bo of the State and government of Lombardy.
The same arts which princes are constrained to use at the outset of
their career, must also be used by commonwealths, until they have grown
powerful enough to dispense with them and trust to strength alone. And
because Rome at all times, whether from chance or choice, followed all
such methods as are necessary to attain greatness, in this also she was
not behindhand. And, to begin with, she could have used no greater fraud
than was involved in her method above noticed, of making for herself
companions; since under this name she made for herself subjects, for
such the Latins and the other surrounding nations, in fact, became. For
availing herself at first of their arms to subdue neighbouring countries
and gain herself reputation as a State, her power was so much increased
by these conquests that there was none whom she could not overcome.
But the Latins never knew that they were enslaved until they saw the
Samnites twice routed and forced to make terms. This success, while it
added greatly to the fame of the Romans among princes at a distance, who
were thereby made familiar with the Roman name though not with the Roman
arms, bred at the same time jealousy and distrust among those who, like
the Latins, both saw and felt these arms; and such were the effects of
this jealousy and distrust, that not the Latins only but all the Roman
colonies in Latium, along with the Campanians whom a little while
before the Romans had defended leagued themselves together against the
authority of Rome. This war was set on foot by the Latins in the manner
in which, as I have already explained, most wars are begun, not by
directly attacking the Romans, but by defending the Sidicinians against
the Samnites who were making war upon them with the permission of the
Romans. And that it was from their having found out the crafty policy of
the Romans that the Latins were led to take this step, is plain from the
words which Titus Livius puts in the mouth of Annius Setinus the Latin
praetor, who, in addressing the Latin council, is made to say, "_For
if even now we can put up with slavery under the disguise of an equal
alliance, etc_"
We see, therefore, that the Romans, from the time they first began to
extend their power, were not unfamiliar with the art of deceiving, an
art always necessary for those who would mount to great heights from low
beginnings; and which is the less to be condemned when, as in th
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