The Prince

Lorenzo de' Medici

Hereditary Prince. Grandson of Lorenzo the magnificent; only having fortune (luck, riches) and opportunity rather than virtue and wisdom.

Louis XII

Ruler of France; Conquered Milan with a powerful army, but lost it b/c he didn't have support from Province (citizens rebelled against him and opened gates to foreign attack)

Romans

held highly by M; had regard for future troubles: PRUDENCE

Louis XII's 5errors

1. Eliminated lesser power (who were weak/had to cling to him)

2. Increased the power of a power in Italy (the church: French don't understand that church X be great)

3. Brought in powerful foreigner (Spain

4. Did not live in province (Italy)

5. Did not send colonies to live there

+deprived Venetians of their state

Cyrus, Romulus, Theseus

Admirable; established empire. Used opportunity. Became Prince through virtue. Were armed and used force when necessary to make ppl stay loyal.

Cyrus: took power in Persia

Romulus: King of Rome

Theseus: took power of Athens

Moses

Admirable; established empire. Used opportunity. Became Prince through virtue. Were armed and used force when necessary to make ppl stay loyal; lead Israelites out of Egypt

M rationalizes Moses and God, simply calling God a teacher ;

Girolamo Savonarola

Ruined in new orders bc he didn't have force/means to make ppl believe in him. Blamed sins of Italy for Italy's ruin; M says real sin is not using force to rule and relying on God for prosperity: FAIL, proving M point (on contrary: Jesus was unarmed prophet who X fail)

Unarmed Prophet

X using force/trying to change minds/norms/world w/words; M warns against this but is this himself (X always right: MLK, Jesus, etc)

Hiero

Ruled Syracuse; private individual who became Prince. Elimated old military, started new one, made friendships/soldiers of his own. Strong foundation. Hard to acquire but little to maintain.

Agathocles

(the Sicilian); became great despite hardships/danger: rose through military ranks and ruled; defended city and attacked Africa. Held city w/violence, danger, and inhumane cruelty; many believed him to be cruel and bad, but to M, was great. Decieved by Cesear Borgia

Oliverotta da Fermo

Gained excellent rank in military; came back w/honorable reputation, held banquet w/important men and killed them all; successfully ruled by fear.

EX of cruelty well-used: at one stroke: taste less and cruel for less time

Good foundation for Prince

Good laws & good arms

Auxiliary arms

Arms of another country. They are all united to obey a country, but not yours.

Pope Julius II

Thrust himself into hands of foreigner: not well thought out. Relied on aux arms (didn't face punishments but most do)

Cesare Borgia

son of Pope Alexander VI that used ruthless measures to achieve his goal of carving a new state in Italy. He abandoned morality for political activity.

Used aux arms, feared safety, used mercenary arms, doubted, own arms; best reputation w/own arms

David and Goliath

David didn't rely on others arms and used own to have best chance at fight; fully relied on God/his arms.

M paints the picture that D didn't rely on God at all and brought in own arms literally (sorta defeats point of story) ch8

A prince should guard against (ch16)

1 being contemptible 2. Being hated (liberality leads to both)

Ch17 Cesare Borgia

Held to be cruel but restored Romagna and brought peace; by cruelty brought mercy

Hannibal

Ch17: famous for united diverse army (religion, race, color, etc); only possible through cruelty

Cruelty v Mercy

Ch17: blamed/ praised works both ways

Why are "the writers" confused?

Ch17 admire action blame cause or blame action and admire cause; moralists/rel. are inconsistent

Scipio

Ch17: armies rebelled against him bc he was so merciful; no force or order "destroyer of Roman military" (better to be feared than loved in this case)

Two kinds of combat (ch18)

Laws (the man) and force (the beast); know how to use both

Chiron (ch18)

Centaur: actual rep of using man and beast; taught princes how to use both

'Fox and the Lion' (Machiavelli)

Fox: sly/deceptiveness (Alexander VI: deceived men)

Lion: force

5 qualities Prince must appear to have? Most important? (Ch18)

My (merciful)

Father (faithful)

Honestly (honest)

Has (humane)

Riches (religion)- most important!

Know how to enter evil and depart from good but appear to have good

Ch18 in what mode faith should be kept by princes

Of avoiding contempt and hatred

Ch19- worst thing to be hated

Hated most by being rapacious of property&women of citizens

Of avoiding contempt and hatred, make people think

There's no way of getting around you (ch72); be excellent and revered by subjects

Ch19 of avoiding contempt and hatred- what are two fears?

Subjects and external powers

Ch19 how to avoid conspiracies? Why do they usually fail?

1. Be liked.

2. Conspirators have a lot to fear; ppl gain more to turn in conspirators rather than join them; fear punishment

Messer Annibale Bentivoglio

Ch19 Prince of Bologna: killed by conspirator

How should princes do anything that might be blamed/deemed bad by others?

Ch19: have someone else do it

What third difficulty did Roman empowers have?

Ch19: had to deal with cruelty of soldiers

Marcus, Pertinax, and Alexander

Ch19 All lovers of justice, enemies of cruelty; came to ruin except Marcus bc he had empire by hereditary rule

Commodus, Severus, Antoninus, Caracalla, and Maximinus

Ch19: cruel and rapacious; all came to bad end except Severus

Severus

Ch19 killed ruler of Rome& deceived other ruler pretending to be ally then killed him. Lion and fox: revered by everyone, not hated, great reputation defended him.

Antoninus Caracalla

Son of Severus; killed so many people and became most hateful to all the world; mean to his bodyguards-> died

Ch19

Commodus

Son of Marcus Aurelius; hereditary right. He was cruel and did not keep dignity. Everyone hated him and he was put to death. Ch19

Maximinus

Hated for his blood and his lack of effort and was killed ch19

Should a prince Satisfy the people or soldiers?

Necessary for princesses to satisfy the people rather than the soldiers EXCEPT the Turks and Sultan; the people can do more than the soldiers except for these two kingdoms

Ch19

In ch19 who does Machiavelli say princes should imitate?

Take from Severus and marcuss ONLY the parts that are necessary, fitting and glorious

Charles VII of France

Used Swiss army w/his; now army doesn't believe they can fight w/o them; mixed arms- works good but not as good as own

Philopoemen ch14

Prince of Achaeans; never thought abt anything other than war, land, attack.

Exercise of the mind.. a Prince should ch14

Find excellent man to imitate who has been praised/glorified

Chapter 15 Things Princes are Praised or Blamed

Have to be willing to give up moral good to be great; learn to not be good.

Vice (leads to wellbeing)>virtue (leads to ruin)

Liberality/Parsimony

Ch16: X be liberal short term bc long term will have to be mean; save now/be stingy to have more later.

Pope Julius II ch16

Was liberal and didn't think abt maintaining it later

Louis XII ch16

Carried on wars w/o taxes only bc he had money from long lasting parsimony

Caesar ch16

Gained empire through liberality bc he was acquiring (Hereditary princes shouldn't be liberal tho)

Used other peoples things to be liberal

Cyrus, Caesar Alexander; ch16