Two Continuous Successions of Princes of Virtu achieve great Results; and that well organized Republics of necessity Have Successions of Virtu; Therefore their Acquisitions and Expansions are Great

After Rome had driven out her Kings, she was no longer exposed to those perils which were mentioned above, resulting from a succession of weak or bad Kings; for the highest [authority] was vested in the Consuls, who came to that Empire not by heredity or deceit or violent ambition, but by free suffrage, and were always most excellent men, from whose virtu and fortune Rome h............