1It is their own safety, therefore, that they love when for one man they lead ten legions at a time into battle, when they rush to the front line and expose their breasts to wounds, so that their general's standards may not be turned back. 1For he is the bond by which the commonwealth holds together, he the breath of life which these many thousands draw, who of themselves would be nothing but a burden and a prey if that mind of the empire were withdrawn. 1'While the king is safe, all have one mind; 1when he is lost, they break faith.' 2Such a disaster will be the end of the Roman peace, it will drive the fortune of so great a people to ruin; 2this people will be free from that danger only so long as it knows how to bear the reins; and if ever it tears them off, or does not allow them to be put back when they have been shaken loose by some accident, this unity and this fabric of the greatest empire will burst into many parts, and the end of ruling for this city will be the same as the end of obeying.
3It is therefore no wonder that princes and kings, and the guardians of the public order by whatever other name they go, are loved even beyond private ties; 3for if to sensible men public interests matter more than private, it follows that he too is dearer into whom the commonwealth has transformed itself. 3For long ago Caesar so clothed himself in the commonwealth that neither could be drawn apart without the ruin of both; 3for the one needs strength and the other a head.