XXIV. For some time fortune prosperously accompanied this unjust and cruel master in the administration of affairs. He subdued all Latium in war, and took Suessa, an opulent and well stored Pometian city. Enriched with great spoils of gold and silver, he accomplished the vow of his ancestor in the building of the capitol. He established colonies, and according to the institutions of those from whom he had derived his origin, he sent magnificent gifts, as offerings of his spoils, to Apollo at Delphos.
XXV. Here the very circle is set in motion, whose natural movement and revolution you learn to distinguish from the beginning. For the very head of discretion in civil matters, upon which all our discourse turns, is to observe the ways and bendings of public affairs; so that when you perceive what way any thing inclines, you may either keep it back, or meet it by opposing other things to it. For the king of whom I speak, having stained himself first with the murder of a good king, no longer preserved his integrity of mind, and wished to inspire fear himself, because he dreaded every sort of punishment for his wickedness. Afterwards borne up with his victories and riches, he exulted with insolence, and imposed no restraint on his own conduct, or the licentiousness of his followers. Wherefore when his eldest son had used violence with Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, and daughter of Tricipitinus, and the noble and chaste woman had inflicted death upon herself on account of that injury; L. Brutus, a man pre-eminent in mind and courage, released his fellow citizens from that unjust yoke of a cruel slavery: who, although he was a private citizen, sustained the whole government, and was the first who taught in this city, that no man was to be considered insignificant, when the public liberties were to be preserved. Under which leader and head, the whole city being in commotion, as well with the recent complaints of the family and kindred of Lucretia, as with the remembrance of the many wrongs done by the haughtiness of Tarquin himself, and his sons; the banishment of the king, his children, and his whole race was pronounced.
XXVI. Do not you perceive then how a master may spring out of a king, and how a form of government from being good, may become the very worst, through the vice of one man. This is that master over the people, whom the Greeks call tyrant; him only they esteem a king, who consults like a parent with the people, and preserves those over whom he is placed, in the most prosperous condition of life. A sort of government very good as I have said, but bordering upon and inclining to a very pernicious one. For when this king deviates into unjust rule, at once he becomes a tyrant, and an animal more hideous, more destructive, and more odious, in the eyes of gods and men cannot be conceived: surpassing, although in the human form, the most monstrous wild beasts in cruelty. How can he be rightly called a man, who observes no fellowship of humanity with his fellow citizens, no communion of law with the whole race of man? But a more proper place to speak of this will occur, when circumstances will suggest to us to speak of those, who have sought to usurp the Government over free cities.
XXVII. You have here then the origin of a tyrant, for the Greeks would have this to be the name of an unjust king. Our ancestors indeed have called all who have had an exclusive and perpetual dominion over the people, kings. Thus Spurius Cassius, M. Manilius, and Spurius Mælius, are said to have wished to establish a kingdom, and even * * * * * *
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XXVIII. Lycurgus gave the name of ancients[[17]] at Lacedemon, to that too small number of twenty-eight, to whom he wished the whole authority of counsel to be confided, while the sole command should be held by the king. Wherefore our ancestors translating and adopting that term, those whom he called ancients, they called a senate: as we have already stated Romulus to have done with the select fathers. Nevertheless, the royal title, and its strength and power were always pre-eminent. Impart too something of power to the people, as was done by Lycurgus and Romulus, and you will not satisfy them with freedom, but you will inflame them with the passion of liberty, when you have only permitted them to taste of power. The fear indeed will always hang over them, lest they should have an unjust king, which generally happens. The fortune therefore of a people is, as I said before, very uncertain, which is placed in the will or conduct of one man.
XXIX. Wherefore this first form, example, and origin of a tyrant, is found by us in that very government which Romulus instituted with auspices, and not in that, which Plato says Socrates imagined to himself in that peripatetic discourse. And as Tarquin subverted the whole fabric of royalty, not because he grasped a new sort of authority, but because he made a bad use of it; so let us oppose to him another; a good man, wise and expert in every thing useful and dignified in civil life: a tutor and steward as it were of the commonwealth, for so may be called whoever is the ruler and governor of a state. Imagine to yourselves that you recognise such a man; one who can protect the state, both by his counsel and conduct. And since the name of such a man has not been alluded to in this discourse, and that a character of this kind will be frequently treated of in what remains to be said * * * * * *
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XXX. * * * * * * Plato described a state more to be desired, than to be hoped for upon the smallest scale. He did not constitute things as they might exist, but in such a manner as the nature of civil affairs might be considered. As to myself, if in any way I am able to accomplish it, with the same principles which he had in view, I will look, not into the picture and shadow of a state, but into a most powerful republic; that I may appear to touch, as it were, the true cause of every public good and evil. After these two hundred and forty years of regal government, and indeed a little more, including the interregnums, Tarquin being banished, the royal title was as odious to the Roman people, as it had been regretted after the death, or rather the disappearance of Romulus, and as much as they wanted a king then, in like manner, after the expulsion of Tarquin, they could not endure the name of one.
XXXI. Under this feeling our ancestors then expelled Collatinus, who was innocent, through apprehension of his family connexions, and the other Tarquins from disgust at their names. From the same cause too P. Valerius ordered the fasces to be lowered when he began to speak before the people; and had his building materials taken to the foot of the Velia, as soon as he perceived the suspicions of the people to be raised on account of his having begun to build in a more conspicuous part of the Velia, the very place where King Tullus had dwelt. He also, in the which he greatly deserved the name of Publicola, had that law passed for the people, which was first carried in the meetings of the centuries, that no unfriendly magistrate should put to death, or flog any Roman citizen for appealing. The pontifical books however declare appeals to have existed under the kings; the augural records show it also. The twelve tables too in many laws indicate that it was lawful to appeal from every judgment and punishment. What is brought down to us by tradition, of the Decemvirs who wrote the laws, being created without any appeal, sufficiently shows that the other magistrates had not the power of judging without appeal. The law, too, which for the sake of concord passed in the consulate of Lucius Valerius Potitus, and M. Horatius Barbatus, men very justly popular; sanctioned the principle, that no magistrate should be created without appeal. Nor did the Portian laws, which are three as you know of the three Portii, contain any thing new except the confirmation of it. Publicola therefore, upon the law in favour of appeal being published, immediately ordered the axes to be taken from off the fasces, and the next day had Sp. Lucretius appointed to him as his colleague: being his superior in age, he ordered his own lictors to go to him; and first established the custom that lictors should precede each of the consuls, alternate months, lest the ensigns of command among a free people, should be as numerous as in a kingdom. There was something more than mediocrity in this man, as I consider him: who having given a moderate liberty to the people, preserved more easily the authority of the chiefs. Nor do I repeat these things, now so old and obsolete to you, without cause. I select examples of men and things drawn from illustrious persons and times, to which the remainder of my discourse shall be applied.