CHAPTER II.--Of the various kinds of Government; and to which of them
the Roman Commonwealth belonged.

I forego all discussion concerning those cities which at the outset have
been dependent upon others, and shall speak only of those which from
their earliest beginnings have stood entirely clear of all foreign
control, being governed from the first as pleased themselves, whether as
republics or as princedoms.

These as they have had different origins, so likewise have had different
laws and institutions. For to some at their very first commencement, or
not long after, laws have been given by a single legislator, and all at
one time; like those given by Lycurgus to the Spartans; while to others
they have been given at different times, as need rose or accident
determined; as in the case of Rome. That republic, indeed, may be called
happy, whose lot has been to have a founder so prudent as to provide for
it laws under which it can continue to live securely, without need to
amend them; as we find Sparta preserving hers for eight hundred years,
without deterioration and without any dangerous disturbance. On the
other hand, some measure of unhappiness attaches to the State which,
not having yielded itself once for all into the hands of a single wise
legislator, is obliged to recast its institutions for itself; and of
such States, by far the most unhappy is that which is furthest removed
from a sound system of government, by which I mean that its institutions
lie wholly outside the path which might lead it to a true and perfect
end. For it is scarcely possible that a State in this position can ever,
by any chance, set itself to rights, whereas another whose institutions
are imperfect, if it have made a good beginning and such as admits of