ein among other Matters is shown how the
same Causes may lead to the Safety or to the Ruin of a Commonwealth._

It being my desire to treat fully of those disorders which arose in Rome
on the creation of the decemvirate, I think it not amiss first of all to
relate what took place at the time of that creation, and then to discuss
those circumstances attending it which seem most to deserve notice.
These are numerous, and should be well considered, both by those who
would maintain the liberties of a commonwealth and by those who would
subvert them. For in the course of our inquiry it will be seen that many
mistakes prejudicial to freedom were made by the senate and people, and
that many were likewise made by Appius, the chief decemvir, prejudicial
to that tyranny which it was his aim to establish in Rome.

After much controversy and wrangling between the commons and the nobles
as to the framing of new laws by which the freedom of Rome might be
better secured, Spurius Posthumius and two other citizens were, by
general consent, despatched to Athens to procure copies of the laws
which Solon had drawn up for the Athenians, to the end that these might
serve as a groundwork for the laws of Rome. On their return, the next
step was to depute certain persons to examine these laws and to draft
the new code. For which purpose a commission consisting of ten members,
among whom was Appius Claudius, a crafty and ambitious citizen, was
appointed for a year; and that the commissioners in framing their laws
might act without fear or favour, all the other magistracies, and in
particular the consulate and tribuneship, were suspended, and the appeal
to the people discontinued; so that the decemvirs came to be absolute
in Rome. Very soon the whole authority of the commissioners came to
be centred in Appius, owing to the favour in which he was held by
the commons. For although before he had been regarded as the cruel
persecutor of the people, he now showed himself so conciliatory in his
bearing that men wondered at the sudden change in his character and
disposition.

This set of commissioners, then, behaved discreetly, being attended by
no more than twelve lictors, walking in front of that decemvir whom
the rest put forward as their chief; and though vested with absolute
authority, yet when a Roman citizen had to be tried for murder, they
cited him before the people and caused him to be judged by them. Their
laws they wrote upon ten tables, b