Discourses on Livyis the founding document of modern republicanism, and Harvey C. Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov have provided the definitive English translation of this classic work. Faithful to the original Italian text, properly attentive to Machiavelli's idiom and subtlety of thought, it is eminently readable. With a substantial introduction, extensive explanatory notes, a glossary of key words, and an annotated index, theDiscoursesreveals Machiavelli's radical vision of a new science of politics, a vision of "new modes and orders" that continue to shape the modern ethos.
"[Machiavelli] found in Livy the means to inspire scholars for five centuries. Within theDiscourses, often hidden and sometimes unintended by their author, lie the seeds of modern political thought. . . . [Mansfield and Tarcov's] translation is careful and idiomatic."—Peter Stothard,The Times
"Translated with painstaking accuracy—but also great readability."—Weekly Standard
"A model of contemporary scholarship and a brave effort at Machiavelli translation that allows the great Florentine to speak in his own voice."—Choice
Author(s): Niccolò Machiavelli; Harvey Mansfield; Nathan Tarcov
Edition: Paperback
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Year: 1996
Language: English
Pages: 367
Copyright......Page 2
Title Page......Page 3
Contents......Page 4
List of Abbreviations......Page 13
Introduction......Page 14
Suggested Readings......Page 42
A Note on the Translation......Page 44
Translators’ Acknowledgments......Page 47
Dedicatory Letter......Page 50
First Book......Page 51
Preface......Page 52
1. What Have Been Universally the Beginnings of Any City Whatever, and What Was That of Rome......Page 54
2. Of How Many Species Are Republics, and Which Was the Roman Republic......Page 58
3. What Accidents Made the Tribunes of the Plebs Be Created in Rome, Which Made the Republic More Perfect......Page 63
4. That the Disunion of the Plebs and the Roman Senate Made That Republic Free and Powerful......Page 65
5. Where the Guard of Freedom May Be Settled More Securely, in the People or in the Great; and Which Has Greater Cause for Tumult, He Who Wishes to Acquire or He Who Wishes to Maintain......Page 67
6. Whether a State Could Have Been Ordered in Rome That Would Have Taken Away the Enmities between the People and the Senate......Page 70
7. How Far Accusations May Be Necessary in a Republic to Maintain It in Freedom......Page 74
8. As Much As Accusations Are Useful to Republics, So Much Are Calumnies Pernicious......Page 77
9. That It Is Necessary to Be Alone If One Wishes to Order a Republic Anew or to Reform It Altogether outside Its Ancient Orders......Page 80
10. As Much As the Founders of a Republic and of a Kingdom Are Praiseworthy, So Much Those of a Tyranny Are Worthy of Reproach......Page 83
11. Of the Religion of the Romans......Page 86
12. Of How Much Importance It Is to Take Account of Religion, and How Italy, for Lacking It by Means of the Roman Church, Has Been Ruined......Page 89
13. How the Romans Made Religion Serve to Reorder the City and to Carry Out Their Enterprises and to Stop Tumults......Page 92
14. The Romans Interpreted the Auspices according to Necessity, and with Prudence Made a Show of Observing Religion When Forced Not to Observe It; and If Anyone Rashly Disdained It, They Punished Him......Page 94
15. The Samnites, as an Extreme Remedy for the Things Afflicting Them, Had Recourse to Religion......Page 96
16. A People Used to Living under a Prince Maintains Its Freedom with Difficulty, If by Some Accident It Becomes Free......Page 98
17. Having Come to Freedom, a Corrupt People Can with the Greatest Difficulty Maintain Itself Free......Page 101
18. In What Mode a Free State, If There Is One, Can Be Maintained in Corrupt Cities; or, If There Is Not, in What Mode to Order It......Page 103
19. After an Excellent Prince a Weak Prince Can Maintain Himself, but after a Weak One No Kingdom Can Be Maintained by Another Weak One......Page 106
20. Two Virtuous Princes in Succession Produce Great Effects; and That Well-Ordered Republics Have of Necessity Virtuous Successions, and So Their Acquisitions and Increases Are Great......Page 108
21. How Much Blame That Prince and That Republic Merit That Lack Their Own Arms......Page 109
22. What Is to Be Noted in the Case of the Three Roman Horatii and the Three Alban Curiatii......Page 111
23. That One Should Not Put All One’s Fortune in Danger, and Not All One’s Forces; and Because of This, the Guarding of Passes Is Often Harmful......Page 112
24. Well-Ordered Republics Institute Rewards and Punishments for Their Citizens and Never Counterbalance One with the Other......Page 114
25. He Who Wishes to Reform an Antiquated State in a Free City May Retain at Least the Shadow of Its Ancient Modes......Page 116
26. A New Prince Should Make Everything New in a City or Province Taken by Him......Page 117
27. Very Rarely Do Men Know How to Be Altogether Wicked or Altogether Good......Page 118
28. For What Cause the Romans Were Less Ungrateful toward Their Citizens Than the Athenians......Page 120
29. Which Is More Ungrateful, a People or a Prince......Page 122
30. Which Modes a Prince or a Republic Should Use So As to Avoid the Vice of Ingratitude; and Which a Captain or a Citizen Should Use So As Not to Be Crushed by It......Page 125
31. That the Roman Captains Were Never Extraordinarily Punished for an Error Committed; nor Were They Ever Punished When Harm Resulted to the Republic through Their Ignorance or through Bad Policies Adopted by Them......Page 127
32. A Republic or a Prince Should Not Defer Benefiting Men in Their Necessities......Page 129
33. When an Inconvenience Has Grown Either in a State or against a State, the More Salutary Policy Is to Temporize with It Rather Than to Strike at It......Page 130
34. The Dictatorial Authority Did Good, and Not Harm, to the Roman Republic; and That the Authorities Citizens Take for Themselves, Not Those Given Them by Free Votes, Are Pernicious to Civil Life......Page 133
35. The Cause Why the Creation of the Decemvirate in Rome Was Hurtful to the Freedom of That Republic, Notwithstanding That It Was Created by Public and Free Votes......Page 136
36. Citizens Who Have Had Greater Honors Should Not Disdain Lesser Ones......Page 138
37. What Scandals the Agrarian Law Gave Birth to in Rome; and That to Make a Law in a Republic That Looks Very Far Back and Is against an Ancient Custom of the City Is Most Scandalous......Page 139
38. Weak Republics Are Hardly Resolute and Do Not Know How to Decide; and If They Ever Take Up Any Policy, It Arises More from Necessity Than from Choice......Page 142
39. In Diverse Peoples the Same Accidents May Often Be Seen......Page 145
40. The Creation of the Decemvirate in Rome, and What Is to Be Noted in It; Where It Is Considered, among Many Other Things, How through Such an Accident One Can Either Save or Crush a Republic......Page 147
41. To Leap from Humility to Pride, from Mercy to Cruelty, without Due Degrees Is Something Imprudent and Useless......Page 152
42. How Easily Men Can Be Corrupted......Page 153
43. Those Who Engage in Combat for Their Own Glory Are Good and Faithful Soldiers......Page 154
44. A Multitude without a Head Is Useless; and That One Should Not First Threaten and Then Request Authority......Page 155
45. Nonobservance of a Law That Has Been Made, and Especially by Its Author, Is a Thing That Sets a Bad Example; and to Freshen New Injuries Every Day in a City Is Most Harmful to Whoever Governs It......Page 156
46. Men Ascend from One Ambition to Another; First One Seeks Not to Be Offended, and Then One Offends Others......Page 158
47. However Deceived in Generalities, Men Are Not Deceived in Particulars......Page 160
48. He Who Wishes That a Magistracy Not Be Given to Someone Vile or Someone Wicked Should Have It Asked for Either by Someone Too Vile and Too Wicked or by Someone Too Noble and Too Good......Page 163
49. If Those Cities That Have had a Free Beginning, Such as Rome, Have Difficulty in Finding Laws That Will Maintain Them, Those That Have Had One Immediately Servile Have Almost an Impossibility......Page 164
50. One Council or One Magistrate Should Not Be Able to Stop the Actions of Cities......Page 167
51. A Republic or a Prince Should Make a Show of Doing through Liberality What Necessity Constrains Him to Do......Page 169
52. To Repress the Insolence of One Individual Who Rises Up in a Powerful Republic, There Is No More Secure and Less Scandalous Mode Than to Anticipate the Ways by Which He Comes to That Power......Page 170
53. Many Times the People Desires Its Own Ruin, Deceived by a False Appearance of Good; and That Great Hopes and Mighty Promises Easily Move It......Page 172
54. How Much Authority a Grave Man May Have to Check an Excited Multitude......Page 175
55. How Easily Things May Be Conducted in Those Cities in Which the Multitude Is Not Corrupt; and That Where There Is Equality, a Principality Cannot Be Made, and Where There Is Not, a Republic Cannot Be Made......Page 176
56. Before Great Accidents Occur in a City or in a Province, Signs Come That Forecast Them, or Men Who Predict Them......Page 180
57. The Plebs Together Is Mighty, by Itself Weak......Page 182
58. The Multitude Is Wiser and More Constant Than a Prince......Page 184
59. Which Confederation or Other League Can Be More Trusted, That Made with a Republic or That Made with a Prince......Page 188
60. That the Consulate and Any Other Magistracy Whatever in Rome Was Given without Respect to Age......Page 190
Second Book......Page 191
Preface......Page 192
1. Which Was More the Cause of the Empire the Romans Acquired, Virtue or Fortune......Page 195
2. What Peoples the Romans Had to Combat, and That They Obstinately Defended Their Freedom......Page 198
3. Rome Became a Great City through Ruining the Surrounding Cities and Easily Admitting Foreigners to Its Honors......Page 203
4. Republics Have Taken Three Modes of Expanding......Page 205
5. That the Variation of Sects and Languages, Together with the Accident of Floods or Plague, Eliminates the Memories of Things......Page 209
6. How the Romans Proceeded in Making War......Page 211
7. How Much Land the Romans Gave per Colonist......Page 213
8. The Cause Why Peoples Leave Their Ancestral Places and Inundate the Country of Others......Page 214
9. What Causes Commonly Make Wars Arise among Powers......Page 217
10. Money Is Not the Sinew of War, As It Is according to the Common Opinion......Page 219
11. It Is Not a Prudent Policy to Make a Friendship with a Prince Who Has More Reputation Than Force......Page 222
12. Whether, When Fearing to Be Assaulted, It Is Better to Bring On or Await War......Page 224
13. That One Comes from Base to Great Fortune More through Fraud Than through Force......Page 228
14. Often Men Deceive Themselves Believing That through Humility They Will Conquer Pride......Page 230
15. Weak States Will Always Be Ambiguous in Their Resolutions; and Slow Decisions Are Always Hurtful......Page 232
16. How Much the Soldiers of Our Times Do Not Conform to the Ancient Orders......Page 235
17. How Much Artillery Should Be Esteemed by Armies in the Present Times; and Whether the Opinion Universally Held of It Is True......Page 238
18. How by the Authority of the Romans and by the Example of the Ancient Military Infantry Should Be Esteemed More Than Horse......Page 243
19. That Acquisitions by Republics That Are Not Well Ordered and That Do Not Proceed according to Roman Virtue Are for Their Ruin, Not Their Exaltation......Page 247
20. What Danger That Prince or Republic Runs That Avails Itself of Auxiliary or Mercenary Military......Page 251
21. The First Praetor the Romans Sent Anyplace Was to Capua, Four Hundred Years after They Began to Make War......Page 253
22. How False the Opinions of Men Often Are in Judging Great Things......Page 255
23. How Much the Romans, in Judging Subjects for Some Accidents That Necessitated Such Judgment, Fled from the Middle Way......Page 258
24. Fortresses Are Generally Much More Harmful Than Useful......Page 262
25. To Assault a Disunited City So As to Seize It by Means of Its Disunion Is a Contradictory Policy......Page 268
26. Vilification and Abuse Generate Hatred against Those Who Use Them, without Any Utility to Them......Page 270
27. For Prudent Princes and Republics It Should Be Enough to Conquer, for Most Often When It Is Not Enough, One Loses......Page 272
28. How Dangerous It Is for a Republic or a Prince Not to Avenge an Injury Done against the Public or against a Private Person......Page 275
29. Fortune Blinds the Spirits of Men When It Does Not Wish Them to Oppose Its Plans......Page 277
30. Truly Powerful Republics and Princes Buy Friendships Not with Money but with Virtue and the Reputation of Strength......Page 280
31. How Dangerous It Is to Believe the Banished......Page 283
32. In How Many Modes the Romans Seized Towns......Page 285
33. How the Romans Gave Free Commissions to Their Captains of Armies......Page 288
Third Book......Page 290
1. If One Wishes a Sect or a Republic to Live Long, It Is Necessary to Draw It Back Often toward Its Beginning......Page 291
2. That It Is a Very Wise Thing to Simulate Craziness at the Right Time......Page 295
3. That It Is Necessary to Kill the Sons of Brutus If One Wishes to Maintain a Newly Acquired Freedom......Page 297
4. A Prince Does Not Live Secure in a Principality While Those Who Have Been Despoiled of It Are Living......Page 299
5. What Makes a King Who Is Heir to a Kingdom Lose It......Page 300
6. Of Conspiracies......Page 302
7. Whence It Arises That Changes from Freedom to Servitude and from Servitude to Freedom Are Some of Them without Blood, Some of Them Full of It......Page 319
8. Whoever Wishes to Alter a Republic Should Consider Its Subject......Page 320
9. How One Must Vary with the Times if One Wishes Always to Have Good Fortune......Page 323
10. That a Captain Cannot Flee Battle When the Adversary Wishes Him to Engage in It in Any Mode......Page 325
11. That Whoever Has to Deal with Very Many, Even Though He Is Inferior, Wins If Only He Can Sustain the First Thrusts......Page 329
12. That a Prudent Captain Ought to Impose Every Necessity to Engage in Combat on His Soldiers and Take It Away from Those of Enemies......Page 331
13. Which Is More to Be Trusted, a Good Captain Who Has a Weak Army or a Good Army That Has a Weak Captain......Page 334
14. What Effects New Inventions That Appear in the Middle of the Fight and New Voices That Are Heard May Produce......Page 336
15. That One Individual and Not Many Should Be Put over an Army; and That Several Commanders Hurt......Page 339
16. That in Difficult Times One Goes to Find True Virtue; and in Easy Times Not Virtuous Men but Those with Riches or Kinship Have More Favor......Page 341
17. That One Individual Should Not Be Offended and Then That Same One Sent to an Administration and Governance of Importance......Page 344
18. Nothing Is More Worthy of a Captain Than to Foretell the Policies of the Enemy......Page 346
19. Whether to Rule a Multitude Compliance Is More Necessary Than Punishment......Page 349
20. One Example of Humanity Was Able to Do More with the Falisci Than Any Roman Force......Page 351
21. Whence It Arises That with a Different Mode of Proceeding Hannibal Produced Those Same Effects in Italy as Scipio Did in Spain......Page 353
22. That the Hardness of Manlius Torquatus and the Kindness of Valerius Corvinus Acquired for Each the Same Glory......Page 356
23. For What Cause Camillus Was Expelled from Rome......Page 360
24. The Prolongation of Commands Made Rome Servile......Page 361
25. Of the Poverty of Cincinnatus and of Many Roman Citizens......Page 363
26. How a State Is Ruined Because of Women......Page 365
27. How One Has to Unite a Divided City; and How That Opinion Is Not True That to Hold Cities One Needs to Hold Them Divided......Page 366
28. That One Should Be Mindful of the Works of Citizens Because Many Times underneath a Merciful Work a Beginning of Tyranny Is Concealed......Page 369
29. That the Sins of Peoples Arise from Princes......Page 371
30. For One Citizen Who Wishes to Do Any Good Work in His Republic by His Authority, It Is Necessary First to Eliminate Envy; and How, on Seeing the Enemy, One Has to Order the Defense of a City......Page 373
31. Strong Republics and Excellent Men Retain the Same Spirit and Their Same Dignity in Every Fortune......Page 376
32. What Modes Some Have Held to for Disturbing a Peace......Page 379
33. If One Wishes to Win a Battle, It Is Necessary to Make the Army Confident Both among Themselves and in the Captain......Page 381
34. What Fame or Word or Opinion Makes the People Begin to Favor a Citizen; and Whether It Distributes Magistracies with Greater Prudence Than a Prince......Page 383
35. What Dangers Are Borne in Making Oneself Head in Counseling a Thing; and the More It Has of the Extraordinary, the Greater Are the Dangers Incurred in It......Page 386
36. The Causes Why the French Have Been and Are Still Judged in Fights at the Beginning As More Than Men and Later As Less Than Women......Page 388
37. Whether Small Battles Are Necessary before the Main Battle; and If One Wishes to Avoid Them, What One Ought to Do to Know a New Enemy......Page 390
38. How a Captain in Whom His Army Can Have Confidence Ought to Be Made......Page 393
39. That a Captain Ought to Be a Knower of Sites......Page 395
40. That to Use Fraud in Managing War Is a Glorious Thing......Page 397
41. That the Fatherland Ought to Be Defended, Whether with Ignominy or with Glory; and It Is Well Defended in Any Mode Whatever......Page 398
42. That Promises Made through Force Ought Not to Be Observed......Page 399
43. That Men Who Are Born in One Province Observe Almost the Same Nature for All Times......Page 400
44. One Often Obtains with Impetuosity and Audacity What One Would Never Have Obtained through Ordinary Modes......Page 402
45. What the Better Policy Is in Battles, to Resist the Thrust of Enemies and, Having Resisted It, to Charge Them; or Indeed to Assault Them with Fury from the First......Page 404
46. Whence It Arises That One Family in One City Keeps the Same Customs for a Time......Page 405
47. That a Good Citizen Ought to Forget Private Injuries for Love of His Fatherland......Page 406
48. When One Sees a Great Error Made by an Enemy, One Ought to Believe That There Is a Deception Underneath......Page 407
49. A Republic Has Need of New Acts of Foresight Every Day If One Wishes to Maintain It Free; and for What Merits Quintus Fabius Was Called Maximus......Page 409
Glossary......Page 411
Notes......Page 446
Index of Proper Names......Page 487
