The true republicans had perished either in the field of battle, or by the rigour of proscriptions: of the remaining nobility, the leading men were raised to wealth and honours, in proportion to the alacrity with which they courted the yoke; and all who in the distraction of the times had risen to affluence, preferred immediate ease and safety to the danger of contending for ancieht freedom. The provinces acquiesced under the new establishment, weary of the mixed authority of the senate and people;
senatuaren, magistratuen, legeen eskubideak bereganatu zituen, aurka egiteko inor gabe, amorratuenak gerran edo proskripzioetan akabatu baitziren, eta gainerako nobleek, zenbat eta zerbitzeko gertuago, hainbat ondasun eta ohore gehiago hartzen baitzuten, eta, egoera berrian gailendurik, orainaldi segurra nahiago baitzuten lehenaldi arriskutsua baino.