# CHAPTER 47 — Although Men May Deceive Themselves in General Questions, They Do Not Do So in the Particulars

As was discussed above, when the Roman people had grown sick and tired of the title of consul and wanted either to create consuls from among the plebeians or to curtail the consular authority, the nobility, in order to avoid corrupting consular authority with one option or the other, chose a half measure and were content with the idea that four tribunes with consular powers would be created who could be either plebeians or nobles. This satisfied the plebeians, since they thought they had eliminated the consulate and would have their share in this highest jurisdiction. This gave rise to a noteworthy event: arriving at the moment of electing these tribunes and having the power to elect only plebeians, the Roman people elected only nobles to these offices. Concerning this event, Livy writes these words: ‘Men fighting for their own liberty and prestige are very different creatures from men who are called upon to use their judgement, unclouded by passion, when the fight is over.’ * And in analysing how this might have come about, I believe it came about because men fool themselves greatly in general questions but not so much in the particular. The Roman plebeians generally thought that they deserved the consulate, because they comprised the largest part of the city; they ran greater risks in the wars; and they kept Rome free and powerful with their own might and muscle. Since, as was mentioned, they felt this desire of theirs was reasonable, they wanted to obtain this authority in any way possible. But when it came to judging their own men in particular, they recognized their weakness and decided that none of them individually deserved what all of them as a group thought they deserved. And thus, ashamed of themselves, they turned back to men who deserved the office. Amazed at this deliberation, Livy justifiably says these words: ‘Such decency of feeling, such fairness and magnanimity characterized, on that occasion, the whole body of the Roman commons—where would you find it today in one single man?’ *

In confirmation of this it is possible to cite another notable example, which came about in Capua after Hannibal had routed the Romans at Cannae. All of Italy was aroused by this defeat, and Capua was still on the point of riot as a result of the hatred that existed between the people and the senate. In those times Pacuvius Calanus was the supreme magistrate, and understanding the risk of riots the city ran, he developed a plan to reconcile the plebeians with the nobility to his own advantage. After this idea came to him, he had the senate assembled and told them of the loathing the people felt toward them and the dangers the noblemen ran of being murdered by the plebeians and having the city handed over to Hannibal at a time when the Romans were hard pressed: he then added that if they wished to allow him to handle this matter, he would do so in such a way that the city’s factions would be united, but he wanted to lock the senators inside the palace * and to save them by giving to the people the power to punish them. The senators yielded to his opinion on the matter, and Pacuvius called the people to assembly after having locked the senate inside the palace. He told them that the time had come for them to check the arrogance of the nobility and to avenge the injuries they had received from them, since he had them all locked up in his custody; that because he believed that they did not want their city to be left without a government, it was necessary, if they wanted to murder the old senators, to appoint new ones; and that he had thus placed all the names of the senators in a bag and would begin to draw them in their presence and would put those selected to death one by one after their successors had been found. Once he had drawn one, at the mention of his name a great clamour arose, calling him proud, cruel, and arrogant, and when Pacuvius asked them to name his replacement the entire assembly calmed down. After some time had passed one of the plebeians was nominated, but at the sound of his name some people began to whistle, others to laugh, and still others to speak badly of him in one way or another, and continuing in this fashion, one by one, they judged all those who were nominated unworthy of the senatorial rank. As a result Pacuvius, seizing the opportunity, stated: ‘Since you think this city will fare badly without the senate and that you cannot agree on replacements for the old senators, I think it would be best if you come to a reconciliation with them; for the fear which the senators have just experienced will have humbled them in such a way that the humanity you sought elsewhere you will certainly find in them.’ * Once they had agreed to this, unity in the public order followed, for the deception which took them in was uncovered as soon as they were forced to come to grips with the particulars. Besides this, peoples are generally deceived when they judge issues and events which are linked to them, but, later, when they understand things in their particulars, they are no longer deceived.

After 1494 when the rulers of the city had been driven out of Florence and there was no organized government in the city, but rather a kind of ambitious licence, and as public affairs were going from bad to worse, many people, seeing the ruin of the city and finding no other reason for it, blamed it on the ambition of powerful individuals who were fostering disorders, so that they might create a government more to their own liking and deprive the people of their liberty; such individuals stood under the loggias and in the squares speaking ill of many other citizens, threatening that if they ever became part of the Signoria they would uncover this conspiracy of theirs and punish them. It often happened that these men rose to the rank of the supreme magistracy, and when such a man reached that position and saw things more closely, he recognized the origins of such disorders, the dangers they involved, and the difficulty of finding remedies for them. And having witnessed how the times rather than men create disorder, he suddenly changed his mind and his way of doing things, because the knowledge of things in their particulars had removed the element of deception he had taken for granted when he had considered them in general terms. Thus, those who first heard him speak when he was a private citizen, and later observed him remaining silent in the highest magistracy, believed that this came about not through a truer understanding of things but because he had been tricked and corrupted by the powerful. Since this happened to many men on many occasions, a saying arose among them which states: ‘Such men have one mind in the public square and another in the palace.’ Considering, therefore, everything that has been discussed, it is clear that the quickest way to open the people’s eyes, given that a general matter may deceive them, is to make them get down to its particulars, as was done by Pacuvius in Capua and by the senate in Rome. I also believe it possible to conclude that a prudent man should never flee from the popular judgement in particular details regarding the distribution of ranks and positions, because only in this matter do the people avoid deceiving themselves, and if they are deceived on some occasions, they are very seldom deceived more often than the few men who have to make such appointments. Nor does it seem superfluous to demonstrate in the following chapter the means the senate employed to deceive the people in making its appointments.