Nisi fallor enim, prohibendarum factionum causa de providentia constant modestiae publicae ne civitas in partes scinderetur, quae res facile comitia, concilia, curias, contiones, spectacula etiam aemulis studiorum conpulsationibus inquietaret, cum iam et in quaestu habere coepissent venalem et mercenariam homines violentiae suae operam.
For, unless I am mistaken, the reason for prohibiting associations clearly lay in forethought for public order'to save the State from being torn into parties, a thing very likely to disturb election assemblies, public gatherings, local senates, meetings, even the public games, with the clashing and rivalry of partisans, especially since men had begun to reckon on their violence as a source of revenue, offering it for sale at a price.
final_alignments\Tertullian_Apology.json