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. V.

How a King may lose his Kingdom, though he comes to it by inheritance.

TArquinius Superbus seemed to have secure possession of the Kingdom upon the death of Servius Tullius, who dying without heirs, left him nothing of that trouble and vexa∣tion which his Predecessors encountred. For although the way by which he came to the Government was irregular and abominable; nevertheless had he followed the steps of his Predecessors, and observed their old rules, he would not have run himself so fatally in to the displeasure of the Senate and People, nor have provoked them to have been so di∣ligent in his expulsion. Nor is it to be believed that his Son Sextus his deflowring of Lucretia was the chief cause that he lost his Kingdom, but his infraction of the Laws, his tyranny, his usurpation upon the Senate, and his ingrossing all authority to himself: for he had brought things to that pass, that those affairs which were formerly debated pub∣lickly by the Senate, and according to their sentiment and order were put in execution, were now transacted and determined privately in his own Palace, with great dissatisfaction and offence; so that in a short time Rome was deprived of the liberty which it injoyed under other Kings: nor was it enough for him to disoblige the Senate, but he run himself into the odium of the people, harassing them out by mechanick and servile imployments to which they had never been used in the days of his Predecessors; by which cruel and in∣solent actions he had so incensed and inflamed the minds of the Romans against him, that they were ready for rebellion the first opportunity that offered it self; and if that accident had not hapned to Lucretia, as soon as any other had fallen out, it would have had the same effect. And if Tarquin had governed, and lived according to the example of his Ance∣stors, and his Son Sextus had committed that error, Brutus and Collatinus would have ad∣dressed themselves to Tarquin (and not to the people of Rome) for justice against his Son. Let Princes therefore observe that they begin to ruine their own dignity and power, when

they first go about to transgress and violate the old Laws and Customs of their Ancestors: and if after they are removed, and dispossessed of their authority, they should grow so wise as to understand the felicity of governing a Kingdom with good Counsel, their loss would be more insupportable, and they would condemn themselves to a greater pu∣nishment than any body else would condemn them; for 'tis easier to be beloved by good people, than bad, and to obey Laws, than to command them; and to understand the way by which this is to be done, they have no more to do, but to observe the lives of good Prin∣ces, as Timoleon the Corinthian, Aratus Sicionius and others, in which they will find so much ease and security to him that governs, and them that are governed, that they will be tempted to imitate them, if for nothing but the easiness of it. For when men are governed well, they desire no other liberty; as it hapned to the people who were governed by the two persons above named, whom they compelled to continue their Princes whilst they lived, though they endeavoured several times to have laid down, and betaken themselves to a private condition. And because in this and the two precedent Chapters, we have dis∣coursed of the hatred contracted against Princes, and the Conspiracy of the Sons of Bru∣tus against the State, and others against Tarquinius Priscus, and Servius Tullius, I think it not amiss to speak of Conspiracies more largely in my next Chapter, as being a subject well worth the observation both of Princes and private Persons.