Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~140,000 words · 681 passages
Cite this work
- APAMachiavelli. (n.d.). Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/machiavelli/discourses-on-the-first-decade-of-titus-livius
- MLAMachiavelli. Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/machiavelli/discourses-on-the-first-decade-of-titus-livius.
- ChicagoMachiavelli. Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/machiavelli/discourses-on-the-first-decade-of-titus-livius.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Machiavelli's long book, and his republican one: a commentary on Livy's history of Rome that turns into a theory of how republics are born, endure and die.
Context and history
Anyone who knows only 'The Prince' will be surprised. Here Machiavelli argues that the best government is mixed and popular, that a mistaken people is less dangerous than a mistaken prince, and — what scandalised most — that the conflicts between plebs and senate did not weaken Rome but made her free: discord well channelled is an institutional engine, not a disease. There is also the theory of corruption and of returning to first principles, and the distrust of mercenary troops. The 'Discourses' and 'The Prince' were written at almost the same time and contradict each other less than it appears; reading them together is how one sees that Machiavelli was not proposing a morality but describing a mechanism.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
and to plant themselves in more fertile regions; where, the fruitfulness of the soil enabling them to increase and multiply, they may defend themselves against any who attack them, and overthrow any who would withstand their power. And as for that languor which the situation might breed, care must be had that hardships which the site does not enforce, shall be enforced by the laws; and that the example of those wise nations be imitated, who, inhabiting most fruitful and delightful countries, and such as were likely to rear a listless and effeminate race, unfit for all manly exercises, in order to obviate the mischief wrought by the amenity and relaxing influence of the soil and climate, subjected all who were to serve as soldiers to the severest training; whence it came that better soldiers were raised in these countries than in others by nature rugged and barren. Such, of old, was the kingdom of the Egyptians, which, though of all lands the most bountiful, yet, by the severe training which its laws enforced, produced most valiant soldiers, who, had their names not been lost in antiquity, might be thought to deserve more praise than Alexander the Great and many besides, whose memory is still fresh in men’s minds. And even in recent times, any one contemplating the kingdom of the Soldan, and the military order of the Mamelukes before they were destroyed by Selim the Grand Turk, must have seen how carefully they trained their soldiers in every kind of warlike exercise; showing thereby how much they dreaded that indolence to which their genial soil and climate might have disposed them, unless neutralized by strenuous laws. I say, then, that it is a prudent choice to found your city in a fertile region when the effects of that fertility are duly balanced by the restraint of the laws.…