Discourses on Livy

Contents

1. Dedication: To Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai 3 min 5

   Machiavelli dedicates the Discourses to two young friends of the Orti Oricellari circle, Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai, who urged him to write them. Calling the book the sum of his experience and study, he says he has broken with the custom of flattering princes in dedications and chosen instead men who deserve to rule though they lack the power, as historians praise Hiero in private life above the king Perseus. He promises to continue the work if they find it worthwhile.

2. I.1–10 Book I, Preface and Chapters 1–10 1 h 24 min 28

   The Preface urges readers to imitate ancient political virtue, not merely admire it. Chapters 1–3 treat the founding of cities, the six forms of government and their cycle, and Rome’s mixed constitution, completed by the tribunes after the Tarquins fell. Chapters 4–6 make the famous claim that conflict between nobles and people made Rome free and powerful, and weigh Rome’s expansionist popular republic against Sparta and Venice. Chapters 7–8 praise public accusation and condemn calumny, with Coriolanus, Manlius and Florentine examples. Chapters 9–10 argue that founders must act alone, excuse Romulus, and contrast the glory of founders with the infamy of Caesar and tyrants.

3. I.11–30 Book I, Chapters 11–30 1 h 34 min 31

   Chapters 11–15 treat Roman religion as a foundation of order: Numa’s feigned nymph, the Church’s responsibility for Italy’s irreligion and division, and the political use of auspices and oaths by Romans and Samnites. Chapters 16–18 ask how a people used to princes, or corrupted, can keep freedom, concluding that corruption rooted in inequality needs extraordinary, near-princely remedies. Chapters 19–21 compare successions of strong and weak kings and demand citizen armies. Chapters 22–27 draw lessons from the Horatii, defiles, rewards and punishments, preserving old forms, and Baglioni’s failure of nerve. Chapters 28–30 compare the ingratitude of peoples and princes.

4. I.31–45 Book I, Chapters 31–45 1 h 10 min 17

   Machiavelli turns to Rome’s emergency institutions and their abuse. The dictatorship, granted by law for a short term and a single crisis, never harmed Rome; the danger lies in power usurped or prolonged. The decemvirate shows the opposite case: unlimited power given for a long term, which Appius Claudius turned into tyranny until the murder of Verginia and the plebs’ secession ended it. Along the way he treats the agrarian law and the Gracchi, mercenaries and citizen soldiers, how irresolute republics fail (Florence before Borgia and the French), temporizing with rising citizens like Cosimo de’ Medici, and Savonarola’s broken law of appeal.

5. I.46–60 Book I, Chapters 46–60 1 h 17 min 20

   These chapters weigh the judgment of the people. Machiavelli argues that men err in generalities but judge well in particulars, as the Roman plebs did in electing patricians and the Capuans did under Pacuvius Calavius. He treats censors, Venetian and Florentine courts, offices that can paralyse a state, and how to forestall ambitious citizens like Soderini’s enemies. Chapter 55 makes equality the condition of a republic and landed “gentlemen” its enemies. He ends with the famous claim that a people bound by laws is wiser and more constant than a prince, and that republics keep faith better.

6. II.1–10 Book II, Preface and Chapters 1–10 1 h 22 min 19

   Book II turns from Rome’s internal order to its empire. After a preface on why men praise the past, Machiavelli credits Roman expansion to virtue and institutions rather than fortune. Free peoples resisted Rome fiercely, he argues, because liberty brings population and wealth, and Christianity as now interpreted has weakened that love of freedom. Rome grew by admitting strangers, by alliances it led, and by colonies, short decisive wars and plunder. He discusses leagues like the Etruscans’ and the Swiss, how religions and floods erase memory, mass migrations, pretexts for war, and why good soldiers, not money, are the sinews of war.

7. II.11–20 Book II, Chapters 11–20 1 h 20 min 14

   Machiavelli turns from Rome’s methods of expansion to the conduct of war. Alliances with distant or weak powers give reputation rather than help; an armed people should await invasion at home, an unarmed one should keep war far away. Men rise by fraud more than force, and Rome’s “companions” were subjects in disguise. Humility only feeds an enemy’s pride, and weak states decide too late. Using the Latin War, he describes the Roman legion, argues that artillery helps attackers and cannot save cowardly armies, and holds infantry above cavalry. Badly governed conquests ruin the conqueror, and auxiliary troops are the most dangerous of all.

8. II.21–33 Book II, Chapters 21–33 1 h 30 min 13

   Rome ruled conquered Italians lightly, sending officials only when asked, and so won willing obedience. Men misjudge great matters, as Leo X’s advisers did in 1515. Rome either crushed or generously enfranchised the Latins, avoiding the half-measures Florence used at Arezzo. Fortresses do more harm than good. Divided cities unite when attacked; taunts provoke revenge; victors should accept peace when offered; unpunished wrongs, like the Fabii’s, bring disaster. Fortune blinded Rome before the Gauls, yet strong states buy no friendships with money and guard their heart, not their frontiers. Exiles cannot be trusted. Rome took towns mainly by battle in the field, and gave its consuls full powers.

9. III.1–6 Book III, Chapters 1–6 1 h 21 min 24

   Book III opens with the doctrine that states and religious orders survive only by being brought back to their first principles, through outside shocks, institutions such as the tribunes and censors, exemplary punishments, or virtuous men; Francis and Dominic renewed the Church, and the Parlement renews France. Brutus feigned folly, then executed his own sons: a new free state must destroy its enemies, as Soderini failed to do. Usurpers fall to those they dispossess, and Tarquin fell by breaking the old laws. The long chapter on conspiracies analyses their causes and the dangers before, during and after the deed, with ancient and Italian examples.

10. III.7–20 Book III, Chapters 7–20 1 h 14 min 19

    Machiavelli explains why some revolutions are bloodless, then shows through Spurius Cassius and Manlius Capitolinus that would-be tyrants fail where the people are uncorrupted. Success depends on fitting one’s methods to the times, which a republic, with its many kinds of citizens, does better than a prince. A run of military chapters follows: no captain can avoid battle if the enemy insists; a lone power can divide a coalition; necessity makes soldiers fight; command should not be divided. He then asks why republics neglect able men in peacetime, why wronged citizens should not be given commands, and whether severity or kindness governs better, ending with Camillus at Falerii.

11. III.21–35 Book III, Chapters 21–35 1 h 25 min 22

    Hannibal and Scipio, Manlius Torquatus and Valerius Corvinus reach the same ends by opposite means; Machiavelli prefers Manlian severity in a republican citizen, since popularity breeds partisans. He traces Camillus’s exile to the loss of plunder, and Rome’s fall to the agrarian laws and prolonged commands. Chapters follow on the poverty of Cincinnatus, women and civil discord, the folly of ruling cities through factions, Spurius Maelius and the danger of private benefactions, and princes as the cause of their peoples’ crimes. Envy must be overcome, as Moses did and Soderini could not; true greatness is unchanged by fortune; and counsellors risk ruin by urging new measures.

12. III.36–49 Book III, Chapters 36–49 49 min 15

    The last chapters are mostly military: why Gauls fade after their first onset, whether to begin with skirmishes, what makes a trusted captain, the value of hunting for knowing ground, and why fraud is fair in war but perfidy is not. The Caudine Forks give rise to the claim that one’s country must be saved by any means, and that promises made under duress need not be kept. Machiavelli then argues that nations keep their character, praises boldness, compares Decius and Fabius at Sentinum, and explains family traits by upbringing. The book ends with Roman punishments and Fabius’s reform of the tribes.