lius, the Romans had a memorable
victory in a battle fought with the Veientines and the Etruscans, in
which Q. Fabius, brother of the consul, who had himself been consul the
year before, was slain. This event may lead us to remark how well the
methods followed by the city of Rome were suited to increase her power,
and how great a mistake is made by other republics in departing from
them. For, eager as the Romans were in the pursuit of glory, they never
esteemed it a dishonour to obey one whom before they had commanded, or
to find themselves serving in the ranks of an army which once they had
led. This usage, however, is opposed to the ideas, the rules, and the
practice which prevail at the present day, as, for instance, in Venice,
where the notion still obtains that a citizen who has filled a great
office should be ashamed to accept a less; and where the State itself
permits him to decline it. This course, assuming it to lend lustre to
individual citizens, is plainly to the disadvantage of the community,
which has reason to hope more from, and to trust more to, the citizen
who descends from a high office to fill a lower, than him who rises from
a low office to fill a high one; for in the latter no confidence can
reasonably be placed, unless he be seen to have others about him of such
credit and worth that it may be hoped their wise counsels and influence
will correct his inexperience. But had the usage which prevails in
Venice and in other modern commonwealths and kingdoms, prevailed in Rome
whereby he who had once been consul was never afterwards to go with the
army except as consul, numberless results must have followed detrimental
to the free institutions of that city; as well from the mistakes which
the inexperience of new men would have occasioned, as because from their
ambition having a freer course, and from their having none near them in
whose presence they might fear to do amiss, they would have grown less
scrupulous; and in this way the public service must have suffered grave
harm.

CHAPTER XXXVII.--_Of the Mischief bred in Rome by the Agrarian Law: and
how it is a great source of disorder in a Commonwealth to pass a Law
opposed to ancient Usage and with stringent retrospective Effect._

It has been said by ancient writers that to be pinched by adversity or
pampered by prosperity is the common lot of men, and that in whichever
way they are acted upon the result is the same. For when no longer urged
to war