which must
speedily ensue and are no more moved by example in this matter than in
all those others of which I have spoken; for were they moved by these
examples they would see that the more disposed they are to deal
generously with their neighbours, and the more averse they are to usurp
authority over them, the readier will these be to throw themselves into
their arms; as will at once appear from the case of the Capuans.

CHAPTER XXI.--_That Capua was the first City to which the Romans sent
a Praetor; nor there, until four hundred years after they began to make
War._

The great difference between the methods followed by the ancient Romans
in adding to their dominions, and those used for that purpose by the
States of the present time, has now been sufficiently discussed. It has
been seen, too how in dealing with the cities which they did not think
fit to destroy, and even with those which had made their submission
not as companions but as subjects, it was customary with the Romans
to permit them to live on under their own laws, without imposing any
outward sign of dependence, merely binding them to certain conditions,
or complying with which they were maintained in their former dignity
and importance. We know, further, that the same methods continued to be
followed by the Romans until they passed beyond the confines of Italy,
and began to reduce foreign kingdoms and States to provinces: as plainly
appears in the fact that Capua was the first city to which they sent a
praetor, and him from no motive of ambition, but at the request of the
Capuans themselves who, living at variance with one another, thought it
necessary to have a Roman citizen in their town who might restore unity
and good order among them. Influenced by this example, and urged by the
same need, the people of Antium were the next to ask that they too might
have a praetor given them; touching which request and in connection with
which new method of governing, Titus Livius observes, "_that not the
arms only but also the laws of Rome now began to exert an influence;_"
showing how much the course thus followed by the Romans promoted the
growth of their authority.

For those cities, more especially, which have been used to freedom or
to be governed by their own citizens, rest far better satisfied with a
government which they do not see, even though it involve something of
oppression, than with one which standing constantly before their eyes,
seems every d