# 31. How Dangerous it is to put Confidence in Refugees

It may not be amiss among other topics to show how dangerous it is to trust those who have been driven from their country, since this is a matter with which everyone who holds office has to deal.54 In support it is possible to adduce a noteworthy case which Titus Livy cites in his histories, though it lies outside his main topic. When Alexander the Great crossed with his army into Asia, Alexander of Epirus, a relative – in fact his uncle – went with some troops to Italy, having been invited by some Lucanian refugees who had led him to expect that through their mediation he would gain the whole of that country. Relying on their word and on the hopes they aroused, he came to Italy and was put to death by them; for their fellow-citizens had promised that, if they would kill him, they might return to their own country. One should reflect, therefore, on the unreliability of agreements and promises made by men who find themselves shut out from their country, because in determining what such men’s word is worth it must be borne in mind that, once they get a chance of returning to their country without your help, they will desert you and turn to others in spite of any promises they may have made you. While in regard to the vain promises and hopes, so intense is their desire to get back home that they naturally believe much that is false and artfully add much more: so that between what they believe and what they say they believe they fill you with a hope which is such that, if you rely on it, either you incur expense in vain or take up what will ruin you.

I propose to let this example of Alexander suffice, conjoined with that of Themistocles the Athenian, who, having been proclaimed a rebel, sought refuge with Darius in Asia; to whom he promised so much if he would but attack Greece that Darius resolved to do so. When later he was unable to fulfil these promises whether out of shame or for fear of punishment, Themistocles poisoned himself. Wherefore, if so eminent a man as Themistocles made this mistake, how much more likely are those to err who are less virtuous and let themselves be swayed by their desires and their passions. A ruler, therefore, should be slow to take up an enterprise because of what some exile has told him, for more often than not all he will get out of it is shame or most grievous harm.

And because the taking of towns by stealth and owing to information supplied by their inhabitants rarely succeeds, it does not seem to me irrelevant to discuss this in the next chapter, as also in how many ways the Romans acquired them.