The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

THE P RI NeE Niccolo Machiavelli Translated and with an Introduction by Harvey C. Mansfield Second Edition THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS Chicago and London The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London 10 09 08 07 © 1985, 1998 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Second Edition 1998 Printed ill the Ullited States ofAmerica 7 8 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING -IN-PUBLICATION DATA Machiavelli, Niccolo, 1469-1527. [Principe. English] The prince / Niccolo Machiavelli: translated with an introduction by Harvey C. Mansfield. - 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-226-50043-8 (alk. paper).-ISBN 0-226- 50044-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Political science-Early works to I800. 2. Politi cal ethics -Early works to 1800. l. Title. ]CI43·M38 I998 320.1-dc2I 9�-5772 CIP @ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992 Contents Introduction A Note on the Translation Chronology Map The Prince vii xxv xxix xxxii Dedicatory Letter 3 I. How Many Are the Kinds of Principalities and in What Modes They Are Acquired 5 II. Of Hereditary Principalities 6 1fI. Of Mixed Principalities 7 IV. Why the Kingdom of Darius Which Alexander Seized Did Not Rebel from His Successors after Alexander's Death 16 V. How Cities or Principalities Which Lived by Their Own Laws before They Were Occupied Should Be Administered 20 VI. Of New Principalities That Are Acquired through One's Own Arms and Virtue 21 VII Of New Principalities That Are Acquired by Others' Arms and Fortune 25 VIII. Of Those Who Have Attained a Principality through Crimes 34 I X Of the Civil Principality 38 v X. In What Mode the Forces of All Principalities Should Be Measured 42 XI. Of Ecclesiastical Principalities 45 XII. How Many Kinds of Military There Are and Concerning Mercenary Soldiers 48 XIII. Of Auxiliary, Mixed, and One's Own Soldiers 54 XlV. What a Prince Should Do Regarding the Military 58 XV. Of Those Things for Which Men and Especially Princes Are Praised or Blamed 61 XVI. Of Liberality and Parsimony 62 XVII. Of Cruelty and Mercy, and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than Feared, or the Contrary 65 XVIII. In What Mode Faith Should Be Kept by Princes 68 XIX. Of Avoiding Contempt and Hatred 71 XX. Whether Fortresses and Many Other Things Which Are Made and Done by Princes Every Day Are Useful or Useless 8 3 XXI. What a Prince Should Do to Be Held in Esteem 87 XXII. Of Those Whom Princes Have as Secretaries 92 XXIII. In What Mode Flatterers Are to Be Avoided 93 XXIV. Why the Princes of Italy Have Lost Their States 96 XXv. How Much Fortune Can Do in Human Affairs, and in What Mode It May Be Opposed 98 XXVI. Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians 101 Appendix Machiavelli's Letter of December 10, 15 I 3 107 Glossary 113 Bibliography 141 Index of Proper Names 145 vi Introduction Anyone who picks up Machiavelli's The Prince holds in his hands the most famous book on politics ever written. Its closest rival might be Plato's Republic, but that book dis cusses politics in the context of things above politics, and politics turns out to have a limited and subordinate place. In The Prince Machiavelli also discusses politics in relation to things outside politics, as we shall see, but his conclusion is very different. Politics according to him is not limited by things above it, and things normally taken to be outside politics-the "givens" in any political situation-turn out to be much more under the control of politics than politi cians, peoples, and philosophers have hitherto assumed. Machiavelli's The Prince, then, is the most famous book on politics when politics is thought to be carried on for its own sake, unlimited by anything above it. The renown of The Prince is precisely to have been the first and the best book to argue that politics has and should have its own rules and should not accept rules of any kind or from any source where the object is not to win or prevail over others. The Prince is briefer and pithier than Machiavelli's other major work, Discourses on Livy, for The Prince is addressed to Lo renzo de' Medici, a prince like the busy executive of our day who has little time for reading. So The Prince with its political advice to an active politician that politics should not be limited by anything not political, is by far more famous than the Discourses on Livy. We cannot, however, agree that The Prince is the most famous book on politics without immediately correcting this to say that it is the most infamous. It is famous for its infamy, for recommending the kind of politics that ever since has been called Machiavellian. The essence of this politics is that "you can get away with murder": that no divine sanction, or degradation of soul, or twinge of con science will come to punish you. If you succeed, you will Vll 1111\ l'V 'II have to face the infamy of murder, because when "11It'1l acquire who can acquire, they will be praised or not blamed" (Chapter 3). Those criminals who are infamous have merely been on the losing side. Machiavelli and Machi avellian politics are famous or infamous for their willing ness to brave infamy. Yet it must be reported that the prevailing view among scholars of Machiavelli is that he was not an evil man who taught evil doctrines, and that he does not deserve his infamy. With a view to his preference for republics over principalities (more evident in Discourses on Livy than in The Prince, but not absent in the latter) , they cannot believe he was an apologist for tyranny; or, impressed by the sud den burst of Italian patriotism in the last chapter of The