robbing by night, and from driving away the Oxen that ploughed the earth. And Strabo records it of divers other Nations, who though they lived by Piracy; yet as soon as they returned home, would send to the right Owners, that if they would they might redeem their Goods at indifferent prizes. And hitherto we may also refer that of Homer:
Ipsi etiam rapti avidi, qui aliena pererrant
Littora, concessu Superûm si praeda reperta est,
Navibus impletis abeunt, & vela retorquent:
Quippe Deos metuunt, memores fandi atque nefandi.
Greedy of Gain to foreign Coasts they stray;
If by their starry Guides they find a prey,
With sails retort they go, their Ships full fraught,
Fearing the Gods, minding what's good, what's nought.
The Ancient Normans accounted Piracy an honourable Trade to live by. And
Plutarch notes of the
Scipii, that they were extremely corrupt (yet a Commonwealth) although they robbed even such Merchants, as came in a friendly way to traffick with them; but in Morals the principal part gives form to the whole: And as
Cicero well observed,
Be∣cause it contains the most parts, and spreads farthest, therefore it gives denomination to the whole. To the same sense is that also of
Galen, In temperaments the denomination is always taken from that which is the greatest portion. Wherefore
Cicero is very crude in his expression in saying, That when the King is unjust, the Nobles unjust, and the generality of the People so, it is not so properly a corrupt Commonwealth, as none at all: which sentence of
Cicero's, St.
Augustine thus corrects,
Neither can I therefore say truly, that that people are no people, or that Commonwealth no Commonwealth, so long as there remains any society of a rational multitude, unanimously congregated for the mutual defence of such things as they love. A Body though dis∣eased yet remains a Body; and a City is still a City so long as it hath Laws, and executes judgments, and hath other means necessary for both natives and strangers, to preserve or re∣cover their just Rights. That which
Dion Chrysostome observes, comes much nearer to truth, who tells us, That the Law (especially that of Nations) is in a City, as the Soul in an humane Body; which being taken away, it remains no longer a City. So likewise
Cicero in another place,
There were neither Laws nor judgments, nor any sign to shew that there was a Commonwealth. Aristides in his perswasive Oration to the Rhodians for Peace, proves that many good Laws may very well consist even with Tiranny. And
Aristotle informs us, That he that strains the power, either of the Nobles or of the People, to too high a key, marrs the Harmony of good Government; and first corrupts the Commonwealth, and then destroys it. Let us illustrate this by examples: That they who are taken by Robbers, are not made slaves, was (as we have said) the opinion of
Ʋlpian. But if a Roman Citizen was taken by the Germans or Parthians, he lost his freedom; and yet among the Germans, the Roberies that were done without the bounds of the City were blameless, which are
Caesars own words.
Tacitus records it of the
Garamantes, that they were,
Gens Latroci∣niis foecunda, sed Gens tamen; A
Nation wholly addicted to Roberies, but yet a Nation though. The Illirians spoiled all they met at Sea without regard; but yet to him that subdued them, was a triumph granted; which was denied to
Pompey who had purged the Sea of Pi∣rates. So great is the difference between a Nation though corrupt, and a company of men combined only to do mischief.