pursuits, to humanity
and gentleness. When he had reigned thirty-nine years in the most
perfect peace and concord, (in this we follow principally our friend
Polybius, than whom no one was more accurate in ascertaining periods,)
he departed from life; having strengthened every thing for the endurance
of the government, by those two conspicuous virtues, religion and
clemency.
XV. When Scipio had spoken these words. “Is it true, Africanus,” said
Manilius, “what tradition has brought down to us, that this king Numa
was a disciple of Pythagoras, or is it certain he was a Pythagorean? For
often we have heard this, as having been declared by old people, and
understand it also to be the common opinion; yet we do not see it
sufficiently proved by the authority of the public annals.” “It is
false,” replied Scipio, “entirely so Manilius! Not false alone, but
ignorantly and absurdly false; for the mendacity of those assertions is
not to be endured, which we not only see are not true, but which could
never have been so. It was in the fourth year of the reign of Lucius
Tarquinius Superbus, that Pythagoras is ascertained to have come to
Sybaris and Crotona, and those parts of Italy. For the sixty-second
Olympiad announces that very arrival of Pythagoras, and the beginning of
the reign of Superbus. From which it may be understood by a calculation
of the reigns, that Pythagoras touched first at Italy about a hundred
and forty years after the death of Numa. Nor has this fact, by those who
have very diligently investigated the annals of the times, ever been
thrown into any doubt.” “Immortal gods,” said Manilius, “how inveterate
and great is the error of men! Nevertheless, I can be very well pleased
in the belief, that our intelligence has not been derived from abroad,
and through foreign arts, but from natural and domestic virtues.”
XVI. “You will distinguish that more clearly,” said Africanus, “when you
perceive how the commonwealth advances and comes to the greatest
perfection by a straight forward and natural course. For in this also
the wisdom of our ancestors is to be praised; that many things derived
from abroad, have been rendered much more perfect by us, than they were
from whence they were brought, and where they first had existence. You
will see also that the greatness of the Roman people has not been
confirmed by chance, but by wisdom and discipline. Fortune indeed being
propitious to us.
XVII. King Pompilius being dead, the people upon the proposition of an
interrex, created Tullus Hostilius king, in the conventions of the
curia; and he, after the example of Pompilius, consulted the people in
the curia, concerning his power. His military glory was great, and
important warlike affairs took place. He constructed edifices for the
senate and the curia, and surrounded them with military trophies. He
established a law also for the declaration of war, which most justly
decreed by him, he made more sacred by the solemnity of Heralds: so that
every war which was not proclaimed and declared, was deemed to be
impious and unjust. And observe how wisely our kings saw that some sort
of deference must be paid to the people. I might say many things on that
head. Tullus indeed did not venture to appear with royal insignia unless
at the command of the people. For in order that it might be lawful for
him to be preceded by twelve lictors with their fasces * *
[Two pages wanting.]
XVIII. * * * * * “The government which your discourse is establishing,
does not creep, but rather flies towards perfection.” S. “After him,
Ancus Martius, grandson to Numa Pompilius by his daughter, was made king
by the people, who had his elevation sanctioned by a law of the curia.
Who having conquered the Latins in a war, incorporated them into the
state. He also added the Aventine and Cælian Mounts to the city. The
lands too which he had conquered he distributed, and made a public
domain of all the forests he had taken on the sea coast. He built a city
at the mouth of the Tiber, and planted a colony there. When he had thus
reigned twenty-three years, he died. “This king also is to be praised,”
said Lælius, “but the Roman history is obscure: for although we know who
was the mother of this king, we do not know who was his father.” S. “So
it is” said he, “but generally the names of the kings only of those
times are conspicuous.”
XIX. “But it is here that we first perceive the city to have become more
intelligent by extrinsic information. For not a gentle stream flowed
from Greece into this city, but an abundant flood of arts and knowledge.
It is stated that one Demaratus, a Corinthian, a principal man, and of
much honour and authority in his own city, and of an easy fortune, not
being able to endure Cypselus, the tyrant of the Corinthians, fled with
a great deal of money, and betook himself to a flourishing city of
Etruria, among the Tarquinians. When he had heard that the domination of
Cypselus was confirmed, being an independent and powerful man, he
renounced his country, and was received a citizen by the Tarquinians:
and in that city he fixed his home and establishment. Where when he had
begotten two sons from one of the Tarquinian matrons, he instructed them
in all the arts after the manner of the Greeks * * * *
[Two pages wanting.]
XX. * * * * * He was well received in the city, and became intimate with
king Ancus on account of his learning and liberal knowledge. So much so
that he shared all his counsels, and might be deemed even a partner in
his kingdom. For there was a great affability in him, and an extreme
readiness in aiding, protecting, and doing liberal acts to every
citizen. Martius therefore being dead, L. Tarquinius was created king by
the united suffrages of the people; for thus he had changed his name
from his Grecian one, that in every thing he might be seen to imitate
the manners of the people. Having caused his accession to be confirmed
by a law, he doubled the pristine number of the fathers; calling those
whose opinions he first asked, ancient fathers of the greater families;
and those whom he had admitted, he called the lesser families. Then he
established the knights; after the manner that has obtained unto our
day. He could not change the names of the Titienses, of the
Rhamnensians, or the Luceres, when he wished to do so; because Attus
Nævius being then Augur in great reputation, would not consent to it. We
see the Corinthians chose formerly to assign cavalry for the public
service, and to have their expenses defrayed by taxes on orphans and
widows. But to the old troops of horse he added others, and made twelve
hundred knights. He doubled this number after he had subdued the Equi in
war, a powerful and ferocious race, which threatened the affairs of the
Roman people. And when he had driven the Sabines from the walls of the
city, he scattered them with his horse and conquered them. It is he whom
we understand to have instituted the great games, which we call Roman,
and to have made a vow during the Sabine war, while in battle, that he
would raise a temple on the capitol to the great and good Jupiter. He
died when he had reigned thirty-eight years.
XXI. “Now,” said Lælius, “is that saying of Cato very certain, that the
constitution of the state is not the work of one moment or one man: for
it is evident how great an accession of good and useful institutions
occurred under each reign. But he comes next, who appears to me to have
looked farther than them all into the nature of government.” “So it is,”
said Scipio, “for after him Servius Sulpicius is stated first to have
reigned without the command of the people. He is said to have been born
of a Tarquinian slave: she having conceived him by some client of the
king. Brought up among the number of the servants, when he attended at
the royal table, he did not suppress those sparks of genius, which even
then shone forth in the boy: so shrewd was he in every thing, whether in
business or conversation. Wherefore Tarquin, who at that time had only
young children, became so attached to Servius, that he was generally
thought to be his son; and with great pains instructed him in all those
arts, which he himself had been taught, after the very superior manner
of the Greeks. But when Tarquin had perished by the plots of the sons of
Ancus, Servius, as I before said, began to reign, not by the command,
but by the assent and sufferance of the people. For when Tarquin was
falsely said to be alive, and sick from the effects of his wound; he
declared the law in royal pomp, and discharged debtors with his own
money. Conducting himself with much courtesy, he declared that he
pronounced the law at the command of Tarquin. He did not commit himself
to the fathers, but Tarquin being buried, he conferred with the people
about himself, and being authorised to reign, he had his accession
confirmed by a law of the curia. And first he avenged himself by war,
for injuries received from the Etruscans, * * * * * *
[Two pages wanting.]
XXII. * * he inscribed eighteen centuries of horse in the great
register. Afterwards having set apart a great number of equestrians
from the mass of the whole people, he distributed the rest of the
citizens into five classes, and divided the old from the young: and
classed them in such a manner, that the suffrages were not in the
power of the multitude, but of the landed proprietors. He was careful
of what ought always to be observed in government; that numbers alone
should not have the ascendency. Which classification if it were
unknown to you, should be explained by me. You will perceive the plan
was such, that the centuries of horse with six suffrages, (a century
being added from the carpenters on account of their great utility to
the city,) and the first class, make eighty-nine centuries: to which
from the one hundred and four centuries, for so many remain; if only
eight are added, the whole power of the people is obtained: and the
much greater multitude comprehended in the ninety-six centuries
remaining, is neither excluded from voting, lest it should seem
disdainful; nor is it made too effective, lest it should be dangerous.
In the which matter he was very circumspect even as to terms and
names. Those from among the wealthy he called “assiduos”[15] from
paying their taxes in money. Those who possessed no more than one
thousand five hundred pieces of brass, or those who were polled in the
register without any possessions whatever, he called proletaries; as
if progeny only; that is, as if nothing but population might be
expected from them. But of those ninety six centuries, more were
enumerated in one century, than almost in the whole first class. Thus
the right of suffrage was not prohibited to any one by law, and that
class had a greater weight of suffrage, which had most at stake in the
preservation of good government. As to public criers, men hired for
parade, clarion players, horn players, and proletaries, * * * *
[Four pages wanting.]
XXIII. * * * * * Was[16] sixty-five years more ancient, being built
thirty-nine years before the first olympiad. And the very ancient
Lycurgus had the same thing in view. This equality therefore, and this
triple nature of public affairs appears to me to have been common to us
and to those people. But what is peculiar in our republic, and than
which nothing can be more admirable, I will look very critically into if
I am able; as nothing similar is to be found in any government. For
these things which I have adverted to, were so mingled in this state,
and among the Lacedemonians, and the Carthagenians, that they were not
properly balanced. For in whatever government any one man enjoys
perpetual power, especially royalty, although even a Senate may exist in
it, as was the case at Rome under the kings, and in the laws of Lycurgus
at Sparta; and even granting the people some share in the government, as
was the fact under our kings: still that royal name will stand
pre-eminent, nor can a government of that kind be any thing but a
kingdom, or be called otherwise. But such a form of government is
especially subject to change for this reason; that it easily falls into
the most unprofitable courses, precipitated thereunto by the vices of
one man. For the royal form of government itself, not only is not to be
condemned, but I know not whether it is not greatly to be preferred to
the other simple forms, if I could approve of any simple form of
government. But only as long as it preserves its proper character, which
is that the safety, the equality, and tranquillity of the citizens, are
to be preserved by the justice, the wisdom, and the perpetual power of
one man. Many things however are altogether wanting to a people subject
to a king. Liberty among the first: which is not that we may live under
a just master, but under none at all. * * *
[Two pages wanting.]
XXIV. For some time fortune prosperously accompanied this unjust and
cruel master in the administration of affairs. He subdued all Latium in
war, and took Suessa, an opulent and well stored Pometian city. Enriched
with great spoils of gold and silver, he accomplished the vow of his
ancestor in the building of the capitol. He established colonies, and
according to the institutions of those from whom he had derived his
origin, he sent magnificent gifts, as offerings of his spoils, to Apollo
at Delphos.
XXV. Here the very circle is set in motion, whose natural movement and
revolution you learn to distinguish from the beginning. For the very
head of discretion in civil matters, upon which all our discourse turns,
is to observe the ways and bendings of public affairs; so that when you
perceive what way any thing inclines, you may either keep it back, or
meet it by opposing other things to it. For the king of whom I speak,
having stained himself first with the murder of a good king, no longer
preserved his integrity of mind, and wished to inspire fear himself,
because he dreaded every sort of punishment for his wickedness.
Afterwards borne up with his victories and riches, he exulted with
insolence, and imposed no restraint on his own conduct, or the
licentiousness of his followers. Wherefore when his eldest son had used
violence with Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, and daughter of
Tricipitinus, and the noble and chaste woman had inflicted death upon
herself on account of that injury; L. Brutus, a man pre-eminent in mind
and courage, released his fellow citizens from that unjust yoke of a
cruel slavery: who, although he was a private citizen, sustained the
whole government, and was the first who taught in this city, that no man
was to be considered insignificant, when the public liberties were to be
preserved. Under which leader and head, the whole city being in
commotion, as well with the recent complaints of the family and kindred
of Lucretia, as with the remembrance of the many wrongs done by the
haughtiness of Tarquin himself, and his sons; the banishment of the
king, his children, and his whole race was pronounced.
XXVI. Do not you perceive then how a master may spring out of a king,
and how a form of government from being good, may become the very worst,
through the vice of one man. This is that master over the people, whom
the Greeks call tyrant; him only they esteem a king, who consults like a
parent with the people, and preserves those over whom he is placed, in
the most prosperous condition of life. A sort of government very good as
I have said, but bordering upon and inclining to a very pernicious one.
For when this king deviates into unjust rule, at once he becomes a
tyrant, and an animal more hideous, more destructive, and more odious,
in the eyes of gods and men cannot be conceived: surpassing, although in
the human form, the most monstrous wild beasts in cruelty. How can he be
rightly called a man, who observes no fellowship of humanity with his
fellow citizens, no communion of law with the whole race of man? But a
more proper place to speak of this will occur, when circumstances will
suggest to us to speak of those, who have sought to usurp the Government
over free cities.
XXVII. You have here then the origin of a tyrant, for the Greeks would
have this to be the name of an unjust king. Our ancestors indeed have
called all who have had an exclusive and perpetual dominion over the
people, kings. Thus Spurius Cassius, M. Manilius, and Spurius Mælius,
are said to have wished to establish a kingdom, and even * * * * * *
[Two pages wanting.]
XXVIII. Lycurgus gave the name of ancients[17] at Lacedemon, to that too
small number of twenty-eight, to whom he wished the whole authority of
counsel to be confided, while the sole command should be held by the
king. Wherefore our ancestors translating and adopting that term, those
whom he called ancients, they called a senate: as we have already stated
Romulus to have done with the select fathers. Nevertheless, the royal
title, and its strength and power were always pre-eminent. Impart too
something of power to the people, as was done by Lycurgus and Romulus,
and you will not satisfy them with freedom, but you will inflame them
with the passion of liberty, when you have only permitted them to taste
of power. The fear indeed will always hang over them, lest they should
have an unjust king, which generally happens. The fortune therefore of a
people is, as I said before, very uncertain, which is placed in the will
or conduct of one man.
XXIX. Wherefore this first form, example, and origin of a tyrant, is
found by us in that very government which Romulus instituted with
auspices, and not in that, which Plato says Socrates imagined to himself
in that peripatetic discourse. And as Tarquin subverted the whole fabric
of royalty, not because he grasped a new sort of authority, but because
he made a bad use of it; so let us oppose to him another; a good man,
wise and expert in every thing useful and dignified in civil life: a
tutor and steward as it were of the commonwealth, for so may be called
whoever is the ruler and governor of a state. Imagine to yourselves that
you recognise such a man; one who can protect the state, both by his
counsel and conduct. And since the name of such a man has not been
alluded to in this discourse, and that a character of this kind will be
frequently treated of in what remains to be said * * * * * *
[Twelve pages wanting.]
XXX. * * * * * * Plato described a state more to be desired, than to be
hoped for upon the smallest scale. He did not constitute things as they
might exist, but in such a manner as the nature of civil affairs might
be considered. As to myself, if in any way I am able to accomplish it,
with the same principles which he had in view, I will look, not into the
picture and shadow of a state, but into a most powerful republic; that I
may appear to touch, as it were, the true cause of every public good and
evil. After these two hundred and forty years of regal government, and
indeed a little more, including the interregnums, Tarquin being
banished, the royal title was as odious to the Roman people, as it had
been regretted after the death, or rather the disappearance of Romulus,
and as much as they wanted a king then, in like manner, after the
expulsion of Tarquin, they could not endure the name of one.
XXXI. Under this feeling our ancestors then expelled Collatinus, who was
innocent, through apprehension of his family connexions, and the other
Tarquins from disgust at their names. From the same cause too P.
Valerius ordered the fasces to be lowered when he began to speak before
the people; and had his building materials taken to the foot of the
Velia, as soon as he perceived the suspicions of the people to be raised
on account of his having begun to build in a more conspicuous part of
the Velia, the very place where King Tullus had dwelt. He also, in the
which he greatly deserved the name of Publicola, had that law passed for
the people, which was first carried in the meetings of the centuries,
that no unfriendly magistrate should put to death, or flog any Roman
citizen for appealing. The pontifical books however declare appeals to
have existed under the kings; the augural records show it also. The
twelve tables too in many laws indicate that it was lawful to appeal
from every judgment and punishment. What is brought down to us by
tradition, of the Decemvirs who wrote the laws, being created without
any appeal, sufficiently shows that the other magistrates had not the
power of judging without appeal. The law, too, which for the sake of
concord passed in the consulate of Lucius Valerius Potitus, and M.
Horatius Barbatus, men very justly popular; sanctioned the principle,
that no magistrate should be created without appeal. Nor did the Portian
laws, which are three as you know of the three Portii, contain any thing
new except the confirmation of it. Publicola therefore, upon the law in
favour of appeal being published, immediately ordered the axes to be
taken from off the fasces, and the next day had Sp. Lucretius appointed
to him as his colleague: being his superior in age, he ordered his own
lictors to go to him; and first established the custom that lictors
should precede each of the consuls, alternate months, lest the ensigns
of command among a free people, should be as numerous as in a kingdom.
There was something more than mediocrity in this man, as I consider him:
who having given a moderate liberty to the people, preserved more easily
the authority of the chiefs. Nor do I repeat these things, now so old
and obsolete to you, without cause. I select examples of men and things
drawn from illustrious persons and times, to which the remainder of my
discourse shall be applied.
XXXII. In such a manner the senate governed the commonwealth in those
days, that though the people were free, still they interfered in but few
things. Public affairs were principally managed under the authority, and
by the rules and customs of the senate. And although the consuls
possessed their power only for a year, it was royal in its nature and
effect. And this was strenuously preserved, as necessary to the
preservation of the influence of the nobles and principal chiefs, that
nothing should be established in the meetings of the people, which was
not sanctioned by the authority of the fathers. In these very times too,
T. Larcius was appointed dictator, about ten years after the first
consuls. A new kind of authority, very much resembling, as we perceive,
the royal power. But all great matters were conducted by the authority
of the principal men, the people submitting to it. And great events took
place in those times in war, under renowned men in the supreme command,
from among those very dictators and consuls.
XXXIII. But what belongs to the very nature of things, as that a people
emancipated from kings, should take a little more power to themselves;
was brought about not long after, about the sixteenth year, in the
consulate of Postumus Cominus, and Sp. Cassius. Not in the right way
perhaps, but it is of the nature of public affairs frequently to deviate
from what is right. For observe what I said in the beginning, that
unless an equable compensation prevails in a state, in the laws, in
offices, in emoluments; so that the magistrates enjoy their proper
degree of power; the chief men their authority in council, and the
people their liberties, such a state of the government cannot remain
unchanged. For when the city was in commotion on account of the pressure
of their debts, the people first occupied the Sacred Mount, then the
Aventine. Nor could the discipline even of Lycurgus keep the Greeks
within those restraints. In the reign of Theopompus, at Sparta, those
five whom they call Ephori; the ten too in Crete, who are called Cosmoi;
arose against the royal power, as the tribunes of the people did against
the consular authority.
XXXIV. Perhaps there was a mode by which our ancestors might have
relieved the pressure of the law of debt, which had not escaped Solon,
the Athenian, some short time before, and which our senate adopted not
long after, when on account of the infamous conduct of a creditor, the
citizens were liberated from the general oppression, and voluntary
bondage on account of debt abolished in future.[18] And always at such
periods, when the common people are exhausted by contributions in times
of public calamity, some relief and remedy is to be devised for the
common safety. Which the senate having neglected to do, sufficient cause
was given to the people to create two tribunes during a sedition of the
plebeians, with intent to weaken the power and authority of the senate;
which nevertheless remained a grave and great body, bringing forward in
the service of the state the wisest and bravest men, and strengthening
it by arms and counsel. And their authority was the greater, because far
excelling all others in honour, they were less conspicuous for
voluptuousness, and not much signalized by their wealth. Their high
worth also was the more esteemed in the state, because in private life
they diligently assisted individuals by their advice, and by substantial
services.
XXXV. In which situation of the republic, the quæstor accused Sp.
Cassius, who enjoyed the highest degree of favour with the people, and
was contriving a usurpation of the government; and as you have heard,
when his own father stated himself to be satisfied of his guilt, the
people assenting to it, he put him to death. It was a grateful thing
also to the people, when Sp. Tarpeius, and A. Aternius, consuls, about
fifty-four years after the first consuls, carried a law in the meetings
of the centuries concerning fines. Twenty years afterwards when L.
Papirius, and P. Pinarius, censors, by pronouncing fines, converted the
strength of the flocks of many private individuals to the public use; a
light valuation of cattle was ordained in the law on fines, during the
consulate of C. Julius and P. Papirius.
XXXVI. But some years before, when the senate enjoyed the greatest
authority, the people being very patient and obedient, a new plan was
instituted. The consuls and the tribunes of the people abdicated the
magistracy, and ten men were created with the greatest authority, and
without appeal, who were to possess the supreme power, and to inscribe
the laws. Who when they with great equity and prudence, had written ten
tables of laws, appointed ten other decemvirs for the following year,
whose faith and justice are not in like manner praised. From which
college, however, comes that praiseworthy act of C. Julius, who stated
that in his presence a body had been dug out of the chamber of a
patrician, L. Sestius. Although he had supreme power, and as decemvir
was without appeal, he admitted him to bail, refusing to lose sight of
that most excellent law, which forbids sentence to be pronounced on the
head of a Roman citizen, unless in the meetings of the centuries.
XXXVII. A third decemviral year followed under the same men, they being
unwilling to appoint others. In this condition of the commonwealth,
which I have often already stated not to be lasting, because it is not
equable to all the orders of the state, the chief men had the whole
government in their hands; the most noble decemvirs being always
preferred. No tribunes of plebeians opposed to them, no other
magistrates associated with them, and no appeal left to the people
against death and stripes. Wherefore on account of the injustice of
these men, a great disturbance suddenly arose, and a revolution took
place in the whole commonwealth. They added two tables of iniquitous
laws, in which the very marriages which were even permitted to
strangers, were forbidden by an inhuman law, lest the plebeians should
connect themselves with the fathers; which law was afterwards abrogated
by the plebicist Canuleius. In all things they conducted themselves
libidinously, cruelly, and avariciously towards the people. Upon that
celebrated and well known affair contained in many literary records, in
which one Decimus Virginius on account of the outrage of one of the
decemvirs, slew his virgin daughter with his own hand in the Forum, and
fled lamenting to the army which was then on Mount Algide; the soldiers
abandoned the war they were then engaged in, and as was before done for
a similar cause, first came to the sacred mount, and next to the
Aventine * * * * *
[Eight pages wanting.]
XXXVIII. When Scipio had spoken these things, and all by their silence
were expecting the remainder.—“Since my seniors here, Africanus,” said
Tubero, “ask you no questions, hear from me what I still find wanting in
your discourse.” “Most cheerfully,” replied Scipio. “You appear to me,”
said he “to have been pronouncing the eulogium of our republic, when
Lælius was inquiring not respecting ours, but of government in general.
Nor have I learnt from your discourse, by what discipline, or by what
customs or laws, a republic like the one you praise, can be constituted
or preserved.”
XXXIX. “I think,” said Africanus, “we shall by and by have a more
appropriate occasion, Tubero, of discussing the establishment and
preservation of states. In respect to the best kind of government, I
deem myself to have sufficiently answered the inquiries which Lælius
made. First I pointed out three kinds of government that might be
endured, and to these three their very pernicious opposites: that no one
among them was the best, but that one moderately balanced from all
three, was preferable to either of them. That I have availed myself of
our state for an example, was not with a view to define the best form of
government, for that could be done without an example. But in truth,
that a great state might present the very picture, such as reason and
language might describe it to be. But if without going to the example of
any people, you are desirous of finding that perfect condition of
government, then look at the image which nature presents to us * * *
[A great number of pages wanting here.]
XL. S. * * * a character I have been looking for, and have been desirous
of arriving at.
L. The discreet statesman, perhaps?
S. The very same.
L. You have all those present who are so numerous: or you can begin with
yourself. “I wish,” said Scipio, “it was proportionally so in the whole
senate. However, he is a discreet man, who as we have frequently seen in
Africa, seated on a monstrous wild and ferocious animal, governs and
directs him; making him kneel down, not with blows, but with a slight
sign.”
L. I know, and have often seen it when I was Lieutenant to you.
S. So the Indian or Carthagenian governs a wild beast, and renders it
docile and gentle with humane conduct. But that intellectual principle
which is hidden in the souls of men, and which is called a part of the
soul, does not bridle or tame one easily subdued, whenever it
accomplishes it, which rarely happens. For that ferocious animal must be
restrained[19] * * * *
[Either four or eight pages are wanting here.]
XLII. “Already,” said Lælius, “I see the man I expected, so greatly
endowed, and charged with such duties.” “With this duty only,” replied
Africanus, “for in this one almost all the rest are included. That in
his thoughts and actions he never deviate from himself, so that he may
call upon others to imitate him, and that he may offer himself in the
purity of his mind and his life, as a mirror to his fellow citizens. For
as in stringed instruments or pipes, as well as in singing with voices,
a certain harmony is to be formed with distinct sounds, an interruption
to which cannot be borne by refined ears; this kindred and harmonious
concert being produced by the modification of dissimilar voices. So a
government temperately organized from the upper, the lower and middle
orders blended together, harmonizes like music by the agreement of
dissimilar sounds. And that which in song is called by musicians,
harmony, is concord in a state; the strongest and best bond of safety in
every republic; yet which without justice cannot be preserved.[20]
[Many pages wanting.]
XLIV. “I assent entirely to it,” said Scipio, “and declare freely to
you, that we must esteem in nothing all that we have said upon
government, or that may remain farther to be said, unless it be
established, not only that it is false, that injustice is necessary, but
that this is most true; that without the most perfect justice, no
government can prosper in any manner. But if you please, thus far for to
day. The remainder, for many things remain yet to be said, we will defer
until to-morrow.” When this was approved, an end was put to the
discussion for that day.
-----
Footnote 12:
Pecuniosi.
Footnote 13:
Locupletes.
Footnote 14:
Plato.
Footnote 15:
Asses dare.
Footnote 16:
Carthage.
Footnote 17:
γὲροντας in the MSS.
Footnote 18:
This passage appears to deserve a note. The words “nexa” and “nectier”
are used in the original. And at the first glance, the passage,
connecting it with the well known custom of keeping debtors in chains,
as well as the memorable occasion which produced this insurrectionary
movement, would appear to declare, that all kinds of bondage for debt
were abolished in future. In early periods, whoever was unable to pay
his debts, was adjudged by a decree of the prætor, to discharge them
in personal services: for which purpose his person was delivered to
his creditor; whose slave in every sense of the word he thus became,
until the debt was discharged. A debtor thus situated was termed
“addictus” or sentenced. Livy, vi. 36., relates “that those against
whom judgments had been given, (addictos) were led out daily in herds
from the Forum, to the mansions of the patricians, which were filled
with enchained debtors: and that wherever a patrician dwelt, there was
a private prison.” That all debtors were subject to actual bonds,
appears from every indebted person under voluntary judgment, being
called “nexus,” meaning linked or chained; and probably when judgment
was passed, debtors were delivered in that condition to the creditors.
But “nexus” changed its meaning, as the word “bond” has done in our
language, where we bind ourselves only with forms. The urgent
necessity of the plebeians, arising out of the exactions of the
patricians, obliged them to borrow money at usury; and upon such
occasions, for money weighed out to him “per æs et libram,” before
witnesses, the borrower pledged his person and liberty to the lender
as security for the debt. This voluntary act, which was equivalent to
a modern confession of judgment, constituted the debtor a “nexus;”
before the period of payment had expired, at which time only he was
liable to fetters. Upon the occasion of the insurrection mentioned in
the passage; a young man of respectable plebeian family, C. Publilius,
surrendered himself to Papirius, a patrician usurer, in the place of
his father who had failed to redeem himself from his “nexus.”
Rejecting the infamous propositions made to him, Papirius caused him
to be cruelly scourged. This transaction having roused the people, the
senate was obliged to consent to the liberation of all persons who had
become “nexi” by their voluntary act, and to order the practice to be
discontinued in future.
I have translated the passage in accordance with this view of the
subject. Niebuhr, vol. i. 506. Livy, vi. 36. viii. 28. &c.
Footnote 19:
The continuation of this passage is, perhaps, found in Nonius Voc.
Exsultare, “which nourishes itself with blood, and which so delights
in every kind of cruelty, that it scarcely can be satiated with the
sad destruction of human beings.”
Footnote 20:
Professor Mai quotes the following passage from St. Augustin, De. Civ.
Dei, as containing a summary of that part of the discussion
interrupted here. “And when Scipio had in a more comprehensive and
diffuse way, shown how advantageous justice was to a state, and how
injurious the absence of it was: Philus, who was one of those present
at the discussion, took it up, and proposed that that subject should
be very carefully investigated, on account of the opinion which was
obtaining, that governments could not be administered without
injustice.”
CICERO’S REPUBLIC.
[Illustration]