THAT WE MUST AVOID BEING DESPISED AND HATED
But as I have now spoken of the most important of the qualities
in question, I will now deal briefly with the rest on the general
principle, that the prince must, as already stated, avoid those things
which will make him hated or despised; and whenever he succeeds in
this, he will have done his part, and will find no danger in other
vices.
He will chiefly become hated, as I said, by being rapacious, and
usurping the property and women of his subjects, which he must abstain
from doing, and whenever one does not attack the property or honour
of the generality of men, they will live contented; and one will only
have to combat the ambition of a few, who can be easily held in check
in many ways. He is rendered despicable by being thought changeable,
frivolous, effeminate, timid, and irresolute; which a prince must
guard against as a rock of danger, and manage so that his actions
show grandeur, high courage, seriousness, and strength; and as to the
government of his subjects, let his sentence be irrevocable, and let
him adhere to his decisions so that no one may think of deceiving him
or making him change. The prince who creates such an opinion of himself
gets a great reputation, and it is very difficult to conspire against
one who has a great reputation, and he will not easily be attacked, so
long as it is known that he is esteemed and reverenced by his subjects.
For a prince must have two kinds of fear: one internal as regards his
subjects, one external as regards foreign powers. From the latter he
can defend himself with good arms and good friends, and he will always
have good friends if he has good arms; and internal matters will always
remain quiet, if they are not perturbed by conspiracy; and even if
external powers sought to foment one, if he has ruled and lived as I
have described, he will always if he stands firm be able to sustain
every shock, as I have shown that Nabis the Spartan did. But with
regard to the subjects, if not acted on from outside, it is still to be
feared lest they conspire in secret, from which the prince may guard
himself well by avoiding hatred and contempt, and keeping the people
satisfied with him, which it is necessary to accomplish, as has been
related at length. And one of the most potent remedies that a prince
has against conspiracies, is that of not being hated or despised by
the mass of the people; for whoever conspires always believes that
he will satisfy the people by the death of their prince; but if he
thought to offend them by doing this, he would fear to engage in such
an undertaking, for the difficulties that conspirators have to meet are
infinite. Experience shows that there have been very many conspiracies,
but few have turned out well, for whoever conspires cannot act alone,
and cannot find companions except among those who are discontented;
and as soon as you have disclosed your intention to a malcontent, you
give him the means of satisfying himself, for by revealing it he can
hope to secure everything he wants; to such an extent that seeing
a certain gain by doing this, and seeing on the other hand only a
doubtful one and full of danger, he must either be a rare friend to
you or else a very bitter enemy to the prince if he keeps faith with
you. And to reduce the matter to narrow limits, I say, that on the side
of the conspirator there is nothing but fear, jealousy, suspicion,
and dread of punishment which frightens him; and on the side of the
prince there is the majesty of government, the laws, the protection
of friends and of the state which guard him. When to these things are
added the goodwill of the people, it is impossible that any one should
have the temerity to conspire. For whereas generally a conspirator
has to fear before the execution of his plot, in this case he must
also fear afterwards, having the people for an enemy, when his crime
is accomplished, and thus not being able to hope for any refuge.
Numberless instances might be given of this, but I will content myself
with one which took place within the memory of our fathers. Messer
Annibale Bentivogli, Prince of Bologna, ancestor of the present Messer
Annibale, was killed by the Canneschi, who conspired against him. He
left no relations but Messer Giovanni, who was then an infant, but
after the murder the people rose up and killed all the Canneschi. This
arose from the popular goodwill that the house of Bentivogli enjoyed at
that time in Bologna, which was so great that, as there was nobody left
after the death of Annibale who could govern the state, the Bolognese
hearing that there was one of the Bentivogli family in Florence, who
had till then been thought the son of a blacksmith, came to fetch him
and gave him the government of the city, and it was governed by him
until Messer Giovanni was old enough to assume the government.
I conclude, therefore, that a prince need trouble little about
conspiracies when the people are well disposed, but when they
are hostile and hold him in hatred, then he must fear everything
and everybody. Well-ordered states and wise princes have studied
diligently not to drive the nobles to desperation, and to satisfy the
populace and keep it contented, for this is one of the most important
matters that a prince has to deal with. Among the kingdoms that are
well ordered and governed in our time is France, and there we find
numberless good institutions on which depend the liberty and security
of the king; of these the chief is the parliament and its authority,
because he who established that kingdom, knowing the ambition and
insolence of the great nobles, and deeming it necessary to have a bit
in their mouths to check them; and knowing on the other hand the hatred
of the mass of the people to the great, based on fear, and wishing to
secure them, did not wish to make this the special care of the king,
to relieve him of the dissatisfaction that he might incur among the
nobles by favouring the people, and among the people by favouring the
nobles. He therefore established a third judge that, without direct
charge of the king, kept in check the great and favoured the lesser
people. Nor could any better or more prudent measure have been adopted,
nor better precaution for the safety of the king and the kingdom. From
which another notable rule can be drawn, that princes should let the
carrying out of unpopular duties devolve on others, and bestow favours
themselves. I conclude again by saying that a prince must esteem his
nobles, but not make himself hated by the populace. It may perhaps seem
to some, that considering the life and death of many Roman emperors
that they are instances contrary to my opinion, finding that some who
lived always nobly and showed great strength of character, nevertheless
lost the empire, or were killed by their subjects who conspired against
them. Wishing to answer these objections, I will discuss the qualities
of some emperors, showing the cause of their ruin not to be at variance
with what I have stated, and I will also partly consider the things to
be noted by whoever reads the deeds of these times. I will content
myself with taking all those emperors who succeeded to the empire from
Marcus the philosopher to Maximinus; these were Marcus, Commodus his
son, Pertinax, Heliogabalus, Alexander, and Maximinus. And the first
thing to note is, that whereas other princes have only to contend
against the ambition of the great and the insolence of the people, the
Roman emperors had a third difficulty, that of having to support the
cruelty and avarice of the soldiers, which was such a difficulty that
it was the cause of the ruin of many, it being difficult to satisfy
both the soldiers and the people. For the people love tranquillity,
and therefore like princes who are pacific, but the soldiers prefer
a prince of military spirit, who is insolent, cruel, and rapacious.
They wish him to exercise these qualities on the people so that they
may get double pay and give vent to their avarice and cruelty. Thus it
came about that those emperors who, by nature or art, had not such a
reputation as could keep both parties in check, invariably were ruined,
and the greater number of them who were raised to the empire being
new men, knowing the difficulties of these two opposite dispositions,
confined themselves to satisfying the soldiers, and thought little of
injuring the people. This choice was necessary, princes not being able
to avoid being hated by some one. They must first try not to be hated
by the mass of the people; if they cannot accomplish this they must
use every means to escape the hatred of the most powerful parties. And
therefore these emperors, who being new men had need of extraordinary
favours, adhered to the soldiers more willingly than to the people;
whether this, however, was of use to them or not, depended on whether
the prince knew how to maintain his reputation with them.
From these causes it resulted that Marcus, Pertinax, and Alexander,
being all of modest life, lovers of justice, enemies of cruelty,
humane and benign, had all a sad ending except Marcus. Marcus alone
lived and died in honour, because he succeeded to the empire by
hereditary right and did not owe it either to the soldiers or to the
people; besides which, possessing many virtues which made him revered,
he kept both parties in their place as long as he lived and was never
either hated or despised. But Pertinax was created emperor against the
will of the soldiers, who being accustomed to live licentiously under
Commodus, could not put up with the honest life to which Pertinax
wished to limit them, so that having made himself hated, and to this
contempt being added because he was old, he was ruined at the very
beginning of his administration. Whence it may be seen that hatred
is gained as much by good works as by evil, and therefore, as I said
before, a prince who wishes to maintain the state is often forced to
do evil, for when that party, whether populace, soldiery, or nobles,
whichever it be that you consider necessary to you for keeping your
position, is corrupt, you must follow its humour and satisfy it, and
in that case good works will be inimical to you. But let us come to
Alexander, who was of such goodness, that among other things for which
he is praised, it is said that in the fourteen years that he reigned
no one was put to death by him without a fair trial. Nevertheless,
being considered effeminate, and a man who allowed himself to be
ruled by his mother, and having thus fallen into contempt, the army
conspired against him and killed him. Looking, on the other hand,
at the qualities of Commodus, Severus, Antoninus, extremely cruel
and rapacious; to satisfy the soldiers there was no injury which
they would not inflict on the people, and all except Severus ended
badly. Severus, however, had such abilities that by maintaining the
soldiers friendly to him, he was able to reign happily, although he
oppressed the people, for his virtues made him so admirable in the
sight both of the soldiers and the people that the latter were, as it
were, astonished and stupefied, while the former were respectful and
contented. As the deeds of this ruler were great for a new prince, I
will briefly show how well he could use the qualities of the fox and
the lion, whose natures, as I said before, it is necessary for a prince
to imitate. Knowing the sloth of the Emperor Julian, Severus, who was
leader of the army in Slavonia, persuaded the troops that it would be
well to go to Rome to avenge the death of Pertinax, who had been slain
by the Imperial guard, and under this pretext, without revealing his
aspirations to the throne, marched with his army to Rome and was in
Italy before his design was known. On his arrival in Rome the senate
elected him emperor through fear, and Julian died. There remained
after this beginning two difficulties to be faced by Severus before
he could obtain the whole control of the empire: one in Asia, where
Nigrinus, head of the Asiatic armies, had declared himself emperor; the
other in the west from Albinus, who also aspired to the empire. And
as he judged it dangerous to show himself hostile to both, he decided
to attack Nigrinus and deceive Albinus, to whom he wrote that having
been elected emperor by the senate he wished to share that dignity
with him; he sent him the title of Cæsar and, by deliberation of the
senate, he was declared his colleague; all of which was accepted as
true by Albinus. But when Severus had defeated and killed Nigrinus,
and pacified things in the East, he returned to Rome and charged
Albinus in the senate with having, unmindful of the benefits received
from him, traitorously sought to assassinate him, and stated that he
was therefore obliged to go and punish his ingratitude. He then went
to France to meet him, and there deprived him of both his position
and his life. Whoever examines in detail the actions of Severus, will
find him to have been a very ferocious lion and an extremely astute
fox, and will see him to have been feared and respected by all and not
hated by the army; and will not be surprised that he, a new man, should
have been able to hold the empire so well, since his great reputation
defended him always from that hatred that his rapacity might have
produced in the people. But Antoninus his son was also a man of great
ability, and possessed qualities that rendered him admirable in the
sight of the people and also made him popular with the soldiers, for
he was a military man, capable of enduring the most extreme hardships,
disdainful of delicate food, and every other luxury, which made him
loved by all the armies. However, his ferocity and cruelty were so
great and unheard of, through his having, after executing many private
individuals, caused a large part of the population of Rome and all that
of Alexandria to be killed, that he became hated by all the world and
began to be feared by those about him to such an extent that he was
finally killed by a centurion in the midst of his army. Whence it is to
be noted that this kind of death, which proceeds from the deliberate
action of a determined man, cannot be avoided by princes, since any one
who does not fear death himself can inflict it, but a prince need not
fear much on this account, as such actions are extremely rare. He must
only guard against committing any grave injury to any one he makes use
of, or has about him for his service, like Antoninus had done, having
caused the death with contumely of the brother of that centurion, and
also threatened him every day, although he still retained him in his
bodyguard, which was a foolish and dangerous thing to do, as the fact
proved. But let us come to Commodus, who might easily have kept the
empire, having succeeded to it by heredity, being the son of Marcus,
and it would have sufficed for him to follow in the steps of his father
to have satisfied both the people and the soldiers. But being of a
cruel and bestial disposition, in order to be able to exercise his
rapacity on the people, he sought to amuse the soldiers and render
them licentious; on the other hand, by not maintaining his dignity,
by often descending into the theatre to fight with gladiators and
committing other contemptible actions, little worthy of the imperial
dignity, he became despicable in the eyes of the soldiers, and being
hated on the one hand and despised on the other, he was conspired
against and killed. There remains to be described the character of
Maximinus. He was an extremely warlike man, and as the armies were
annoyed with the effeminacy of Alexander, which we have already spoken
of, he was after the death of the latter elected emperor. He did not
enjoy it for long, as two things made him hated and despised: the
one his base origin, as he had been a shepherd in Thrace, which was
generally known and caused great disdain on all sides; the other,
because he had at the commencement of his rule deferred going to Rome
to take possession of the Imperial seat, and had obtained a reputation
for great cruelty, having through his prefects in Rome and other parts
of the empire committed many acts of cruelty. The whole world being
thus moved by indignation for the baseness of his blood, and also by
the hatred caused by fear of his ferocity, he was conspired against
first by Africa and afterwards by the senate and all the people of Rome
and Italy. His own army also joined them, for besieging Aquileia and
finding it difficult to take, they became enraged at his cruelty, and
seeing that he had so many enemies, they feared him less and put him to
death. I will not speak of Heliogabalus, of Macrinus, or Julian, who
being entirely contemptible were immediately suppressed, but I will
come to the conclusion of this discourse by saying that the princes of
our time have less difficulty than these of being obliged to satisfy in
an extraordinary degree their soldiers in their states; for although
they must have a certain consideration for them, yet it is soon
settled, for none of these princes have armies that are inextricably
bound up with the administration of the government and the rule of
their provinces as were the armies of the Roman empire; and therefore
if it was then necessary to satisfy the soldiers rather than the
people, it was because the soldiers could do more than the people; now,
it is more necessary to all princes, except the Turk and the Soldan,
to satisfy the people than the soldiers, for the people can do more
than the soldiers. I except the Turk, because he always keeps about
him twelve thousand infantry and fifteen thousand cavalry, on which
depend the security and strength of his kingdom; and it is necessary
for him to postpone every other consideration of the people to keep
them friendly. It is the same with the kingdom of the Soldan, which
being entirely in the hands of the soldiers, he is bound to keep their
friendship regardless of the people. And it is to be noted that this
state of the Soldan is different from that of all other princes, being
similar to the Christian pontificate, which cannot be called either
a hereditary kingdom or a new one, for the sons of the dead prince
are not his heirs, but he who is elected to that position by those
who have authority. And as this order is ancient it cannot be called
a new kingdom, there being none of these difficulties which exist in
new ones; as although the prince is new, the rules of that state are
old and arranged to receive him as if he were their hereditary lord.
But returning to our matter, I say that whoever studies the preceding
argument will see that either hatred or contempt were the causes of
the ruin of the emperors named, and will also observe how it came about
that, some of them acting in one way and some in another, in both ways
there were some who had a fortunate and others an unfortunate ending.
As Pertinax and Alexander were both new rulers, it was useless and
injurious for them to try and imitate Marcus, who was a hereditary
prince; and similarly with Caracalla, Commodus, and Maximinus it was
pernicious for them to imitate Severus, as they had not sufficient
ability to follow in his footsteps. Thus a new prince cannot imitate
the actions of Marcus, in his dominions, nor is it necessary for him to
imitate those of Severus; but he must take from Severus those portions
that are necessary to found his state, and from Marcus those that are
useful and glorious for conserving a state that is already established
and secure.