forced the consuls to lead them to
the attack. Whereupon, the Veientines, like those others of whom mention
has just now been made, had to pay the penalty of their insolence.

Wise captains of armies, therefore, and prudent governors of cities,
should take all fit precautions to prevent such insults and reproaches
from being used by their soldiers and subjects, either amongst
themselves or against an enemy. For when directed against an enemy they
lead to the mischiefs above noticed, while still worse consequences may
follow from our not preventing them among ourselves by such measures as
sensible rulers have always taken for that purpose.

The legions who were left behind for the protection of Capua having,
as shall in its place be told, conspired against the Capuans, their
conspiracy led to a mutiny, which was presently suppressed by Valerius
Corvinus; when, as one of the conditions on which the mutineers made
their submission, it was declared that whosoever should thereafter
upbraid any soldier of these legions with having taken part in this
mutiny, should be visited with the severest punishment. So likewise,
when Tiberius Gracchus was appointed, during the war with Hannibal, to
command a body of slaves, whom the Romans in their straits for soldiers
had furnished with arms, one of his first acts was to pass an order
making it death for any to reproach his men with their servile origin.
So mischievous a thing did the Romans esteem it to use insulting words
to others, or to taunt them with their shame. Whether this be done in
sport or earnest, nothing vexes men more, or rouses them to fiercer
indignation; "_for the biting jest which flavours too much of truth,
leaves always behind it a rankling memory._"[1]

[Footnote 1: Nam facetiae asperae, quando nimium ex vero traxere, acrem
sui memoriam relinquunt. _Tacit. An._ xv. 68.]

CHAPTER XXVII.--_That prudent Princes and Republics should be content to
have obtained a Victory; for, commonly, when they are not, theft-Victory
turns to Defeat._

The use of dishonouring language towards an enemy is mostly caused by an
insolent humour, bred by victory or the false hope of it, whereby men
are oftentimes led not only to speak, but also to act amiss. For such
false hopes, when they gain an entry into men's minds, cause them to
overrun their goal, and to miss opportunities for securing a certain
good, on the chance of obtaining some thing better, but uncertain. And
this, be