Prowess_.

When besieged in the Capitol, the Romans although expecting succour
from Veii and from Camillus, nevertheless, being straitened by famine,
entered into an agreement to buy off the Gauls with gold But at the very
moment when, in pursuance of this agreement, the gold was being weighed
out, Camillus came up with his army. This, says our historian, was
contrived by Fortune, "_that the Romans might not live thereafter as
men ransomed for a price,_" and the matter is noteworthy, not only with
reference to this particular occasion, but also as it bears on the
methods generally followed by this republic. For we never find Rome
seeking to acquire towns, or to purchase peace with money, but always
confiding in her own warlike valour, which could not, I believe, be said
of any other republic.

Now, one of the tests whereby to gauge the strength of any State, is
to observe on what terms it lives with its neighbours: for when it so
carries itself that, to secure its friendship, its neighbours pay it
tribute, this is a sure sign of its strength, but when its neighbours,
though of less reputation, receive payments from it, this is a clear
proof of its weakness In the course of the Roman history we read how
the Massilians, the Eduans, the Rhodians, Hiero of Syracuse, the Kings
Eumenes and Massinissa, all of them neighbours to the Roman frontiers,
in order to secure the friendship of Rome, submitted to imposts and
tribute whenever Rome had need of them, asking no return save her
protection. But with a weak State we find the reverse of all this
happening And, to begin with our own republic of Florence, we know that
in times past, when she was at the height of her renown, there was never
a lordling of Romagna who had not a subsidy from her, to say nothing of
what she paid to the Perugians, to the Castellans, and to all her other