[18]
In the next place, clever and industrious
men, of all the other orders of the state, are some of them actually trading themselves in
Asia, and you ought to show a regard for their
interests in their absence; and others of them have large sums invested in that province. It
will, therefore become your humanity to protect a large number of those citizens from
misfortune; it will become your wisdom to perceive that the misfortune of many citizens cannot
be separated from the misfortune of the republic. In truth, firstly, it is of but little
consequence for you afterwards to recover for the publicans revenues which have been once
lost; for the same men have not afterwards the same power of contracting for them, and others
have not the inclination, through fear.
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