proceed step by step as they might direct him, this must have made him
at once less cautious and more dilatory; because the credit of victory
would not then have seemed to be wholly his own, but shared by the
senate on whose advice he acted. Besides which, the senate must have
taken upon itself the task of advising on matters which it could not
possibly understand; for although it might contain among its members all
who were most versed in military affairs, still, since these men were
not on the spot, and were ignorant of many particulars which, if they
were to give sound advice, it was necessary for them to know, they
must in advising have made numberless mistakes. For these reasons they
desired that the consul should act on his own responsibility, and that
the honours of success should be wholly his; judging that the love of
fame would act on him at once as a spur and as a curb, making him do
whatever he had to do well.

This matter I have the rather dwelt upon because I observe that our
modern republics, such as the Venetian and the Florentine, view it in
a different light; so that when their captains, commissaries, or
_provedditori_ have a single gun to place in position, the authorities
at home must be informed and consulted; a course deserving the same
approval as is due to all those other methods of theirs, which, one with
another, have brought Italy to her present condition.



BOOK III.

* * * * *

CHAPTER I.--_For a Sect or Commonwealth to last long, it must often be