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2 6 4 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n Volume 41 / Issue 3was once in the world, then only fell into ruin60 when they had dominated the powers around them.But in Germany in the present dayeach one of the cities lives secure,by having less than six miles around.Henry 10 did not make our city afraid65 with all his power,when his border neared her ramparts;and now that she has increased her poweraround herself, and has become great and vast,she is afraid of everything, as well as big armies.70 Because that virtue which sufficesto sustain a body, when that body is alone,is not enough to bear a greater weight.He who wants to touch the one and the other pole,finds himself ruined on the ground,75 like Icarus 11 did after his mad flight.It is true that a power usually lastslonger or more briefly, according to how muchor little its laws are good and there is order.That realm that is driven by virtue80 or by necessity to act,will always see itself go upward;and on the contrary that city will always befull of thorny bushes and wild briars,changing government from winter to summer,85 such that in the end it fittingly consumes itselfand always takes aim in error,that city which has good laws and bad customs.He who reads past things, knowshow empires begin with Ninus, 1290 and then end up in Sardanapalus. 13That first one was held to be a divine man,10Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor (1312–1324), briefly revived the imperial cause in Italy and isreferred to as the alto Arrigo in Dante’s Paradiso, Canto 30.11Son of Daedalus, whose attempted escape from Crete failed when he flew too close to the sun, meltingthe wax in his wings, and fell into the sea.12Legendary founder of Nineveh, ancient capital of Assyria. Appears in Dante’s Inferno, Canto 5.13The last king of Assyria, according to Ctesius of Cnidus.