The Summary Cause for the
Stability or Downfall of Human Societies
CHAPTER 3
The first political criterion is confirmed by history
— The period of the founders of societies
— The period of the legislators
16. The universal, summary cause of the stability and downfall of societies, which we have found to lie in their intimate nature, will act as a key for revealing the secrets of history as it narrates the birth, growth and decline of the greatest human societies or civil states, and of their devastating changes.
17. First, it is certain that at the beginning of all societies, especially political societies, founders can neither lose sight of what sustains such societies, nor therefore neglect the rule we have put forward. It is impossible to attend to embellishments when all thought must be directed to bringing a society into existence. Moreover, while the society grows and flourishes, the principles on which it was founded and from which it drew its being are uppermost in the minds of all.
18. Consequently, it was clearly nature itself and necessity, not speculation, that taught the founders of long-lasting societies the rule already described of attending directly to the substance of society. The most celebrated legislations consisted solely in accepting and committing to paper the foundations on which the first leaders had built their societies. This explains why the oldest legislations appeared so sound and became so famous.
19. Let us limit ourselves to the constitutions and political maxims of the Spartans and Romans, the best known of the ancient world. We immediately see in them the solid and, as it were, robust character to be shown in a political order where everything is directed to giving existence to a society and to strengthening it, rather than to accidental, minute embellishments.
Indeed, the intention of ancient social legislators was to concentrate, so to speak, all their citizens’ attention on the substantial good of the commonweal, for the sake of which they sacrificed many accidental advantages. These advantages would certainly have increased the citizens’ common prosperity and social pleasures in some way, but would also have undermined their spirit and weakened that virile quality which was the state’s defence and best protection. The legislators saw in this quality, as in a strong seed ready for growth, the very existence of all the prosperity, growth, duration and glory of the commonweal. The military condition in which Lycurgus’ laws placed the Spartans, and the severity and the stern simplicity which deprived them of so many pleasures, was simply an initial application of the rule we have proposed.(7) Its difficulties were fully compensated by a healthy bodily constitution, a strong, contented spirit and unconquerable union, which lasted as long as these laws endured.
20. We see the same among the Romans. They neglected both trade and manufacture (modern nations, however, for reasons I will explain later, apply themselves with great urgency to these activities, which they consider as one of the principal sources of their greatness) for the sake of agriculture and military prowess which were the almost exclusive concern of a people destined to rule the whole world. They had a defiant disregard for luxury and for every pursuit they considered frivolous. All these practices and other rules proceeded from a unique principle which they necessarily and constantly followed, enlightened by an upright nature and uncorrupted mind. This maxim shines out in their political laws, in their mode of life, in their manner of government and in their warfare. At the height of the republic, the Romans never allowed themselves to be distracted and diverted by deceptive accidentals; they consistently turned to what they saw as the substance of things. No war was undertaken unnecessarily; on the other hand, no peace was concluded that contained the seeds of war and could be the cause of a sudden outbreak of hostilities. On the contrary, they prosecuted war with indomitable constancy, even in extreme danger, rather than have an insecure and dishonourable peace, which would have set them back and caused them to lose the deep consciousness they had of their own good fortune. Virgil describes this core-characteristic of the Romans in the following memorable lines, which suit our purpose exactly:
| Some will smoother beat the curving bronze: Others from marble living faces draw. Cases at law are better fought, Heavenly movements and rising stars more fittingly described. But you, my Roman friend, remember that you rule the nations by decree, impose your peace as norm, spare your subjects and put down the proud. These are your skills.(8) |
Tacitus says the same more briefly, and so aptly: `Among the Romans it is the power to rule that matters; profitless things are ignored.’(9)
According to Virgil, the grave exhortation which Anchises gives as father to his descendants was simply the maxim always given by such great men in every undertaking: Leave to other nations all the glory of the accidental ornaments of societies, but remain united in your attention to the substance of government, in conquering those who have attacked you, in being loved by those you have conquered. This exhortation, which Tacitus calls `the power to rule’ VIS IMPERII, is expressed precisely in M. Curius’ reply to the Samnites who were trying to corrupt him with money: `For me, it is not the possession of gold which is admirable, but authority over those who have gold.’(10) These clear thinkers did not stop at the means but went on to consider the end of their society; they were able to make even great sacrifices so as not to weaken the State or reduce its consistency.
Notes
(7) The robust lifestyle of the Lacedemonians, directed entirely to preserving the substance of the commonweal while neglecting everything accidental, is apparent not only in their laws but in all their habits of life. Plutarch, in his life of Lycurgus, notes this even in their manual skills: `Craftsmen did not work at useless things but applied their great skill to what was necessary.'
(8) Aeneid., 6: 845-854.
(9) Annal., bk. 15, c. 31.
(10) Cicero, De Senectute, 16: Curio, ad focum sedenti, magnum auri pondus Samnites cum attulissent, repudiati ab eo sunt. Non enim aurum habere, praeclarum sibi videri dixit; sed iis, qui haberent aurum, imperare.