Dios Rome, Vol. 4 | Page 4

will lose the good-will of your subjects. How can it be
otherwise, if no one is permitted to be born nobly or to grow rich
honestly or to become strong, brave, or learned? But if you allow all
the separate classes to grow strong, you will not be able to deal with
them easily. If you alone were sufficient for carrying on politics and
war well and opportunely, and needed no assistant for any of them, it
would be a different story. As the case stands, however, it is quite
essential for you to have many helpers, since they must govern so large
a world: and they all ought to be both brave and prudent. Now if you
hand over the legions and the offices to such men, there will be danger
that both you and your government will be overthrown. It is not
possible for a valuable man to be produced without good sense, and he
cannot acquire any great good sense from servile practices. But again,
if he becomes a man of sense, he cannot fail to desire liberty and to
hate all masters. If, on the other hand, you entrust nothing to these men,
but put affairs in charge of the worthless and chance comers, you will
very quickly incur the anger of the first class, who think themselves
distrusted, and you will very quickly fail in the greatest enterprises.
What good could an ignorant or low-born person accomplish? What
enemy would not hold him in contempt? What allies would obey him?
Who, even of the soldiers themselves, would not disdain to be ruled by
such a man? What evils are wont to result from such a condition I do
not need to describe to you, for you know them thoroughly. I feel
obliged to say only this, that if such an assistant did nothing right, he
would injure you far more than the enemy: if he did anything
satisfactorily, his lack of education would cause him to lose his head,
and he would be a terror to you.

[-9-] "Such a question does not arise in democracies. The more men
there are who are wealthy and brave, so much the more do they vie
with one another and up-build the city. The latter uses them and is glad,
unless any one of them wishes to found a tyranny: him the citizens
punish severely. That this is so and that democracies are far superior to
monarchies the experience of Greece makes clear. As long as the
people had the monarchical government, they effected nothing of
importance: but when they began to live under the democratic system,
they became most renowned. It is shown also by the experience of
other branches of mankind. Those who are still conducting their
governments under tyrannies are always in slavery and always plotting
against their rulers. But those who have presidents for a year or some
longer period continue to be both free and independent.
"Yet, why need we use foreign examples, when we have some of our
own? We Romans, ourselves, after trying a different social organization
at first, later, when we had gone through many bitter experiences, felt a
desire for liberty; and having secured it we attained our present
eminence, strong in no advantages save those that come from
democracy, through which the senate debated, the people ratified, the
force under arms showed zeal, and the commanders were fired with
ambition. None of these things could be done under a tyranny. For that
reason, indeed, the ancient Romans detested it so much as to impose a
curse upon that form of government.
[-10-] "Aside from these considerations, if one is to speak about what is
disadvantageous for you personally, how could you endure the
management of so many interests by day and night alike? How could
you hold out in your enfeebled state? How could you participate in
human enjoyments? How could you be happy if deprived of them?
What could cause you real pleasure? When would you be free from
biting grief? It is quite inevitable that the man who holds so great an
empire should reflect deeply, be subject to many fears enjoy very little
pleasure, but hear and see, perform and suffer, always and everywhere,
what is most disagreeable. That is why, I think, both Greeks and some
barbarians would not accept government by a king when offered to
them.
"Knowing this beforehand, take good counsel before you enter upon
such an existence. For it is disgraceful, or rather impossible, after you

have once plunged into it to rise to the upper air again. Do not be
deceived by the greatness of the authority nor the abundance of
possessions, nor the mass of body-guards, nor the throng of courtiers.
Men who have great power have great troubles: those