The republic of Cicero

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 * * * *

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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, * * * * * *

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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 - Asses dare.] 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, * * * *

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XXIII. * * * * * Was[16 - Carthage.] 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. * * *

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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 * * * * * *

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XXVIII. Lycurgus gave the name of ancients[17 - γὲροντας in the MSS.] 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 * * * * * *

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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 - 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.] 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 * * * * *

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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 * * *

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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 - 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.”] * * * *

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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 - 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.”]

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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.

BOOK III

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II. * * * * The intelligent principle having found man endowed with the faculty of uttering rude and imperfect sounds, enabled him to separate and distinguish them into articulations. Thus words were affixed to things as signs of them, and man, once solitary, became united to man, by the sweet bond of conversation. By the same intelligence, the inflexions of the voice, which we find to be infinite in number, are all distinguished and expressed, by the invention of a few marks, which enable us to hold a correspondence with the absent, to indicate our inclinations, and to preserve a record of things past. To this the knowledge of numbers was added, a thing not only necessary to life, but at once immutable and eternal. Which first led us to consider the heavens, to look upon the motion of the planets with interest, and the numbering of the nights and days * * * *

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III. * * * * Whose minds rose to a loftier pitch as I before said, that they might execute or discover something worthy of the gift they had received from the gods. Wherefore let those who have treated upon the moral conduct of life, be deemed by us, great men, as they are; learned men; masters of truth and virtue. Yet let it be admitted that civil rights, and the government of a people, whether they are the fruits of men experienced in the management of public affairs, or, as the fact has been, the result of their literary leisure, be least despised; causing as they do to spring up in great minds, as we have often seen, an incredible and divine virtue. For if any one to those faculties which the mind has from nature, and to those talents which civil institutions produce, hath added also the learning, and the more various knowledge of things, in which men engaged in the discussion of those books are versed, there is no one who ought not to prefer such a man to all others. For what can be more excellent, than when the practice and habit of great affairs is joined to a perfect knowledge of the theory of the science of them? Or what more perfect can be imagined than P. Scipio, C. Lælius, and L. Philus; who that they might omit nothing appertaining to the high character of enlightened men, to the knowledge of our domestic and ancient customs, united the learning received from Socrates? Wherefore he who determined and effected both, that is, instructed himself as well in the institutions, as in the philosophy of the ancients, I think has accomplished every thing with praise. But if a choice must be made between those two paths to excellence, and if to any one, that tranquil way of life passed in the best studies and sciences may appear happier, still certainly an active, civil life is more illustrious and more laudable. The greatest men derive their glory from such a life, as M. Curius * * * *

“Whom none could overcome with arms or gold.”

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IV. * * * Nevertheless this difference existed in their two different modes: the one unfolded the principles of nature by their studies and by their eloquence; the others by their institutions and by their laws. This commonwealth alone has produced many, if not altogether to be deemed sages, since that title is so cautiously bestowed, yet worthy of the greatest praise; for they cultivated the precepts and discoveries of sages. Wherefore civil governments are to be extolled and ever will be, since in the nature of things, to constitute a commonwealth which shall be lasting, is one of the greatest efforts of mind: and thus if we only enumerate one for every country, what a multitude of excellent men do we find. For if we permit our minds to take a survey of that famous Greece, of Italy, Latium, or the Sabine and Volscian people; the Samnites, the Etrurians; next the Assyrians, the Persians, the Carthagenians. If these * * *

[Twelve pages wanting.]

V. * * * “Truly,” said Philus, “you have imposed a fine task upon me, wishing me to undertake the justification of what is wrong.” “Surely,” said Lælius, “you are afraid lest in using the same arguments which are wont to be brought forward against justice, you may appear to hold such opinions yourself; you who are almost the only example left of ancient probity and faith. But your habit of discussing both sides of the question, in order more easily to get at the truth, is very well known.” “Well, well,” said Philus, “I will do as you wish, and defile myself with my eyes open: for since those who search for gold do not refuse to do it; we who are looking for what is right, a thing much more precious than gold, assuredly ought not to avoid any thing that is disagreeable. And I wish, since I am about to make use of another man’s opinions, it was possible for me to make use of his tongue also. Now, however, L. Furius Philus, must say what Carneades, a Greek in the habit of saying whatever he pleased * * *

[Four pages wanting.]