CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
ON HOW A REPUBLIC OR PRINCE MUST MAKE A SHOW OF DOING OUT OF GENEROSITY WHAT HE MUST DO FROM NECESSITY

Prudent men know how to make a merit of each of their actions even when necessity forces them to take these actions. The Roman Senate was prudent in this way when it chose to pay men in military service out of public funds even though the men had always been accustomed to supporting themselves. The Senate realized that otherwise it would be impossible to wage war over long periods and that the Roman armies would be unable to lay siege to cities or dispatch the soldiers far from Rome. The Senate saw that it was necessary to be able to do both, and so decided that salaries would be paid to the soldiers, but in such a way that made a merit of what in fact necessity was forcing it to do. The plebeians so welcomed this gift that all Rome went wild with happiness, and regarded the Senate’s decision as a great benefit that they could never have hoped for or sought on their own.¹²⁶ The tribunes did their best to abolish this resolution, arguing that as the plebeians would have to pay taxes in order to cover the military salaries, it would burden them, not provide relief, but the tribunes did not manage to convince the plebeians. The Senate even managed to increase the plebeians’ enthusiasm in the way it distributed taxes, by imposing the heaviest and largest taxes on the nobility, taxes which would have to be paid first.

126. Livy (Book IV, chapter 60) writes: “It is told that nothing was ever welcomed by the plebeians with such rejoicing They flocked to the Senate, grasped the senators’ hands as they emerged, saying that they were rightly called ‘Fathers,’ and proclaiming that now no man, while he had any strength left, would spare his body or blood for such a generous state.”