Wherefore should I have been ashamed? Could I have re-established my
party in the city in any other way? I made alliance with Manfred and
the Siennese. Had it been necessary, I would have sought the alliance
of those African giants who have but one eye in the middle of their
foreheads and who feed upon human flesh, according to the report of
Venetian navigators who have seen them. The pursuit of such an interest
is no mere game played according to rule, like chess or draughts. If
I had judged one thing lawful and another unlawful, think you that
my adversaries would have been bound by such rules? No, indeed, we
on Arbia's banks were not playing a game of dice under the trellis,
tablets on knee and little white pebbles to mark the score. It was
conquest that we were working for. And each side knew it.
Nevertheless, I grant you, Fra Ambrogio, that it would have been
better to settle our quarrel between Florentines alone. Civil war is
so grand, so noble, so fine a thing, that it should, if possible,
be waged without alien intervention. Those who engage in it should
be fellow-citizens and preferably nobles, who would bring to it an
unwearying arm and keen intelligence.
I would not say the same of foreign wars. They are useful, even
necessary enterprises, undertaken to maintain or extend the boundaries
of State or to promote traffic in merchandise. Generally speaking,
neither profit nor honour results from waging these great wars unaided.
A wise people will employ mercenaries, and delegate the enterprise to
experienced captains who know how to win much with few men. Nothing
but professional courage is needed, and it is better to spill gold
than blood. One cannot put one's heart into it. For it would hardly be
wise to hate a foreigner because his interests are opposed to ours,
while it is natural and reasonable to hate a fellow-citizen who opposes
what one esteems useful and good. In civil war alone can one display a
discerning mind, an inflexible soul and the fortitude of a heart filled
with anger or with love.