leasing to the Romans was an outrage of this nature, that
although his services were so great and so recent, they brought him to
trial for his life. To one looking at it carelessly, this might seem an
instance of popular ingratitude, but he who considers the matter more
closely, and examines with sounder judgment what the ordinances of a
State should be, will rather blame the Roman people for acquitting
Horatius than for putting him on his trial. And this because no
well-ordered State ever strikes a balance between the services of its
citizens and their misdeeds; but appointing rewards for good actions and
punishment for bad, when it has rewarded a man for acting well, will
afterwards, should he act ill, chastise him, without regard to his
former deserts. When these ordinances are duly observed, a city will
live long in freedom, but when they are neglected, it must soon come
to ruin. For when a citizen has rendered some splendid service to his
country, if to the distinction which his action in itself confers, were
added an over-weening confidence that any crime he might thenceforth
commit would pass unpunished, he would soon become so arrogant that no
civil bonds could restrain him.

Still, while we would have punishment terrible to wrongdoers, it is
essential that good actions should be rewarded, as we see to have been
the case in Rome. For even where a republic is poor, and has but little
to give, it ought not to withhold that little; since a gift, however
small, bestowed as a reward for services however great, will always be
esteemed most honourable and precious by him who receives it. The story
of Horatius Cocles and that of Mutius Scaevola are well known: how the
one withstood the enemy on the bridge while it was being cut down, and
the other thrust his hand into the fire in punishment of the mistake
made when he sought the life of Porsenna the Etruscan king. To each of
these two, in requital of their splendid deeds, two ploughgates only
of the public land were given. Another famous story is that of Manlius
Capitolinus, to whom, for having saved the Capitol from the besieging
Gauls, a small measure of meal was given by each of those who were shut
up with him during the siege. Which recompense, in proportion to the
wealth of the citizens of Rome at that time, was thought ample; so that
afterwards, when Manlius, moved by jealousy and malice, sought to arouse
sedition in Rome, and to gain over the people to his cause,