be pardoned, since what he did was done for the common good and not from
personal ambition, is shown by his at once creating a senate, with whom
he took counsel, and in accordance with whose voice he determined. And
whosoever shall well examine the authority which Romulus reserved to
himself, will find that he reserved nothing beyond the command of the
army when war was resolved on, and the right to assemble the senate.
This is seen later, on Rome becoming free by the expulsion of the
Tarquins, when the Romans altered none of their ancient institutions
save in appointing two consuls for a year instead of a king for life;
for this proves that all the original institutions of that city were
more in conformity with a free and constitutional government, than with
an absolute and despotic one.

In support of what has been said above, I might cite innumerable
instances, as of Moses, Lycurgus, Solon, and other founders of kingdoms
and commonwealths, who, from the full powers given them, were enabled
to shape their laws to the public advantage; but passing over these
examples, as of common notoriety, I take one, not indeed so famous, but
which merits the attention of all who desire to frame wise laws. Agis,
King of Sparta, desiring to bring back his countrymen to those limits
within which the laws of Lycurgus had held them, because he thought
that, from having somewhat deviated from them, his city had lost much
of its ancient virtue and, consequently much of its strength and power,
was, at the very outset of his attempts, slain by the Spartan Ephori, as
one who sought to make himself a tyrant. But Cleomenes coming after him
in the kingdom, and, on reading the notes and writings which he found of
Agis wherein his designs and intentions were explained, being stirred by
the same desire, perceived that he could not confer this benefit on his
country unless he obtained sole power. For he saw that the ambition of
others made it impossible for him to do what was useful for many against