The essential writings of Machiavelli (46 page)

When night came and the turmoil stopped, the duke felt that the time had come to kill Vitellozzo and Liverotto. He had them taken to a place together and strangled. Neither of them uttered any words worthy of their previous life: Vitellozzo begged that he might throw himself on the pope’s mercy and plead for a full indulgence for his sins, while Liverotto, weeping, heaped all the blame for the harm done to Duke Valentino on Vitellozzo. The duke left Paolo Orsini and Duke Orsini of Gravina alive until he heard from Rome that the pope
³¹
had seized Cardinal Orsino, Archbishop of Florence, and Messer Iacopo da Santa Croce. At this news, on the eighteenth of January, 1502, they too were strangled in the same fashion at the Castle of Pieve.

20.
The first Italian publication of this piece in Rome in 1533 was titled
Il modo che tenne il duca Valentino per ammazar Vitellozo, Oliverotto da Fermo, il signor Pagolo et il duca di Gravina Orsini in Senigaglia
(The manner in which Duke Valentino killed Vitellozzo, Oliverotto da Fermo, Signor Pagolo, and Duke Orsini of Gravina in Senigaglia).

21.
Cesare Borgia.

22.
Cesare Borgia had played a key role in inciting Arezzo and Valdichiana to rebel against Florentine rule. (Borgia was expanding his territories and had his sights set on Tuscany.) Both Florence and Borgia were, however, dependent on the King of France, who, displeased at Borgia’s involvement in Florentine interests, had summoned him to France to explain himself. See “On How to Treat the Populace of Valdichiana After Their Rebellion” above.

23.
Giovanni Bentivogli (1443–1508) had been Gonfalonier of Bologna until Pope Paolo II made him chief senator for life in 1466. Pope Julius II, however, excommunicated and ousted him from Bologna in 1506.

24.
The Vitelli family were the lords of Città di Castello, a town east of Arezzo, and the Orsini were a powerful Roman family.

25.
The place of the meeting, the castle of La Magione, belonged to the Cardinal Giambattista Orsini.

26.
Cardinal Giambattista Orsini had been one of the cardinals who had voted for the election of Pope Alexander VI, Duke Valentino’s father. Paolo Orsini, Francesco Orsini (the Duke of Gravina), and Liverotto da Fermo had been mercenary generals in the service of Duke Valentino. Giampaolo Baglioni had been Lord of Perugia until he was ousted by Cesare Borgia in 1502. Antonio da Venafro was a professor at the University of Siena.

27.
Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro had been ousted by Cesare Borgia in 1502.

28.
Cesare Borgia and Giovanni Bentivoglio agreed to the future marriage of Costanzo, Giovanni’s nephew, with Angela Borgia-Lanzol, Borgia’s niece. The wedding, however, never took place.

29.
The Comte de Candale had married Anne d’Albret, the sister of Cesare Borgia’s wife, Charlotte d’Albret.

30.
Don Michele, also known as Don Michelotto, was a mercenary and Cesare Borgia’s feared henchman. Monsignor d’Elna, Francisco Galceran de Llori i de Borja, was a cousin of Cesare Borgia.

31.
Pope Alexander VI, Duke Valentino’s father.

D
ISCOURSE ON THE
A
FFAIRS OF
G
ERMANY AND
I
TS
E
MPEROR

In 1509, Gianvittorio Soderini and Piero Guicciardini sought Machiavelli’s advice on the German emperor Maximilian, the Holy Roman Emperor, and his court before setting out from Florence on a diplomatic mission. To oppose Venice, Maximilian had entered into the League of Cambrai with France, Spain, and the pope in 1508. Now Venice had been defeated, and the powers were in negotiations about how to proceed
.

—

When I returned from Germany last year [1508], I wrote a few things about the emperor of Germany and am not quite sure what else to add: so I shall say only some things about his character. The emperor is a spendthrift without equal, either in our times or in times past. Consequently he is always short of funds, and no sum of money can ever be sufficient, regardless of his situation or fortune. He is changeable: One day he will want something, the next day not. He confers with no one, but believes everyone. He wants all the things he cannot have, but turns his back on anything he can have. Therefore, he invariably reaches contradictory decisions. But he is also a man of military acumen: He keeps his army in excellent order, commands it with justice and discipline, bears fatigue as well as the most indefatigable man, and faces danger with courage, so that as commander he is second to none. He is forthcoming in the audiences that he grants, but will grant them only at his own initiative—nor does he like applications from ambassadors, unless he himself calls them into his presence. He is very secretive. He is in continuous agitation of body and mind, but will often undo in the evening what he has done in the morning. This makes legations to him difficult, because the most important duty of the envoy, whether sent by a prince or a republic, is to conjecture the future through negotiations and incidents. After all, the envoy who conjectures wisely and conveys his conjectures well to his government will assure his government the advantage, allowing it to take measures at an appropriate time. When the envoy conjectures well, this honors the envoy and his government, but if he conjectures badly he and his government are dishonored. To give you a better example, imagine yourself at a point where either going to war or negotiating is on the table. If you want to perform your duty well, you will have to say that existing opinion favors war as much as it does negotiation. War must be measured by the available forces, money, quality of government, and Fortune. And the side that has most of these is likely to be victorious. After evaluating who might be victorious, the ambassador must make his evaluation understood at home, so that he and his state can better deliberate.

There will now be several negotiations: those between the Venetians and the emperor, those between the emperor and France, those between the emperor and the pope, and those between the emperor and you. When it comes to your negotiations, you ought to have no difficulty making the right conjecture and weighing what the emperor’s intentions are, what he really wants, which way his mind is turning, and what might make him move ahead or draw back. Once you have figured this out, you must judge whether it will be more to your advantage to be decisive or to play for time. It will be up to you to reach these decisions within the limits of your mission.

A C
AUTION TO THE
M
EDICI

In 1512 the Medici returned to power in Florence, ousting and exiling Piero Soderini, who had been Machiavelli’s patron, and whom Machiavelli had served in the highest political capacities. With the return of the Medici, Machiavelli was stripped of all his authority and influence and was forbidden to set foot in the Signoria. “A Caution to the Medici,” first published in Italian in 1866 under the title
Ai Palleschi
(To the Medici Faction), was a desperate attempt by Machiavelli to regain some of his standing. However, he was to face brief imprisonment and even torture for alleged conspiracy against the Medici, before being temporarily banished from the city
.

—

I wish to caution you against the counsel of those who argue that you would benefit by exposing Piero Soderini’s shortcomings in order to blacken his name among the populace, and you would do well to look those individuals carefully in the eye and see what is motivating them. What you will see is that their motivation is not to benefit the new Medici government, but to strengthen their own faction. It does not seem to me that anything for which Piero Soderini might have been at fault would strengthen the position of the new Medici government in the eyes of the people, because the Medici government could easily be suspected and inculpated of the same things as Soderini. Hence, exposing Soderini’s defects will not empower this government, but only those who were his enemies, who persistently countered him in Florentine politics.
³²

The current opinion of the people is that the faction in question wished Soderini ill so it could seize the government for itself. If, however, Soderini could be defamed to the Florentine people, they would say: “The enemies of Soderini were telling the truth! They are, after all, upright citizens who are blackening Soderini because he merits it! If things have turned as they have it is not because they planned it that way.”

Consequently the new Medici government, by exposing Soderini, would destroy his reputation but not in any way strengthen its own position, only that of the individuals who were his enemies and who were badmouthing him. These enemies would then have more influence with the populace. This is in no way to the advantage of the Medici government, because it must find a way for this faction to be despised, not prized, by the people, so that the faction will be compelled to maintain its allegiance to the Medici, thus sharing the Medici’s good or bad fortune.

If you look into who these people are, you will see that what I am saying is true. As they see it, their having been enemies of Soderini, their faction will have drawn the hatred of the populace upon themselves unless they can now prove that he was evil and deserved their enmity. The reason they want to free themselves of the populace’s hatred is so that they can promote their own interests, not those of the Medici. The cause of the tensions between the populace and the Medici is not Soderini or his fall, but simply the change in government. So I repeat: Airing Soderini’s defects does not raise the standing of the Medici government but that of Soderini’s enemies, while the Medici government would only weaken itself by attacking a man who is in exile and cannot harm it, all the while strengthening individuals who are here in Florence and who have every opportunity to harm the Medici and incite Florence to rise up against their government.

In order to underline my conclusion, I shall say once more: It is not Piero Soderini who is the enemy of this government, but the old order. Therefore, it would benefit this government to assail the old order, not Soderini. Some individuals who pander both to the populace and the Medici are very hostile to Soderini and would welcome the opportunity to denigrate him so that they can cast off the burden they bear with the people for having been its enemy. But they are doing this for themselves, not for the Medici, nor for those who wish to stand by the Medici in good and bad fortune.

I also wish to clarify this matter in another way. There are some citizens who flock to the Medici because they are anxious for two things: not to be harmed by the Medici by distancing themselves from them, and that if the old order were to return with Piero Soderini in power, not to be exiled from Florence by him. Presenting Soderini as an evil man, so as to make him hated by the people, lessens their fear of him. These citizens hope to succeed to his position should the old order return. In this sense they have less need to support the Medici, and more to hope for by distancing themselves from them. How this is contrary to the benefit of the Medici is plain to see, because the Medici cannot remain in Florence should the old order return, with or without Soderini. Those individuals who want the old order restored would be exiled if Soderini returns, but if the old order is reestablished without Soderini, they will remain in Florence and thrive. This is why they wish to destroy Soderini’s standing, so that they can strengthen their own faction, not that of the Medici. This is definitely not to the Medici’s advantage. In fact, it is in every possible way most harmful and dangerous for both the House of Medici and its government, as it removes the muzzles from many mouths that will surely and most readily bite them.

32.
Machiavelli is referring to the faction of aristocrats.

L
ITERATURE

Today Machiavelli is considered a giant of political philosophy, his most widely read works being
The Prince
and
The Discourses
, neither of which had been published in his lifetime. In his day, however, Machiavelli was particularly appreciated as a writer of elegant prose and well-crafted tales, a successful playwright, and an original and accomplished poet. A great contemporary of Machiavelli, Mateo Bandello (who wrote the tale of Romeo and Juliet), remembers Giovanni de’ Medici asking Machiavelli to entertain the company with one of his delightful “novelle.” (Unfortunately, “Belfagor” is the only one that has come down to us). This section offers a glimpse of Machiavelli’s literary range.