# 17. That to a Person to whom Offence has been given, no Administrative Post of Importance should subsequently be assigned

A republic should take good care not to give any administrative post of importance to anyone to whom some notable wrong has been done. Claudius Nero left the army with which he was confronting Hannibal, and went with part of it to the Marcha to look for the other consul so that they might engage Hasdrubal before he could join Hannibal. On a previous occasion he had found himself in Spain facing Hasdrubal, whom he had so penned up with his army that he must needs either fight at a disadvantage or perish of hunger. Hasdrubal, however, had cleverly deceived him by making proposals of peace, and had then slipped away, thus depriving Claudius of the chance of defeating him. When this came to be known in Rome it brought on him the grave reproaches alike of the senate and of the people, and he was spoken of disparagingly throughout the city to his discredit and to his disgust. So, when later on he became consul and was sent to fight Hannibal, he took the other course described above; which was so exceedingly dangerous a thing to do that it caused in Rome grave doubts and great anxiety till the news of the routing of Hasdrubal at length arrived. When asked afterwards why he had adopted so dangerous a course whereby without any grave necessity he had come near to risking the freedom of Rome, Claudius replied that he had done so because he thought that, if he succeeded, he would regain the glory he had lost in Spain, and that, if he did not succeed but the course he had adopted led to disaster, he would feel that he had avenged himself on a city whose citizens had treated him so ungratefully and so unwisely.

If the passions aroused by such offences could have so great an effect on a Roman citizen at a time when Rome was as yet free from corruption, one can well imagine how great an effect injuries are likely to have on a citizen of some other city which is not constituted as Rome then was. Moreover, since no sure remedy can be prescribed for such disorders, to which republics are liable, it follows that it is impossible to constitute a republic that shall last for ever, since there are a thousand unpredictable ways in which its downfall may be brought about.