Meplat

Alike were they free from Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice of republics.
  Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their windows;
  But their dwellings were open as day and the hearts of the owners;
  There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in abundance.

   But in their hands and hearths did they have swords.

    Terrible as the year was long, and quick as the day was to end

And to said end would they fight, dying, rather than living under the rule of another "republic".