# 39. To Different Peoples the same sort of Thing is often found to happen

If the present be compared with the remote past, it is easily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were. So that, if one examines with diligence the past, it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth, and to apply those remedies which were used of old; or, if one does not find that remedies were used, to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events. But, since such studies are neglected and what is read is not understood, or, if it be understood, is not applied in practice by those who rule, the consequence is that similar troubles occur at all times.

Since the city of Florence after ’94 lost part of its dominions, e.g. Pisa and other towns, it had to make war on those who had occupied them. And, because those who had occupied them were powerful, the result of the war was considerable expense and no fruit; from the expense there resulted heavy taxation; and from the heavy taxation endless complaints by the populace. Since this war was administered by a magistracy consisting of ten citizens, called ‘the Ten of War’, the public in general began to be disgusted with it in that it was responsible both for the war and for the expense. They were convinced that, if this magistracy was abolished, there would be an end to the war; so, when the time came to re-elect it, instead of making new appointments they let it lapse, and entrusted their affairs to the Signoria. This decision was so disastrous that not only did it fail to stop the war, as the public in general had expected, but it removed the very men who had been administering it wisely, and led to such confusion that, in addition to Pisa, Arezzo was lost, and many other places. Consequently the people repented their mistake, and since the cause of the trouble was the malady, not the doctor, they reappointed the magistracy of the Ten.

The same passion was aroused in Rome by the title of consul. For, when the people saw one war following on another, and that they never got any rest, they ought to have ascribed it to the ambition of neighbours who were seeking to crush them, whereas they thought it was due to the ambition of nobles who, unable to chastise the plebs within the state where they were protected by the power of the tribunes, were anxious for them to be led forth under consuls that they might oppress them where there was no one to help. For this reason they thought it necessary either to abolish the consuls, or so to regulate their power that they should have no authority over the populace either abroad or at home. The first to propose such a law was Terentillus, a tribune. He proposed that five men should be appointed to investigate the consular power and to set limits to it. This incensed the nobles not a little, for it looked to them as if the majesty of government would vanish altogether, and that to the nobility there would no longer remain any status in the republic. The obstinacy of the tribunes was none the less such that the title or consul was abolished, and, after certain other ordinances had been made, they were at length content to appoint tribunes with consular power instead of consuls, so that what they had really hated was the title rather than the authority of the consuls. This custom was observed for a long time, but at length, realizing their mistake, they again appointed consuls, just as the Florentines returned to the ‘Ten’.





Book One



[DISCOURSES 40–45]


[Sundry Reflections Based on the Decemvirate]