e same
decemvirs, and still they were not disposed to appoint their
successors. In a situation of the Commonwealth like this, which, as I
have often repeated, could not be durable, because it had not an equal
operation with respect to all the ranks of the citizens, the whole
public power was lodged in the hands of the chiefs and decemvirs of the
highest nobility, without the counterbalancing authority of the
tribunes of the people, without the sanction of any other magistracies,
and without appeal to the people in the case of a sentence of death or
scourging.

Thus, out of the injustice of these men, there was suddenly produced a
great revolution, which changed the entire condition of the government,
or they added two tables of very tyrannical laws, and though
matrimonial alliances had always been permitted, even with foreigners,
they forbade, by the most abominable and inhuman edict, that any
marriages should take place between the nobles and the commons--an
order which was afterward abrogated by the decree of Canuleius.
Besides, they introduced into all their political measures corruption,
cruelty, and avarice. And indeed the story is well known, and
celebrated in many literary compositions, that a certain Decimus
Virginius was obliged, on account of the libidinous violence of one of
these decemvirs, to stab his virgin daughter in the midst of the forum.
Then, when he in his desperation had fled to the Roman army which was
encamped on Mount Algidum, the soldiers abandoned the war in which they
were engaged, and took possession of the Sacred Mount, as they had done
before on a similar occasion, and next invested Mount Aventine in their
arms.[327] Our ancestors knew how to prove most thoroughly, and to
retain most wisely. * * *

XXXVIII. And when Scipio had spoken in this manner, and all his friends
were awaiting in silence the rest of his discourse, then said Tubero:
Since these men who are older than I, my Scipio, make no fresh demands
on you, I shall take the liberty to tell you what I particularly wish
you would explain in your subsequent remarks.

Do so, said Scipio, and I shall be glad to hear.

Then Tubero said: You appear to me to have spoken a panegyric on our
Commonwealth of Rome exclusively, though Laelius requested your views
not only of the government of our own State, but of the policy of
states in general. I have not, therefore, yet sufficiently learned from
your discourse, with respect to that mixed