gilance, are easily kept quiet. Distant
powers, in the mean time, who have no intercourse with either, treat the
matter as too remote to concern them in any way; and abiding in this
error until the conflagration approaches their own doors, on its arrival
have no resource for its extinction, save in their own strength, which,
as their enemy has by that time become exceedingly powerful, no longer
suffices.

I forbear to relate how the Samnites stood looking on while the Romans
were subjugating the Equians and the Volscians; and, to avoid
being prolix, shall content myself with the single instance of the
Carthaginians, who, at the time when the Romans were contending with the
Samnites and Etruscans, were possessed of great power and held in high
repute, being already masters of the whole of Africa together with
Sicily and Sardinia, besides occupying territory in various parts of
Spain. And because their empire was so great, and at such a distance
from the Roman frontier, they were never led to think of attacking the
Romans or of lending assistance to the Etruscans or Samnites. On the
contrary, they behaved towards the Romans as men behave towards those
whom they see prosper, rather taking their part and courting their
friendship. Nor did they discover their mistake until the Romans, after
subduing all the intervening nations, began to assail their power both
in Spain and Sicily. What happened in the case of the Carthaginians,
happened also in the case of the Gauls, of Philip of Macedon, and of
Antiochus, each of whom, while Rome was engaged with another of them,
believed that other would have the advantage, and that there would be
time enough to provide for their own safety, whether by making peace or
war. It seems to me, therefore, that the same good fortune which, in
this respect, attended the Romans, might be shared by all princes acting
as they did, and of a valour equal to theirs.

As bearing on this point, it might have been proper for me to show what
methods were followed by the Romans in entering the territories of other
nations, had I not already spoken of this at length in my _Treatise on
Princedoms_, wherein the whole subject is discussed. Here it is enough
to say briefly, that in a new province they always sought for some
friend who should be to them as a ladder whereby to climb, a door
through which to pass, or an instrument wherewith to keep their hold.
Thus we see them effect their entrance into Samnium thr