The works of the famous Nicholas Machiavel, citizen and secretary of Florence written originally in Italian, and from thence newly and faithfully translated into English.

CHAP. II.

With what Nations the Romans contended, and with what obstinancy those Nations resisted.

NOthing made it so difficult for the Romans to conquer their Neighbours, and some other remoter Provinces, as the love which the people of those times did bear to their liberty: for in defence of that, they were so indefatigably studious, that nothing but singular and extraordinary virtue could have subdued them: and this is demonstrable by the many and great dangers to which they exposed themselves, sometimes to preserve, and sometimes to recover it; as also by the severity of their revenge upon those who had usurp'd it. 'Tis evident likewise in History what detriment the People and Cities have suffered whilst they were in servitude and subjection; and whereas now a-days there is but one Province which can boast of free Cities, in ancient times there was not one Province but had plenty. In Italy from the Alps (which divide Tuscany and Lombardy) to the ex∣tremest part of that Country, there were many free States; as the Tuscans, the Romans, the Samnites, and others; nor is there mention of any King (but what reigned in Rome) besides Porsena King of Tuscany, the extinction of whose Line, though not set down in History, yet it is manifest that Tuscany was free at the time when the Romans encamped before Veii; so well satisfied with their liberty, and so abhorring from the very name of a King, that the Veientes having for their better defence created one in their own Town, and sent to the Tuscans to implore their assistance against the Romans, after a grave and solemn debate, it was resolved, no assistance should be sent whilst they were under the dominion of a King; as thinking it unfit to engage in the defence of a Country that had betraid it self, and prostituted to the dominion of a single person. Nor is this universal af∣fection to liberty so wonderful in the people.

Experience tells us, that no Cities have augmented their Revenues, or enlarged their Territories, but whilst they were free and at liberty: and certainly 'tis a prodigious thing to consider to what height and grandeur in an hundred years time the City of Athens ar∣rived, after it had freed it self from the tyranny of Pisistrates; but much more to consider the greatness of Rome upon the expulsion of her Kings; and the reason of all is, because in Common-wealths private wealth and emolument is not so much aim'd at as the im∣provement of the publick; nor is there any where so much care of the publick as in free States, where what-ever is equitable, and for the common advantage, is decreed and execu∣ted, without respect to particular persons, who may perhaps be sufferers thereby; whereas in Cities that are governed by a Prince it falls out quite contrary; for there, what makes commonly for the advantage of the Prince, is prejudice to the publick: so that when a free-State degenerates into a Tyranny, the least mischief that it can expect, is, to make no further advancement in its Empire; and no farther encrease either in riches or power; but for the most part it goes backward, and declines: and if it should so happen that the Tyrant should be a virtuous man, and one who by his courage and military discipline should enlarge his Dominions; yet what-ever he took would be converted to his own private use, without any benefit to the publick. For he dares not advance any of those Citizens (how worthy and honest soever) left he should have occasion to suspect them afterwards. Nor can he make those Cities which he subdues, dependant or tributary to that where he is absolute; for 'tis not the interest of a Tyrant to make his Subjects powerful or united; but to keep them low, and divided, that every Town, every Province may depend wholly upon himself; so that the Conquests of an Usurper may turn to his own profit, but never to the publick; to which purpose many things are very handsomely written by Xenophon in his Treatise of Tyranny; and things being thus, no body is to admire if our Ancestors had so great a zeal for their liberty; and the very name of a Tyrant was so odious to them, that when long since news was brought to the Army of the assassination of Hieronymo the Nephew of Hiero of Syracuse, and the whole Camp was in an uproar against the Conspira∣tors; yet when it was told them that they had proclaimed Liberty, and a free Government, they laid by their indignation against the Tyrannicids, and being pacified with the very name of Liberty, fell into consultation how it was to be preserved. Nor is it to be won∣dred at then, if their revenge be so violent and extraordinary upon those who would violate it; of which, though there be many examples, I shall instance only in one, but that most remarkable and horrid; and hapning in Corcirca a City in Greece: for all Greece be∣ing divided, and consisting of two Factions, one of them under the protection of the Athe∣nians,

and the other of the Spartans; and in Corcirca the Nobility prevailing, and ha∣ving usurped upon the liberty of the people, it hapned that the people being reinforced by the assistance of the Athenians, overpowred the Nobility, and conquered them again. Ha∣ving restored their liberty, and shaked off their servitude, they clap'd up all the Nobility in a large prison, and bringing them forth by ten at a time, as if they were to be banished, they put them to death with most exquisite torments; which severity coming by degrees to the ears of the remainder, they resolved to do what was possible to defend themselves against it, upon which they stood upon their guard, and would suffer none of the Officers to come in; whereupon, in a great fury, the people ran thither, pull'd off the covering of the house where they were, and throwing down the walls, buried them all in the ruines: and of this sort of cruelty there were many other examples in that Province; for the people are usually more impetuous in revenging the loss of their Liberty, than in defen∣ding it.

But it may (not unfitly) be admir'd in this place what should be the cause that the anci∣ents should be more zealous for publick liberty than we in our days: if my opinion may pass, I think it is for the same reason, that in those times men were more robust, and stron∣ger than now; which proceedeth much from the diversity betwixt their Education, their Religion and ours: for whereas our Religion gives us a just prospect and contemplation of things, and teaches us to despise the magnificence and pomp of the World; the Ethnicks valued them so highly, and believing them their chiefest happiness, it made them more fierce and busie to defend them, and this may be collected from several of their customs; for if the sacrifices in their days be compared with the sacrifices in ours, theirs will be found magnificent and horrid; ours delicate and neat, but neither so magnificent nor cruel. They wanted not pomp nor formality in those ceremonies, and yet to make them the more venerable and solemn, they added blood and slaughter to them, offering up infinite numbers of beasts, which being slain before the people, made them more hard-hearted and cruel. Moreover the Religion of the Gentiles did not place their beatitude any where but upon such as were full of worldly glory, and had done some great action for the benefit of their Country. In our Religion the meek and humble, and such as devote themselves to the contemplation of divine things, are esteemed more happy than the greatest Tyrant, and the greatest Conquerer upon Earth; and the summum bonum, which the others placed in the greatness of the mind, the strength of the body, and what-ever else contributed to make men active, we have determined to consist in humility, abjection, and contempt of the World; and if our Religion requires any fortitude, it is rather to enable us to suffer than to act. So that it seems to me, this way of living, so contrary to the ancients; has rendred the Christians more weak and effeminate; and left them as a prey to those who are more wicked, and may order them as they please, the most part of them thinking more of Paradise than Preferment, and of enduring than revenging of injuries; as if Heaven was to be won rather by idleness than arms: but that explication of our Religion is erro∣neous, and they who made it were poor and pusillanimous, and more given to their case than any thing that was great: for if the Christian Religion allows us to defend and exalt our Country, it allows us certainly to love it, and honour it, and prepare our selves so as we may be able to defend it. But that lazy and unactive way of education, and interpreting things falsly has been the cause that there are not so many Commonwealths as formerly in the World, nor so many Lovers and Champions for their Liberty: and yet I believe the greatness of the Roman Empire contributed something, by reducing all the free States and Republicks under their Dominion.

Nevertheless when that great Empire was broken and dissolved, very few of those poor States could recover their liberty: but when it began first to encrease and extend it self, no Country was without them, and where-ever the Romans carried their Arms, they found little Commonwealths banding and confederating against them, and defending their li∣berties with all imaginable constancy; which shews that the Romans were a people of more than ordinary courage, or they could never have subdued them. The Samnites alone will be example sufficient, who (as Livy reports) were so powerful, and so hearty defenders of their liberty, that for 46 years together they maintained War with the Romans; and though they had received many losses, and such devastations had been committed in their Country, yet they could never be wholly reduc'd before the Consulship of Papyrius Cursor, the Son of the first Papyrius. But 'tis a spectacle worthy of any mans pity, to see a Country so full (formerly) of brave Cities, and brave men, and all of them free; now desolate and uninhabited, and scarce any body left; to which condition it could have never been re∣duced but by the discipline, and diligence, and courage of the Romans: but all this pro∣ceeded from diversity of Constitution, for all Cities and free States whatsoever, encrease not

only in riches and authority, but in the numbers of their men: for who is it that had not rather procreate and have children where he may marry and enrich himself freely, than where there is danger that what he gets painfully, and lays up carefully for his children, may be ravished from them by a Tyrant.

In a free State you may be sure your children shall be no slaves, and that if they behave themselves virtuously, they shall be sure of preferment, and perhaps come to be Princes; riches encrease there faster, and that not only by tillage and agriculture, but by traffick and arts; and people do naturally throng to those places where they may get what they law∣fully can, and keep securely what they have got. The quite contrary happens in Coun∣tries that are servile, and their condition is worse, as their servitude is greater: but there is no servitude so severe as to depend upon a Commonwealth, and that for two reasons; first because it is more durable, and less hopes of recovering their liberty; and secondly, because it is the practise of all Commonwealths to impoverish and weaken what-ever they conquer, to fortifie themselves; which with Princes is not the way, unless they be very bar∣barous indeed, and like the Eastern Princes, who not only ruine whole Countries, but destroy all human conversation: but where Princes are well instituted, they know better things, and do many times indulge their new Conquests as much as their own Territories, leaving them the exercise of their Arts, and the enjoyment of their Laws; so that though they cannot encrease their wealth as where they are free; yet they are not so subject to be ruined as where they are slaves: I speak now of servitude to a foreign Prince, for the usurpation of a Citizen I have spoken before. All which being considered, no wonder if the Samnites whilst they enjoyed their liberty were so couragious and strong, and when it was once lost grew so abject and contemptible. Titus Livius tells us in his History of the Punick War, that the Samnites were so overlaid and cowed by one single Legion of the Romans at Nola, that they sent Embassadors to Hanibal to beg his assistance, and that the said Am∣bassadors in their Oration to Hanibal, the better to move his compassion, had this expres∣sion, We are the People who for an hundred years together waged War with the Romans with our own private Forces, and bore up many times against two Armies and two Consuls at once; but now our misery is so great, and our spirits so low, we are unable to defend our selves against one pitiful Legion.