Chapter 47
all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by morendo07 discourses on the first decade of titus livius book one by Niccolo Machiavelli, translated by Ninian Hill Thompson. Chapter 47, that though men deceive themselves in generalities, in particulars they judge truly. The commons of Rome having, as I have said, grown disgusted with the consular name and desiring either that men of plebeian birth should
be admitted to the office or its authority be restricted, the nobles, to prevent its degradation in either of these two ways, proposed a middle course, whereby four tribunes who might either be plebeians or nobles, were to be created with consular authority. This compromise satisfied the commons, who thought they would thus get rid of the consulship and secure the highest offices of the state for their own order. But here a circumstance happened worth noting. When the
four tribunes came to be chosen, the people, who had it in their power to choose all from the commons, chose all from the nobles, with respect to which election Titus Livius observes that The result showed that the people, when declaring their honest judgment after controversy was over, were governed by a different spirit from that which had inspired them while contending for their liberties and for a share in public honors. The reason for this I believe to be that men deceive themselves more readily in generals than in particulars.
To the commons of Rome it seemed in the abstract that they had every right to be admitted to the consulship, since their party in the city was the more numerous, since they bore the greater share of danger in their wars, and since it was they who by their valour kept Rome free and made her powerful. And because it appeared to them, as I have said, that their desire was a reasonable one,
they were resolved to satisfy it at all hazards. But when they had to form a particular judgment on the men of their own party, they recognised their defects and decided that individually no one of them was deserving of what, collectively, they seemed entitled to, and being ashamed of them, turned to bestow their honors on those who deserved them.
Of which decision Titus Livius, speaking with due admiration, says, Where shall we now find in any one man that modesty, moderation and magnanimity, which were then common to the entire people? As confirming what I have said, I shall cite another noteworthy incident, which occurred in Capua after the rout of the Romans by Hannibal at Cannae.
For all Italy being convulsed by that defeat, Capua too was threatened with civil tumult through the hatred which prevailed between her people and Senate. But Pecuvius Calavius, who at this time filled the office of chief magistrate, perceiving the danger, took upon himself to reconcile the contending factions. With this object he assembled the Senate and pointed out to them the hatred in which they were held by the people
and the risk they ran of being put to death by them and of the city, now that the Romans were in distress, being given up to Hannibal. But he added that, were they to consent to leave the matter with him, he thought he could contrive to reconcile them.
In the meanwhile, however, he must shut them up in the palace that, by putting it in the power of the people to punish them, he might secure their safety. The Senate consenting to this proposal, he shut them up in the palace
and summoning the people to a public meeting told them the time had at last come for them to trample on the insolence of the nobles, and requite the wrongs suffered at their hands, for he had them all safe under bolt and bar, but as he supposed they did not wish the city to remain without rulers, it was fit, before putting the old senators to death, they should appoint others in their room.
Wherefore he had thrown the names of all the old senators into a bag, and would now proceed to draw them out one by one, and as they were drawn, would cause them to be put to death, so soon as a successor was found for each. When the first name he drew was declared, there arose a great uproar among the people, all crying out against the cruelty, pride and arrogance of that senator whose name it was. But on Pecuvius desiring them to propose a substitute, the meeting was quieted,
and after a brief pause, one of the commons was nominated. No sooner, however, was his name mentioned than one began to whistle, another to laugh, some jeering at him in one way and some in another. And the same thing happening in every case, each and all of those nominated were judged unworthy of senatorial rank. Whereupon Pecuvius, profiting by the opportunity, said, quote, since you are agreed that the city would be badly off without a senate, but are not agreed whom to
appoint in the room of the old senators, it will, perhaps, be well for you to be reconciled to them, for the fear into which they have been thrown must have so subdued them, that you are sure to find in them that affability which hitherto you have looked for in vain unquote this proposal being agreed to a reconciliation followed between the two orders the commons having seen their error so soon as they were obliged to come to particulars a people therefore is apt to err in judging of
things and their accidents in the abstract but on becoming acquainted with particulars speedily discovers its mistakes in the year 1494 when her greatest citizens were banished from florence and no regular government any longer existed there, but a spirit of license prevailed and matters went continually from bad to worse. Many Florentines, perceiving the decay of their city and discerning no other cause for it, blamed the ambition of this or the other powerful citizen,
who, they thought, was fomenting these disorders with a view to establish a government to his own liking and to rob them of their liberties. Those who thought thus would hang about the arcades and public squares, maligning many citizens, and giving it to be understood that if ever they found themselves in the Signori, they would expose the designs of these citizens and have them punished. From time to time it happened that one or another of those who used this language
rose to be of the chief magistracy, and so soon as he obtained this advancement and saw things nearer, became aware whence the disorders I have spoken of really came, the dangers attending them, and the difficulty in dealing with them, and recognizing that they were the growth of the times and not occasioned by particular men suddenly altered his views and conduct a nearer knowledge of facts freeing him from the false impressions he had been led into on a general
view of affairs but those who had heard him speak as a private citizen when they saw him remain inactive after he was made a magistrate believed that this arose not from his having obtained any better knowledge of things but from his having been cajoled or corrupted by the great and this happening with many men and often, it came to be a proverb among the people that, quote, men had one mind in the marketplace, another in the palace, unquote. Reflecting on what has been
said, we see how quickly men's eyes may be opened, if knowing that they deceive themselves in generalities, we can find a way to make them pass to particulars, as Pecuvius did in the case of the Capuans and the Senate in the case of Rome. Nor do I believe that any prudent man need shrink from the judgment of the people in questions relating to particulars as, for instance, in the distribution of honors and dignities. For in such matters only, the people are either never mistaken,
or at any rate far seldomer than a small number of persons would be were the distribution entrusted to them. It seems to me, however, not out of place to notice in the following chapter, a method employed by the Roman Senate to enlighten the people in making this distribution. End of chapter 47
