CHAP. XLIX.
A Commonwealth which deſires to preſerve it ſelf free, has need of new Proviſions every Day; and upon what Score Fabius was called Maximus.
It falls out of Neceſſity (as has been ſaid before) that in a great City there is not a Day but ſome Accidents occur that have need to be remedied; and as they are of more or leſs Importance, ſo their Phyſician ought to be more or leſs expert. And if ſtrange and unexpected Accidents ever happened in any City, it was in Rome: One of which Sort, was the general Conſpiracy of the Roman Women againſt their Huſbands: Some had poiſoned their Huſbands already, and all the reſt had their Materials ready to do as much by theirs. Of the ſame Sort was the Conſpiracy of the Bacchanals diſcovered during the Time of the Macedonian War, in which many Thouſands of Men and Women were engaged; which would have been very dangerous for that City, had it not been diſcovered; for the Romans had not a Cuſtom of puniſhing whole Multitudes when they offended. And here we cannot but admire the Fortitude, the Severity, the Magnanimity of the Romans in puniſhing Offenders; which ( if there were nothing elſe to evince it ) would be a great Teſtimony of their Virtue and Power. For ſo great was their Juſtice, they made no Scruple to execute a whole Legion, or City, at a Time: Sometimes they baniſhed Eight or Ten Thouſand Men together, with ſuch Conditions as would have been inſupportable to a ſingle Man: So it happened to thoſe who eſcaped from the Battel at Cannas, they baniſhed them all into Sicily, forbidding them to Quarter in any Town, or to commit any Diſorder. But the moſt terrible of all their Executions was the Decimation of their Armies, in which every Tenth Man was put to Death by Lot quite thorough their Army; nor for the Puniſhment of a Multitude, can any way be found more formidable; for where a Multitude tranſgreſſes, and no certain Author is known, to puniſh the whole with Death would be too ſevere; and to puniſh one Part, and excuſe another, would be unjuſt to thoſe who were puniſh'd, and encourage the other to commit the ſame Offence again. But where all are alike Guilty, to execute every Tenth Man by Lots, gives him who is to be puniſhed, occaſion to complain only of his Fortune; and makes him who eſcapes, afraid againſt the next Time. The good Women then who would have poiſon'd their Huſbands, and the Prieſts of Bacchus, were puniſhed as they deſeiv'd and though theſe Maladies in a Commonwealth have many times very ill Symptoms, yet they are not Mortal, becauſe there is ſtill Time enough for the Cure. But where the State is concerned, it is otherwiſe, and Time may be wanting; and therefore if they be not ſeaſonably and prudently redreſſed, the whole Government may miſcarry. And this may be dear'd to us, by what happened in Rome. The Romans having been very free in bellowing the Freedom and Privileges of their City upon Strangers, the Strangers grew ſo numerous by Degrees, and to have ſo great a Vote in the Councils, that the whole Government began to totter, and decline from its old to its new Inhabitants which being obſerved by Quintus Fabius the Cenſor, he applied a Remedy in Time, by reducing all the new Citizens into Four Tribes; that being contraſted into ſo narrow a Space, they might not have ſo malignant an Influence upon the City, and this ſo timely and ſo uſeful Expedient, was taken ſo thankfully from him by the People, that they gave him the Addition of Maximus, and he was called Fabius Maximus ever after.
