Chapter 24

The Prolongation of [Military] Commands Made Rome Slave

If the proceedings¹ of the Roman Republic is considered well, two things will be seen to have been the causes of the dissolution of that Republic: the one was the contentions² that arose from the Agrarian³ law, the other the prolongation of the [military] Commands; if these matters had been well understood from the beginning, and proper remedies taken she would have existed free longer, and perhaps more tranquil⁴. And although it is seen that the prolongation of Commands never caused any tumult⁵ to arise, none the less facts show how much that authority which the citizens took because of such decisions was harmful to the City. And if the other citizens for whom the Magistracy was prolonged had been wise and good, as was L. Quintius, this inconvenience would not have incurred⁶. His goodness is a notable example; for when the terms of an accord were completed between the Plebs and the Senate, and the Plebs having prolonged the Commands of the Tribunes for a year, because they judged it would help to enable them to resist the ambitions of the Nobles, the Senate wanted, in competition with the Plebs not to appear less [powerful] than they, to prolong the Consulship⁷ of L. Quintius; but he completely negated⁹ this decision, saying that they should seek to destroy the evil example not to increase their number with other worse examples, and he desired they create new Consuls⁸. If this goodness and prudence¹⁰ had existed in all the Roman citizens, they would never have allowed that custom of prolonging the Magistracies to be introduced, which in time ruined that Republic.

The first to whom the Command was extended was P. Philo, who being at the siege of the City of Paleopolis, and the end of his Consulship having arrived, and as it appeared to the Senate that he had the victory in hand, they did not send him a successor but made him Proconsul. So that he was the first Proconsul. Which thing (although it was moved by the Senate as being useful to the public) was what in time brought Rome to servitude. For the further away the Romans sent their armies [from Rome], so much more did such prolongations appear necessary, and the more they employed them. This caused two evils. The one, that a smaller number of men were given experience in the Command [of armies], and, because of this, reputation [authority] came to be restricted to a few: the other, that a citizen being a command of an army for a long time, he gained it over to himself and made it his partisan¹¹, for that army in time forgot the Senate and recognized him as chief. Because of this Sulla and Marius were able to find soldiers willing to follow them against the public good. Because of this Caesar was able to seize the country. Thus, if the Romans had not prolonged the Magistracies and Commands, although she would not have come to so great power, and her conquests would have been slower, she would also have come to her servitude more slowly.

1 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

2 contentions   

n.竞争( contention的名词复数 )；争夺；争论；论点

参考例句：

• Direct tests on individual particles do not support these contentions. 对单个粒子所作的直接试验并不支持这些论点。 来自辞典例句
• His contentions cannot be laughed out of court. 对他的争辩不能一笑置之。 来自辞典例句

3 agrarian   

adj.土地的，农村的，农业的

参考例句：

• People are leaving an agrarian way of life to go to the city.人们正在放弃农业生活方式而转向城市。
• This was a feature of agrarian development in Britain.这是大不列颠土地所有制发展的一个特征。

4 tranquil   

adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的

参考例句：

• The boy disturbed the tranquil surface of the pond with a stick. 那男孩用棍子打破了平静的池面。
• The tranquil beauty of the village scenery is unique. 这乡村景色的宁静是绝无仅有的。

5 tumult   

n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹

参考例句：

• The tumult in the streets awakened everyone in the house.街上的喧哗吵醒了屋子里的每一个人。
• His voice disappeared under growing tumult.他的声音消失在越来越响的喧哗声中。

6 incurred   

[医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式

参考例句：

• She had incurred the wrath of her father by marrying without his consent 她未经父亲同意就结婚，使父亲震怒。
• We will reimburse any expenses incurred. 我们将付还所有相关费用。

7 consulship   

领事的职位或任期

参考例句：

8 consuls   

领事( consul的名词复数 )； （古罗马共和国时期）执政官 （古罗马共和国及其军队的最高首长，同时共有两位，每年选举一次）

参考例句：

• American consuls warned that millions more were preparing to leave war-ravaged districts. 美国驻外领事们预告，还有几百万人正在准备离开战争破坏的地区。
• The legionaries, on their victorious return, refused any longer to obey the consuls. 军团士兵在凯旋归国时，不肯服从执政官的命令。

9 negated   

v.取消( negate的过去式和过去分词 )；使无效；否定；否认

参考例句：

• Our historical right to rule ourselves as a people had been negated. 我们被剥夺了作为一个民族治理自己国家的历史权利。 来自辞典例句
• Thus far we have negated frictional effects in the harmonic oscillator. 到现在为止，我们一直没有考虑谐和振荡器中的摩擦效应。 来自辞典例句

10 prudence   

n.谨慎，精明，节俭

参考例句：

• A lack of prudence may lead to financial problems.不够谨慎可能会导致财政上出现问题。
• The happy impute all their success to prudence or merit.幸运者都把他们的成功归因于谨慎或功德。

11 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。