Punishments for their Citizens; and never set off Deserts against
Misdeeds_.
The valour of Horatius in vanquishing the Curiatii deserved the highest
reward. But in slaying his sister he had been guilty of a heinous
crime. And so displeasing to the Romans was an outrage of this nature,
that although his services were so great and so recent, they brought
him to trial for his life. To one looking at it carelessly, this might
seem an instance of popular ingratitude, but he who considers the
matter more closely, and examines with sounder judgment what the
ordinances of a State should be, will rather blame the Roman people for
acquitting Horatius than for putting him on his trial. And this because
no well-ordered State ever strikes a balance between the services of
its citizens and their misdeeds; but appointing rewards for good
actions and punishment for bad, when it has rewarded a man for acting
well, will afterwards, should he act ill, chastise him, without regard
to his former deserts. When these ordinances are duly observed, a city
will live long in freedom, but when they are neglected, it must soon
come to ruin. For when a citizen has rendered some splendid service to
his country, if to the distinction which his action in itself confers,
were added an over-weening confidence that any crime he might
thenceforth commit would pass unpunished, he would soon become so
arrogant that no civil bonds could restrain him.
Still, while we would have punishment terrible to wrongdoers, it is
essential that good actions should be rewarded, as we see to have been
the case in Rome. For even where a republic is poor, and has but little
to give, it ought not to withhold that little; since a gift, however
small, bestowed as a reward for services however great, will always be
esteemed most honourable and precious by him who receives it. The story
of Horatius Cocles and that of Mutius Scævola are well known: how the
one withstood the enemy on the bridge while it was being cut down, and
the other thrust his hand into the fire in punishment of the mistake
made when he sought the life of Porsenna the Etruscan king. To each of
these two, in requital of their splendid deeds, two ploughgates only of
the public land were given. Another famous story is that of Manlius
Capitolinus, to whom, for having saved the Capitol from the besieging
Gauls, a small measure of meal was given by each of those who were shut
up with him during the siege. Which recompense, in proportion to the
wealth of the citizens of Rome at that time, was thought ample; so that
afterwards, when Manlius, moved by jealousy and malice, sought to
arouse sedition in Rome, and to gain over the people to his cause, they
without regard to his past services threw him headlong from that
Capitol in saving which he had formerly gained so great a renown.