hist - Machiavelli

political value of faith

one of the chief causes of the prosperity of Rome

Smitten with religious awe

religion as essential for the maintenance of civil society

owed a greater debt to numa than to romulus

[numa claimed to have had sex with a nymph] by whose advice he was guided in counselling the people

military value of faith

[Scipio made deserters] swear never to abandon their country

[commanders found in the oracles] that Veii should fall that year in which the Aban lake overflowed

[soldiers motivated because they saw the statue of Juno] incline[] her head in assent

contemporary papacy - dissent

temporal authority kept [italy] divided

weak and irreligious

tumults and discords

contemporary papacy - weak leadership

[julius ii entered perugia] unattended by troops

ordained by the Almighty for the destruction of the world

how little those who live and reign as they do are to be esteemed

inherent flaws of christianity - effeminacy and weakness

[nothing] keeping good men good, [nor] putting bad men to shame

[christianity] seems to have made the world feebler

born and raised without shame ... unaccustomed to any honourable obedience

faith in eternal life and salvation of the soul, ... little account of worldly glory

inherent flaws of christianity - ozio, idleness

so small a brain that he will believe, if his house is falling, that God will save it without any other prop

inherent flaws of christianity - moral autopilot

to observe them is injurious, and that to appear to have them is useful

M and humanism - didacticism

read history, and turn to profit the lessons of the past

carefully examines past events ... apply such remedies as the ancients have

M and humanism - past > present

[need to] persuade an italian [of superior of roman military strategy]

[lucullus triumphant even with] very scanty force of foot-soldiers

M and humanism - classical writers

Titus Livius could not have expressed himself in apter words

golden sentence of cornelius tacitus

WTBS dedicated discourses to is peers rather than livy

M and humanism - uprbinging

studia humanitatis

[father proud that] Niccolò is now writing Latin compositions of his own

M and humanism - new approach

I enter on a path which, being hitherto untrodden

humanist/livian virtus

humana-virtus

livy - justice and piety

M's 'virtu'

[necessity to] vary his conduct as the winds of fortune [change]

adapt [...] to the diversity of times

know how to do wrong

humanist/livian fortuna

the might of Fortune is immense

the greatest good Fortune is always least to be trusted

fortuna is a woman

M's fortuna

fortune is the arbiter of half our actions, but that it lets us control roughly the other half

less cautious, more violent, and with more audacity

it is necessary to beat and ill-use her

M's criticism of humanist passivity

Our Italian princes believed [it is enough] to write a beautiful letter

[leaves them] prey of whoever assaulted them

political/military context of florence

calamita d'italia

1494 - french charles viii invades italy

1500-1502 - "sad story" years of Florence, 'defeats, retreats, appeasement, and humiliation'

1494 - fall of medici

1512 - fall of soderini

M's personal military experience

1498 - M becomes second chancellor of the florentine republic, ten of war, foreign diplomat

'the french call you mr nothing'

1506 - M trains and recruits native florentine army

emphasis on infantry

ten thousand foot-soldiers could ... not merely attack, but defeat ... ten thousand cavalry

very scanty force of foot-soldiers, Lucullus routed a hundred and fifty thousand of the cavalry of Tigranes

[it would be difficult to] persuade an italian

aversion to mercenary armies

dangers incurred by Princes or Republics who resort to Auxiliary or Mercenary Arms

auxiliaries are the most pernicious

necessity of warfare for republicanism

there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed

age of literary excellence is subsequent to that of distinction in arms

a right and a necessary course