Since, then, our investigations relate to a commonwealth, we must first examine what this name properly signifies.
And when Laelius had intimated his approbation of this course, Scipio continued: I shall not adopt, said he, in so clear and simple a manner that system of discussion which goes back to first principles; as learned men often do in this sort of discussion, so as to go back to the first meeting of male and female, and then to the first birth and formation of the first family, and define over and over again what there is in words, and in how many manners each thing is stated.

For, as I am speaking to men of prudence, who have acted with the greatest glory in the Commonwealth, both in peace and war, I will take care not to allow the subject of the discussion itself to be clearer than my explanation of it.

Nor have I undertaken this task with the design of examining all its minuter points, like a school-master; nor will I promise you in the following discourse not to omit any single particular.
Then Laelius said: For my part, I am impatient for exactly that kind of disquisition which you promise us.
XXV.

Well, then, said Africanus, a commonwealth is a constitution of the entire people.

But the people is not every association of men, however congregated, but the association of the entire number, bound together by the compact of justice, and the communication of utility.
The first cause of this association is not so much the weakness of man as a certain spirit of congregation which naturally belongs to him.