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Nabis,[1] Prince of the Spartans, sustained the attack of all

Greece, and of a victorious Roman army, and against them he

defended his country and his government; and for the overcoming

of this peril it was only necessary for him to make himself

secure against a few, but this would not have been sufficient had

the people been hostile. And do not let any one impugn this

statement with the trite proverb that "He who builds on the

people, builds on the mud," for this is true when a private

citizen makes a foundation there, and persuades himself that the

people will free him when he is oppressed by his enemies or by

the magistrates; wherein he would find himself very often

deceived, as happened to the Gracchi in Rome and to Messer

Giorgio Scali[2] in Florence.