Work record
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius
c. 1517 (published 1531) · Renaissance Early Modern · Political Theory · Italian
Abstract
Background. Shut out of office after the Medici restoration of 1512, Machiavelli turned his reading of Livy into lessons for a circle of young Florentines who met in the Rucellai gardens; the work went to press only after his death.
Thesis. Human nature does not change, so ancient Rome can teach modern states as surely as ancient physicians teach modern doctors. Rome was free because its orders quarrelled lawfully, great because it armed its own citizens and absorbed allies, and lasting because religion and periodic renewal checked corruption.
Structure. The first book handles Rome's domestic constitution and religion; the second, its conquests and methods of war; the third, the deeds of particular Romans, including conspiracies, generals and the renewal of institutions. Nearly every chapter sets a Roman episode beside a recent Italian one, from the French invasion of 1494 to the campaigns of Julius II.
Key Concepts. The cycle of constitutions; tribunes and the right of accusation; the solitary founder; civil religion; corruption; virtù and fortune; citizen soldiers versus mercenaries; bringing a body back to its origins.
Significance. Read alongside The Prince, the Discourses fed the republican writing of Harrington, Sidney, Montesquieu and the American founders, and they remain at the centre of debate over whether Machiavelli was chiefly a teacher of princes or of free peoples.
Key figures
- Niccolò Machiavelli: Dismissed Florentine secretary, writing for younger republican friends
- Livy: Roman historian whose first ten books furnish the text commented on
- Romulus and Numa: Rome's founder and its religious lawgiver
- Brutus: Liberator who expelled the Tarquins and condemned his sons
- Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai: Florentine friends to whom the book is dedicated
- Savonarola: Florentine friar used as a modern parallel to Numa
Summary
The Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius are Niccolò Machiavelli's long commentary on the first ten books of Livy's history of Rome, which run from the founding of the city to the Samnite wars of the early third century BC. Machiavelli wrote them in the years after 1513, when he had been dismissed from the service of the Florentine Republic, and discussed them with young friends in the Rucellai gardens in Florence; he dedicated them to two of those friends, Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai, explaining that he had chosen men who deserved to be princes rather than men who were. They were printed only in 1531, four years after his death. In the preface Machiavelli complains that his contemporaries admire ancient statues and imitate ancient law and medicine, yet neglect the political example of ancient republics, and he announces that he is entering on an untrodden path. Book I, in sixty chapters, concerns the internal order of Rome. Machiavelli sets out the cycle of six forms of government, three good and three corrupt, and praises Rome's mixed constitution of consuls, senate and tribunes. He makes the startling argument that the tumults between nobles and commons made Rome free, since laws favourable to freedom arose from that conflict. He holds that a founder must act alone, so that Romulus is excused for killing Remus; that Numa's religion did more for Rome than Romulus's arms; that the papacy has kept Italy irreligious and divided; that corruption makes freedom almost impossible to restore; and, in chapter LVIII, that a people is wiser and more constant than a prince. Book II, in thirty-three chapters, treats Rome's expansion: the balance of virtue and fortune in its empire, its policy of taking allies and citizens, its method of war, the uselessness of mercenaries, money and fortresses compared with good soldiers, and the reasons ancient peoples loved liberty more than his own, which he partly traces to the way Christianity had been interpreted as counselling suffering rather than action. Book III, in forty-nine chapters, turns to what individual citizens did for Rome. It opens with the principle that republics and religious bodies must often be brought back to their beginnings, by laws or by the example of great men, as Saint Francis and Saint Dominic renewed the Church. It then examines conspiracies at great length, the sons of Brutus, the need to change one's methods with the times, generals such as Fabius, Camillus, Manlius Torquatus and Valerius Corvinus, and the duty to defend one's country by any means. Throughout, Machiavelli sets Roman examples beside Florentine and Italian events of his own lifetime, from Savonarola to Pope Julius II and Cesare Borgia. The library text is Ninian Hill Thomson's complete English translation of 1883.
Virtues in this work
- Prudence: Book III, ch. IX, praises Fabius Maximus for a caution that suited the times when Hannibal was in Italy.
- Fortitude: Brutus presides over the execution of his own sons to preserve Rome's newly won freedom in Book III, ch. III.
- Piety: Book I, ch. XI–XII, holds that keeping the rites of religion uncorrupted is the first care of a state that would not decay.
Plot or Argument
- Dedication and Preface to Book I
Dedication to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai. Machiavelli laments that ancient examples are admired in art, law and medicine but not imitated in politics, and sets out to read Livy for practical lessons.
- Book I, ch. I–X: foundations and the mixed republic
Origins of cities and of Rome; the six forms of government and their cycle; the tribunes and the tumults between senate and commons as the cause of Roman liberty; the guardianship of freedom; the right to accuse; the founder who must stand alone, with Romulus excused; the founder of tyranny condemned.
- Book I, ch. XI–XV: religion
Numa's religion as the bond of Roman discipline; the decay of states shown by contempt for worship; the claim that the Roman Church has left Italy without religion and divided; Roman use of auspices in war and politics.
- Book I, ch. XVI–LX: corruption, liberty and the people
How a people used to princes keeps or loses liberty; the difficulty of restoring freedom in a corrupt city; the Decemvirs and Appius Claudius; ingratitude of princes and peoples; equality and corruption; and chapter LVIII's defence of the people as wiser and more constant than a prince.
- Book II: the growth of Rome
Whether virtue or fortune built the empire; the peoples Rome fought and why they loved freedom; the contrast between the old religion of glory and Christianity as commonly interpreted; Rome's policy of alliances and citizenship; money, artillery, cavalry and fortresses weighed against good infantry; the danger of mercenaries.
- Book III, ch. I–IX: renewal and individual action
Republics and religious orders must be brought back to their beginnings, as Francis and Dominic renewed Christianity; Brutus feigning folly and executing his sons; the long chapter on conspiracies; fortune and the need to change with the times, illustrated by Fabius Maximus.
- Book III, ch. X–XLIX: generals, citizens and examples
Captains and the conduct of war; Camillus, Manlius Torquatus and Valerius Corvinus as examples of severity and gentleness; the deeds of good citizens; and chapter XLI, that one's country must be defended by honour or by dishonour.
Characters
- Niccolò Machiavelli, author
Former secretary of the Florentine Republic, reading Livy in enforced retirement.
- Titus Livius (Livy), source
Augustan historian whose first ten books of Roman history Machiavelli comments on.
- Romulus, founder
Rome's founder, excused in Book I, ch. IX, for killing Remus because he acted for the common good.
- Numa Pompilius, lawgiver
Rome's second king, whose religious institutions Machiavelli ranks above Romulus's arms.
- Lucius Junius Brutus, liberator
Expeller of the Tarquins who feigned folly and condemned his own sons.
- Appius Claudius, would-be tyrant
Decemvir whose attempt at tyranny is studied in Book I.
- Fabius Maximus, general
Cautious commander against Hannibal, whose temperament suited his times.
- Camillus, general and citizen
Conqueror of Veii and saviour of Rome after the Gauls, cited repeatedly.
- Girolamo Savonarola, modern example
Florentine friar cited as one who persuaded a civilized people that he spoke with God.
Lessons
Conflict that preserves liberty
Machiavelli argues in Book I, ch. IV, that the quarrels between the Roman nobles and commons, which others blamed for disorder, produced the laws that kept Rome free. A republic, on this view, needs institutions that give each side a lawful outlet.
- Why does Machiavelli point out that the Roman tumults seldom led to exile or bloodshed?
- How do the tribunes channel the conflict between the people and the nobles?
Religion and the life of a state
Book I, ch. XI–XV, treats religion as the strongest support of good laws and military discipline, and Machiavelli warns that contempt for worship is the surest sign of a state's decay. His view of religion's political uses has been read in very different ways, from sincere concern for piety to purely civil calculation.
- Why does Machiavelli think Numa did more for Rome than Romulus?
- What does he blame on the Roman Church in ch. XII, and how might a sixteenth-century Catholic have answered him?
- In Book II, ch. II, whom does he blame for Christianity's being read as a religion of passivity?
Return to first beginnings
Book III opens with the principle that all institutions decay unless renewed by a return to their original excellence, through laws, through dramatic punishments or through the example of good men. Machiavelli's examples include Saint Francis and Saint Dominic.
- What three means of renewal does Machiavelli describe in Book III, ch. I?
- Why does he compare a republic to the human body that needs periodic treatment?
The people and the prince
Against the historians' common saying that nothing is more fickle than the multitude, chapter LVIII of Book I argues that a people governed by laws is more prudent and constant than a prince. The chapter is central to readings of Machiavelli as a republican.
- What evidence does Machiavelli bring that peoples choose magistrates better than princes do?
- How does this chapter fit with The Prince, written in the same years?
Context
The Discourses come from Florence in the decade after 1512, when Spanish troops restored the Medici and ended the republic Machiavelli had served. Italy was a battleground for France, Spain and the Empire, and Machiavelli's reading of Livy is shaped by the question of why the Italian states had proved so weak. The humanist revival of Livy and Polybius gave him his materials, and the conversations of the Orti Oricellari, the Rucellai gardens, gave him his audience.
Composition
Machiavelli probably began the Discourses around 1513–14, near the time he wrote The Prince, and worked on them until about 1517–19; scholars disagree on the exact sequence of the two works. The book was published posthumously in 1531 by Antonio Blado in Rome and by the Giunta in Florence. Ninian Hill Thomson's English translation appeared in London from Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. in 1883, dedicated to the Machiavelli scholar Pasquale Villari.
Reception
Placed on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1559 with Machiavelli's other works, the Discourses nonetheless shaped republican thought in Europe and America. James Harrington, Algernon Sidney, Montesquieu and John Adams drew on its account of mixed government and civic virtue, and Rousseau read Machiavelli as a republican teacher. Modern interpreters differ widely: some see the Discourses as the key to a republican Machiavelli, others as a work of the same new political science as The Prince.
Comparisons
- the-prince
Written in the same years: The Prince counsels a single new ruler, the Discourses a republic. Book I, ch. LVIII, preferring the people to the prince, and Book III, ch. IX, on changing with the times, are often read against Prince ch. XVII and XXV.
- the-art-of-war-machiavelli
Book II's arguments for citizen infantry and against mercenaries, money and fortresses are developed in The Art of War (1521), set in the same Rucellai gardens.
- cicero-republic-and-laws
Cicero's Republic praises the Roman mixed constitution as the best; Machiavelli agrees, but credits Rome's liberty to the conflict of orders that Cicero regarded as a danger.
- polybius-histories-book-vi
Book I, ch. II, follows closely Polybius's cycle of six constitutions and his account of Rome's mixed government.
- a-defence-of-the-constitutions
John Adams studied Machiavelli's account of Rome and Florence when defending the balanced constitutions of the American states.
- the-social-contract
Rousseau's chapters on Roman institutions and civil religion engage the Discourses directly, and he called The Prince a book for republicans.
Quotes
Frequently cited
“all men are bad, and will always, when they have free field, give loose to their evil inclinations”
Frequently cited
“For although the act condemn the doer, the end may justify him; and when, as in the case of Romulus, the end is good, it will always excuse the means;”
“it is in this conflict that all laws favourable to freedom have their origin”
“since we can have no surer sign of the decay of a province than to see Divine worship held therein in contempt.”
“Nor is it without reason that the voice of the people has been likened to the voice of God;”
“this assuredly results from the baseness of those who have interpreted our religion to accord with indolence and ease rather than with valour.”
“Now the way to renew them is, as I have said, to bring them back to their beginnings”
“for when the entire safety of our country is at stake, no consideration of what is just or unjust, merciful or cruel, praiseworthy or shameful, must intervene.”
For Students
A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.
Reading Guide
Watch for
- The dedication, where Machiavelli says he has chosen men who deserve to be princes rather than men who are princes.
- Book I, ch. IV, where the tumults of Rome become the cause of its freedom rather than a defect.
- Book I, ch. IX, on Romulus and Remus, and the caution that follows about not passing absolute power to a successor.
- The chapters on religion, Book I, ch. XI–XV, and the comparison of ancient and Christian religion in Book II, ch. II.
- Book III, ch. I, on renewal, with its examples of Saint Francis and Saint Dominic.
Key terms and names
- First decade
- The first ten books of Livy's history, from the founding of Rome to the Samnite wars, which supply most of Machiavelli's examples.
- Mixed government
- A constitution combining princely, aristocratic and popular elements, as Rome combined consuls, senate and tribunes; Machiavelli thinks it the most stable form.
- Tribunes of the people
- Roman magistrates created to protect the commons; in Book I, ch. III–V, they are the institution that made the republic more perfect.
- Virtue (virtù)
- In Machiavelli, the energy, skill and resolve by which men and peoples master circumstances, often set against fortune; not the same as moral virtue.
- Corruption
- The loss of civic spirit and respect for law in a people, which, he argues, makes it almost impossible for them to keep or recover freedom.
- Return to beginnings
- The renewal of an institution by bringing it back to the excellence of its founding, the principle of Book III, ch. I.
Seminar Questions
- Comprehension According to Book I, ch. II, what are the six forms of government, and why did Rome escape the cycle?
- Comprehension Why does Machiavelli say Romulus is to be excused for the death of Remus?
- Comprehension What does Machiavelli say Numa contributed to Rome that Romulus did not?
- Interpretation How can Machiavelli argue in Book I, ch. XII, that religion is essential to a state and also blame the Roman Church for Italy's weakness?
- Interpretation In Book II, ch. II, Machiavelli blames not Christianity but those who interpreted it for the world's weakness. What kind of interpretation does he seem to want?
- Interpretation Is the Machiavelli of Book I, ch. LVIII, who trusts the people, the same thinker as the author of The Prince?
- Interpretation What does the example of Fabius Maximus in Book III, ch. IX, teach about character and changing times?
- Big Question Can a good end ever excuse a wrong act, and who should be trusted to judge when it does?
Faith Connections
- Romans 3:8 (Scripture)
Paul rejects the slander that Christians say, Let us do evil that good may come. Machiavelli's claim in Book I, ch. IX, that a good end excuses the means of Romulus sets up a direct conversation with this verse.
- Matthew 5:5, 38-39 (Scripture)
The blessing of the meek and the teaching on turning the other cheek lie behind Machiavelli's description of Christianity, in Book II, ch. II, as honouring humility and suffering over action.
- Augustine, City of God V (Church Fathers)
Augustine explains Rome's empire by the Romans' love of glory, which God rewarded with earthly success, and contrasts it with the glory of the heavenly city. Machiavelli praises the same Roman love of glory for opposite reasons.
- Francis of Assisi and Dominic (Great Conversation)
Machiavelli names the two founders of the mendicant orders in Book III, ch. I, as men who renewed Christianity by returning it to the poverty and example of Christ. Students can compare his account with the lives of the saints.
Logic and Rhetoric
Central argument: Men imitate the ancients in art, law and medicine but not in politics, though human nature and the course of events are always the same. Livy shows that Rome became free and great through a mixed constitution, lawful conflict between people and nobles, religion that bound citizens to their oaths, citizen armies, and periodic renewal. Therefore a modern republic that would be free and strong should imitate those Roman institutions rather than rely on fortune, money or mercenaries.
Rhetorical device: argument from example (paradeigma). Each chapter pairs a Roman episode from Livy with a modern Italian one, as when Book I, ch. XI, sets Numa's claim of divine counsel beside Savonarola's persuasion of the Florentines.
Debate: Resolved: that the tumults between the Roman nobles and commons were the cause of Roman freedom.
Memory Work
Nor is it without reason that the voice of the people has been likened to the voice of God;
Now the way to renew them is, as I have said, to bring them back to their beginnings
Writing Prompts
Essay: Machiavelli argues in Book I, ch. XI–XII, that religion is necessary to the health of a state. Explain his reasons, using Numa and the Roman auspices, and evaluate whether his view treats religion as true or only as useful.
Comparison with The Prince: Compare Discourses Book I, ch. LVIII, on the people as wiser than a prince, with The Prince, ch. XVII–XVIII, on whether a ruler should be loved or feared and keep faith. Argue whether the two books express one political teaching or two.
Medical Lens
Medicine appears in the Discourses as a model of how to learn from antiquity. In the preface to Book I Machiavelli observes that the healing art of his day is only the recorded experience of the ancient physicians, and asks why politics does not likewise build on ancient example; this reflects the Renaissance medicine of Galenic and Hippocratic authorities. In Book III, ch. I, he cites a medical maxim (given in Latin in the footnote) that something is added to the body daily which sooner or later needs cure, as the analogy for the periodic renewal of states. Plague and famine appear as causes of the loss of historical memory (Book II, ch. V) and as occasions of Roman crisis (Book I, ch. XIII and XXXVIII). These are analogies and historical notices, not medical discussions.
- Book I, Preface
The healing art described as the recorded experience of the old physicians, set as a model for imitating ancient political practice.
- Book III, ch. I
The physicians' maxim that the body daily gathers something needing treatment, applied to the decay and renewal of republics.
- Book II, ch. V
Plague, famine and flood as heaven-sent causes that destroy populations and the memory of the past.
- Book I, ch. XXXVIII
A pestilence at Rome tempts the Aequians and Volscians to attack, and the Senate's response is examined.
Creative Prompts
- Classroom
Read Book I, ch. LVIII, and The Prince, ch. XVII, side by side. Have half the class argue that Machiavelli is at heart a republican, the other half that the two books teach the same lesson, and let each side cite chapters.
- Essay
Machiavelli praises the conflict of nobles and commons in Rome. Choose another republic in the library, ancient or modern, and test whether its quarrels produced laws favourable to freedom.
- Dialogue
Write a conversation in the Rucellai gardens in which Zanobi Buondelmonti questions Machiavelli about his claim in Book I, ch. XII, that the Church has left Italy divided.
Further Reading
- Discourses on Livy (trans. Harvey C. Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov), Niccolò Machiavelli
A close modern translation with notes.
- The History of Rome, Books I–X, Livy
The first decade on which Machiavelli comments.
- Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction, Quentin Skinner
- The Machiavellian Moment, J. G. A. Pocock
On the Florentine and Atlantic republican tradition.
- Niccolò's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli, Maurizio Viroli
Verification notes
Structure (60, 33 and 49 chapters), the dedication, and the 1531 publication are standard. Composition dates are disputed; the range given is cautious. Chapter locators come from the chapter headings in the stored Thomson text. Thomson's footnotes (for example, the Latin medical maxim in Book III, ch. I) are present in the stored file and were not quoted. Quotation marks inside the Book I, ch. III, passage in the text were omitted at the quote's edges.
- The 1531 printers (Blado in Rome and the Giunta in Florence).