# 21. The First Praetor the Romans sent out was to Capua, Four Hundred Years after they had first begun to make War

How much the methods used by the Romans in acquiring territory differed from those at present used to extend the dominion of a state, has been sufficiently explained in a previous discourse, and also how the Romans let the towns which they did not destroy, live under their own laws, even in the case of those which did not become their allies, but, when they surrendered, were made subjects; for in such a case the only token of the imperium exercised by the Roman people was the imposing of certain conditions, the which being observed, they allowed them to retain their own form of government and their prestige. These methods we know were kept up until they had gone beyond Italy, and begun to reduce kingdoms and states to provinces.

Of this the best example is that of the first praetor the Romans ever sent to a place [outside Rome], namely, to Capua, for it was not ambition that induced them to send him, but because the Capuans had asked for one, since they were at loggerheads with one another and thought it necessary to have a Roman citizen in their city who should put matters right and reunite them. Moved by this example the people of Antium, when in like case, were constrained to ask that a prefect should be sent to them. Apropos of which incident and of this new way of exercising authority, Titus Livy says that ‘not only the arms of the Romans, but Roman law began now to prevail’.

We see, therefore, how much this procedure contributed to the increase of Rome’s power. For cities, especially those accustomed to freedom or to being ruled by a native of the place, rest more tranquil and content under a government they do not see, though it may bear on them somewhat hardly, than under a government with which they are brought into daily contact and which thus reminds them daily of their servitude. There is also a further advantage gained by the ruler. It is this. Since the judges and magistrates who exercise civil and criminal jurisdiction over the citizens are not his ministers, their judgements cannot cause difficulty or bring discredit on the ruler, so that many grounds for hating and calumniating him are thus avoided.

In addition to other examples one might adduce from antiquity to prove the truth of this, there has recently occurred one in Italy. For Genoa, as everybody knows, has more than once been occupied by the French, and in all cases except the present one the king sent a French governor to rule it in his name. But on the present occasion, not by choice but because he could not help it, the king let the city govern itself, and the governor appointed was a Genoese. Nor can it be doubted that, should anyone inquire as to which of these two methods brought greater security to the king and to the king’s authority there, or greater contentment to the people, he would certainly favour the last method.

Besides which, men are more inclined to throw themselves on your lap the more averse you appear to be to have them there; and for their liberties fear less, the more humane and the more easy-going is your treatment of them. It was the easy-going ways and the generosity of the Romans that made the Capuans hasten to call in a Roman praetor; whereas had the Romans shown the least desire to send one there, they would at once have become suspicious and kept clear of them.

But what need is there to go to Capua and Rome for instances of this when they are to hand in Florence and Tuscany? Everyone knows how long it is since the city of Pistoia came of her own accord under the dominion of Florence. Everybody is also aware what hostility there has been between the Florentines and the Pisans, the Lucchesi and the Siennese. The diverse attitude here adopted did not proceed from the small value the Pistoians set on their liberty as compared with the others, nor from their thinking less of themselves than the others did; but from the Florentines having always treated the Pistoians as brothers, and the others as enemies. It was this that made the Pistoians so quick and so willing to accept Florentine suzerainty, and that made, and still makes, the others exert all their efforts not to come to this. Had the Florentines, whether by means of confederations or by helping them, been easy-going with their neighbours instead of treating them roughly, they would unquestionably be the lords of Tuscany today. I do not mean to say that armed forces should not be used, but that they should be used only as a last resort, when other means prove inadequate.