Ingratitude; and how a Captain or Citizen may escape being undone by
it._
That he may not be tormented by suspicion, nor show ungrateful, a
prince should go himself on his wars as the Roman emperors did at
first, as the Turk does now, and, in short, as all valiant princes have
done and do. For when it is the prince himself who conquers, the glory
and the gain are all his own; but when he is absent, since the glory is
another’s, it will seem to the prince that he profits nothing by the
gain, unless that glory be quenched which he knew not how to win for
himself; and when he thus becomes ungrateful and unjust, doubtless his
loss is greater than his gain. To the prince, therefore, who, either
through indolence or from want of foresight, sends forth a captain to
conduct his wars while he himself remains inactive at home, I have no
advice to offer which he does not already know. But I would counsel the
captain whom he sends, since I am sure that he can never escape the
attacks of ingratitude, to follow one or other of two courses, and
either quit his command at once after a victory, and place himself in
the hands of his prince, while carefully abstaining from every
vainglorious or ambitious act, so that the prince, being relieved from
all suspicion, may be disposed to reward, or at any rate not to injure
him; or else, should he think it inexpedient for him to act in this
way, to take boldly the contrary course, and fearlessly to follow out
all such measures as he thinks will secure for himself, and not for his
prince, whatever he has gained; conciliating the good-will of his
soldiers and fellow-citizens, forming new friendships with neighbouring
potentates, placing his own adherents in fortified towns, corrupting
the chief officers of his army and getting rid of those whom he fails
to corrupt, and by all similar means endeavouring to punish his master
for the ingratitude which he looks for at his hands. These are the only
two courses open; but since, as I said before, men know not how to be
wholly good or wholly bad, it will never happen that after a victory a
captain will quit his army and conduct himself modestly, nor yet that
he will venture to use those hardy methods which have in them some
strain of greatness; and so, remaining undecided, he will be crushed
while he still wavers and doubts.
A commonwealth desiring to avoid the vice of ingratitude is, as
compared with a prince, at this disadvantage, that while a prince can
go himself on his expeditions, the commonwealth must send some one of
its citizens. As a remedy, I would recommend that course being adopted
which was followed by the Roman republic in order to be less ungrateful
than others, having its origin in the nature of the Roman government.
For the whole city, nobles and commons alike, taking part in her wars,
there were always found in Rome at every stage of her history, so many
valiant and successful soldiers, that by reason of their number, and
from one acting as a check upon another, the nation had never ground to
be jealous of any one man among them; while they, on their part, lived
uprightly, and were careful to betray no sign of ambition, nor give the
people the least cause to distrust them as ambitious; so that he
obtained most glory from his dictatorship who was first to lay it down.
Which conduct, as it excited no suspicion, could occasion no
ingratitude.
We see, then, that the commonwealth which would have no cause to be
ungrateful, must act as Rome did; and that the citizen who would escape
ingratitude, must observe those precautions which were observed by
Roman citizens.