THE PRINCE by Niccolò MACHIAVELLI - FULL AudioBook | GreatestAudioBooks.com V4

part one of the prints this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by clive cattle the prints by niccolò machiavelli translated by WK marriott dedication and chapters one two three dedication to the magnificent Lorenzo di Piero de Medici those who strive to obtain the good graces of a prince are accustomed to come before him with such things as they hold most precious ore in which they see him take most delight when Swan often sees horses arms cloth of gold precious stones and similar ornaments presented to Prince's worthy of their greatness a desiring therefore to present myself to Your Magnificence with some testimony of my devotion towards you I have not found among my possessions anything which I hold more dear than or value so much as the knowledge of the actions of great men acquired by long experience in contemporary affairs and a continual study of antiquity which having reflected upon it with great and prolonged diligence I now send digested into a little volume to your magnificence and although I may consider this work unworthy of your countenance nevertheless I trust much to your benign UT that it may be acceptable seeing that it is not possible for me to make a better gift than to offer you the opportunity of understanding in the shortest time all that I have learnt in so many years and with so many troubles and dangers which work I have not embellished with swelling or magnificent words nor stuffed with rounded periods nor with any extrinsic elements or adornments whatever with which so many are accustomed to embellish their works for I have wished either that no one should be given it or else that the truth of the matter and the weightiness of the theme shall make it acceptable nor do i hold with those who regard it as a presumption if a man of low and humble condition dare to discuss and settle the concerns of princes because just as those who draw landscapes place themselves below in the plain to contemplate the nature of the mountains and of lofty places and in order to contemplate the plains place themselves upon high mountains even so to understand the nature of the people it needs to be a prince and to understand that a Prince's it needs to be of the people take then your magnificence this little gift in the spirit in which I send it aware in if it be diligently read and considered by you you will learn my extreme desire that you should attain that greatness which fortune and your other attributes promise and if your magnificence from the summit of your greatness will sometimes turn your eyes to these lower regions you will see how unmerited ly I suffer a great and continued malignity of fortune chapter one how many kinds of principalities there are and by what means they required all states all powers that have held and hold rule over men have been and are either Republic's or principalities principalities are either hereditary in which the family has been long established or they and you the new are either entirely new as was Milan to Francesco Sforza or they are as it were members annexed to the hereditary state of the prince who was acquired them as was the kingdom of Naples to that of the king of Spain as such dominions thus acquired or either accustomed to live under a prince or to live in freedom and are acquired either by the arms of the prince himself or of others or else by fortune or by ability chapter 2 concerning hereditary principalities I will leave out all discussion on Republic's in as much as in another place I have written of them at length and will address myself only to principalities in doing so I will keep to the order indicated above and discuss how such principalities are to be ruled and preserved I say at once there are fewer difficulties in holding hereditary states and those long accustomed to the family of their Prince than new ones for it is sufficient only not to transgress the customs of his ancestors and deal prudently with circumstances as they arise for a prince of average powers to maintain himself in his state unless he be deprived of it by some extraordinary and excessive force and if he should be so deprived of it whenever anything sinister happens to the usurper he will regain it we have in Italy for example the Duke of Ferrara who could not have withstood the attacks of the Venetians in 84 nor those of Pope Julius in 10 unless he had been long established in his dominions for the hereditary prince has less cause and less necessity to offend hence it happens that he will be more loved and unless extraordinary vices caused him to be hated it is reasonable to expect that his subjects will be naturally well disposed towards him and in the antiquity and duration of his rule the memories and motives that make for change are lost for one change always leaves the to thing for another chapter 3 concerning mixed principalities but the difficulties occur in a new principality and firstly if it be not entirely new but is as it were a member of a state which taken collectively may be called composite the changes arise chiefly from an inherent difficulty there is in all new principalities for men change their rulers willingly hoping to better themselves and this hope induces them to take up arms again him who rules wherein they are deceived because they afterwards find by experience they have gone from bad to worse this follows also on another natural and common necessity which always causes a new Prince to burden those who have submitted to him with his soldierly and with infinite other hardships which he must put upon his new acquisition in this way you have enemies at all those whom you have injured in seizing that principality and you are not able to keep those friends who put you there because of your not being able to satisfy them in the way they expected and you cannot take strong measures against them feeling bound to them for although one may be very strong in armed forces yet in entering a province one has always need of the goodwill of the natives for these reasons Louis the 12th King of France quickly occupied Milan and as quickly lost it and to turn him out the first time he'd only needed Ludovico's own forces because those who had opened the gates to him finding themselves deceived in their hopes of future benefit would not endure the ill treatment of the new Prince it is very true that after acquiring rebellious provinces a second time they're not so likely lost afterwards because the prince with little reluctance takes the opportunity of the rebellion to punish the delinquents to clear out the suspects and to strengthen himself in the weakest places thus to cause France to lose Milan the first time it was enough for the Duke Ludovico to raise insurrection zhan the borders but to cause him to lose it a second time it was necessary to bring the whole world against him and that his armies should be defeated and driven out of Italy which followed from the causes above-mentioned and nevertheless Milan was taken from France both the first and the second time but the general reasons for the first have been discussed it remains to name those for the second and to see what resources he had and what anyone in his situation would have had for maintaining himself more securely in his acquisition did the King of France and now I say that those dominions which when acquired are added to an ancient state by him who acquires them are either of the same country and language or they are not when they are it is easier to hold them especially when they have not been accustomed to self-government and to hold them securely it is enough to have destroyed the family of the prince who was ruling them because the two peoples in preserving in other things the old conditions and not being unalike in customs will live quietly together as one has seen in Brittany burgundy Gascony and Normandy which have been bound to France for so long a time and although there may be some difference in language nevertheless the customs are alike and the people will easily be able to get on amongst themselves he who has annexed them if he wishes to hold them has only to bear in mind two considerations the one that the family of their former Lord is extinguished the other that neither their laws not their taxes are altered so that in a very short time there will become entirely one body with the old principality but when states are required in a country differing in language customs or laws there are difficulties and good fortune and great energy are needed to halt them and one of the greatest and most real helps would be that he who has acquired them should go and reside there this would make his position more secure and durable as it has made that of the Turk in Greece who notwithstanding all the other measures taken by him for holding that state if he had not settled there would not have been able to keep it and because if one is on the spot disorders are seen as they spring up and one can quickly remedy them but if one is not at hand they are heard of anyone they are great and then one can no longer remedy them and besides this the country is not pillaged by your officials the subjects are satisfied by prompt recourse to the prince thus wishing to be good they have more cause to love him and wishing to be otherwise to fear him he who would attack that state from the outside must have the utmost caution as long as the prince resides there it can only be rested from him with the greatest difficulty the other and better course is to send colonies to one or two places which may be as keys to that state for it is necessary either to do this for us to keep there a great number of cavalry and infantry' a prince does not spend much on colonies for with a little or no expense he can send them out and keep them there and he offends minority only of the citizens from whom he takes lands and houses to give them to the new inhabitants and those whom he offends remaining poor and scattered are never able to injure him whilst the rest being uninjured are easily kept quiet and at the same time are anxious not to earth for fear it should happen to them as it has to those who have been despoiled in conclusion I say that these colonies are not costly they are more faithful they injure less and the injured as has been said being poor and scattered cannot hurt upon this one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries of more serious ones that cannot therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear at revenge but in maintaining armed men there in place of colonies one spends much more having to consume on the garrison all the income from the state so that the acquisition turns into a loss and many more are exasperated because the whole state is injured through the shifting of the garrison up and down all become acquainted with hardship and all become hostile and they are enemies who whilst beaten on their own ground are yet able to do hurt for every reason therefore such guards that are as useless as a colony is useful again the prince who holds a country differing in the above respects or to make himself the head and defender of his less powerful neighbors and to weaken the more powerful amongst them taking care that no foreigner as powerful as himself shall by any accident inter footing there for it will always happen that such a one will be introduced by those who are discontented either through excessive ambition or through fear as one has seen already the Romans were brought into greece by the italians and in every other country where they obtained a footing they were brought in by the inhabitants and the usual course of affairs is that as soon as a powerful foreigner enters a country all the subject states are drawn to him moved by the hatred which they feel against the ruling power so that in respect to those subject states he has not to take any trouble to gain them over to himself for the whole of them quickly rally to the state which he has acquired there he has only to take care that they do not get hold of too much power and too much authority and then with his own forces and with their goodwill he can easily keep down the more powerful of them so as to remain entirely master in the country and he who does not properly manage this business will soon lose what he has acquired and whilst he does hold it he will have endless difficulties and troubles the Romans in the countries which they annexed observed closely these measures they sent colonies and maintained friendly relations with the minor powers without increasing their strength they kept down the greater and did not allow any strong foreign power to gain Authority a Greece appears to me sufficient for an example the achæans and italians were kept friendly by them the kingdom of Macedonia was humbled Antiochus was driven out yet the merits of the Achaeans and Italians never secured for them permission to increase their power nor did the persuasions of Philip ever induced the Romans to be his friends without first humbling him nor did the influence of Antiochus make the agree that he should retain any lordship over the country because the Romans did in these instances what all prudent Prince's ought to do who have regard not only to present troubles but also future ones for which they must prepare with every energy because when foreseen it is easy to remedy them but if you wait until they approach the medicine is no longer in time because the malady has become incurable before it happens in this as the physicians say it happens in hectic fever that in the beginning of the malady it is easy to cure but difficult to detect but in the course of time not having been either detected or treated in the beginning it becomes easy to detect but difficult to cure thus it happens in affairs of state for when the evils that arise have been foreseen which it is only given to a wise man to see they can be quickly redressed but when through not having been foreseen they have been permitted to grow in a way that everyone can see them there is no longer a remedy therefore the Romans foreseen troubles dealt with him at once and even to avoid a war would not let them come to a head for they knew that war is not to be avoided but is only to be put off to the advantage of others and moreover they wished to fight with Philip and Antiochus in Greece so as not to have to do it in Italy if they could have avoided both but this they did not wish nor did that ever please them which is forever in the mouths of the wise ones of our time and let us enjoy the benefits of the time but rather the benefits of their own valour and prudence for time drives everything before it and is able to bring with it good as well as evil and evil as well as good but let us turn to France and inquire whether she has done any of the things mentioned I will speak of Louis and not of Charles as the one whose conduct is the better to be observed he having held possession of Italy for the longest period and he will see that he has done the opposite to those things which ought to be done to retain a state composed of diverse elements King Louie was brought into Italy by the ambition of the Venetians who desired to obtain half the state of Lombardi by his intervention how I will not blame the course taken by the king because a wishing to get a foothold in Italy and having no friends there seeing rather that every door was shut to him owing to the conduct of Charles he was forced to accept those friendships which he could get and he would have succeeded very quickly in his design if in other matters he had not made some mistakes and the King however having acquired Lombardi regained at once the authority which Charles had lost in Genoa yielded the Florentines became his friends the Marquess of Mantua the Duke of Ferrara the bent Evo Glee milady of folly the lords of fines ax of Pizarro of Remini of Camerino of Piombino the Lucchese the peasants the Sienese everybody made advances to him to become his friend then could the Venetians realize the rashness of the course taken by them which in order that they might secure two towns in Lombardy had made the King master of two thirds of Italy and let anyone now consider with what little difficulty the king could have maintained his position in Italy had he observed the rules above laid down and kept all his friends secure and protected for although they were numerous they were both weak and timid some afraid of the church some of the Venetians and thus they would always have been forced to stand in with him and by their means he could easily have made himself secure against those who remained powerful but he was no sooner in Milan and he did the contrary by assisting Pope Alexander to occupy the Romania it never occurred to him that by this action he was weakening himself depriving himself of friends and of those who had thrown themselves into his lap whilst he aggrandized the church by adding much temporal power to the spiritual thus giving it greater authority and having committed this prime error he was obliged to follow it up so much so that to put an end to the ambition of Alexander and to prevent his becoming the master of Tuscany he was himself forced to come into Italy and as if it were not enough to have a grand eyes the church and deprived himself of friends he wishing to half the kingdom of Naples divides it with the king of Spain and where he was the prime arbiter in Italy he takes an associate so that the ambitions of that country and the monk intents of his own should have somewhere to shelter and whereas he could have left in the kingdom his own pensioner as king he drove him out to put one there who was able to drive him Louis out in turn the wish to acquire is sin truth very natural and common and men always do so when they can and for this they will be praised not blamed but when they cannot do so and yet wish to do so by any means then there is folly and blame therefore if France could have attacked Naples with her own forces she ought to have done so if she could not then she ought not to have divided it and if the partition which she made with the Venetians in Lombardy was justified by the excuse that by it she got a foothold in Italy this other partition merited blame for it had not the excuse of that necessity therefore Louis made these five errors he destroyed the minor powers he increased the strength of one of the greater powers in Italy he brought in a foreign power he did not settle in the country he did not send colonies which errors had he lived were not enough to injure him had he not made a sixth by taking away their dominions from the Venetians because had he not aggrandize the church nor brought Spain into Italy it would have been very reasonable and necessary to humble them but having first taken these steps he or effort to have consented to their ruin for they being powerful would always have kept off others from designs on Lombardi to which the Venetians would never have consented except to become masters themselves there also because the others would not wish to take long body from France in order to give it to the Venetians and to run counter to both they would not have had the courage and if anyone should say King Louie yielded the ramonja to Alexander and the Kingdom to Spain to avoid war I answer for the reasons given above that a blunder ought never to be perpetrated to avoid war because it is not to be avoided but his only deferred to your disadvantage and if another should allege the pledge which the King had given to the Pope that he would assist him in the enterprise in exchange for the dissolution of his marriage and for the captive raw to that I reply what I shall write later concerning the faith of princes and how it ought to be kept thus King Louie lost Lombardi by not having followed any of the conditions observed by those who have taken possession of countries and wished to retain them nor is there any miracle illness but much that is reasonable and quite natural and on these matters I spoke at not with Rouen when Valentino as Cesare Borgia the son of Pope Alexander was usually called occupied the Romania and on Cardinal drew are observing to me that the Italians did not understand war I replied to him that the French did not understand statecraft meaning that otherwise they would not have allowed the church to reach such greatness and in fact it has been seen that the greatness of the church and of Spain in Italy has been caused by France and her ruin may be attributed to them from this a general rule is drawn which never or rarely fails that he who is the cause of another becoming powerful is ruined because that predominance II has been brought about either by astuteness or else by force and both are distrusted by him who has been raised to power end of part 1 part two of prints by niccolò machiavelli translated by WK Marriott this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by clive catarrhal chapters four to six chapter four why the kingdom of Darius conquered by Alexander did not rebel against the successors of Alexander and his death considering the difficulties which men have had to hold to a newly acquired state some might wonder how seeing that Alexander the Great became the master of Asia in a few years and died whilst it was scarcely settled whence it might appear reasonable that the whole Empire would have rebelled nevertheless his successors maintained themselves and had to meet no other difficulty than that which arose among themselves from their own ambitions I answer that the principalities of which one has record have found to be governed in two different ways either by a prince with a body of servants who assists him to govern the kingdom as ministers by his favour and commission or by a prince and barons who hold that dignity by antiquity of blood and not by the grace of the prince such barons have States and their own subjects who recognized them as Lords and hold them in natural affection those states that are governed by a prince and his servants hold their prints in more consideration because in all the country there is no one who has recognized his superior to him and if they yield obedience to another they do it has to a minister and official and they do not bear him any particular affection the examples of these two governments in our time are the Turk and the King of France the entire monarchy of the Turk is governed by one Lord the others are his servants and dividing his kingdom into San Jack's he sends their different administrators and shifts and changes them as he chooses but the King of France is placed in the midst of an ancient body of Lords acknowledged by their own subjects and beloved by them they have their own prerogatives nor can the king take these away except at his peril therefore he who considers both of these states will recognize great difficulties in seizing the states of the Turk but once it is conquered great ease in holding it the causes of the difficulties in seizing the kingdom of the Turk are that the usurper cannot be called in by the princes of the kingdom nor can he hope to be assisted in his designs by the revolt of those whom the Lord has around him this arises from the reasons given above for his ministers being all slaves and bondman can only be corrupted with great difficulty and one can expect little advantage from them when they have been corrupted as they cannot carry the people with them for the reasons assigned hence he who attacks the Turk must bear in mind that he will find him United and he will have to rely more on his own strength than on the revolt of others and but if once the Turk has been conquered and routed in the field in such a way that he cannot replace his armies there is nothing to fear but the family of this prince and this being exterminated there remains no one to fear the others having no credit with the people and as the Conqueror did not rely on them before his victory so he ought not to fear them after it the contrary happens in kingdoms governed like that of France because one can easily enter there by gaining over son Baron of the kingdom for one always finds malcontents and such as desire a change such men for the reasons given can open the way into the state and render the victory easy but if you wish to hold it afterwards you meet with infinite difficulties both from those who have assisted you and from those who have crushed nor is it enough for you to have exterminated the family of the Prince and because the lords that remain make themselves the heads of fresh movements against you and as you are unable either to satisfy or exterminate them that state is lost whenever time brings the opportunity now if you will consider what was the nature of the government of Darius you will find it similar to the kingdom of the Turk and therefore it was only necessary for Alexander first to overthrow him in the field and then to take the country from him after which victory Darius being killed the States remained secure to Alexander for the above reasons and if his successors had been united they would have enjoyed it securely and at their ease for there were no two months raised in the kingdom except those they provoked themselves but it is impossible to hold with such tranquillity States constituted like that of France hence arose those frequent rebellions against the Romans in Spain France and Greece owing to the many principalities they were in these states of which as long as the memory of them endured the Romans always held an insecure possession but with the power and long continuance of the Empire the memory of them passed away and the Romans then became secure possessors and when fighting afterwards amongst themselves each one was able to attach to himself his own parts of the country according to the authority he had assumed there and to the family of the former lord being exterminated none other than the Romans were acknowledged when these things are remembered no one will marvel at the ease with which Alexander held the Empire of Asia or the difficulties which others have had to keep an acquisition such as Paris and many more this is not occasioned by the little or abundance of ability in the Conqueror but by the want of uniformity in the subject state chapter 5 concerning the way to govern cities or principalities which lived under their own laws before they were annexed whenever those states which had been acquired as stated have been accustomed to live under their own laws and in freedom there are three courses for those who wish to hold them the first is to ruin them the next is to reside there in person the third is to permit them to live under their own laws drawing a tribute and as machine within it and oligarchy which will keep it friendly to you and because such a government being created by the Prince knows that it cannot stand without his friendship and interests and does its utmost to support him and therefore he who would keep a city accustomed to freedom will hold it more easily by the means of its own citizens than in any other way there are for example the Spartans and the Romans the Spartans held Athens and Thebes establishing their own oligarchy nevertheless they lost them the Romans in order to hold Capua Carthage and Amman Tia dismantled them and did not lose them they wished to hold Greece as the Spartans held it making it free and permitting its laws and did not succeed so to hold it they were compelled to dismount on many cities in the country for in truth there is no safe way to retain them otherwise than by ruining them and he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it may expect to be destroyed by it for in rebellion it has always the watchword of Liberty and it's ancient privileges as a rallying point which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget and whatever you may do or provide against they never forget that name or their privileges unless their disunited or dispersed but at every chance they immediately rally to them as Pisa after the hundred years she had been held in bondage by the Florentines but when cities or countries are accustomed to live under a prince and his family is exterminated they being on the one hand accustomed to obey and on the other hand not having the old prince cannot agree in making one from amongst themselves and they do not know how to govern themselves for this reason they are very slow to take up arms and a prince can gain them to himself and secure them much more easily but in Republic's there is more vitality greater hatred and more desire for vengeance which will never permit them to allow the memory of their former Liberty to rest so that the safest way is to destroy them or to reside there chapter 6 concerning new principalities which are required by one's own arms and ability let's no one be surprised if in speaking of entirely new principalities as I shall do I adduce the highest examples both of Prince and of State because men walking almost always in pants beaten by others and following by imitation their deeds are yet unable to keep entirely to the ways of others or attain to the power of those they imitate a wise man author was to follow the parts written by great men and to imitate those who have been supreme so that if his ability does not equal theirs at least it will savour of it let him act like the clever archers who designing to hit a mark which yet appears to far distant and knowing the limits to which the strength of their bow attains take aim much higher than the mark not to reach by their strength or arrow to so greater height but to be able with the aid of so high an aim to hit the mark they wish to reach I say therefore that an entirely new principalities whether is a new Prince more or less difficulty is found in keeping them accordingly as there is more or less ability in him who was acquired the state now as the fact of becoming a prince from a private station presupposes either ability or fortune it is clear that one or other of these things will mitigate in some degree many difficulties and nevertheless he who has relied least on fortune is established the strongest further it facilitates matters when the prince having no other state is compelled to reside there in person but to come to those who by their own ability and not through fortune have risen to be princes I say that Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and suchlike are the most excellent examples and although one may not discuss Moses he having been a mere executor of the will of God yet he ought to be admired if only for that favor which made him worthy to speak with God but in considering Syrus and others who have acquired or founded kingdoms all will be found admirable and if their particular deeds and conduct shall be considered they will not be found inferior to those of Moses although he had so great a preceptor and in examining their actions and lives one cannot see that they owed anything to fortune beyond opportunity which brought them the material to mold into the form which seemed best to them without that opportunity their powers of mind would have been extinguished and without those powers the opportunity would have come in vain it was necessary therefore to Moses that he should find the people of Israel in Egypt enslaved and oppressed by the Egyptians in order that they should be disposed to follow him so as to be delivered out of bondage it was necessary that Romulus should not remain in Alba and that he should be abandoned at his birth in order that he should become king of Rome and founder of the fatherland it was necessary that Cyrus should find the Persians discontented with the government of the Medes and the Medes suffered and effeminate through their long peace Theseus could not have shown his ability had he not found the Athenians dispersed these opportunities therefore made those men fortunate and their high ability enabled them to recognize the opportunity whereby their country was a noble dand made famous those who by valorous ways become Prince's like these men acquire a principality with difficulty but they keep it with ease the difficulties they have in acquiring it rise in part from the new rules and methods which they are forced to introduce to establish their government and its security and it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success and to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things because the innovator has four enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new this coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents who have the laws on their side and partly from the incredulity of men do not readily believe in new things until they have had long experience of them thus it happens that whenever those who are hostile have the opportunity to attack they do it like partisans whilst the others defend Luke warmly in such wise that the prince is endangered along with them it is necessary therefore if we desire to discuss this matter thoroughly to inquire whether these innovators can rely on themselves or have to depend on others that is to say whether to consummate their enterprise have they to use prayers or can they use force in the first instance they always succeed badly and never compass anything but when they can rely on themselves and use force then they are rarely endangered hence it is that all armed prophets have conquered and the unarmed ones have been destroyed besides the reasons mentioned the nature of the people is variable and whilst it is easy to persuade them it is difficult to fix them in that persuasion and thus it is necessary to take such measures that when they believe no longer it may be possible to make them believe by force if Moses Cyrus Theseus and Romulus had been unarmed they could not have enforced their constitutions for long as happened in our time to Frazer Alamo Savonarola who was ruined with his new order of things immediately the multitude believed in him no longer and he had no means of keeping steadfast those who believed or of making the unbelievers to believe and therefore such as these have great difficulties in consummating their enterprise for all their dangers a trendiest sent yet with ability they will overcome them but when these are overcome and those who envy them their success are exterminated they will begin to be respected and that will continue afterwards powerful secure honored and happy to these great examples I wish to add a lesser one still it bears some resemblance to them and I wish it to suffice me for all of a like-kind it is hero the Tsar accusin this man rose from a private station to be prince of syracuse nor did he either or anything to fortune but opportunity for the side recuse ins being oppressed chose him for their captain afterwards he was rewarded by being made their prince he was of so great ability even as a private citizen that one who writes of him says he wanted nothing but a kingdom to be a king this man abolished the old soldiery organised the new gave up old alliances made new ones and as he had his own soldiers and allies on such foundations he was able to build any edifice thus whilst he had endured much trouble in acquiring he had but little in keeping end of part 2 part 3 of the prince by niccolò machiavelli translated by w ke maleate this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by clive catarrhal chapters 7 & 8 chapter 7 concerning new principalities which are required either by the arms of others or by good fortune those whose solely by good fortune become princes from being private citizens have little trouble in rising but much in keeping atop they have not any difficulties on the way up because they fly but they have many when they reach the summit such are those to whom some state is given either for money or by the favour of him who bestows it has happened to many in Greece in the cities of Ionia and of the Hellespont where princes were made by Darius in order that they might hold the city's both for his security and his glory as also were those emperors who buy the corruption of the soldiers from being citizens came to empire such stand simply elevated upon the goodwill and the fortune of him who has elevated them to most inconstant and unstable things neither have they the knowledge requisite for the position because unless they are men of great Worth and ability it is not reasonable to expect that they should know how to command having always lived in a private condition and besides they cannot hold it because they have not forces which they can keep friendly and faithful states that rise unexpectedly then like all other things in nature which are born and grow rapidly cannot leave their foundations and correspondence is fixed in such a way that the first storm will not overthrow them unless as it said those who unexpectedly become Prince's a men of so much ability that they know they have to be prepared at once to hold that which fortune has thrown into their laps and that those foundations which others have laid before they became Prince's they must lay afterwards concerning these two methods of rising to be a prince by ability or fortune I wish to reduce two examples within our own recollection and these are francesco sforza and charity Borgia francesco by proper means and with great ability from being a private person rose to be Duke of Milan and to that which he had acquired with a thousand anxieties he kept with little trouble on the other hand Cesare Borgia called by the people Duke Valentino acquired his state during the ascendancy of his father and on its decline he lost it not withstanding that he had taken every measure and done all that ought to be done by a wise and able man to fix firmly his roots in the states which the arms and fortunes of others had bestowed on him because as is stated above he who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great difficulty to lay them afterwards but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building if therefore all the steps taken by the Duke be considered it will be seen that he laid solid foundations for his future power and I do not consider it superfluous to discuss them because I do not know what better precepts to give a new prince than the example of his actions and if his dispositions were of no avail that was not his fault but the extraordinary and extreme malignity of fortune Alexander the sixth in wishing to aggrandize the Duke his son had many immediate and prospective difficulties firstly he did not see his way to make him master of any state it was not a state of the church and if he was willing to rob the church he knew that the Duke of Milan and the Venetians would not consent because fire and remedy were already under the protection of the Venetians and besides this he saw the arms of Italy especially those by which he might have been assisted in hands that would fear the aggrandizement of the Pope namely the Orsini and : AC and their following it behaved him therefore to upset this state of affairs and embroil the powers so as to make himself securely master of part of their States this was easy for him to do because he found the Venetians moved by other reasons inclined to bring back the French into Italy he would not only not oppose this but he would render it more easy by dissolving the former marriage of King Louie therefore the king came into Italy with the assistance of the Venetians and the consent of Alexander he was no sooner in Milan than the Pope had soldiers from him for the attempt on the ramonja which yielded to him on the reputation of the king the Duke therefore having acquired the Romania and beaten the colony see while wishing to hold that and to advance further was hindered by two things the one his forces did not appear loyal to him the other the goodwill of France that is to say he feared that the forces of the Orsini which he was using would not stand to him that not only might they hinder him from winning more but might themselves seize what he had won and that the King might also do the same of the Orsini he had a warning when after taking fire and attacking Bologna he saw them go very unwillingly to that attack and as to the king he learned his mind when he himself after taking the Duchy of Urbino attacked skinny and the Duke made him desist from that undertaking hence the Duke decided to depend no more on the arms and the lack of others for the first thing he weakened the Orsini and Colin AZ parties in Rome by gaining to himself all their adherents who were gentlemen making them his gentlemen giving them good pay and according to their rank honoring them with office and command in such a way that in a few months all attachment to the factions was destroyed and turned entirely to the Duke after this he awaited an opportunity to crush the Orsini having scattered the adherents of the Kelowna house this came to him soon and he used it well for the Orsini perceiving at length that the aggrandizement of the Duke and the church was growing to them called a meeting of the Mattioli in Perugia from this sprung the rebellion in turbino the two mounts in the Romania with endless dangers to the Duke all of which he overcame with the help of the French having restored his authority not to leave it at risk by trusting either to the French or other outside forces he had recourse to his Wiles and he knew so well had to conceal his mind that by the mediation of senior Pagano whom the Duke did not fail to secure with all kinds of attention giving him money apparel and horses the Orsini were reconciled so that their simplicity brought them into his power at cynic alia having exterminated the leaders and turned their partisans into his friends the Duke laid sufficiently good foundations to his power having all the Romagna and the Duchy of Urbino and the people now beginning to appreciate their prosperity he gained them all over to himself and as this point is worthy of notice and to be imitated by others I'm not willing to leave it out when the Duke occupied the Romagna he found it under the rule of weak masters who rather plundered their subjects than ruled them and gave them more cause for disunion that reunion so that the country was full of robbery quarrels and every kind of violence and so wishing to bring back peace and obedience to Authority he considered it necessary to give it a good governor thereupon he promoted Monsieur Ramiro Dorko a swift and cruel man to whom he gave the fullest power this man in a short time restored peace and unity with the greatest success afterwards the duke considered that it was not advisable to confer such excessive authority for he had no doubt but that he would become odious so he set up a court of judgment in the country under a most excellent president where in all cities had their advocates and because he knew that the past severity had caused some hatred against himself so to clear himself in the minds of the people and gain them entirely to himself he desired to show that if any cruelty had been practiced it had not originated with him but in the natural sternness of the minister under this pretence he took Ramiro and one morning caused him to be executed and left on the Piazza at a sauna with the block and the bloody knife at his side the barbarity of this spectacle caused the people to be at once satisfied and dismayed but let us return whence we started I say that the duke finding himself now sufficiently powerful and partly secured from immediate dangers by having armed himself in his own way and having in a great measure crushed those forces in his vicinity that could injure him if he wished to proceed with his conquest had next to consider France for he knew that the king who too late was aware of his mistake would not support him and from this time he began to seek new alliances and to temporize with France in the expedition which she was making towards the kingdom of Naples against the Spaniards who were besieging gaiter it was his intention to secure himself against them and this he would have quickly accomplished and Alexander lived such was his line of action as to present affairs but as to the future he had to fear in the first place that a new successor to the church might not be friendly to him and might seek to take from him that which Alexander had given him so he decided to act in four ways firstly by exterminating the families of those Lords whom he had despoiled so as to take away that pretext from the Pope secondly by winning to himself all the gentlemen of Rome so as to be able to curb the Pope with their aid as has been observed thirdly by converting the college more to himself fourthly by acquiring so much power before the Pope should die that he could buy his own measures resisted the first shock of these four things at the death of Alexander he had accomplished three four he had killed as many of the dispossessed Lords as he could lay hands on and few had escaped he had won over the Roman gentleman and he had the most numerous party in the college and as to any fresh acquisition he intended to become master of Tuscany for he already possessed Perugia and piombino and Pisa was under his protection and as he had no longer to study France for the French were already driven out of the kingdom of Naples by the Spaniards and in this way both were compelled to by his goodwill he pounced down upon Pisa after this Lucca and Siena yielded at once partly through hatred and partly through fear of the Florentines and the Florentines would have had no remedy had he continued to prosper as he was prospering the year that Alexander died for he had acquired so much power and reputation that he would have stood by himself and to no longer have depended on the luck and the forces of others but solely on his own power and ability but Alexander died five years after he had first drawn the sword he left the Duke with the state of Romania alone consolidated with the rest in the air between two most powerful hostile armies and sick unto death yet there were in the Duke such boldness and ability and he knew so well how to be won or lost and so firm were the foundations which in so short a time he had laid that if he had not had those armies on his back or if he had been in good health he would have overcome all difficulties and it is seen that his foundations were good for the ramonja awaited him for more than a month in Rome although but half alive he remained secure and whilst the Baglioni the Vitelli and the Orsini might come to rome they could not affect anything against him if he could not have made pope him whom he wished at least the one whom he did not wish would not have been elected but if he had been in sound health at the death of alexander everything would have been different to him on the day that julius ii was elected he told me that he had thought of everything that might occur at the death of his father and had provided a remedy for all except that he had never anticipated that when the death did happen he himself would be on the point to die when all the actions of the duke are recalled i do not know how to blame him but rather it appears to me as i have said that i ought to offer him for imitation by all those who by the fortune or the arms of others are raised to government because he having a lofty spirit and far-reaching aims could not have regulated his conduct otherwise and only the shortness of the life of Alexander and his own sickness frustrated his designs therefore he who considers it necessary to secure himself in his new principality to win friends to overcome either by force or fraud to make himself beloved and feared by the people to be followed and revered by the soldiers to exterminate those who have power or reason to hurt him to change the old order of things for knew to be severe and gracious magnanimous and liberal to destroy a disloyal soldiery and create new to maintain friendship with kings and princes in such a way that they must help him with zeal and offend with caution cannot find a more lively example than the acts of this man only can he be blamed for the election of julius ii in whom he made a bad choice because as is said not being able to elect a pope to his own mind he could have hindered any other from being elected pope and he ought never to have consented to the election of any Cardinal whom he had injured or who had cause to fear him if they became pontiff's four men injure either from fear or hatred those whom he had injured amongst others were a son Pietro vinculum Colonna San Giorgio and Ascanio the rest in becoming Pope had to fear him raw and the Spaniards accepted the latter from their relationship and obligations the former from his influence the kingdom of France having relations with him therefore above everything the Duke ought to have created a Spaniard Pope and failing him he ought to have consented to roar and not San Pietro and vin Cola he who believes that new benefits will cause great personages to forget old injuries he's deceived therefore the Duke heard in his choice and it was the cause of his ultimate ruin chapter 8 concerning those who have obtained a principality by wickedness although a prince may rise from a private station in two ways neither of which can be entirely attributed to fortune or genius yet it is manifest to me that I must not be silent on them although one could be more copiously treated when I discuss Republic's these methods are when either by some wicked or nefarious ways one ascends to the principality or when by the favour of his fellow citizens a private person becomes the prince of his country and speaking of the first method it will be illustrated by two examples one ancient the other modern and without entering further into the subject I consider these two examples will suffice those who may be compelled to follow them Agatha Cleese the Sicilian became of Syracuse not only from a private but from a low and abject position this man the son of a Potter through all the changes in his fortunes always led an infamous life nevertheless he accompanied his infamous with so much ability of mind and body that having devoted himself to the military profession he rose through its ranks to beep writer of Syracuse being established in that position and having deliberately resolved to make himself Prince and to seize by violence without obligation to others that which had been conceded to him by sent he came to an understanding for this purpose with Amilcar the Carthaginian who with his army was fighting in Sicily one morning he assembled the people and the Senate of Syracuse as if he had to discuss with them things relating to the Republic and at a given signal the soldiers killed all the Senators and the richest of the people these dead he seized and held the princedom of that city without any civil commotion and although he was twice routed by the Carthaginians and ultimately besieged yet not only was he able to defend his city but leaving part of his men for its defence with the others he attacked Africa and in a short time raised the siege of Syracuse the Carthaginians reduced to extreme necessity were compelled to come to terms with the gothic lease and leaving Sicily to him had to be content with a possession of Africa therefore he who considers the actions and the genius of this man will see nothing or little which can be attributed to fortune in as much as he attained preeminence as is shown above not by the favour of anyone but step by step in the military profession which steps were gained with a thousand troubles and perils and were afterwards boldly held by him with many hazardous dangers yet it cannot be called talent to slay fellow citizens to deceive friends to be without faith without mercy without religion such methods may gain Empire but not glory still if the courage of Agatha Cleese in entering into and extricate himself from dangers be considered together with his greatness of mind in enduring and overcoming hardships it cannot be seen why he should be esteemed less than the most notable captain and nevertheless his barbarous cruelty and inhumanity with infinite wickedness do not permit him to be celebrated among the most excellent men what he achieved cannot be attributed either to fortune or genius in our times during the rule of Alexander the sixth Oliver Otto de firma having been left an orphan many years before was brought up by his maternal uncle Giovanni fog Leone and in the early days of his youth sent to fight under poggle of attorney that being trained under his discipline he might attain some high position in the military profession after Pagano died he fought under his brother fit a lot so and in a very short time being endowed with wit and a vigorous body and mind he became the first man in his profession but hid appearing a poultry thing to serve under others he resolved with the aid of some of the citizens of fur mo to whom the slavery of their country was dearer than its liberty and with the help of the Vidal s key to seize firma so he wrote to Jew Fani Fogg Leon II that having been away from home for many years he wished to visit him and his City and in some measure to look upon his patrimony and although he had not labored to acquire anything except honor yet in order that the citizens should see he had not spent his time in vain he desired to come honorably so it be accompanied by one hundred horsemen his friends and retainers and he entreated Giovanni to arrange that he should be received honorably by the fermions all of which would be not only to his honour but also to that of giovanni himself who had brought him up in giovanni therefore did not fail in any attentions due to his nephew and he caused him to be honorably received by the fermions and he lodged him in his own house where i think past some days and having arranged what was necessary for his wicked designs oliver Otto for solemn banquet to which he invited Giovanni fog leone and the Chiefs afirma when the viens and all other entertainments that are usual in such banquets were finished oliver otto artfully began certain grave discourses speaking of the greatness of pope alexander and his son Cesare and of their enterprises to which discourse Giovanni and others answered but he rose at once saying that such matters ought to be discussed in a more private place and he put took himself to a chamber with a Giovanni and the rest of the citizens went in after him no sooner were they seated than soldiers issued from secret places and slaughtered Giovanni and the rest after these murders oliver otto mounted on horseback rode up and down the town and besieged the chief magistrate in the palace so that in fear the people were forced to obey him and to form a government of which he made himself the prince he killed all the malcontents who were able to injure him and strengthened himself with new civil and military ordinances in such a way that in the year during which he held the principality not only was he secure in the city of firma but he had become formidable to all his neighbors and his destruction would have been as difficult as that of a gothic Alize if he had not allowed himself to be overreached by Cesare Borgia who took him with the orsini and vitelli as synagogue Lea as was stated above thus one year after he committed this patricide he was strangled together with vitellozzo whom he had made his leader in valour and wickedness some may wonder how it can happen that Agatha clays and his like after infinite treacheries and cruelties should live for long secure in his country and defend himself from external enemies and never be conspired against by his own citizens saying that many others by means of Cruelty have never been able even in peaceful times to hold the state still less in the doubtful times of war I believe that this follows from severity 'he's being badly or properly used those may be called properly used if of evil it is possible to speak well that are applied at one below and are necessary to one security and that are not persisted in afterwards unless they can be turned to the advantage of the subjects at the badly employed of those which notwithstanding there may be few in the commencement multiplied with time rather than decrease those who practice the first system are able by aid of God or man to mitigate in some degree their rule as Agatha Cleese did it is impossible for those who follow the other to maintain themselves hence it is to be remarked that in seizing estate the usurper ought to examine closely into all those injuries which it is necessary for him to inflict and to do them all at one stroke so as not to have to repeat them daily and thus by not unsettling men he will be able to reassure them and win them to himself by benefits he who does otherwise either from timidity or evil advice he's always compelled to keep the knife in his hand neither can he rely on his subjects nor can they attach themselves to him owing to their continued and repeated wrongs for injuries ought to be done all at one time so that being tasted less they offend less benefits ought to be given little by little so that the flavour of them may last longer and above all things a prince ought to live amongst his people in such a way that no unexpected circumstances whether of good or evil shall make him change because if the necessity for this comes in trouble times you are too late for harsh measures and mild ones will not help you for they will be considered as forced from you and no one will be under any obligation to you for them end of part 3 part four of the prints by niccolò machiavelli translated by WK Marriott this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by clive catarrhal chapters nine to twelve chapter nine concerning a civil principality but coming to the other point where a leading citizen becomes the prince of his country not by wickedness or any intolerable violence but by the favor of his fellow citizens this may be called a civil principality nor is genius or fortune or together necessary to attain to it but rather a happy fruitiness I say then that such a principality is obtained either by the favor of the people or by the favor of the nobles because in all cities these two distinct parties are found and from this it arises that the people do not wish to be ruled nor oppressed by the nobles and the nobles wish to rule and oppress the people and from these two opposite desires there arises in cities one of three results neither a principality self-government or anarchy a principality is created either by the people or by the nobles accordingly as one or other of them has the opportunity for the nobles seeing they cannot withstand the people begin to cry up the reputation of one of themselves and they make him a prince so that under his shadow they can give vent to their ambitions the people finding they cannot resist the nobles also cry up the reputation of one of themselves and make him a prince so as to be defended by his authority he who obtained sovereignty by the assistance of the nobles maintains himself with more difficulty than he who comes to it by the aid of the people because the former finds himself with many around him who consider themselves his equals and because of this he can neither rule nor manage them to his liking but he who reaches sovereignty by popular favor finds himself alone and has none around him of you who are not prepared to obey Him and besides this one cannot buy fair dealing and without injury to others satisfy the nobles but you can satisfy the people for their object is more righteous than that of the nobles the latter wishing to oppress while the former only desire not to be oppressed it is to be added also that a prince can never secure himself against a hostile people because of there being too many whilst from the nobles he can secure himself as they a few in number the worst that a prince may expect from a hostile people is to be abandoned by them but from hostile Nobles he has not only to fear abandonment but also that they will rise against him for they being in these affairs more far-seeing and dispute always come forward in time to save themselves and to obtain favours from him and they expect to prevail further the prince is compelled to live always with the same people but he can do well without the same nobles being able to make and unmake them daily and to give or take away authority when it pleases him therefore to make this point clearer I say that the nobles ought to be looked at mainly in two ways that is to say they either shape their course in such a way as binds them entirely to your fortune or they do not those who so bind themselves and are not rapacious ought to be honored and loved those who do not bind themselves may be dealt with in two ways they may fail to do this through pusillanimous and a natural want of courage in which case you ought to make use of them especially those who are of good counsel and thus whilst in prosperity you honor them in adversity you do not have to fear them but when for their own ambitious ends they shun binding themselves it is a token that they are giving more thought to themselves than to you and a prince or to guard against such and to fear them as if they were open enemies because in adversity they will always help to ruin him therefore one who becomes a prince through the favor of the people ought to keep them friendly and this he can easily do seeing that they only ask not to be oppressed by him but one who in opposition to the people becomes a prince by the favor of the nobles ought above everything to seek to win the people over to himself and this he may easily do if he takes them under his protection and because men when they received good from him of whom they were expecting evil abound more closely to their benefactor thus the people quickly become more devoted to him than if he had been raised to the Principality by their favors and the Prince can win their affections in many ways but as these vary according to the circumstances one cannot give fixed rules so I omit them but I repeat it is necessary for a prince to have the people friendly otherwise he has no security and adversity nabis Prince of the Spartans sustained the attack of all Greece and of a victorious Roman army and against them he defended his country and his government and for the overcoming of this peril it was only necessary for him to make himself secure against a few but this would not have been sufficient had the people been hostile and do not let anyone impugn this statement with the trite proverb that he who builds on the people builds on mud for this is true when a private citizen makes a foundation there and persuades himself that the people will free him when he is oppressed by his enemies or by the magistrates wherein he would find himself very often deceived has happened to the Gracchi in Rome and to Monsieur Giorgio Colli in Florence but granted a prince who has established himself as a Verve who can command and is a man of courage and dismayed in adversity who does not fail in other qualifications and who by his resolution and energy keeps the whole people encouraged such a one will never find himself deceived in them and it will be shown that he has laid his foundations well and these principalities are liable to danger when they are passing from the civil to the absolute order of government for such princes either rule personally or through magistrates in the latter case the government is weaker and more insecure because it rests entirely on the goodwill of those citizens who are raised to the magistracy and who especially in troubled times can destroy the government with great ease either by intrigue or open defiance and the prince has not the chance amid two months to exercise absolute authority because the citizens and subjects accustomed to receive orders from the magistrates are not of a mind to obey Him amid these confusions and there will always be in doubtful times a scarcity of men whom he can trust for such a prince cannot rely upon what he observes in quiet times when citizens have need of the state because then everyone agrees with him they all promise and when death is far distant they all wish to die for him but in troubled times when the state has need of its citizens then he finds but few and so much the more is this experiment dangerous in as much as it can only be tried once therefore a wise Prince ought to adopt such a course that his citizens will always in every sort and kind of circumstance have need of the state and of him and then he will always find them faithful chapter 10 concerning the way in which the strength of all principalities ought to be measured it is necessary to consider another point in examining the character of these principalities that is whether a prince has such power that in case of need he can support himself with his own resources or whether he has always need of the assistance of others and to make this quite clear I say that I consider those who are able to support themselves by their own resources who can either by abundance of men or money raise a sufficient army to join battle against anyone who comes to attack them and I consider those always to have need of others who cannot show themselves against the enemy in the field but a forced to defend themselves by sheltering behind walls the first case has been discussed but we will speak of it again should it recur in the second case one can say nothing except to encourage such Prince's to provision and fortify their towns and not on any account to defend the country and whoever shall fortify his town well and shall have managed the other concerns of his subjects in the way stated above and to be often repeated will never be attacked without great caution for men are always adverse to enterprises where difficulties can be seen and it will be seen not to be an easy thing to attack one who has his town well fortified and is not hated by his people the cities of Germany are absolutely free they own but little country around them and they yield obedience to the Emperor when it suits them nor do they fear this or any other power they may have near them because they are fortified in such a way that everyone thinks that taking of them by assault would be tedious and difficult seeing they have proper ditches and walls they have sufficient artillery and they always keep in public Depot's enough for one years eating drinking and firing and beyond this to keep the people quiet and without loss to the state they always have the means of giving work to the community in those labors that are the life and strength of the city and on the pursuit of which the people are supported they also hold military exercises in repute and moreover have many ordinances to uphold them therefore a prince who has a strong City and had not made himself odious will not be attacked or if anyone should attack he will only be driven off with disgrace again because that the affairs of this world are so changeable it is almost impossible to keep an army a whole year in the field without being interfered with and whoever should reply if the people have property outside the city and see it burnt they will not remain patient and the long siege in self-interest will make them forget their prince to this I answer that a powerful and courageous prince will overcome all such difficulties by giving at one time hope to his subjects that the evil will not be for long at another time fear of the cruelty of the enemy then preserving himself adroitly from those subjects who seemed to him to be too bold further the enemy would naturally on his arrival at once burn and ruin the country at the time when the spirits of the people are still hot and ready for the defense and therefore so much the less sought the prince to hesitate because after a time when spirits have cooled the damage is already done the ills are incurred and there is no longer any remedy and therefore they are so much the more ready to unite with their prince he appearing to be under obligations to them now that their houses have been burnt in their possessions ruined in his defense for it is the nature of men to be bound by the benefits they confer as much as by those they receive therefore if everything is well considered it will not be difficult for a wise prince to keep the minds of his citizens steadfast from first to last when he does not fail to support and defend them chapter 11 concerning ecclesiastical principalities it only remains now to speak of ecclesiastical principalities touching which all difficulties are prior to getting possession because they required either by capacity or good fortune and they can be held without either for their sustained by the ancient ordinances of religion which are so all-powerful and of such a character that the principalities may be held no matter how their princes behave and live these princes alone have States and do not defend them and they have subjects and do not rule them and the states although unguarded are not taken from them and the subjects although not ruled do not care and they have neither the desire nor the ability to alienate themselves such principalities only are secure and happy but being upheld by powers to which the human mind cannot reach I shall speak no more of them because being exalted and maintained by God it would be the act of a presumptuous and rash man to discuss them nevertheless if any one should ask of me how it comes that the church has attained such greatness in temporal power seeing that from Alexander backwards the Italian potentates not only those who have been called potentates but every Baron and Lord through the smallest have valued the temporal power very slightly yet now a king of France trembles before it and it has been able to drive him from Italy and to ruin the Venetians although this may be very manifest it does not appear to me superfluous to recall it in some measure to memory and before what charles king of france passed into italy this country was under the dominion of the pope the Venetians the King of Naples the Duke of Milan and the Florentines these potentates had two principal anxieties the one that no foreigner should enter Italy and arms the other that none of themselves should seize more territory those about whom there was the most anxiety with a pope and the Venetians to restrain the Venetians the union of all the others was necessary as it was for the defense of Ferrara and to keep down the Pope they made use of the Barons of Rome who being divided into two factions Orsini and colonies II had always a pretext for disorder and standing with arms in their hands under the eyes of the pontiff kept the pontificate weak and powerless and although there might arise sometimes a courageous Pope such as Sixtus yet neither fortune nor wisdom could rid him of these annoyances and the short life of a pope is also a cause of weakness for in 10 years which is the average life of a pope he can with difficulty lower one of the factions and if so to speak one Pope should almost destroy the colony see another would arise hostile to the Orsini who would support their opponents and yet would not have time to ruin the Orsini this was the reason why the temporal powers of the Pope were little esteemed in Italy Alexander the sixth arose afterwards who of all the pontiff's that have ever been showed how a pope with both money and arms were able to prevail and through the instrumentality of the Duke Valentino and by reason of the entry of the French he brought about all those things which I have discussed above in the actions of the Duke and although his intention was not to aggrandize the church but the Duke nevertheless what he did contributed to the greatness of the church which after his death and the ruin of the Duke became the heir to all his labors Pope Julius came afterwards and found the church strong possessing all the Romagna the Barons of Rome reduced to impotence and through the chastisements of Alexander the factions wiped out he also found the way open to accumulate money in a manner such as had never been practiced before Alexander's time such things Julius not only followed but improved upon and he intended to gain Bologna to ruin the Venetians and to drive the French out of Italy all of these enterprises prospered with him and so much the more to his credit and as much as he did everything to strengthen the church and not any private person he kept also the Orsini and colonies he factions within the bounds in which he found them and although there was among them some mind to make disturbance nevertheless he held two things firm the one the greatness of the church with which he terrified them and the other not allowing them to have their own Cardinals who caused the disorders among them for whenever these factions have their Cardinals they did not remain quiet for long because Cardinals foster the factions in Rome and out of it and the Barons are compelled to support them and thus from the ambitions of prelate s' arise disorders and tumult among the Barons for these reasons His Holiness Pope Leo found the pontificate most powerful and it is to be hoped that if others made it great in arms he will make it still greater and more venerated by His goodness and infinite other virtues chapter 2 of how many kinds of soldierly there are and concerning mercenaries having discoursed particularly on the characteristics of such principalities as in the beginning i proposed to discuss and having considered in some degree the causes of their being good or bad and having shown the methods by which many have sought to acquire them and to hold them it now remains for me to discuss generally the means of offense and defense which belonged to each of them we have seen how necessary it is for a prince to have his foundations were laid otherwise it follows of necessity he will go to ruin the chief foundation of all states new as well as old or composite our good laws and good arms and as they cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed it follows that where they were well armed they have good laws I should leave the laws out of the discussion and shall speak of the arms I say therefore that the arms with which a prince defends his state are either his own or their mercenaries auxiliaries or mixed mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous and if one holds his state based on these arms he will stand neither firm nor safe for their disunited ambitious and without discipline unfaithful valiant before friends cowardly before enemies they have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men and destruction is deferred only so long as the attack is for in peace one is robbed by them and in war by the enemy the fact is they have no other attraction or reason for keeping the field than a trifle of stipend which is not sufficient to make them willing to die for you they are ready enough to be your soldiers whilst you do not make war but if war comes they take themselves off or run from the foe which I should have little trouble to prove for the ruin of Italy has been caused by nothing else than by resting all her hopes for many years on mercenaries and although they formerly made some display and appeared valiant amongst themselves yet when the foreigners came they showed what they were thus it was that Charles King of France was allowed to seize Italy with chalk in hand and he who told us that our sins were the cause of it told the truth but they were not the sins he imagined but those which I have related and as they were the sins of princes it is the princes who have also suffered the penalty I wish to demonstrate further the inner felicity of these arms the mercenary captains are either capable men or they are not if they are you cannot trust them because they always aspire to their own greatness either by oppressing you who are their master or others contrary to your intentions but if the captain is not skilful you are ruined in the usual way and if it be urged that whoever is armed will act in the same way with a mercenary or not I reply that when arms have to be resorted to either by a prince or a republic then the Prince ought to go in person and perform the duty for captain the Republic has to send its citizens and when one is sent who does not turn out satisfactorily it ought to recall him and when one is worthy to hold him by the laws so that he does not leave the command and experience has shown princes and Republic's single-handed making the greatest progress and mercenaries doing nothing accepted damage and it is more difficult to bring a republic armed with its own arms under the sway of one of its citizens and it is to bring one armed with foreign arms Rome and Sparta stood for many ages armed and free the Switzer's are completely armed and quite free of ancient mercenaries for example there are the Carthaginians who were oppressed by their mercenary soldiers after the first war with the Romans although the Carthaginians had their own citizens for captains after the death of upon Ananda's Philip of Macedon was made captain of their soldiers by the Thebans and after victory he took away their Liberty Duke Filippo being dead the Milanese enlisted Francesco Sforza the Venetians and he having overcome the enemy at Caravaggio allied himself with them to crush the Milanese his masters his father thought sir having been engaged by Queen joanna of naples left her unprotected so that she was forced to throw herself into the arms of the king of aragon in order to save her kingdom and if the Phoenicians and Florentines formally extended their dominions by these arms and yet their captains did not make themselves princes but have defended them I reply that the Florentines in this case have been favored by chance before of the able captains of whom they might have stood in fear some have not conquered some have been opposed and others have turned their ambitions elsewhere one who did not conquer was Giovanni Acuto and since he did not conquer his fidelity cannot be proved but everyone will acknowledge that had he conquered the Florentines would have stood at his discretion Sforza had the brickowski or was against him so they watched each other Francesco turned his ambition to Lombardi Braccio against the church in the kingdom of Naples but let us come to that which happened a short while ago the Florentines appointed as the captain pagalava telle the most prudent man who from a private position had risen to the greatest renown if this man had taken pisa nobody can deny that it would have been proper for the Florentines to keep in with him for if he became the soldier of their enemies they had no means of resisting and if they Hales to him they must obey Him the Venetians if their achievements are considered will be seen to have acted safely and gloriously so long as they sent to war their own men when with armed gentlemen and plebeians they did valiantly this was before they turned to enterprises on land but when they began to fight on land they forsook this virtue and followed the custom of Italy and in the beginning of their expansion on land through not having much territory and because of their great reputation they had not much to fear from their captains but when they expanded as under Kamini Ola they had a taste of this mistake for having found him a most valiant man they beat the Duke of Milan under his leadership and on the other hand knowing how lukewarm he was in the war they feared they would no longer conquer under him and for this reason they were not willing nor were they able to let him go and so not to lose again that which they had acquired they were compelled in order to secure themselves to murder him they had afterwards for their captains Bartolomeu dat Bergamo revolted a son Severino the count of petty Glee on oh and the like under whom they had to dread loss and not gain has happened afterwards at viola where in one battle they lost that which in 800 years they had acquired with so much trouble because from such arms conquests come but slowly long delayed and in considerable but the losses sudden and portentous and as with these examples I have reached Italy which has been ruled for many years by mercenaries I wish to discuss them more seriously in order that having seen their rise and progress while may be better prepared to counteract them you must understand that the Empire has recently come to be repudiated in Italy that the Pope has acquired more temporal power and that Italy has been divided into more states for the reason that many of these great cities took up arms against their nobles who formerly favored by the Emperor were oppressing them whilst the church was favoring them so as to gain authority and temporal power in many others their citizens became Prince's from this it came to pass that Italy fell partly into the hands of the church and of Republic's and the church consisting of priests and the Republic of citizens unaccustomed to arms both commenced to enlist foreigners the first who gave renown to this soldiery was Alvarez Oda Konya the Romanian from the school of this man sprang among others Braccio and sports who in their own time with the arbiters of Italy after these came all the other captains who till now have directed the arms of Italy and the end of all their valor has been that she has been overrun by Charles robbed by Louis ravaged by Ferdinand and insulted by the Switzer's the principle that has guided them has been first to lower the credit of infantry so that they might increase their own they did this because subsisting on their pay and without territory they were unable to support many soldiers and a few infantry did not give them any authority so they were led to employ cavalry with a moderate force of which they were maintained and honored and affairs were brought to such a pass that in an army of 20,000 soldiers they were not to be found 2,000 foot soldiers they had besides this used every art to lessen fatigue and danger to themselves and their soldiers not killing in the fray but taking prisoners and liberating without ransom they did not attack towns at night nor did the Garrison's of the towns attack encampments at night they did not surround the camp either with stockade or ditch nor did they campaign in the winter all these things were permitted by the military rules and devised by them to avoid as I have said both fatigue and dangers thus they have brought Italy to slavery and contempt end of part 4 five of the prints by niccolò machiavelli translated by wk Marriott this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by clive catarrhal chapters 13 to 16 chapter 13 concerning auxiliaries mixed soldiery and one's own auxiliaries which are the other useless arms are employed when a prince is called in with his forces to aid and defend as was done by pope julius in most recent times for he having in the enterprise against Ferrara had poor proof of his mercenaries turned to auxiliaries and stipulated with Ferdinand King of Spain for his assistance with men and arms these arms may be useful and good in themselves but for him who calls them in they are always disadvantageous for losing one is undone and winning one is their captive and although ancient histories may be full of examples I do not wish to leave this recent one of pope julius ii the parable of which cannot fail to be perceived for he wishing to get Ferrara threw himself entirely into the hands of the foreigner but his good fortune brought about a third event so that he did not reap the fruit of his rash choice because having his auxiliaries routed at Ravenna and the Switzer's having risen and driven out the conquerors against all expectations both his and others it so came to pass that he did not become prisoner to his enemies they having fled nor to his auxiliaries he having conquered by other arms than theirs the Florentines being entirely without arms sent ten thousand Frenchmen to take Pisa whereby they ran more danger than at any other time of their troubles the Emperor of Constantinople to oppose his neighbors sent ten thousand Turks into Greece who on the war being finished we're not willing to quit this was the beginning of the servitude of Greece to the infidels therefore let him who has no desire to conquer make use of these arms for they are more hazardous than mercenaries because with them the ruin is already made they are all united all the yield obedience to others but with mercenaries when they have conquered more time and better opportunities are needed to injure you they are not all of one community they are found and paid by you and a third party which you have made their head he is not able all at once to assume enough authority to injure you in conclusion in mercenaries dastard he is most dangerous in auxiliaries valour the wise prince therefore has always avoided these arms and turned to his own and has been willing rather to lose with them than to conquer with the others not deeming that a real victory which is gained with the arms of others I shall never hesitate to cite Cesare Borgia and his actions this Duke entered the Romania with auxiliaries taking there only French soldiers and with them he captured amela and Fort Lee but afterwards such forces not appearing to him reliable he turned to mercenaries discerning less danger in them and had listed the orsini and vitelli whom presently on handling and finding them doubtful unfaithful and dangerous he destroyed and turned to his own men and the difference between one and the other of these forces can easily be seen when one considers the difference there was in the reputation of the Duke when he had the French when he had the orsini and vitelli and when he relied on his own soldiers on whose fidelity he could always count and found it ever-increasing he was never esteemed more highly than when everyone saw that he was complete master of his own forces I was not intending to go beyond Italian and recent examples but I am unwilling to leave out hero the satiric Yuson he being one of those I have above this man as I have said made head of the army by the Syracuse ins soon found out that a mercenary soldier II constituted like our Italian condottieri was of no use and it appearing to him that he could neither keep them or let them go he had them all cut to pieces and afterwards made war with his own forces and not with aliens I wish also to recall to memory an instance from the Old Testament applicable to this subject David offered himself to Saul to fight with Goliath the Philistine champion and to give him courage Saul armed him with his own weapons which David rejected as soon as he had them on his back saying he could make no use of them and that he wished to meet the enemy with his sling at his knife in conclusion the arms of others either fall from your back or they weigh you down or they bind you fast Charles the seventh the father of King Louis the eleventh having by good fortune and valour liberated France from the English recognized the necessity of being armed with forces of his own and he established in his kingdom ordinances concerning men at arms and infantry afterwards his son King Louie abolished the infantry and began to enlist the Switzer's which mistake followed by others is that is now seen a source of peril to that kingdom because having raised the reputation of the Switzer's he has entirely diminished the value of his own arms for he has destroyed the infantry altogether and his men at arms he has subordinated to others for being as they are so accustomed to fight along with the Switzer's it does not appear that they can now conquer without them hence it arises that the French cannot stand against the Switzer's and without the Switzer's they do not come off well against others the armies of the French have thus become mixed partly mercenary and partly national both of which arms together are much better than mercenaries alone or silly reason but much inferior to one's own forces and this example proves it for the kingdom of France would be unconquered well if the ordinance of Charles had been enlarged or maintained but the scanty wisdom of man on entering into an affair which looks well at first cannot discern the poison that is hidden in it as I have said above of hectic fevers therefore if he who rules the Principality cannot recognize evils until laid upon him he is not truly wise and this insight is given to few and if the first disaster to the Roman Empire should be examined it will be found to have commenced only with the anisa ting of the Goths because from that time the vigour of the Roman Empire began to decline and all that valor which had raised it passed away to others I conclude therefore that no principality is secure without having its own forces on the contrary it is entirely dependent on good fortune not having the valor which in adversity would defend it and it has always been the opinion and judgment of wise men that nothing can be so uncertain or unstable as fame or power not founded on its own strength and one's own forces are those which are composed either of subjects citizens or dependents all others are mercenaries or auxiliaries and the way to make ready one's own forces will be easily found if the rules suggested by me shall be reflected upon and if one will consider how Philip the father of Alexander the Great and many Republic's and princes have armed and organised themselves to which rules I entirely commit myself in chapter 14 that which concerns a prince on the subject of the art of war a prince ought to have no other aim or thought nor select anything else for his study than war and its rules and discipline for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules and it is of such force that it's not only up holds those who are on princes but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank and on the contrary it is seen that when princes have thought more of ease than of arms they have lost their states and the first cause of your losing it is to neglect this art and what enables you to acquire estate is to be master of the art Francesco Sforza through being marshal from a private person became Duke of Milan and his sons through avoiding the hardships and troubles of arms from Dukes became private persons for among other evils which being unarmed brings you it causes you to be despised and this is one of those ignominy 's against which a prince ought to guard himself as is shown later on because there is nothing proportionate between the armed and the unarmed and it is not reasonable that he who is armed should yield beading's willingly to him who is unarmed or that the unarmed man should be secure amongst armed servants because their being in the one disdain and in the other suspicion it is not possible for them to work well together and therefore a prince who does not understand the art of war over and above the other misfortunes already mentioned cannot be respected by his soldiers nor can he rely on them he ought never therefore to have out of his thoughts this subject of war and in peace he should haddock himself more to its exercise than in war this he can do in two ways the one by action the other by study as regards action he ought above all things to keep his men well organized and drilled to follow incessantly the chase by which he accustoms his body to hardships and learned something of the nature of localities and gets to find out how the mountains rise how the valleys open out how the plains lie and to understand the nature of rivers and marshes and in all this to take the greatest care which knowledge is useful in two ways he understands to know his country and is better able to understand its defense afterwards by means of the knowledge and observation of that locality he understands with ease any other which it may be necessary for him to study Hereafter and because the hills valleys and plains and rivers and marshes that are for instance in Tuscany have a certain resemblance to those of other countries so that with a knowledge of the aspect of one country one can easily arrive at a knowledge of others and the prince that lacks this skill lacks the essential which it is desirable that a captain should possess for it teaches him to surprise his enemy to select quarters to lead armies to array the battle to besiege towns to advantage Philip Oman prince of the Achaeans among other praises which writers have bestowed on him is commended because in times of peace he never had anything in his mind but the rules of war and when he was in the country with friends he often stopped and reasoned with them if the enemy should be upon that hill and we should find ourselves here with our army with whom would be the advantage how should one best advance to meet him keeping the ranks if he should wish to retreat how ought we to pursue and he would set forth to them as he went all the chances that could befall an army he would listen to their opinions and state his confirming it with reasons so that by these continual discussions they could never arise in time of war any unexpected circumstances that he could not deal with but to exercise the intellect the prince should read histories and study the actions of illustrious men to see how they have borne themselves in war to examine the causes of the victories and defeat so as to avoid the matter and imitate the former and above all do as an illustrious man did who took as an exemplar one who has been praised and famous before him and whose achievements and deeds he always kept in his mind as it is said Alexander the Great imitated Achilles Caesar Alexander skippy Osiris and whoever reads the life of Cyrus written by Xenophon will recognize afterwards in the life of Skippy oh how that imitation was his glory and how in chastity affability humanity and liberality Skippy Oh conformed to those things which had been written of Cyrus by zenith on a wise prince ought to observe some such rules and never in peaceful times stand idle but increase his resources with industry in such a way that they may be available to him in adversity so that if fortune chances it may find him prepared to resist her blows chapter 15 concerning things for which men and especially princes are praised or blamed it remains now to see what ought to be the rules of conduct for a prince towards subject and Friends and as I know that many have written on this point I expect I shall be considered presumptuous in mentioning it again especially as in discussing it I shall depart from the methods of other people but it being my intention to write a thing which shall be useful to him who apprehended it it appears to me more appropriate to follow up the real truth of the matter than the imagination of it for many have pictured Republic's and principalities which in fact have never been known or seen because how one lives is so far distant from how one ought to live that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done sooner affects his ruin than his preservation for a man who wishes to act entirely up to his professions virtue soon meets with what destroys him among so much that his evil hence it is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong and how to make use of it or not according to necessity and therefore putting on one side imaginary things concerning a prince and discussing those which are real I say that all men when they are spoken of and chiefly princes for being more highly placed a remarkable for some of those qualities which bring them by the blame or praise and thus it is that one is reputed liberal another mightily using a Tuscan because an avaricious person in our language is still he who desires to possess by robbery whilst we call one miserly who deprives himself too much of the use of his own a one is reputed generous one rapacious one cruel one compassionate one faithless another faithful one effeminate and cowardly another bold and brave one affable another haughty one lascivious another chased one sincere another cunning one hard another easy one grave another frivolous one religious another unbelieving and the like and I know that everyone will confess that it would be most praiseworthy in a print to exhibit all the above qualities that are considered good but because they can neither be entirely possessed nor observed for human conditions do not permit it it is necessary for him to be sufficiently prudent that he may know how to avoid the reproach of those vices which could lose him his state and also to keep himself if it be possible from those which would not lose him it but this not being possible he may with the less hesitation abandon himself to them and again he need not make himself uneasy at incurring a reproach for those vices without which a state can only be saved with difficulty for if everything is considered carefully it will be found that something which looks like virtue if followed would be his ruin whilst something else which looks like Vice yet followed brings him Security and Prosperity chapter 16 concerning liberality and meanness commencing then with the first of the above-named characteristics I say that it would be well to be reputed liberal nevertheless liberality exercised in a way that does not bring you the reputation for it injures you for if one exercises it honestly and as it should be exercised it may not become known and you will not avoid the reproach of its opposite therefore anyone wishing to maintain among men the name of liberal is obliged to avoid no attribute of magnificence so that a prince thus inclined were consumed in such acts all his property and will be compelled in the end if he wished to maintain the name of liberal to unduly weigh down his people and tax them and do everything he can to get money this will soon make him odious to his subjects and becoming poor he will be little valued by anyone thus with his liberality having offended many and rewarded few he is affected by the very first trouble and imperiled by whatever may be the first danger recognizing this himself and wishing to draw back from it he runs at once into their approach of being miserly therefore a prince not being able to exercise this virtue of liberality in such a way that it is recognized except to his cost if he is wise ought not to fear the reputation of being mean for in time he will come to be more considered than if liberal seeing that with his economy his revenues are enough that he can defend himself against all attacks and is able to engage in enterprises without burdening his people thus it comes to pass that he exercises liberality towards all from whom he does not take who are numberless and meanness towards those to whom he does not give who are few we have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean the rest have failed pope julius ii was assisted in reaching the papacy by a reputation for liberality yet he did not strive afterwards to keep it up when he made war on the king of france and he made many wars without imposing any extraordinary tax on his subjects for he supplied his additional expenses out of his long thriftiness the present king of spain would not have undertaken or conquered in so many enterprises if he had been reputed liberal a prince therefore provided that he has not to drop his subjects that he can defend himself that he does not become poor and abject that he is not forced to become rapacious opted to hold of little account a reputation for being mean for it is one of those vices which will enable him to govern and if anyone should say Caesar obtained empire by liberality and many others have reached the highest positions by having been liberal and by being considered so I answer either Yura Prince in fact or in a way to become one in the first case this liberality is dangerous in the second it is very necessary to be considered liberal and caesar was one of those who wished to become pre-eminent in rome but if he had survived after becoming so and had not moderated his expenses he would have destroyed his government and if anyone should reply many have been princes and have done great things with armies who have been considered very liberal i reply either a prince spends that which is his own or his subjects or else that of others in the first case he ought to be sparing in a second he ought not to neglect any opportunity for liberality and to the prince who goes forth with his army supporting it by pillage sack and extortion handling that which belongs to others this liberality is necessary otherwise he would not be followed by soldiers and of that which is neither yours nor your subjects you can be a ready giver as was cyrus caesar and alexander because it does not take away your reputation if you squander that of others but adds to it it is only squandering your own that injures you and there is nothing waste so rapidly as liberality for even whilst you exercise it you lose the power to do so and so become either poor or despised or else in avoiding poverty rapacious and hated and a prince should guard himself above all things against being despised and hated and liberality leads you to both therefore it is wiser to have a reputation for meanness which brings reproach without hatred our than to be compelled through seeking a reputation for liberality to incur a name for opacity which baguettes reproach with hatred end of part 5 part 6 of the prince by niccolò machiavelli translated by w ke mariette this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by clive catarrhal chapters 17 to 19 chapter 17 concerning cruelty and clemency and whether it is better to be loved than feared coming now to the other qualities mentioned above I say that every Prince ought to desire to be considered Clement and not cruel nevertheless he ought to take care not to misuse this clemency Cesare Borgia was considered cruel notwithstanding his cruelty reconciled the Romagna unified it and restored it to peace and loyalty and if this be rightly considered he will be seen to have been much more merciful than the Florentine people who to avoid a reputation for cruelty permitted pistoia to be destroyed therefore a prince so long as he keeps his subjects united and loyal ought not to mind their approach of cruelty because with a few examples he will be more merciful than those who through too much mercy allow disorders to arise from which follow murders or robberies for these I want to injure the whole people whilst those executions which originated with the Prince offend the individual only and of all Prince's it is impossible for the new Prince to avoid the imputation of cruelty owing to new states being full of dangers hence Virgil through the mouth of Dido excuses the inhumanity of her reign own to its being new saying raise dura at Rigney no fetus Natalya Cogan Tamale at l'arte feena's custody' to arey nevertheless he ought to be slow to believe and to act nor should he himself show fear but proceed in a temperate manner with prudence and humanity so that too much confidence may not make him incautious and too much distrust render him intolerable upon this a question arises whether it is better to be loved than feared or feared than loved it may be answered that one should wish to be both but because it is difficult to unite them in one person it is much safer to be feared than loved when of the two either must be dispensed with because this is to be asserted in general of men that they are ungrateful fickle false cowardly covetous and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely they will offer you their blood property life and children as it said above when the need is far distant but when it approaches they turn against you and that prince who relying entirely on their promises has neglected other precautions is ruined because friendships that are obtained by payments and not by greatness or nobility of mind may indeed be earned but they are not secured and in time of need cannot be relied upon and men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared for love is preserved by the link of obligation which owing to the baseness of men is broken at every opportunity for their advantage but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails nevertheless a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that if he does not win love he avoids hatred because he can endure very well being feared whilst he has not hated which will always be as long as he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects and from their women but when it is necessary for him to proceed against the life of someone he must do it on proper justification and for manifest cause but above all things he must keep his hands off the property of others because men more quickly forget the death of their father from the loss of their patrimony besides pretexts for taking away the property and never wanting for he who has once begun to live by robbery will always find pretext for seizing what belongs to others but reasons for taking life on the contrary are more difficult to find and soon elapsed but when a prince is with his army and has under control a multitude of soldiers and it is quite necessary for him to disregard to the reputation for cruelty for without it he would never hold his army united or disposed to its duties among the wonderful deeds of Hannibal this one is enumerated that having led an enormous army composed of many various races of men to fight in foreign lands no dissensions arose either among them or against the prince whether in his bad or his good fortune this arose from nothing else than his inhuman cruelty which with his boundless fellow made him revered and terrible in the sight of his soldiers but without that cruelty his other virtues were not sufficient to produce this effect and short-sighted writers admire his deeds from one point of view and from another condemned the principal cause of them that it is true his other virtues would not have been sufficient for him may be proved by the case of skippy o that most excellent men not only of his own times but within the memory of man against whom nevertheless his army rebelled in Spain this arose from nothing but his two great forbearance which gave his soldiers more licence than is consistent with military discipline for this he was upgraded in the Senate by Fabian Maximus and called the corruptor of the Roman soldiery the locrians were laid waste by a leggett of skippy o yet they were not avenged by him nor was the insolence of the leggett punished owing entirely to his easy nature insomuch that someone in the Senate which to excuse him said there were many men who knew much better how not her than to correct the errors of others this disposition if he had been continued in the command would have destroyed in time the fame and glory of skippy er but he being under the control of the Senate this injurious characteristic not only concealed itself but contributed to his glory a returning to the question of being feared or loved I come to the conclusion that men laughing according to their own will and fearing according to that of the prince a wise prince should establish himself on that which is in his own control and not in that of others he must endeavor only to avoid hatred as is noted chapter 18 concerning the way in which princes should keep faith everyone admits how praiseworthy it is in a prince to keep faith and to live with integrity and not with craft nevertheless our experience has been that those princes who have done great things have held good faith of little account and have known how to circumvent the intellect of men by craft and in the end have overcome those who have relied on their word you must know there are two ways of contesting one by the law the other by force the first method is proper to men the second to beasts but because the first is frequently not sufficient it is necessary to have recourse to the second therefore it is necessary for a prince to understand how to avail himself of the beast and the man this has been figuratively taught to Prince's by ancient writers who describe how kilise and many other princes of old were given to the Centaur Chiron to nurse who brought them up in his discipline which means solely that as they had for a teacher one who was half beast and half man so it is necessary for a prince to know how to make use of both nature's and that one without the other is not durable Prinze therefore being compelled knowingly to adopt the beast ought to choose the fox and the lion because the lion cannot defend himself against snares and the Fox cannot defend himself against wolves therefore it is necessary to be a Fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves those who rely simply on the lion do not understand what they are about therefore a wise Lord cannot nor orti to keep faith when such observance may be turned against him and when the reasons that caused him to pledge it exists no longer if men were entirely good this precept would not hold but because they are bad and will not keep faith with you you too are not bound to observe it with them nor will there ever be wanting to a prince legitimate reasons to excuse this non observance of this endless modern examples could be given showing how many treaties and engagements have been made void and of no effect through the faithlessness of princes and he who has known best how to employ the Fox has succeeded best but it is necessary to know well how to disguise this characteristic and to be a great pretender and dissembler and menace so simple and so subject to present necessities that he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived a one recent example I cannot pass over in silence Alexander the sixth did nothing else but deceive men nor ever thought of doing otherwise and he always found victims for there never was a man who had greater power in asserting or who with greater oaths would affirm a thing yet would observe it less nevertheless his deceits always succeeded according to his wishes because he when understood this side of mankind therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated but it is very necessary to appear to have them and I shall dare to say this also that to have them and always to observe them is injurious and that to appear to have them is useful to appear merciful faithful humane religious upright and to be so but with a mind so framed that should you require not to be so you may be able and know how to change to the opposite and you have to understand this that a prince especially a new one cannot observe all those things for which men are esteemed being often forced in order to maintain the state to act contrary to fidelity friendship humanity and religion therefore it is necessary for him to have a mind ready to turn itself accordingly as the winds and variations of Fortune force it yet as I have said above not to diverge from the good if you can avoid doing so but if compelled then to know how to set about it for this reason a prince ought to take care that he never lets anything slip from his lips that is not replete with the above-named five qualities that he may appear to him who sees and hears him altogether merciful faithful humane upright and religious there is nothing more necessary to appear to have than this last quality in as much as men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand because it belongs to everybody to see you too few to come in touch with you everyone sees what you appear to be if you really know what you are and to those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many who have the majesty of the states to defend them and in the actions of all men and especially of princes which it is not prudent to challenge one judges by the result for that reason that a prince have the credit of conquering and holding his state the means will always be considered honest and he will be praised by everybody because the vulgar are always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it and in the world there are only the vulgar for the few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on one prince of the present time whom it is not well to name never preaches anything else but peace and good faith and to both he is most hostile and either if he had kept it would have deprived him of reputation and kingdom many a time chapter 19 that one should avoid being despised and hated now concerning the characteristics of which mention is made above I have spoken of the more important ones the others I wish to discuss briefly under this generality that the prince must consider as has been in part said before how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part and he need not fear any danger in other approaches it makes him hated above all things as I have said to be rapacious and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects from both of which he must abstain and when neither their property nor their honor is touched the majority of men live content and he has only to contend with the ambition of a few whom he can curb with ease in many ways it makes him contemptible to be considered fickle frivolous effeminate mean-spirited irresolute from all of which a prince should guard himself as from a rock and he should endeavour to show in his actions greatness courage gravity and fortitude and in his private dealings with his subjects let him show that his judgments are irrevocable and maintain himself in such reputation that no one can hope either to deceive him or to get round him that prince is highly esteemed who conveys this impression of himself and he who is highly esteemed is not easily conspired against for provided it is well known that he is an excellent man and revered by his people he can only be attacked with difficulty for this reason a prince ought to have two fears one from within on account of his subjects the other from without on account of external powers from the latter he is defended by being well armed and having good allies and if he is well armed he will have good friends and Affairs will always remain quiet within when they are quiet without unless they should have been already disturbed by conspiracy and even should affairs outside be disturbed if he has carried out his preparations and has lived as I have said as long as he does not despair he will resist every attack as I said nabis the Spartan did but concerning his subjects when Affairs outside are disturbed he has only to fear that they will conspire secretly from which a prince can easily secure himself by avoiding being hated and despised and by keeping the people satisfied with him which is most necessary for him to accomplish as I have said above at length and one of the most efficacious remedies that a prince can have against conspiracies is not to be hated and despised by the people for he who conspires against a prince always expects to please them by his removal but when the conspirator can only look forward to offending them he will not have the courage to take such a course for the difficulties that confront a conspirator are infinite and as experience shows many have been the conspiracies but few have been successful because he who conspires cannot act alone nor can he take a companion except from those whom he believes to be Malkin tents and as soon as he have opened your mind to a malcontent you have given him the material with which to content himself for by denouncing you he can look for every advantage so that seeing the gain from this course to be assured in seeing the other to be doubtful and full of dangers he must be a very rare friend or a thoroughly obstinate enemy of the prince to keep faith with you and to reduce the matter into a small compass I say that on the side of the conspirator there is nothing but fear jealousy prospect of punishment to terrify him but on the side of the prince there is the majesty of the principality the laws the protection of friends and the state to defend him so that adding to all these things the popular good will it is impossible that anyone should be so rash as to conspire for whereas in general the conspirator has to fear before the execution of his plot in this case he has also to fear the sequel to the crime because on account of it he has the people for an enemy and thus cannot hope for any escape endless examples could be given on this subject but I will be content with one brought to pass within the memory of our fathers monsieur anna barley bentover glee who was prince in bologna grandfather of the present a nebari having been murdered by the kanisky who had conspired against him not one of his family survived but Monsieur Giovanni who was in childhood immediately after his assassination the people rose and murdered all the Kanaskie this sprung from the popular goodwill which the house of bent evo Glee enjoyed in those days in bologna which was so great that although none remained there after the death of a nebari who was able to rule the state the Bolognese having information that there was one of the bentivolio family in Florence who up to that time had been considered the son of a blacksmith sent to Florence for him and gave him the government of their City and it was ruled by him until mr. Giovanni came in due course to the government for this reason I consider that a prince ought to reckon conspiracies of little account when his people hold him in esteem but when it is hostile to him and bears hatred towards him he ought to fear everything and everybody and well ordered States and wise Prince's have taken every care not to drive the nobles to desperation and to keep the people satisfied and contented for this is one of the most important objects a prince can have among the best ordered and governed kingdoms of our times is France and in it I found many good institutions on which depends the liberty and security of the king of these the first is the Parliament and its authority because he who founded the kingdom knowing the ambition of the nobility and their boldness considered that a to their mouths would be necessary to hold them in and on the other side knowing the hatred of the people founded in fear against the nobles he wished her to protect them yet he was not anxious for this to be the particular care of the king therefore to take away the reproach which he would be liable to from the nobles for favouring the people and from the people for favouring the nobles he set up an arbiter who should be one who could beat down the great and favored the lesser without reproach to the king neither could you have a better or a more prudent arrangement or a greater source of security to the king and kingdom from this one can draw another important conclusion that princes ought to leave affairs of reproach to the management of others and to keep those of grace in their own hands and further I consider that a prince ought to cherish the nobles but not so as to make himself hated by the people it may appear perhaps to some who have examined the lives and deaths of the Roman emperors that many of them would be an example contrary to my opinion seeing that some of them lived nobly and showed great qualities of soul nevertheless they have lost their empires or have been killed by subjects who have conspired against them wishing therefore to answer these objections I will recall the characters of some of the Emperor's and will show that the causes of their ruin were not different to those alleged by me at the same time I will only submit for consideration those things that are noteworthy to him who studies the affairs of those times it seems to me sufficient to take all those Emperor's who succeeded to the empire from Marcus the philosopher down to Maxim - they Marcus and his son Commodus Pertinax Julian Severus and his son Antoninus Caracalla Macrinus Helio gapless Alexander and Maxie - there is first to note that whereas in other principalities the ambition of the nobles and the insolence of the people only have to be contented with the roman emperors had a third difficulty in having to put up with the cruelty and avarice of their soldiers a matter so beset with difficulties that it was the ruin of many for it was a hard thing to give satisfaction both to soldiers and people because the people loved peace and for this reason they loved the unsparing prince whilst the soldiers loved the warlike prince who was bold cruel and rapacious which qualities they were quite willing he should exercise upon the people so that they could get double pay and give vent to their own greed in cruelty hence it arose that those emperors were always overthrown who either by birth or training had no great authority and most of them especially those who came new to the Principality recognizing the difficulty of these two opposing humors were inclined to give satisfaction to the soldiers caring little about injuring the people which course was necessary because as princes cannot help being hated by someone they ought in the first place to avoid being hated by everyone and when they cannot compass this they ought to endeavour with the utmost diligence to avoid the hatred of the most powerful therefore those Emperor's who through inexperience had need of special favour adhered more readily to the soldiers than to the people a course which turned out advantageous to them or not accordingly as the Prince knew how to maintain authority over them from these causes it arose that Marcus pertinax and Alexander being all men of modest life lovers of justice enemies to cruelty humane and vanaya n't came to a sad end except Marcus he alone lived and died honored the he had succeeded to the throne by hereditary title and owed nothing either to the soldiers or the people and afterwards being possessed of many virtues which made him respected he always kept both orders in their places whilst he lived and was neither hated nor despised but Pertinax was created Emperor against the wishes of the soldiers who being accustomed to live licensure and a commodious could not endure the honest life to which / to next wish to reduce them thus having given cause for hatred to which hatred there was added contempt for his old age he was overthrown at the very beginning of his administration and here it should be noted that hatred is acquired as much by good works as by bad ones therefore as I said before a prince wishing to keep his state is very often forced to do evil for when that body is corrupt whom you think you have need of to maintain yourself it may be either the people or the soldiers or the nobles you have to submit to its humors and to gratify them and then good works will do you harm but let us come to Alexander he was a man of such great goodness that among the other praises which had recorded him is this that in the 14 years he held the Empire no one was ever put to death by him unjust nevertheless being considered effeminate and a man who allowed himself to be governed by his mother he became despised the army conspired against him and murdered him and turning now to the opposite characters of commodious Severus Antoninus Caracalla and Maxim - you will find them all cruel and rapacious men who to satisfy their soldiers did not hesitate to commit every kind of iniquity against the people and all except Severus came to a bad end but in Severus there was so much valor that keeping the soldiers friendly although the people were oppressed by him he drained successfully for his valour made him so much admired in the sight of the soldiers and the people that the latter were kept in a way astonished odd and the former respectful and satisfied and because the actions of this man as a new prince were great I wish to show briefly that he knew well how to counterfeit the Fox and the lion which nature's as I said above it is necessary for a prince to imitate annoying the sloth of the Emperor Julian he persuaded the army and Slavonia at which he was captain that it would be right to go to Rome and avenge the death of Pertinax who had been killed by the Praetorian soldiers and under this pretext without appearing to aspire to the throne he moved the army on Rome and reached Italy before it was known that he had started only his arrival at Rome the Senate through fear elected him Emperor and killed Julian after this they remained for Sephiroth who wished to make himself master of the whole empire two difficulties the one in Asia where Niger head of the Asiatic army had caused himself to be proclaimed Emperor the other in the west where albinus was who also aspired to the throne and as he considered it dangerous to declare himself hostile to both he decided to attack Niger and to deceive our - to the latter he wrote that being elected emperor by the Senate he was willing to share that dignity with him and sent him the title of Caesar and moreover that the Senate had made albinus his colleague which things were accepted by albinus as true but after Severus had conquered and killed Niger and settled oriental affairs he returned to Rome and complained to the Senate that Albine us little recognizing the benefits that he had received from him and by treachery sought to murder him and for this ingratitude he was compelled to punish him afterwards he sought him out in France and took from him his government and life he who will therefore carefully examine the actions of this man will find him a most valiant lion and a most cunning Fox he will find him feared and respected by everyone and not hated by the army and it need not be wondered at that he a new man was able to hold the Empire so well because his supreme renown always protected him from that hatred which the people might have conceived against him for his violence but his son Antoninus was a most eminent man and had very excellent qualities which made him admirable in the sight of the people and acceptable to the soldiers for he was a warlike man most enduring a fatigue a despiser of all delicate food and other luxuries which caused him to be beloved by the armies nevertheless his ferocity and cruelties was so great and so unheard-of that after endless single murders he killed a large number of the people of Rome and all those of Alexandria he became hated by the whole world and also feared by those he had around him to such an extent that he was murdered in the midst of his army by a Centurion and here it must be noted that such like deaths which are deliberately inflicted with a resolved and desperate courage cannot be avoided by princes because anyone who does not fear to die can inflict them but a prince may fear them the less because they are very rare he has only to be careful not to do any grave injury to those whom he employs or has around him in the service of the state Antoninus had not taken this care but had continously killed a brother of that Centurion whom also he daily threatened yet retained in his bodyguard which as it turned out was a rash thing to do and proved the emperor's ruin but let us come to commodious to whom it should have been very easy to hold the Empire for being the son of Marcus he had inherited it and he had only to follow in the footsteps of his father to please his people and soldiers but being by nature cruel and brutal he gave himself up to amusing the soldiers and corrupting them so that he might indulge his rapacity upon the people on the other hand not maintaining his dignity often descending to the theater to compete with the gladiators and doing other vile things little worthy of the imperial majesty he fell into contempt with the soldiers and being hated by one party and despised by the other he was conspired against and was killed it remains to discuss the character of maxim - he was a very warlike man and the armies being disgusted with the effeminacy of Alexander of whom I have already spoken killed him and elected Maxie - to the throne this he did not possess for long for two things made him hated and despised the one his having kept sheep in Thrace which brought him into contempt it being well known to all and considered a great indignity by everyone at the other his having at the accession to his dominions deferred going to Rome and taking possession of the Imperial seat he had also gained a reputation for the utmost ferocity by having through his prefect sin Rome and elsewhere in the Empire practiced many cruelties so that the whole world was moved to anger the meanness of his birth and a fear at his barbarity first Africa rebelled then the Senate with all the people of Rome and all literally conspired against him - which may be added his own army this latter besieging Aquileia and meeting with difficulties in taking it were disgusted with his cruelties and fearing him less when they found so many against him murdered him I do not wish to discuss helio gabelus macrinus or Julian who being thoroughly contemptible were quickly wiped out but I will bring this discourse to a conclusion by saying that princes in our times have this difficulty of giving inordinate satisfaction to their soldiers in a far less degree because notwithstanding one has to give them some indulgence that is soon done none of these princes have armies that are veterans in the governance and administration of provinces as were the armies of the Roman Empire and whereas it was then more necessary to give satisfaction to soldiers than to the people it is now more necessary to all Prince's except the Turk and the sölden to satisfy the people rather than the soldiers because the people are the more powerful from the above I have accepted the Turk who always keeps round him twelve thousand infantry and fifteen thousand cavalry on which depends that security and strength of the kingdom and it is necessary that putting aside every consideration for the people he should keep them his friends the kingdom of the sold on his similar being entirely in the hands of soldiers it follows again that without regard to the people he must keep them his friends but you must note that the state of the soul done is unlike all other principalities for the reason that it is like the Christian pontificate which cannot be called either and had read it tree or a newly formed principality because the sons of the old Prince are not the heirs but he who is elected to that position by those who have authority and the sons remain only noblemen and this being an ancient custom it cannot be called a new principality because there are none of those difficulties in it that are met within new ones for although the prince is new the constitution of the state is old and it is framed so as to receive him as if he were its hereditary Lord but returning to the subject of our discourse I say that whoever will consider it will acknowledge that either hatred or contempt has been fatal to the above-named emperors and it will be recognized also how it happened that a number of them acting in one way and a number in another only one in each way came to a happy end and the rest to unhappy ones because it would have been useless and dangerous for Pertinax and Alexander being new Prince's to Ametek Marcus who was heir to the principality and likewise he would have been utterly destructive to Caracalla commodious and Maxie - to have imitated Severus they not having sufficient valour to enable them to tread in his footsteps therefore a prince new to the Principality cannot imitate the actions of Marcus nor again is it necessary to follow those of Severus but he ought to take from Severus those parts which are necessary to found his state and from Marcus those which are proper and glorious to keep a state that may already be stable and firm end of part 6 part 7 of the prints by niccolò machiavelli translated by WK Mariette this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by clive cat Earl chapters 20 to 23 chapter 20 our fortresses and many other things to which princess often resort advantageous or hurtful some Prince's so as to hold securely the state have disarmed their subjects others have kept their subject towns distracted by factions others have fostered enmities against themselves others have laid themselves out to gain over those whom they distrusted in the beginning of their governments some have built fortresses some have overthrown and destroyed them and although one cannot give a final judgment on all of these things unless one possesses the particulars of those states in which a decision has to be made nevertheless I will speak as comprehensively as the matter of itself will admit there never was a new prince who has disarmed his subjects rather when he has found them disarmed he has always armed them because by arming them those arms become yours those men who were distrusted become faithful and those who were faithful are kept so and your subjects become your adherents and whereas all subjects cannot be armed yet when those whom you do arm are benefited the others can be handled more freely and this difference in their treatment which they quite understand makes the former your dependence and the latter considering it to be necessary that those who have the most danger and service should have the most reward excuse you but when you disarm them you at once offend them by showing that you distrust them either for cowardice offer want of loyalty and either of these opinions breeds hatred against you and because you cannot remain unarmed it follows that you turned to mercenaries which are the character already shown even if they should be good they would not be sufficient to defend you against powerful enemies and distrusted subjects therefore as I have said a new prince in a new principality has always distributed arms histories are full of examples but when a prince acquires a new state which he adds as a province to his old one then it is necessary to disarm the men of that state they accept those who have been his adherents in acquiring it and these again with time and opportunity should be rendered soft and effeminate and matters should be managed in such a way that all the armed men in the state shall be your own soldiers who in your old state were living near you our forefathers and those who were reckoned wise were accustomed to say that it was necessary to hold pistoia by factions and PISA by fortresses and with this idea they fostered corrals in some of their tributary towns so as to keep possession of them the more easily this may have been well enough in those times when Italy was in a way balanced but I do not believe that it can be accepted as a precept for today because I do not believe that factions can ever be of use rather it is certain that when the enemy comes upon you in divided cities you are quickly lost because the weakest party will always assist the outside forces and the others will not be able to resist the Venetian moved as I believe by the above reasons fostered the gelfand Ghibelline factions in their tributary cities and although they never allowed them to come to bloodshed yet they nursed these disputes amongst them so that the citizens distracted by the differences should not unite against them which as we saw did not afterwards turn out as expected because after the rout at viola one party at once took courage and seized the state such methods argue therefore weakness in the prince because these factions will never be permitted in a vigorous principality such methods for enabling one the more easily to manage subjects are only useful in times of peace but if war comes this policy proves fallacious without doubt princes become great when they overcome the difficulties and obstacles by which they are confronted and therefore fortune especially when she desires to make a new Prince great who has a greater necessity to earn renown and an hereditary one causes enemies to arise and form designs against him in order that he may have the opportunity of overcoming them and by them to mount higher as by a ladder which his enemies are raised for this reason many consider that a wise Prince when he has the opportunity ought with craft to foster some animosity against himself so that having crushed it his renown may rise higher princes especially new ones have found more fidelity and assistance in those men who in the beginning of their rule were distrusted than among those who in the beginning were trusted and all foe Petrucci Prince of Siena ruled his state more by those who had been distrusted than by others but on this question one cannot speak generally for it varies so much with the individual I will only say this that men who at the commencement of a Princeton have been hostile if they are of a description to need assistance to support themselves can always be gained over with the greatest ease and they will be tightly held to serve the with fidelity in as much as they know to be very necessary for them to counsel by deeds the bad impression which he had formed of them and thus the Prince always extracts more profit from them than from those who serving him in too much security may neglect his affairs and since the matter demands it I must not fail to warn a prince who by means of secret favours has acquired a new state that he must well consider the reasons which induced those to favor him who did so and if it be not a natural affection towards him but only discontent with their government then he will only keep them friendly with great trouble and difficulty for it will be impossible to satisfy them and weighing well the reasons for this in those examples which can be taken from ancient and modern Affairs we shall find it easier for the Prince to make friends of those men who were contented under the former government and are therefore his enemies than of those who being discontented with it were favorable to him and encouraged him to seize it it has been a custom with princes in order to hold their states more securely to build fortresses that may serve as a bridle and bit to those who might design to work against them and as a place of refuge from a first attack I praise this system because it has been made use of formerly notwithstanding that Monsieur nickel of Italian our times has been seen to demolish two fortresses in citta - castello so that he might keep that state guido of aldo Duke of Urbino on returning to his Dominion whence he had been driven by Cesare Borgia raised to the foundations all the fortresses in that province and considered that without them it would be more difficult to lose it the bent Evo glee returning to Bologna came to a similar decision fortresses therefore are useful or not according to circumstances if they do you get in one way the injure you and another and this question can be reasoned thus the prince who has more to fear from the people than from foreigners ought to build fortresses but he who has more to fear from foreigners than from the people ought to leave them alone the castle of Milan built by Francesco Sforza has made and will make more trouble for the house of Sforza than any other disorder in the state for this reason the best-possible fortress is not to be hated by the people because although you may hold the fortresses yet they will not save you if the people hate you for they will never be wanting foreigners to assist the people who have taken arms against you it has not been seen in our times that such fortresses have been abused to any Prince unless to the Countess of Forli when the count in Geronimo her consort was killed for by that means she was able to withstand the popular attack and wait for assistance from Milan and thus recover her state and the posture of affairs was such at that time that the foreigners could not assist the people but fortresses were of little value to her afterwards when Cesare Borgia attacked her and when the people her enemy were allied with foreigners therefore it would have been safer for her both then and before not to have been hated by the people than to have had the fortresses all these things considered then I shall praise him who builds fortresses as well as him who does not and I shall blame whoever trusting in them cares little about being hated by the people chapter 21 how a prince should conduct himself so as to gain renown nothing makes a prince so much esteemed as great enterprises and setting a fine example we have in our time Ferdinand of Aragon the present king of Spain he can almost be called a new prince because he has risen by fame and glory from being an insignificant King to being the foremost king in Christendom and if you will consider his deeds you will find them all great and some of them extraordinary in the beginning of his reign he attacked Granada and this enterprise was the foundation of his dominions he did this quietly at first and without any fear of hindrance for he held the minds of the Barons of still occupied in thinking of the war and not anticipating any innovations thus they did not perceive that by these means he was acquiring power and authority over them he was able with the money of the church and of the people to sustain his armies and by that long war to lay the foundation of the military skill which has since distinguished him further always using religion as a plea so as to undertake greatest schemes he devoted himself with pious cruelty to driving out and clearing his kingdom of the Moors nor could there be a more admirable example nor one more rare under this same cloak he assailed Africa he came down on Italy he is finally attacked France and thus his achievements and designs have always been great and have kept the minds of his people in suspense and admiration and occupied with the issue of them and his actions have arisen in such a way one out of the other that men have never been given time to work steadily against him again it much assists a prince to set unusual examples in internal affairs similar to those which are related of Monsieur Bernard a Milano who when he had the opportunity by anyone in civil life doing some extraordinary thing either good or bad would take some method of rewarding or punishing him which would be much spoken about and a prince ought above all things to always endeavor in every action to gain for himself the reputation of being a great and remarkable man a prince is also respected when he is either a true friend or a downright enemy that is to say when without any reservation he declares himself in favor of one party against the other which course will always be more advantageous than standing neutral because if two of your powerful neighbors come to blows there of such character that if one of them conquers you have either to fear him or not in either case it will always be more advantageous for you to declare yourself and make war strenuously because in the first case if you do not declare yourself you will invariably fall prey to the conqueror to the pleasure and satisfaction of him who has been conquered and he will have no reasons to offer nor anything to protect or to shelter you and because he who conquers does not want doubtful friends who will not aid him in the time of trial and he who loses will not Harvey you because you do not willingly sword in hand caught his fate Antiochus went into Greece being sent for by the Italians to drive out the Romans he sent n voice to the Achaeans who were friends of the Romans exhorting them to remain neutral and on the other hand the Romans urged them to take up arms this question came to be discussed in the Council of the Achaeans where the negative Antiochus urged them to stand neutral to this the Roman leggett answered as for that which has been said that it is better and more advantageous for your state not to interfere in our war nothing can be more erroneous because by not interfering you will be left without favor or consideration the girdle of the Conqueror thus it will always happen that he who is not your friend will demand your neutrality whilst he who is your friend will entreat you to declare yourself with arms and irresolute princes to avoid present dangers generally follow the neutral path and are generally ruined but when a prince declares himself gallantly in favor of one side if the party with whom he allies himself conquers although the victor may be powerful and may have him at his mercy yet he is indebted to him and there is established a bond of Amity and men are never so shameless has to become a monument of ingratitude by oppressing you victories after all are never so complete that the victor must not show some regard especially to justice but if he with whom you ally yourself loses you may be sheltered by him and whilst he is able he may aid you and you become companions on a fortune that may rise again in the second case when those who fight are of such a character that you have no anxiety as to who make so much the more exit greater prudence to be allied because you assists at the destruction of one by the aid of the other who if he had been wise would have saved him and conquering as it is impossible that he should not do with your assistance he remains at your discretion and here it is to be noted that a prince ought to take care never to make an alliance with one more powerful than himself for the purposes of attacking others unless necessity compels him as it said above because if he conquers you are at his discretion and princes ought to avoid as much as possible being at the discretion of anyone the Venetians joined with France against the Duke of Milan and this alliance which caused their ruin could have been avoided but when it cannot be avoided has happened to the Florentines when the Pope and Spain sent armies to attack Lombardy then in such a case for the above reasons the prince ought to favor one of the parties never let any government imagine that it can choose perfectly safe courses rather let it expect to have to take very doubtful ones because it is found in ordinary affairs that one never seeks to avoid one trouble without running into another but prudence consists in knowing how to distinguish the character of troubles and for choice to take the lesser evil a prince ought also to show himself a patron of ability and to one of the proficient in every art at the same time he should encourage his citizens to practice their callings peaceably both in commerce and agriculture and in every other following so that the one should not be deterred from improving his possessions for fear lest they be taken away from him or another from opening up trade for fear of taxes but the prince ought to offer rewards to whoever wishes to do these things and designs in any way to honor his city or state there further he ought to entertain the people with festivals and spectacles at convenient seasons of the year and as every city is divided into guilds or into society you ought to hold such bodies in esteem and associate with him sometimes and show himself an example of courtesy and liberality nevertheless always maintaining the majesty of his rank for this he must never consent to abate in anything chapter 22 concerning the secretaries of Prince's the choice of servants is of no little importance to a prince and they are good or not according to the discrimination of the Prince and the first opinion which one forms of a prince and of his understanding is by observing the men he has around him and when they are capable and faithful he may always be considered wise because he has known how to recognize the capable and to keep them faithful but when they are otherwise one cannot form a good opinion of him for the prime era which he made was in choosing them if there were none who knew Monsieur Antonio de venafro as the servant of Pandolfo Petrucci prince of siena who would not consider Pandolfo to be a very clever man in having venafro for his servant because there are three classes of intellects one which comprehends by itself another which appreciates what others comprehended and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others the first is the most excellent the second is good the third is useless therefore it follows necessarily that if Pandolfo was not in the first rank he was in the second for whenever one has judgment to know good and bad when it is said and done although he himself may not have the initiative yet he can recognize the good in the bad in his servant and the one he can praise and the other correct thus the servant cannot hope to deceive him and has kept honest but to enable a prince to form an opinion of his servant there is one test which never fails when you see the servant thinking more of his own interests than yours and seeking inwardly his own profit in everything such a man will never make a good servant nor will you ever be able to trust because he who has the state of another in his hands ought never to think of himself but there was of his prints and never pay any attention to matters in which the prince is not concerned on the other hand to keep his servant honest the prince ought to study him honoring him enriching him doing him kindnesses sharing with him the honours and cares and at the same time and let him see that he cannot stand alone so that many honours may not make him desire more many riches make him wish for more and that many cares may make him dread chances when therefore servants and princes towards servants are thus disposed they can trust each other but when it is otherwise the end will always be disasterous for either one or the other a chapter 23 how flatterers should be avoided I do not wish to leave out an important branch of this subject for it is a danger from which princes are with difficulty preserved unless they are very careful and discriminating it is that of flatterers of whom courts are full because men are so self complacent in their own affairs and in a way so deceived in them that they are preserved with difficulty from this pest and if they wish to defend themselves they run the danger of falling into contempt because there is no other way of guarding oneself from flatterers except letting men understand that to tell you the truth did not offend you but when everyone may tell you the truth respectful you abates therefore a wise prince ought to hold a third course by choosing the wise men in his state and giving to them only the liberty of speaking the truth to him and then only of those things of which he inquires and of none others but he ought to question them upon everything and listen to their opinions and afterwards form his own conclusions with these counsellors separately and collectively he ought to carry himself in such a way that each of them should know that the more freely he shall speak the more he shall be preferred outside of these he should listen to no one pursue the thing resolved on and be steadfast in his resolutions he who does otherwise is either overthrown by flatterers or is so often changed by varying opinions that he falls into contempt I wish on this subject to induce a modern example fra lucca the man of affairs to maximilian the present emperor speaking of his majesty said he consulted with no one yet never got his own way in anything this arose because of his following a practice the opposite to the above for the emperor is a secretive man he does not communicate his designs to anyone nor does he receive opinions on them but as in carrying them into effect they become revealed and known the are at once obstructed by those men whom he has around him and he being pliant is diverted from them hence it follows that those things he does one day he undoes the next and no one ever understands what he wishes or intends to do and no one can rely on his resolutions a prince therefore ought always to take counsel but only when he wishes and not when others wish he ought rather to discourage everyone from offering advice unless he asks it but however he ought to be a constant Enquirer and afterwards a patient listener concerning the things of which he inquired also on learning that anyone on any consideration has not told him the truth he should let his anger be felt and if there are some who think that a prince conveys an impression of his wisdom not through his own ability but through the good advisers that he has around him beyond doubt they are deceived because this is an axiom which never fails the de Prince who is not wise himself will never take good advice unless by chance he has yielded his affairs entirely to one person who happens to be a very prudent man in this case indeed he may be well governed but it would not be for long because such a governor would in a short time take away his state from him but if a prince who is not inexperienced should take counsel from more than one he will never get United councils nor will he know how to unite them each of the councillors will think of his own interests and the prince will not know how to control them or to see through them and they are not to be found otherwise because men will always prove untrue to you unless they are kept honest by constraint now therefore it must be inferred that good counsels whensoever they come are born of the wisdom of the prince and not the wisdom of the prince from good counsels end of part 7 part the prints by niccolò machiavelli translated by WK Marriott this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by clive cattle chapters 24 to 26 chapter 24 why the princes of Italy have lost their states the previous suggestions carefully observed will enable a new prints to appear well established and render him at once more secure and fixed in the state than if he had been long seated there for the actions of a new Prince her more narrowly observed than those of an hereditary one and when they are seen to be able they gain more men and bind far tighter than ancient blood because men are attracted more by the present than by the past and when they find the present good they enjoy it in signal further they will also make the utmost defense of a prince if he fails them not in other things thus it will be a double glory for him to have established a new principality and adorned and strengthened it with good laws good arms good allies and with a good example so it will be a double disgrace to him who born a prince shall lose his state by want of wisdom and if those señores are considered who have lost their states in Italy in our times such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan and others they will be found in them firstly one common defect in regard to arms from the causes which had been discussed at length in the next place some one of them will be seen either to have had the people hostile or if he has had the people friendly he has not known how to secure the nobles in the absence of these defects states that have power enough to keep an army in the field cannot be lost philip of macedon not the father of Alexander the Great that he who was conquered by Titus Quintus had not much territory compared to the greatness of the Romans and of Greece who attacked him yet being a warlike man who knew how to attract the people and secure the nobles he sustained the war against his enemies for many years and if the end he lost the Dominion of some cities nevertheless he retained the kingdom therefore do not let our Prince's accuse fortune for the loss of their principalities after so many years possession but rather their own sloth because in quiet times they never thought there could be a change it is a common defect in man not to make provision in the column against The Tempest and when afterwards the bad times came they thought of flight and not of defending themselves and they hoped that the people disgusted with the insolence of the conquerors would recall them this course when others fail may be good but it is very bad to have neglected all other expedience for that since you had never wished to fall because you trusted to be able to find someone later on to restore you this again either does not happen or if it does it will not be for your security because that deliverance is of no avail which does not depend upon yourself those only are reliable certain and durable that depend on yourself and your valour chapter 25 what fortune can affect in human affairs and how to withstand her it is not known to me how many men have had and still have the opinion that the affairs of the world are in such wise governed by fortune and by God that men with their wisdom cannot direct them and that no one can even help them and because of this they would have us believe that it is not necessary to labor much in affairs but to let chance govern them this opinion has been more credited in our times because of the great changes in affairs that had been seen and may still be seen every day beyond all human conjecture sometimes pondering over this I'm in some degree inclined to their opinion nevertheless not to extinguish our free will I hold it to be true that fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions but that she still leaves us to direct the other half or perhaps a little less I compare her to one of those raging rivers which when in flood overflows the plains sweeping away trees and buildings bearing away the soil from place to place everything flies before it all yield to its violence without being able in any way to withstand it and yet though its nature be such it does not follow therefore that men when the weather becomes fair shall not make provision both with defenses and barriers in such a manner that rising again the waters may pass away by canal and their force been either so unrestrained not so dangerous so it happens with Fortune who shows her power where valor has not prepared to resist her and there she turns her forces where she knows that barriers and defenses have not been raised to constrain her and if you will consider Italy which is the seat of these changes and which is given to them their impulse you will see it to be an open country without barriers and without any defense for if it had been defended by proper valour as our Germany Spain and France either this invasion would not have made the great changes it has made or it would not have come at all and this I consider enough to say concerning resistance to fortune in general but confining myself more to the particular I say that a prince may be seen happy today and ruined tomorrow without having shown any change of disposition or character this I believe arises firstly from causes that have already been discussed at length namely that the prince who relies entirely on fortune is lost when it changes I believe also that he will be successful who directs his actions according to the spirit of the times and that he whose actions do not accord with the times will not be successful because men are seen in Affairs that lead to the end which every man has before him namely glory and riches to get there by various methods one with caution another with haste one by force another by skill one by patience another by its opposite and each one succeeds in reaching the goal by a different method one can also see of too cautious men the one attained his end the other fail and similarly two men by different observances are equally successful the one being cautious the other impetuous all this arises from nothing else than whether or not they conform in their methods to the spirit of the times this follows from what I have said that two men working differently bring about the same effect and of two working similarly one attains his object and the other does not changes in a state also issue from this for if to one who governs himself with caution and patience times and affairs converge in such a way that his administration is successful his fortune is made but if times and affairs change he is ruined if he does not change his course of action but a man is not often found sufficiently circumspect to know how to accommodate himself to the change both because he cannot deviate from what nature inclines him to do and also because having always prospered by acting in one way he cannot be persuaded that it is well to leave it and therefore the cautious man when it is time to turn adventurous does not know how to do it hence he is ruined but had he changed his conduct with the times fortune would not have changed pope julius ii went to work impetuously in all his affairs and found the times and circumstances conformed so well to that line of action that he always met with success consider his first enterprise against Bologna monsieur giovanni venti vogue li being still alive the Venetians were not agreeable to it nor was the king of Spain and he had the enterprise still under discussion with the King of France nevertheless he personally entered upon the expedition with his accustomed boldness and energy a move which made Spain and the Venetians standed resolute and passive the latter from fear the former from desire to recover the kingdom of Naples on the other hand he drew after him the King of France because that King having observed the movement and desiring to make the Pope his friend so as to humble the Venetians found it impossible to refuse him therefore Julius with his impetuous action accomplished what no other pontiff with simple human wisdom could have done for if he had waited in Rome until he could get away with his plans arranged and everything fixed as any other pontiff would have done he would never have succeeded because the king of France would have made a thousand excuses and the others would have raised a thousand fears I will leave his other actions alone as they were all alike and they all succeeded for the shortness of his life did not let him experience the contrary but if circumstances had arisen which required him to go cautiously his ruin would have followed because he would never have deviated from those ways to which Nature inclined him I conclude therefore that fortune being changeful and mankind steadfast in their ways so long as the two are in agreement men are successful but unsuccessful when they fall out for my part I consider that it is better to be adventurous than cautious because fortune is a woman and if he wished to keep her under it is necessary to beat and ill use her and it is seen that she allows herself to be mastered by the adventurous rather than by those who go to work more coldly she is therefore always woman like a lover of young men because they are less cautious more violent and with more audacity command her chapter 26 an exhortation to liberate Italy from the barbarians having carefully considered the subject of the above discourses and wandering within myself whether the present times were propitious to a new prince and whether there were elements that would give an opportunity to a wise and virtuous one to introduce a new order of things which would do honor to him and good to the people of his country it appears to me that so many things concur to favor a new Prince that I never knew a time more fit than the and if as I said it was necessary that the people of Israel should be captive so as to make manifest the ability of Moses that the Persians should be oppressed by the Medes so as to discover the greatness of the soul of Cyrus and that the Athenians should be dispersed to illustrate the capabilities of Theseus then at the present time in order to discover the virtue of an Italian spirit it was necessary that Italy should be reduced to the extremity that she is now in that she should be more enslaved than the Hebrews more oppressed than the Persians more scattered than Athenians without head without order beaten despoiled torn overrun and have endured every kind of desolation although lately some spark may have been shown by one which made us think he was ordained by God for our Redemption nevertheless it was afterwards seen in the height of his career that fortune rejected him so that Italy left as without life waits for him who shall yet heal her wounds and put an end to the ravaging and plundering of Lombardi to the swindling and taxing of the kingdom of Tuscany and cleanse those sores that for long have festered it is seen how she entreats God to send someone who shall deliver her from these wrongs and barbarous insolence 'as it is seen also that she is ready and willing to follow a banner if only someone will raise it nor is there to be seen at present one in whom she can place more Hope than in your industrious house with its father and fortune favored by God and by the church of which it is now the chief and which could be made the head of this Redemption this will not be difficult if you will recall to yourself the actions and lives of the men I have named and although they were great and wonderful men yet they were men and each one of them had no more opportunity than the present office for their enterprises were neither more just nor easier than this nor was God more their friend than he is yours with us there is great justice because that war is just which is necessary and arms are hallowed there is no other hope but in them here there is the greatest willingness and where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great if you will only follow those men to whom I have directed your attention further than this how extraordinarily the ways of God have been manifested beyond example the sea is divided a cloud has led the way the rock has poured forth water it has rained manner everything has contributed to your greatness you ought to do the rest God is not willing to do everything and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us and it is not to be wondered out if none of the above named Italians have been able to accomplish all that is expected from your illustrious house and if in so many revolutions in Italy and so many campaigns it has always appeared as if military virtue were exhausted this has happened because the old order of things was not good and none of us have known how to find a new one and nothing on as a man more than to establish new laws and new ordinances when he himself was newly risen such things when they are well founded and dignified make him revered and admired and in Italy there are not wanting opportunities to bring such into use in every form here there is great valor in the limbs whilst it fails in the head look attentively at the duels and the hand-to-hand combats how superior the Italians are in strength dexterity and subtlety but when it comes to armies they do not bear comparison and this Springs entirely from the insufficiency of the leaders since those who were capable are not obedient and each one seems to himself to know there having never been anyone so distinguished above the rest either by valor or fortune that others would yield to him hence it is that for so long a time and during so much fighting in the past twenty years whenever there has been an army wholly Italian it has always given a poor account of itself the first witness to this is ill taro afterwards Alessandria Capua genoa viola Bologna in history if therefore your illustrious house wishes to follow these remarkable men who have redeemed their country it is necessary before all things as a true foundation for every enterprise to be provided with your own forces because there can be no more faithful truer or better soldiers and although singly they are good all together there will be much better when they find themselves commanded by their prince honored by him and maintained at his expense therefore it is necessary to be prepared with such arms so that you can be defended against foreigners battalion valour and all those Swiss and Spanish infantry may be considered very formidable nevertheless there is a defect in both by reason of which a third order would not only be able to oppose them but might be relied upon to overthrow them for the Spaniards cannot resist cavalry and the Switzer's are afraid of infantry whenever they encounter them in close combat owing to this as has been and may again be seen the Spaniards are unable to resist French cavalry and the Switzer's are overthrown by Spanish infantry and although a complete proof of this latter cannot be shown and nevertheless there was some evidence of it at the Battle of Ravenna when the spanish infantry were confronted by German battalions who followed the same tactics as the Swiss when the Spaniards by agility of body and with the aid of their shields got in under the Pikes of the Germans and stood out of danger able to attack while the Germans stood helpless and if the cavalry had not dashed up all would have been over with them it is possible therefore knowing the defects of both these Infantry's to invent a new one which will resist cavalry and not be afraid of infantry this need not create a new order of arms but a variation upon the old and these are the kind of improvements which confer reputation and power upon a new Prince this opportunity therefore ought not to be allowed to pass for letting Italy at last see her Liberator appear nor can one express the love with which he would be received in all those province which have suffered so much from these foreign scourings with what thirst for revenge with what stubborn faith with what devotion with what tears what door would be closed to him who would refuse obedience to him what Envy would hinder him what Italian would refuse him homage to all of us this barbarous Dominion stinks let therefore your illustrious house take up this charge with that courage and hope with which all just enterprises are undertaken so that under its standard our native country may be a noble and under its auspices may be verified that saying of pet rock vertook on through our ferrari friend darryl army ful combat a court or chill antique oval or a negli tallit chic or non yank or mortal virtue against fury shall advance the fight and it did the combat soon shall put to flight for the old roman valor is not dead nor end italians breasts extinguisher end of part 8 end of the prints by niccolò machiavelli translated by WK Mariette

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Length: 196min 40sec (11800 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 03 2015