centuries, and others of the foot, with arms enjoined
accordingly, nor could it be otherwise in the rest of the
commonwealths, though out of historical remains, that are so much
darker, it be not so clearly probable. And the necessary
prerogative to be given by a commonwealth to estates, is in some
measure in the nature of industry, and the use of it to the
public. "The Roman people," says Julius Exuperantius, "were
divided into classes, and taxed according to the value of their
estates. All that were worth the sums appointed were employed in
the wars; for they most eagerly contend for the victory; who
fight for liberty in defence of their country and possessions.
But the poorer sort were polled only for their heads (which was
all they had) and kept in garrison at home in time of war; for
these might betray the armies for bread, by reason of their
poverty, which is the reason that Marius, to whom the care of the
government ought not to have been committed, was the first that
led them into the field;" and his success was accordingly. There
is a mean in things; as exorbitant riches overthrow the balance
of a commonwealth, so extreme poverty cannot hold it, nor is by
any means to be trusted with it. The clause in the order
concerning the prodigal is Athenian, and a very laudable one; for
he that could not live upon his patrimony, if he comes to touch
the public money, makes a commonwealth bankrupt.
The fourth order "distributes the people according to the
places of their habitation, into parishes, hundreds, and tribes."
For except the people be methodically distributed, they
cannot be methodically collected; but the being of a commonwealth
consists in the methodical collection of the people: wherefore
you have the Israelitish divisions into rulers of thousands, of
hundreds, of fifties, and of tens; and of the whole commonwealth
into tribes: the Laconic into oboe, moras, and tribes; the Roman
into tribes, centuries, and classes; and something there must of
necessity be in every government of the like nature, as that in
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