restrain an excited Multitude_.
The next noteworthy point in the passage referred to in the foregoing
Chapter is, that nothing tends so much to restrain an excited multitude
as the reverence felt for some grave person, clothed with authority,
who stands forward to oppose them. For not without reason has Virgil
said—
“If then, by chance, some reverend chief appear,
Known for his deeds and for his virtues dear,
Silent they wait his words and bend a listening ear.”[6]
[6] Tum pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quem
Conspexere, silent, arrectisque auribus adstant.
_Virg. Aen._, I. 154.
He therefore who commands an army or governs a city wherein tumult
shall have broken out, ought to assume the noblest and bravest bearing
he can, and clothe himself with all the ensigns of his station, that he
may make himself more revered. It is not many years since Florence was
divided into two factions, the _Frateschi_ and _Arrabbiati_, as they
were named, and these coming to open violence, the _Frateschi_, among
whom was Pagolo Antonio Soderini, a citizen of great reputation in
these days, were worsted. In the course of these disturbances the
people coming with arms in their hands to plunder the house of
Soderini, his brother Messer Francesco, then bishop of Volterra and now
cardinal, who happened to be dwelling there, so soon as he heard the
uproar and saw the crowd, putting on his best apparel and over it his
episcopal robes, went forth to meet the armed multitude, and by his
words and mien brought them to a stay; and for many days his behaviour
was commended by the whole city. The inference from all which is, that
there is no surer or more necessary restraint on the violence of an
unruly multitude, than the presence of some one whose character and
bearing command respect.
But to return once more to the passage we are considering, we see how
stubbornly the people clung to this scheme of transplanting themselves
to Veii, thinking it for their advantage, and not discerning the
mischief really involved in it; so that in addition to the many
dissensions which it occasioned, actual violence must have followed,
had not the senate with the aid of certain grave and reverend citizens
repressed the popular fury.