the places of their residence or habitation, which was done by
the ensuing orders.
The first order "distributes the people into freemen or
citizens and servants, while such; for if they attain to liberty,
that is, to live of themselves, they are freemen or citizens."
This order needs no proof, in regard of the nature of
servitude, which is inconsistent with freedom, or participation
of government in a commonwealth.
The second order "distributes citizens into youth and elders
(such as are from eighteen years of age to thirty, being
accounted youth; and such as are of thirty and upward, elders),
and establishes that the youth shall be the marching armies, and
the elders the standing garrisons of this nation."
A commonwealth, whose arms are in the hands of her
servants, had need be situated, as is elegantly said of Venice by
Contarini, out of the reach of their clutches; witness the danger
run by that of Carthage in the rebellion of Spendius and Matho.
But though a city, if one swallow makes a summer, may thus chance
to be safe, yet shall it never be great; for if Carthage or
Venice acquired any fame in their arms, it is known to have
happened through the mere virtue of their captains, and not of
their orders; wherefore Israel, Lacedaemon, and Rome entailed
their arms upon the prime of their citizens, divided, at least in
Lacedaemon and Rome, into youth and elders: the youth for the
field, and the elders for defence of the territory.
The third order "distributes the citizens into horse and
foot, by the sense or valuation of their estates; they who have
above œ100 a year in lands, goods, or moneys, being obliged to be
of the horse, and they who have under that sum to be of the foot.
But if a man has prodigally wasted and spent his patrimony, he is
neither capable of magistracy, office, or suffrage in the
commonwealth."
Citizens are not only to defend the commonwealth, but
according to their abilities, as the Romans under Servius Tullius
(regard had to their estates), were some enrolled in the horse
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