Machiavelli

On Politics and Power

Niccolò Machiavelli, Eko

• Publisher: Restless Books
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781632062567
• eBook ISBN: 9781632062574
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Restless Classics presents a trenchant new edition of Machiavelli's most powerful works of political philosophy, including The Prince and selections from Discourses on Livy, introduced by New Yorker writer and biographer of Che Guevara Jon Lee Anderson.

Few authors achieve such notoriety that their name becomes an adjective. A "Machiavellian" politician is not simply one who is conniving; the term also refers to a tyrant who is enamored with all the power he (it is usually a "he") can attain. With so many Machiavellian politicians on the world stage today—Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Mohammed bin Salman, Viktor Orbán, Jair Bolsonaro, et alia—Machiavelli's masterpieces The Prince and Discourses on Livy are at once timely and eternal.

Widely held as a foundational work of modern political philosophy, The Prince can be read as a practical guide for ruling or a satirical guide on how not to rule. Machiavelli prefaces the book with a letter addressed to Lorenzo de' Medici, the infamous ruler of Florence, both admonishing and praising him for his governance. The sister volume, Discourses on Livy, offers an analysis of ancient Roman history that supports Machiavelli's claims by lauding the merits of a republic.

As Jon Lee Anderson explores in his incisive introduction, Machiavelli's hard-line outlook on power, politics, war, governance, and ethics has frightening parallels to the current trend toward authoritarianism in our global politics. Machiavelli: On Politics and Power is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the psychology and methods of power-hungry leaders, past and present.

‌Notes

The Prince

1 Duke Lodovico was Lodovico Moro, a son of Francesco Sforza, who married Beatrice d’Este. He ruled over Milan from 1494 to 1500, and died in 1510.

2 Louis XII, King of France, “The Father of the People,” born 1462, died 1515.

3 Charles VIII, King of France, born 1470, died 1498.

4 Louis XII divorced his wife, Jeanne, daughter of Louis XI, and married in 1499 Anne of Brittany, widow of Charles VIII, in order to retain the Duchy of Brittany for the crown.

5 The Archbishop of Rouen. He was Georges d’Amboise, created a cardinal by Alexander VI. Born 1460, died 1510.

6 Hiero II, born about 307 B.C., died 216 B.C.

7 “Le radici e corrispondenze,” their roots (i.e. foundations) and correspondencies or relations with other states—a common meaning of “correspondence” and “correspondency” in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

8 Francesco Sforza, born 1401, died 1466. He married Bianca Maria Visconti, a natural daughter of Filippo Visconti, the Duke of Milan, on whose death he procured his own elevation to the duchy. Machiavelli was the accredited agent of the Florentine Republic to Cesare Borgia (1478–1507) during the transactions that led up to the assassinations of the Orsini and Vitelli at Sinigallia, and along with his letters to his chiefs in Florence he has left an account, written ten years before The Prince, of the proceedings of the duke in his Descritione del modo tenuto dal duca Valentino nello ammazzare Vitellozzo Vitelli, etc., a translation of which is appended to the present work.

9 Sinigallia, December 31, 1502.

10 Ramiro de Lorqua.

11 Alexander VI died of fever, August 18, 1503.

12 Julius II was Giuliano della Rovere, Cardinal of San Pietro ad Vincula, born 1443, died 1513.

13 San Giorgio is Raffaello Riario. Ascanio is Ascanio Sforza.

14 Agathocles the Sicilian, born 361 B.C., died 289 B.C.

15 Lawrence Burd suggests that this word probably comes near the modern equivalent of Machiavelli’s thought when he speaks of crudeltà than the more obvious “cruelties.”

16 Nabis, tyrant of Sparta, conquered by the Romans under Flamininus in 195 B.C.; killed 192 B.C.

17 This event is to be found in Machiavelli’s Florentine History, Book III.

18 Charles VIII invaded Italy in 1494.

19 Pope Leo X was the Cardinal de’ Medici.

20 “With chalk in hand,” “col gesso.” This is one of the bons mots of Alexander VI, and refers to the ease with which Charles VIII seized Italy, implying that it was only necessary for him to send his quartermasters to chalk up the billets for his soldiers to conquer the country. Cf. The History of Henry VII, by Lord Bacon: “King Charles had conquered the realm of Naples, and lost it again, in a kind of a felicity of a dream. He passed the whole length of Italy without resistance: so that it was true what Pope Alexander was wont to say: That the Frenchmen came into Italy with chalk in their hands, to mark up their lodgings, rather than with swords to fight.”

21 Battle of Caravaggio, September 15, 1448.

22 Johanna II of Naples, the widow of Ladislao, King of Naples.

23 An English knight whose name was Sir John Hawkwood. He fought in the English wars in France, and was knighted by Edward III; afterward he collected a body of troops and went into Italy. These became the famous “White Company.” He took part in many wars, and died in Florence in 1394. He was born about 1320 at Sible Hedingham, a village in Essex. He married Domnia, a daughter of Bernabò Visconti.

24 Francesco Bussone, born at Carmagnola about 1390, executed at Venice, May 5, 1432.

25 Bartolomeo Colleoni of Bergamo, died 1457. Roberto of San Severino, died fighting for Venice against Sigismund, Duke of Austria, in 1487; “primo capitano in Italia”—Machiavelli. “Count of Pitigliano”: Nicolo Orsini, born 1442, died 1510.

26 Battle of Vailà in 1509.

27 Alberico da Barbiano, Count of Cunio in Romagna. He was the ...

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Chronology
• Editor’s Note
• The Prince • Translated from the Italian by W. K. Marriott
• I • How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are, and by What Means They Are Acquired
• II • Concerning Hereditary Principalities
• III • Concerning Mixed Principalities
• IV • Why the Kingdom of Darius, Conquered by Alexander, Did Not Rebel against the Successors of Alexander at His Death
• V • Concerning the Way to Govern Cities or Principalities That Lived under Their Own Laws before They Were Annexed
• VI • Concerning New Principalities That Are Acquired by One’s Own Arms and Ability
• VII • Concerning New Principalities That Are Acquired Either by the Arms of Others or by Good Fortune
• VIII • Concerning Those Who Have Obtained a Principality by Wickedness
• IX • Concerning a Civil Principality
• X • Concerning the Way in Which the Strength of All Principalities Ought to Be Measured
• XI • Concerning Ecclesiastical Principalities
• XII • How Many Kinds of Soldiery There Are, and Concerning Mercenaries
• XIII • Concerning Auxiliaries, Mixed Soldiery, and One’s Own
• XIV • That Which Concerns a Prince on the Subject of the Art of War
• XV • Concerning Things for Which Men, and Especially Princes, Are Praised or Blamed
• XVI • Concerning Liberality and Meanness
• XVII • Concerning Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved than Feared
• XVIII36 • Concerning the Way in Which Princes Should Keep Faith
• XIX • That One Should Avoid Being Despised and Hated
• XX • Are Fortresses, and Many Other Things to Which Princes Often Resort, Advantageous or Hurtful?
• XXI • How a Prince Should Conduct Himself so as to Gain Renown
• XXII • Concerning the Secretaries of Princes
• XXIII • How Flatterers Should Be Avoided
• XXIV • Why the Princes of Italy Have Lost Their States
• XXV • What Fortune Can Effect in Human Affairs and How to Withstand Her
• XXVI • An Exhortation to Liberate Italy from the Barbarians
• Description of the Methods Adopted by the Duke Valentino When Murdering Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto Da Fermo, the Signor Pagolo, and the Duke di Gravina Orsini • Translated from the Italian by W. K. Marriott
• The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca • Written by Niccolò Machiavelliand Sent to His Friends Zanobi Buondelmonti and Luigi Alamanni
• Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius • Translated from the Italian by Ninian Hill Thomson
• Excerpts from Book I
• PREFACE
• I • Of the Beginnings of Cities in General, and in Particular of That of Rome
• II • Of the Various Kinds of Government; and to Which of Them the Roman Commonwealth Belonged
• IV • That the Dissensions between the Senate and Commons of Rome Made Rome Free and Powerful
• VI • Whether It Was Possible in Rome to Contrive Such a Government as Would Have Composed the Differences between the Commons and the Senate
• VII • That to Preserve Liberty in a State There Must Exist the Right to Accuse
• VIII • That Calumny Is as Hurtful in a Commonwealth as the Power to Accuse Is Useful
• XI • Of the Religion of the Romans
• XVII • That a Corrupt People Obtaining Freedom Can Hardly Preserve It
• XVIII • How a Free Government Existing in a Corrupt City May Be Preserved, or Not Existing May Be Created
• XIX • After a Strong Prince a Weak Prince May Maintain Himself: But after One Weak Prince No Kingdom Can Stand a Second
• XXVII • That Men Seldom Know How to Be Wholly Good or Wholly Bad
• XLIV • That the Multitude Is Helpless Without a Head: And that We Should Not with the Same Breath Threaten and Ask Leave
• Excerpts from Book III
• II • That on Occasion It Is Wise to Feign Folly
• VI • Of Conspiracies
• IX • That to Enjoy Constant Good Fortune We Must Change with the Times
• XIV • Of the Effect Produced in Battle by Strange and Unexpected Sights or Sounds
• XV • That One and Not Many Should Head an Army: And Why It Is Harmful to Have More Leaders than One
• XIX • Whether Indulgence or Severity Be More Necessary for Controlling a Multitude
• XXVI • How Women Are a Cause of the Ruin of States
• XXIX • That the Faults of a People Are Due to Its Prince
• XXXI • That Strong Republics and Valiant Men Preserve through Every Change the Same Spirit and Bearing
• XXXII • Of the Methods that Some Have Used to Make Peace Impossible
• XL • That Fraud Is Fair in War
• XLVII • That Love of His Country Should Lead a Good Citizen to Forget Private Wrongs
• Notes
• Suggestions for Further Reading
• A Guide for Restless Readers