place in all cases imaginable; then secessions of the lower orders
ensued, and, lastly, those proceedings which tended to place all powers
in the hands of the populace.

_Laelius._ I must confess this is all too true.

All these things now, said Scipio, happened during periods of peace and
tranquillity, for license is wont to prevail when there is little to
fear, as in a calm voyage or a trifling disease. But as we observe the
voyager and the invalid implore the aid of some one competent director,
as soon as the sea grows stormy and the disease alarming, so our nation
in peace and security commands, threatens, resists, appeals from, and
insults its magistrates, but in war obeys them as strictly as kings;
for public safety is, after all, rather more valuable than popular
license. And in the most serious wars, our countrymen have even chosen
the entire command to be deposited in the hands of some single chief,
without a colleague; the very name of which magistrate indicates the
absolute character of his power. For though he is evidently called
dictator because he is appointed (dicitur), yet do we still observe
him, my Laelius, in our sacred books entitled Magister Populi (the
master of the people).

This is certainly the case, said Laelius.

Our ancestors, therefore, said Scipio, acted wisely.[312] * * *

XLI. When the people is deprived of a just king, as Ennius says, after
the death of one of the best of monarchs,

They hold his memory dear, and, in the warmth
Of their discourse, they cry, O Romulus!
O prince divine, sprung from the might of Mars
To be thy country's guardian! O our sire!
Be our protector still, O heaven-begot!

Not heroes, nor lords alone, did they call those whom they lawfully
obeyed; nor merely as kings did they proclaim them; but they pronounced
them their country's guardians, their fathers, and their Gods. Nor,
indeed, without cause, for they added,

Thou, Prince, hast brought us to the gates of light.

And truly they believed that life and honor and glory had arisen to
them from the justice of their king. The same good-will would doubtless
have remained in their descendants, if the same virtues had been
preserved on the throne; but, as you see, by the injustice of one man
the whole of that kind of constitution fell into ruin.

I see it indeed, said Laelius, and I long to know the history of these
political revolutions both in our own Commonwealth and in every ot