"Gentlemen" being as great as, or greater than that of the "Plebeians."
For these reasons, therefore, it was possible for Venice to make her
constitution what it is, and to maintain it without divisions.

Sparta, again, being governed, as I have said, by a king and a limited
senate, was able to maintain herself for the long period she did,
because, from the country being thinly inhabited and further influx of
population forbidden, and from the laws of Lycurgus (the observance
whereof removed all ground of disturbance) being held in high esteem,
the citizens were able to continue long in unity. For Lycurgus having by
his laws established in Sparta great equality as to property, but less
equality as to rank, there prevailed there an equal poverty; and the
commons were less ambitious, because the offices of the State, which
were held to their exclusion, were confined to a few; and because the
nobles never by harsh treatment aroused in them any desire to usurp
these offices. And this was due to the Spartan kings, who, being
appointed to that dignity for life, and placed in the midst of this
nobility, had no stronger support to their authority than in defending
the people against injustice. Whence it resulted that as the people
neither feared nor coveted the power which they did not possess, the
conflicts which might have arisen between them and the nobles were
escaped, together with the causes which would have led to them; and in
this way they were able to live long united. But of this unity in Sparta
there were two chief causes: one, the fewness of its inhabitants, which
allowed of their being governed by a few; the other, that by denying
foreigners admission into their country, the people had less occasion
to become corrupted, and never so increased in numbers as to prove
troublesome to their few rulers.

Weighing all which circumstances, we see that to have kept Rome in the