The illustrious Hugo Grotius Of the law of warre and peace with annotations, III parts, and memorials of the author's life and death.

CXXV. An Example of a Debate about Liber∣ty and Peace.

LEt us take an example from that which Tacitus saith was of old con∣sulted of among the Cities of Gallia, Whe∣ther they should prefer Liberty or Peace: understand Civil Liberty, that is, a right of governing the Commonwealth by them∣selves; Which right is full in a popular state, tempered in an optimacy, especial∣ly such wherein none of the Citizens is excluded from honours: Understand also such a peace, whereby is avoided a destru∣ctive war; that is, as Cicero expresses it, wherein all is in danger to be lost: or, * 1.1 where a right estimation of the future

seemeth to portend nothing els, but even the destruction of the whole people: Which was the case of the people of Je∣rusalem besieged by Titus. No man is ignorant, what Cato would say here, who chose rather to dy than to submit to One: to which purpose is that sentence, It is none of the hardest vertues to embrace * 1.2 death, to avoid slavery; and many the like. But right reason dictates otherwise, to wit, That life, which is the founda∣tion of all good things temporal and eter∣nal, is of more worth than Liberty; whe∣ther you take both in one man, or in a whole people. Wherfore God himself im∣putes * 1.3 it as a benefit, that he doth not de∣stroy men, but deliver them up to servi∣tude. And elswhere he perswadeth the Hebrews by the Prophet, to give up * 1.4 themselves to serve the Babylonians, that they may not perish by famin and pesti∣lence. That then, which was praised by the Antients, that Saguntum did being * 1.5 besieg'd by the Carthaginian, is not to be praised, nor the things that lead thi∣ther. For the internecion of a people in this kind of things, is to be ac∣counted as the greatest Evil. Cicero in his second De Inventione, setteth down this example of necessity; It was necessary the Casilinians shou'd yield themselves to Annibal: though that necessity had this adjunct, Except they would rather perish with hunger. Of the Thebans, who lived

in the times of Alexander the Macedo∣nian, is extant this opinion of Diodorus: Siculus: Being more valiant than wi•…•…e * 1.6 they brought ruine upon their Country. Of that foresaid Cato and Scipio, who after the Pharsalick Victory would not sub∣mit to Caesar, Plutarch passeth his judg∣ment thus: They are to be blamed, as they that lost many and gallant men in Africa, to no purpose. † 1.7 That which I have said of liberty, I mean of other things desi∣rable, if there be a more just or an equal expectation of a greater evil opposite. For, as Aristides saith well, It is the manner to save the ship, by casting fo•…•… the lading, not the passengers.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Lib. 9. epist. ad Attic. epist. 112.
• * 1.2

  —Quam not sit ardua virtus Servitium fu∣gisse manu.
• * 1.3

  2. Paral. 12. 78.
• * 1.4

  Jer. 27. 13.
• * 1.5

  Aug. de Civit: Dei. l. 22. c. 6.
• * 1.6

  Lib. 18.
• † 1.7

  Gu•…•…do Blan∣dratensis ad Mediolanen∣ses apud Gun∣therum: Omnia securi pro libertate feremus: Sed libertatem contemta nemo salute Sanus amat; ne{que} enim certae susceptio cladis Quam vitare queas, nisi cum ratione salutis, Libertatis amor, sed gloria vana putanda est. Anaxilaus, whom the Famine constreined to yield Bizantius, made this defense, saying, Men were to fight against men, or against the nature of things. So Xenophon. Procopius Go•…•… saith, Men do not praise voluntary death, so long as any h•…•… prevailes over the danger. Diodorus Siculus having opened 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Counsells of the war undertaken by the Sithonians after Ale•…•… anders death, saith, In the judgment of wiser men, they •…•…∣tempted a thing rather glorious than profitable, making ha•…•… i•…•… to danger unnecessary, and not taking warning from the no•…•… overthrow of Thebes.