e upon a just cause, and apparent conviction; but
above all things forbeare to lay his hands on other mens goods; for men
forget sooner the death of their father, than the loss of their
patrimony. Moreover the occasions of taking from men their goods, do
never fail: and alwaies he that begins to live by rapine, finds occasion
to lay hold upon other mens goods: but against mens lives, they are
seldome found, and sooner fail. But where a Prince is abroad in the
field with his army, and hath a multitude of soldiers under his
government, then is it necessary that he stands not much upon it, though
he be termed cruel: for unless he be so, he shall never have his
soldiers live in accord one with another, nor ever well disposed to any
brave piece of service. Among Hannibals actions of mervail, this is
reckoned for one, that having a very huge army, gathered out of several
nations, and all led to serve in a strange countrey, there was never any
dissention neither amongst themselves, nor against their General, as
well in their bad fortune as their good. Which could not proceed from
any thing else than from that barbarous cruelty of his, which together
with his exceeding many vertues, rendred him to his soldiers both
venerable and terrible; without which, to that effect his other vertues
had served him to little purpose: and some writers though not of the
best advised, on one side admire these his worthy actions, and on the
otherside, condemn the principal causes thereof. And that it is true,
that his other vertues would not have suffic'd him, we may consider in
Scipio, the rarest man not only in the dayes he liv'd, but even in the
memory of man; from whom his army rebel'd in Spain: which grew only upon
his too much clemency, which had given way to his soldiers to become
more licentious, than was well tollerable by military discipline: for
which he was reprov'd by Fabius Maximus in the Senate, who termed him
the corrupter of the Roman soldiery. The Locrensians having been
destroyed by a Lieutenant of Scipio's, were never reveng'd by him, nor
the insolence of that Lieutenant punisht; all this arising from his
easie nature: so that one desiring to excuse him in the Senate, said,
that there were many men knew better how to keep themselves from faults,
than to correct the faults of other men: which disposition of his in
time would have wrong'd Scipio's reputation and glory, had he therewith
continu'd in his commands: but living under t