eiving that the appointment of a dictator involved something of
humiliation for the consuls, who, from being the heads of the State,
were reduced to render obedience like every one else, and anticipating
that this might give offence, they determined that the power to appoint
should rest with the consuls, thinking that when the occasion came when
Rome should have need of this regal authority, they would have the
consuls acting willingly and feeling the less aggrieved from the
appointment being in their own hands. For those wounds or other injuries
which a man inflicts upon himself by choice, and of his own free will,
pain him far less than those inflicted by another. Nevertheless, in the
later days of the republic the Romans were wont to entrust this power to
a consul instead of to a dictator, using the formula, _Videat_ CONSUL
_ne quid respublica detrimenti capiat_.

But to return to the matter in hand, I say briefly, that when the
neighbours of Rome sought to crush her, they led her to take measures
not merely for her readier defence, but such as enabled her to attack
them with a stronger force, with better skill, and with an undivided
command.

CHAPTER XXXV--_Why the Creation of the Decemvirate in Rome, although
brought about by the free and open Suffrage of the Citizens, was hurtful
to the Liberties of that Republic_

The fact of those ten citizens who were chosen by the Roman people to
make laws for Rome, in time becoming her tyrants and depriving her of
her freedom, may seem contrary to what I have said above, namely that it
is the authority which is violently usurped, and not that conferred by
the free suffrages of the people which is injurious to a republic. Here,
however, we have to take into account both the mode in which, and the
term for which authority is given. Where authority is unrestricted and
is conferred for a long term, meaning by that for a year or more, it
is always attended with danger, and its results will be good or bad
according as the men are good or bad to whom it is committed. Now when
we compare the authority of the Ten with that possessed by the dictator,
we see that the power placed in the hands of the former was out of
all proportion greater than that entrusted to the latter. For when a
dictator was appointed there still remained the tribunes, the consuls,
and the senate, all of them invested with authority of which the
dictator could not deprive them. For even if he could have take