Dios Rome, Vol. 4 | Page 8

Therefore for our own sakes and for that of the city let us obey Fortune, who gives you the supremacy. Let us be very thankful to her that she has not simply filled us with civil woes, but has put the reorganization of the government in your hands. By paying due reverence to her you may show all mankind that whereas others wrought disturbance and injury, you are an upright man.
"Do not, I beg you, fear the magnitude of the empire. The greater its extent, the more are the preservative influences it possesses; also, to guard anything is a long way easier than to acquire it. Toils and dangers are needed to win over what belongs to others, but a little prudence suffices to retain what is already yours. Moreover, do not be afraid that you will not live quite safely in the midst of it and enjoy all the blessings extant among men, if you are willing to arrange all the details as I shall advise you. And do not think that I am making my appeal depart from the subject in hand, if I shall speak at some length about the project. I shall not do this merely to hear myself talk, but to the end that you may be positively assured that it is both possible and easy, for a man of sense at least, to govern well and without danger.
[-19-] "I maintain, therefore, first of all that you ought to pick out your friends in the senatorial body and then subject it to a sifting process, because some who are not fit have become senators on account of civil disputes: such of them as possess any excellence you ought to retain, but the rest you should erase from the roll. Do not, however, get rid of any man of worth, because of poverty, but give him the money that he needs. In the place of those who have been dropped introduce the noblest, the best, the richest men obtainable, selecting them not only from Italy but from the allies and subject nations. In this way you will not be employing many assistants and you will insure a correct attitude on the part of the chief men from all the provinces. These districts, having no renowned leader, will not be disposed to rebel, and their prominent men will entertain affection for you because they have been made sharers in your empire.
"Take precisely these same measures in the case of the knights, by enrolling in the equestrian class such as hold second place everywhere in birth, excellence, and wealth. Register as many in both classes as may please you, not troubling at all about their numbers. The more men of repute you have as your associates, the more easily will you yourself settle everything in case of need and persuade your subjects that you are treating them not as slaves nor in any way as inferior to us, but are sharing with them besides all the other blessings that belong to us the chief magistracy also, that so they may be devoted to it as their own possession. I am so far from assuming this to be a mistaken policy that I say they ought all to be given a share in the government. Thus, having an equal allotment in it, they might be faithful allies of ours, believing that they inhabited one single city owned in common by all of us, and this really a city, and regarding fields and villages as their individual property. But about this and what ought to be done so as not to grant them absolutely everything, we shall reflect in greater detail at another time.
[-20-] "It is proper to put men on the roll of the knights at eighteen years of age; for at that period of life physical condition is at its best and suitability of temperament can be discerned. But for the senate they should wait till they are twenty-five years old. Is it not disgraceful and hazardous to entrust public business to men younger than this, when we will commit none of our private affairs to any one before, he has reached such an age? After they have served as qu?stors and ?diles, or tribunes, let them be pr?tors, when they have attained their thirtieth birthday. These offices and that of consul are the only ones at home which I maintain you ought to recognize; and that is for the sake of remembrance of ancestral customs and in order not to seem to be changing the constitution altogether. Do you, however, yourself choose all who are to hold them and not put any of these offices longer in charge of the rabble or the populace,--for they will surely quarrel,--nor in charge of the senate, for its members will