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In this article, Pocock analyzed Machiavelli's focus on armed militancy in the Discorsi as a recourse for temporal stability in polities subject to the whims of fortuna. In Pocock's estimation, "Polybius was the most representative among the ancients and Machiavelli--the Machiavelli of the Discourses--among the moderns."
In fact, though, Machiavelli had probably not read the first books of the Annals at that time—they were published after The Prince. In his work focused mainly on republicanism, Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy, Machiavelli returned to Bruni's republican perspective on Tacitus. Four overt references appear in the work.
Machiavelli emphasizes that a ruler must be able to do evil, because to maintain political power you will have to overcome your enemies who are also wicked. Machiavelli uses the example of the ancient Greek tyrant Agathocles, who had the entire elite of Syracuse killed in order to seize control of the government. Machiavelli says that this is a ...
Niccolo's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli is a translation of Machiavelli's diaries and memoirs by Maurizio Viroli, a scholar from the University of Bologna, Italy, and Princeton University. Published in 1998 using Machiavelli's original source materials, the author recreates his biography.
Machiavelli was apparently a materialist who objected to explanations involving formal and final causation, or teleology. Machiavelli's promotion of ambition among leaders while denying any higher standard meant that he encouraged risk-taking, and innovation, most famously the founding of new modes and orders.
Machiavelli then goes into how a founder of a republic must "act alone" and gain absolute power to form a lasting regime. He cites Romulus's murder of his own brother Remus and co-ruler Titus Tatius in order to gain power. Machiavelli then excuses Romulus for his crimes, [5] saying he acted for the common good in bringing "civil life" in Rome's ...
Scipione Ammirato, was highly critical of Machiavelli's Florentine Histories; he said that Machiavelli «altered names, twisted facts, confounded cases, increased, added, subtracted, diminished and did anything that suited his fancy without checking, without lawful restraint and what is more, he seems to have done so occasionally on purpose!» [2]
Thoughts on Machiavelli is a book by Leo Strauss first published in 1958. The book is a collection of lectures he gave at the University of Chicago in which he dissects the work of Niccolò Machiavelli. The book contains commentary on Machiavelli's The Prince and the Discourses on Livy. [1]