so, commonwealths observe their
engagements far more faithfully than princes; for abundant examples
might be cited of a very slight advantage having caused a prince to
break faith, and of a very great advantage having failed to induce a
commonwealth to do so. Of this we have an instance in the proposal made
to the Athenians by Themistocles, when he told them at a public meeting
that he had certain advice to offer which would prove of great advantage
to their city, but the nature of which he could not disclose to them,
lest it should become generally known, when the opportunity for acting
upon it would be lost. Whereupon the Athenians named Aristides to
receive his communication, and to act upon it as he thought fit. To him,
accordingly, Themistocles showed how the navy of united Greece, for the
safety of which the Athenians stood pledged, was so situated that they
might either gain it over or destroy it, and thus make themselves
absolute masters of the whole country. Aristides reporting to the
Athenians that the course proposed by Themistocles was extremely
advantageous but extremely dishonourable, the people utterly refused to
entertain it. But Philip of Macedon would not have so acted, nor any of
those other princes who have sought and found more profit in breaking
faith than in any other way.

As to engagements broken off on the pretext that they have not been
observed by the other side, I say nothing, since that is a matter of
everyday occurrence, and I am speaking here only of those engagements
which are broken off on extraordinary grounds; but in this respect,
likewise, I believe that commonwealths offend less than princes, and are
therefore more to be trusted.

CHAPTER LX.--_That the Consulship and all the other Magistracies in Rome
were given without respect to Age_.

It is seen in the course of the Roman history that, after the consulship
was thrown open to the commons, the republic conceded this dignity to
all its citizens, without distinction either of age or blood; nay, that
in this matter respect for age was never made a ground for preference
among the Romans, whose constant aim it was to discover excellence
whether existing in old or young. To this we have the testimony of
Valerius Corvinus, himself made consul in his twenty-fourth year, who,
in addressing his soldiers, said of the consulship that it was "_the
reward not of birth but of desert_."

Whether the course thus followed by the Romans was