by those who ruled Florence from the year 1434 to 1494, that their
government could hardly be maintained unless it was renewed every five
years; by which they meant that it was necessary for them to arouse the
same terror and alarm in men's minds, as they inspired when they
first assumed the government, and when all who offended against their
authority were signally chastised. For when the recollection of such
chastisement has died out, men are emboldened to engage in new designs,
and to speak ill of their rulers; for which the only remedy is to
restore things to what they were at first.

A republic may, likewise, be brought back to its original form, without
recourse to ordinances for enforcing justice, by the mere virtues of a
single citizen, by reason that these virtues are of such influence and
authority that good men love to imitate them, and bad men are ashamed
to depart from them. Those to whom Rome owed most for services of this
sort, were Horatius Cocles, Mutius Scævola, the two Decii, Atilius
Regulus, and divers others, whose rare excellence and generous example
wrought for their city almost the same results as might have been
effected by ordinances and laws. And if to these instances of individual
worth had been added, every ten years, some signal enforcement of
justice, it would have been impossible for Rome ever to have grown
corrupted. But when both of these incitements to virtuous behavior began
to recur less frequently, corruption spread, and after the time of
Atilius Regulus, no like example was again witnessed. For though the two
Catos came later, so great an interval had elapsed before the elder Cato
appeared, and again, so long a period intervened between him and the
younger, and these two, moreover, stood so much alone, that it was
impossible for them, by their influence, to work any important change;
more especially for the younger, who found Rome so much corrupted that
he could do nothing to improve his fellow-citizens.