ile in every republic there are two conflicting
factions, that of the people and that of the nobles, it is in this
conflict that all laws favourable to freedom have their origin, as may
readily be seen to have been the case in Rome. For from the time of the
Tarquins to that of the Gracchi, a period of over three hundred years,
the tumults in Rome seldom gave occasion to punishment by exile, and
very seldom to bloodshed. So that we cannot truly declare those tumults
to have been disastrous, or that republic to have been disorderly, which
during all that time, on account of her internal broils, banished no
more than eight or ten of her citizens, put very few to death, and
rarely inflicted money penalties. Nor can we reasonably pronounce that
city ill-governed wherein we find so many instances of virtue; for
virtuous actions have their origin in right training, right training
in wise laws, and wise laws in these very tumults which many would
thoughtlessly condemn. For he who looks well to the results of these
tumults will find that they did not lead to banishments, nor to violence
hurtful to the common good, but to laws and ordinances beneficial to the
public liberty. And should any object that the behaviour of the Romans
was extravagant and outrageous; that for the assembled people to be
heard shouting against the senate, the senate against the people; for
the whole commons to be seen rushing wildly through the streets, closing
their shops, and quitting the town, were things which might well
affright him even who only reads of them; it may be answered, that the
inhabitants of all cities, more especially of cities which seek to make
use of the people in matters of importance, have their own ways of
giving expression to their wishes; among which the city of Rome had the
custom, that when its people sought to have a law passed they followed
one or another of those courses mentioned above, or else refused to be
enrolled as soldiers when, to pacify them, something of their demands
had to be conceded. But the demands of a free people are hurtful to
freedom, since they originate either in being oppressed, or in the fear
that they are about to be so. When this fear is groundless, it finds its
remedy in public meetings, wherein some worthy person may come forward
and show the people by argument that they are deceiving themselves. For
though they be ignorant, the people are not therefore, as Cicero says,
incapable of being taught the