It is evident, both from
the laws of the Lacedaemonians and Cretans, as well as by the manner
in which they educated their children, that all which they had in view
was to make them soldiers: besides, among all nations, those who have
power enough and reduce others to servitude are honoured on that
account; as were the Scythians, Persians, Thracians, and Gauls: with
some there are laws to heighten the virtue of courage; thus they tell
us that at Carthage they allowed every person to wear as many rings
for distinction as he had served campaigns. There was also a law in
Macedonia, that a man who had not himself killed an enemy should be
obliged to wear a halter; among the Scythians, at a festival, none
were permitted to drink out of the cup was carried about who had not
done the same thing. Among the Iberians, a warlike nation, they fixed
as many columns upon a man's tomb as he had slain enemies: and among
different nations different things of this sort prevail, some of them
established by law, others by custom. Probably it may seem too absurd
to those who are willing to take this subject into their consideration
to inquire whether it is the business of a legislator to be able to
point out by what means a state may govern and tyrannise over its
neighbours, whether they will, or will not: for how can that belong
either to the politician or legislator which is unlawful? for that
cannot be lawful which is done not only justly, but unjustly also: for
a conquest may be unjustly made.
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