isorders like these occasion mischievous results in a
commonwealth, still they are not fatal, since almost always there is
time to correct them. But no time is given in the case of disorders in
the State itself, which unless they be treated by some wise citizen,
will always bring a city to destruction. From the readiness wherewith
the Romans conferred the right of citizenship on foreigners, there came
to be so many new citizens in Rome, and possessed of so large a share of
the suffrage, that the government itself began to alter, forsaking those
courses which it was accustomed to follow, and growing estranged from
the men to whom it had before looked for guidance. Which being observed
by Quintius Fabius when censor, he caused all those new citizens to be
classed in four _Tribes_, that being reduced within this narrow limit
they might not have it in their power to corrupt the entire State.
And this was a wisely contrived measure, for, without introducing any
violent change, it supplied a convenient remedy, and one so acceptable
to the republic as to gain for Fabius the well-deserved name of Maximus.

THE END.

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