nbridled and headstrong impulse. He recommended,
that those at the head of affairs, and all the several ranks of men
in each particular state, should cultivate harmony between themselves;
and that all should direct their views to the general interest of the
whole. For, while they acted in concert, no king or tyrant would be
sufficiently powerful against them: but discord and dissension gave
every advantage to those who might plot against them; as the
party worsted in a domestic dispute generally join themselves with
foreigners, rather than submit to a countryman of their own. He then
exhorted them, as the arms of others had procured their liberty, and
the good faith of foreigners had restored it to them, to apply now
their own diligent care to the watching and guarding of it; that
the Roman people might perceive that those on whom they had bestowed
liberty were deserving of it, and that their kindness had not been ill
placed."

50. On hearing these admonitions, such as parental tenderness might
dictate, every one present shed tears of joy; and they affected his
feelings to such a degree as to interrupt his discourse. For some
time a confused noise prevailed, from those who were expressing their
approbation of his words, and charging each other to treasure up those
expressions in their minds and hearts, as if they had been uttered by
an oracle. Then silence ensuing, he requested of them to make diligent
search for such Roman citizens as were in servitude among them, and to
send them into Thessaly to him, within two months; observing, that
"it would not be honourable to themselves, that, in a land restored
to liberty, its deliverers should remain in servitude." To this all
exclaimed with acclamations that they returned him thanks on this
account in addition to others, that they had been reminded of the
discharge of a duty so indispensably incumbent on their gratitude.
There was a vast number of these who had been made prisoners in the
Punic war, and sold by Hannibal when their countrymen refused to
ransom them. That they were very numerous, is proved by what Polybius
says, that this business cost the Achaeans one hundred talents,[1]
though they had fixed the price to be paid for each captive, to the
owner, so low as five hundred denarii.[2] For, at that rate, there
were one thousand two hundred in Achaia. Calculate now, in proportion
to this, how many were probably in all Greece.

[Footnote 1: 19,375l.]

[Footnote 2: