# CHAPTER 46 — Men Rise from One Ambition to Another; and First They Seek to Avoid Injury, Then They Injure Others

When the Roman people had recovered their liberty and returned to their original condition, and it was all the greater to the extent that they had passed many new laws confirming the city’s strength, it seemed likely that Rome would once again become more tranquil. Nevertheless, experience reveals the contrary, for every day there arose new disturbances and new disagreements. Since Livy very prudently explains the reason why this came about, it seems nothing if not pertinent to refer to his precise words, * where he states that either the people or the nobility was always puffed up with pride when the other one was humbled, and when the people were calm within their proper bounds, the young noblemen began to abuse them and the tribunes could do little to prevent it, for they, too, were under attack. The nobility, on the other hand, even while they felt their young men were too bold, preferred, nevertheless, that if the mean was to be exceeded, they should exceed it and not the plebeians. And so the desire to defend liberty caused each group to prevail to the degree that it oppressed the other. Moreover, the sequence of such events is that while men seek to avoid fear, they begin to make others feel it, and the harm that they drive away from themselves is inflicted upon another, as if it were necessary either to harm or to be harmed. In this can be seen one of the ways, among others, in which republics disintegrate, how men rise from one ambition to another, and the truth of the remark Sallust puts into Caesar’s mouth: ‘that all examples of evil doing arise from good beginnings.’ * As was mentioned above, the first thing ambitious citizens who live in a republic seek is the ability not to be harmed, not only private citizens but even magistrates: in order to accomplish this, they seek out friendships; they acquire these friends by apparently honest means, either by offering them financial assistance or by defending them from the powerful; and because this seems virtuous, they easily fool everyone, and for this there is no remedy, to the point that by persevering, the ambitious citizen, without any obstacles, reaches a position where private citizens are afraid of him and magistrates show him respect. When he has risen to this level and there has been no opposition in the beginning to his ascent, he has attained such a rank that to try to confront him would be extremely dangerous, for the reasons that I mentioned above, where I speak of the danger that exists in confronting a problem that has already grown to a considerable degree within a city. In short, the matter comes down to the fact that it is necessary either to eliminate the problem with the risk of immediate ruin, or, allowing the problem to continue unabated, to enter into an obvious state of servitude, unless death or some accident frees you from it, because once matters reach the point described above, when citizens and magistrates are fearful of offending someone so powerful as well as his friends, not much effort is required later on to make them render judgements and harm others according to his will. For this reason, a republic must have among its institutions some means of ensuring that its citizens cannot do evil under the guise of doing good, and that its citizens possess the kind of reputation that benefits and does not harm liberty, as will be discussed by us in the proper place.