his choice of terms
and denominations. He called the rich _assidui_, because they afforded
pecuniary succor[320] to the State. As to those whoso fortune did not
exceed 1500 pence, or those who had nothing but their labor, he called
them _proletarii_ classes, as if the State should expect from them a
hardy progeny[321] and population.

Even a single one of the ninety-six last centuries contained
numerically more citizens than the entire first class. Thus, no one was
excluded from his right of voting, yet the preponderance of votes was
secured to those who had the deepest stake in the welfare of the State.
Moreover, with reference to the accensi, velati, trumpeters,
hornblowers, proletarii[322] * * *

XXIII. * * * That that republic is arranged in the best manner which,
being composed in due proportions of those three elements, the
monarchical, the aristocratical, and the democratic, does not by
punishment irritate a fierce and savage mind. * * * [A similar
institution prevailed at Carthage], which was sixty-five years more
ancient than Rome, since it was founded thirty-nine years before the
first Olympiad; and that most ancient law-giver Lycurgus made nearly
the same arrangements. Thus the system of regular subordination, and
this mixture of the three principal forms of government, appear to me
common alike to us and them. But there is a peculiar advantage in our
Commonwealth, than which nothing can be more excellent, which I shall
endeavor to describe as accurately as possible, because it is of such a
character that nothing analogous can be discovered in ancient states;
for these political elements which I have noticed were so united in the
constitutions of Rome, of Sparta, and of Carthage, that they were not
counterbalanced by any modifying power. For in a state in which one man
is invested with a perpetual domination, especially of the monarchical
character, although there be a senate in it, as there was in Rome under
the kings, and in Sparta, by the laws of Lycurgus, or even where the
people exercise a sort of jurisdiction, as they used in the days of our
monarchy, the title of king must still be pre-eminent; nor can such a
state avoid being, and being called, a kingdom. And this kind of
government is especially subject to frequent revolutions, because the
fault of a single individual is sufficient to precipitate it into the
most pernicious disasters.

In itself, however, royalty is not only not a reprehensible f