# 36. Citizens who have held Higher Posts should not disdain to accept Lower

In the consulship of Marcus Fabius and G. Manlius the Romans gained a most glorious victory over the Veientes and the Etruscans, in which Quintus Fabius, the consul’s brother, was killed. Quintus had been consul in the previous year. It may be seen from this how well the institutions of this city were adapted to make it great, and how mistaken are other republics which dispense with this procedure. For, though the Romans had a great esteem for glory, yet they did not deem it an unworthy thing to obey one who had previously been under their command, nor to serve in an army of which they had formerly been commanders in chief.

In the views, institutions, and practice of citizens in our day, this custom is reversed. Venice even makes the mistake of thinking that a citizen who has held high office, should be ashamed to accept a lower; and the state is content that he should decline to accept it. This course, though it may be honourable from the standpoint of a private citizen, is of no use whatsoever from the public standpoint. For a republic rightly places more hope and confidence in a citizen who from a high command descends to a lower, than in one who from a lower command rises to a higher; since on the latter they cannot reasonably rely unless in his entourage they see men so respected and of such virtue that by their advice and authority his inexperiencea may be corrected.

Had there been in Rome the custom which obtains in Venice and in other modern republics and kingdoms, that a person who had once been consul would never want to serve in the army except as consul, numberless events might have happened which would have endangered its freedom, both through the mistakes which the new men would have made, and through the ambition to which they could have the better given rein had they not had around them men in whose presence they were afraid to do wrong. For in that case they would have been more free, and might have used their power to the detriment of the public.





Book One



[DISCOURSES 37–9]


[The Road to Ruin]