# CHAPTER 4 — How the Division Between the Plebeians and the Roman Senate Made That Republic Free and Powerful

I must not fail to discuss the disturbances that persisted in Rome from the death of the Tarquins to the creation of the tribunes and, afterwards, certain other matters to counter the opinion of those who declare that Rome was a disorderly republic, full of so much turmoil that if good fortune and exceptional military ability had not made up for its defects, the city would have been inferior to every other republic. I cannot deny that fortune and their military were reasons for Roman dominance, but it seems clear to me that these thinkers fail to realize that where there is good military organization, there must also be good institutions, and only rarely does this occur where there is not also good fortune. But let us move on to other details concerning this city. I must say that it appears to me that those who condemn the disturbances between the nobles and the plebeians condemn those very things that were the primary cause of Roman liberty, and that they give more consideration to the noises and cries arising from such disturbances than to the good effects they produced; nor do they consider that in every republic there are two different tendencies, that of the people and that of the upper class, and that all of the laws which are passed in favour of liberty are born from the rift between the two, as can easily be seen from what happened in Rome, since from the time of the Tarquins to that of the Gracchi, a period of more than 300 years, the disturbances in Rome rarely led to exile and even more rarely to bloodshed. It is not possible, therefore, to judge these disturbances to be harmful or such a republic to be divided, since over such a long period of time its strife sent no more than eight or ten citizens into exile, killed very few of them, and condemned not many more to pay fines. Nor can one in any way reasonably call a republic disorganized where so many examples of exceptional ability occur, for good examples arise from good training, good training from good laws, and good laws from those disturbances that many people thoughtlessly condemn, and anyone who carefully examines the goal of these laws will find that they did not lead to exile or to violence against the common good, but instead brought forth laws and institutions for the benefit of civic liberty. And suppose someone were to say: the means were extraordinary and almost barbarous—see how all the people are crying out against the senate, the senate against the people; how they are running wildly through the streets, closing the shops; and how all the plebeians of Rome are leaving the city together—events which terrify even those who read about them; I will respond that every city must possess its own methods for allowing the people to express their ambitions, especially those cities that intend to make use of the people in important affairs. Among these cities, the city of Rome had such a method, for when the people wanted a new law, either they did some of the things mentioned above, or they refused to sign up to go to war, so that to placate them it was necessary to give them some measure of satisfaction. The desires of free peoples are rarely harmful to liberty, because they arise either from oppression or from the suspicion that they will be oppressed. Clearly, should these opinions prove to be in error, there is the remedy of public assemblies where some worthy man may arise and, making a speech, demonstrate to the people that they are mistaken, for as Cicero declares, * the people, although ignorant, can grasp the truth, and they readily yield when they are told the truth by a trustworthy man.

One should, therefore, criticize Roman government more sparingly and consider that the many good effects that came out of that republic were produced only by the best causes. If these disturbances were the cause for the creation of the tribunes, they deserve the highest praise, because besides giving to the people its role in democratic administration, the tribunes were established as the guardians of Roman liberty, as will be demonstrated in the following chapter.