The Mob

John Calvin, Calvin's Commentary on Seneca's De Clementia, tr. Ford Lewis Battles and André Malan Hugo (E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1969), bk. I., pp. 25-29:

THIS VAST MOB—FACTIOUS, DISCORDANT &C] These are the unchanging epithets of the mob: Factious, discordant, unruly; and not groundlessly applied!

FACTIOUS] Virgil, Aeneid [1.148150]:

                And as, when oft times in a great assembly tumult
                Has risen, the base rabble rage angrily,
                And now brands and stones fly, madness lending arms . . .

Even though a crowd is everywhere and always swift to pursue newfangled things, still the Roman plebs, composed of a great and varied throng of foreigners, is far more fickle than all the rest. Let us look at history: what tremendous uprisings among the Romans were stirred up by the factions of the plebs, how often did they lead the whole state to the brink of disaster. Hence arose the proverb, Crowdy and rowdy [Varro in Aul. Gell. 13.11.3].

DISCORDANT] This word refers to a variety of opinions. “There are as many minds as there are heads,” especially where men have no sure plan set before their eyes, but seize with unpremeditated rashness upon anything that presents itself to their giddy minds. For in the multitude there is no deliberation, says Cicero in Pro Plancio [4.9], no reason, no discernment . . . To Plato [Rep., 9.588f] and Horace [Epist., 1.1.75] then it is a many-headed beast. That is also shown by the derivation of the word; although Ovid [Amores, 2.12.11] has in newfangled and over-free fashion used “discordant glory” in the sense of “discrete,” “separate.” But my glory is a thing apart, separate from any soldier.

UNCONTROLLED] Nonius Marcellus [2, p. 129] glosses impotens as “very powerful.” But this word has more force. For it means not only “very powerful” to Cicero when he says [T.D., 5.7.17]: . . . Those who do nothing, fear nothing, covet not, and are carried away by no uncontrolled passion, but it means a certain overconfident boldness. Cicero [T.D., 4.15.34]: By excessive longing, which we sometimes term ‘desire,’ sometimes ‘lust’, they enkindle a sort of uncontrolled state of soul, clean counter to temperance and self-control. The Greeks call it akrateia. Horace [C., 1.37.1012]: . . . a woman uncontrolled enough / To nurse the wildest hopes, and drunk / With Fortune’s favors.

READY TO RUN RIOT ALIKE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF ITSELF] It either means “to revel,” as Cicero’s words in Rep. [2.41.68]: . . . which so thirsts for blood and so exults in every sort of cruelty that it can hardly be sated even by the merciless slaughter of men . . . Or it means “to leap up and to be carried away.” Cic., Rep. [3.35.49]: There is therefore in all men a certain restless element in evidence which exults in pleasure and is broken by tribulation. Nonius Marcellus [4 (p. 300-301)] is the author of both definitions; but the latter fits better, because the ignorant plebs, which has no restraint upon its liberty, immediately turns to license, and that to its own ruin, as the Roman mob quite often almost destroyed their empire through internal strife. And to the ruin of others as well, because an insane multitude can scarcely be restrained when once it has risen in arms. Livy [24.25.8]: This is the nature of the multitude: they either serve humbly, or lord it haughtily over others. They do not know how with moderation to spurn or to enjoy that liberty which holds the middle course. Curtius [10.7.11]: No deep sea, no vast and storm-swept ocean rouses such billows as the emotions of a multitude, especially if it is exulting in a liberty which is new and destined to be short-lived. Livy [34.49.78]: Quintius advised the Achæans to use their liberty with moderation: for when regulated by prudence, it was beneficial to them all and to every city individually; but, if excessive, it became a burden to others and to those who possess it headstrong and unbridled.