# CHAPTER 24 — Well-Organized Republics Establish Rewards and Punishments for Their Citizens but Never Compensate One With the Other

The merits of Horatius were very great, since with his skill he had overcome the Curiatii; his offence was atrocious, since he murdered his sister. The Romans, nevertheless, were so angered by this homicide that they put him on trial for his life despite the fact that his merits were so great and new. Such a thing, to anyone considering the event superficially, would appear to be an example of popular ingratitude: anyone who examines the matter more closely and with greater reflection into which institutions republics ought to have will, nevertheless, blame the people for having absolved Horatius rather than for having wished to condemn him. The reason for this is that no well-organized republic ever cancels the demerits of its citizens with their merits, but after having instituted rewards for a good deed and punishments for an evil one, and after rewarding a man for having acted well, if that same individual later acts badly it punishes him without any regard whatsoever for his good deeds. When such regulations are well observed a city lives in freedom for a long period of time; otherwise it will always come to ruin very quickly, because if a citizen who has rendered some distinguished service to his city adds to the reputation his deed has brought him additional audacity and the confidence that he will be able to undertake without fear of punishment some action that is not good, he will become in a brief time so insolent that every element of civic life will disappear.

It is certainly necessary, if one wishes penalties for evil deeds to be upheld, to provide rewards for good ones, as we see was done in Rome. Although a republic may be poor and may give very little, it should not hold back from giving that small amount, because every little gift bestowed upon anyone as a reward for doing something good, no matter how great, will always be esteemed by the receiver as honourable and extremely grand. The stories of Horatius Codes and Mucius Scaevola are well known: how the one held off the enemy over a bridge while it was being cut down, and how the other burned his hand for having erred in the attempt to kill Porsenna, the king of the Etruscans. For these two remarkable actions the public gave two pieces of land to each of these men. The story of Manlius Capitolinus is also well known. After he had saved the Capitol from the Gauls who had encamped there, he was given a small measure of flour by the citizens who had been besieged with him. This reward, according to the fortunes of the Romans at that time, was large and of such a kind that later, when Manlius, moved either by envy or his evil nature to create sedition in Rome, tried to win the favour of the people, he was thrown headlong without any respect whatsoever for his merits from the very Capitol he had earlier saved with such great honour.