CHAP. XIII.
The Effect of an Oath among a virtuous People.
Book VIII.
Chap. 13.THERE is no nation, says Livy[1], that has been longer uncorrupted than the Romans; no nation where moderation and poverty have been longer respected.
Such was the influence of an Oath among these people, that nothing bound them stronger to the laws. They often did more for the observance of an oath, than they would ever have done for the thirst of glory or for the love of their country.
When Quintius Cincinnatus the Consul wanted to raise an army in the city against the Æqui and the Volsci, the tribunes opposed him. "Well, said he, let all those who have taken an oath to the Consul of the preceding year, march under my banners[2]." In vain did the tribunes cry out that this oath was no longer binding; and that when they made it, Quintius was but a private person. The people were more religious than those who pretended to direct them; they would not listen to the distinctions or equivocations of the tribunes.
When the same people thought of retiring to the Sacred Mount, they felt an inward check from the oath they had taken to the Consuls, that they would follow them into the field[3]. They entered then into a design of killing the Consuls; but dropped it, when they were given to understand that their oath would still be binding. Now it is easy to judge of the notion they entertained of the violation of an oath, by the crime they intended to commit.
