The Prince

by Niccolo Machiavelli

  MAXIMILIAN(1459-1519) Habsburg ruler of the Holy Roman Empire (1486-1519). Maximilian aimed to unify the empire’s heterogeneous possessions by centralizing the administration. He also hoped to recover the empire’s dominant position in Italy and to become leader of the Christian world by launching a crusade against Islam. While his domestic reforms enjoyed a certain amount of success, his foreign policies were confused and ineffective and led to the loss of Switzerland, which became an independent confederation in 1499. Although Maximilian hoped to regain territory from Venice, he was constantly thwarted by the need to give precedence to countering French expansionism in the peninsula. In 1495 he joined the League of Venice, which aimed to expel the French from Italy, but gained nothing from participation. In 1496 he was invited by the Duke of Milan (his wife’s uncle) to send an army to meet the threat of a French invasion, but France did not attack. Persuaded to move south to help Pisa resist the Florentines, the imperial army surprisingly failed to save the town. In 1507 he began a long-drawn-out attempt to take territory from Venice, but without making significant progress. In 1512 Maximilian joined the Holy League to push the French out of Italy. When Francis I once again took Milan for the French in 1515, Maximilian became involved in yet another, this time unsuccessful, attempt to keep France north of the Alps. Maximilian was succeeded by his grandson Charles V, who became King of Spain as well.

  MAXIMINUS Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus (c.173-238), Roman emperor (235-238). Born in Thrace and from a humble background, Maximinus rose to become a seasoned military commander and led an army rebellion against the young emperor Alexander Severus, who was abandoned by his own troops and murdered. Hated by the aristocratic Senate, Maximinus faced numerous rebellions and conspiracies, which he ruthlessly suppressed, until he was eventually murdered by his own troops.

  MOSES Old Testament Hebrew leader who led the Jews out of their captivity in Egypt to ‘the promised land’.

  NABISRuler of Sparta (207-192 BC), ruthless in his determination to return Sparta to its former glory. After a period of successful territorial expansionism, Nabis was attacked by the Romans in alliance with his other enemies. Decisively beaten by Philopoemen, he nevertheless managed to hold on to the city of Sparta before being murdered by a group of Aetolians who were supposedly coming to his aid.

  NIGER, GAIUSPESCENNIUS(c.140-194) Roman governor of Syria, who proclaimed himself emperor after the murder of Pertinax in 193, and was defeated and killed by the forces of Septimius Severus in 194.

  OLIVEROTTO Oliverotto Euffreducci (c.1475-1502). Mercenary commander who took power in Fermo in 1502 and used ruthless force to eliminate his enemies. Oliverotto was killed by Borgia at Senigallia in 1502.

  ORCO, REMIRRODERamiro de Lorqua (c.1452-1502). Military commander in the service of Cesare Borgia. After being involved in many military campaigns on Borgia’s behalf, he was given the governorship of the Romagna in 1501. Arrested on corruption charges, he was beheaded in 1502.

  ORSINIOne of the two powerful Roman families (the other was the Colonna) whose feuding dominated political life in Rome from the second half of the thirteenth century to the end of the fifteenth. Both families had mercenary armies. Cesare Borgia used the Orsini army in his early campaigns but broke with them when he suspected them of conspiring against him. He later invited the Orsini leaders to Senigallia with the pretence of negotiating an agreement and had them killed.

  NICCOLÒ ORSINICount of Pitigliano (1442-1510). Mercenary commander who led Venetian forces in their war against the League of Cambrai, and joint commander with his cousin Bartolomeo d’Alviano at the battle of Agnadello (or Vailà) at which, largely thanks to disagreements between the two, the Venetians were routed.

  PAULO, SIGNORPaulo Orsini was leader of the Orsini faction during the period of Cesare Borgia’s rise to power. He accepted the invitation to negotiate at Senigallia, where Borgia had him strangled on arrival.

  PERTINAX Publius Helvius Pertinax (126-193) was Roman emperor for three months in 193. Proclaimed emperor after the assassination of Commodus, Pertinax failed to give the army the financial rewards they expected, while his attempts to impose discipline antagonized them. He was murdered when 300 mutinous soldiers of the Praetorian Guard stormed his palace. PETRARCHFrancesco Petrarca (1304-74). Scholar, poet and early

  Humanist whose work on the sonnet form was to be hugely influential in European poetry for centuries to come. The lines Machiavelli quotes at the conclusion of The Prince are taken from poem XVI of Il canzoniere, in which Petrarch appeals to Italian leaders to stop using foreign mercenaries to fight Italian civil wars.

  PETRUCCI, PANDOLFO(1452-1512) A powerful figure in Siena from 1487 when the faction he belonged to toppled its opponents in a coup. From 1502 he became ruler of the town, though always officially maintaining republican institutions. In his role as ambassador of Florence, Machiavelli negotiated with him on several occasions.

  PHILIP OF MACEDONIA Machiavelli actually refers to two Philips.

  1. Philip II (382-336 BC) King of Macedonia (359-336 BC), father of Alexander the Great. Coming to power after the death of his older brothers, Philip II rebuilt the Kingdom of Macedonia with a series of wars and astute treaties. He was murdered by one of his bodyguards.

  2. Philip V (238-178 BC) King of Macedonia (220-178 BC). Followed a successful expansionist policy until the Romans, who had finally defeated the Carthaginians, turned their attention to the threat he posed in 200 BC and comprehensively defeated him in 197 BC, confining him within the borders of Macedonia.

  PHILOPOEMEN (253-183 BC) Greek statesman and general who led the Achaean army on numerous occasions.

  PITIGLIANO, COUNT OF See ORSINI NICCOLÒ.

  PYRRHUS (318-272 BC) King of Epirus, Pyrrhus was an extremely successful military commander and a constant threat to the Romans in southern Italy and Sicily, where he also fought the Carthaginians. His costly victory at the Battle of Asculum in 279 BC led to the use of the expression ‘Pyrrhic victory’.

  ROMULUS Legendary founder and first king of Rome.

  ROUEN, Cardinal of, later Archbishop of Georges d’Amboise (1460-1510). D’Amboise was already adviser to the Duke of Orleans when the latter acceded to the French throne (1498) as Louis XII. Louis at once made d’Amboise prime minister and persuaded Alexander VI to appoint him as cardinal as part of a more general agreement between the two. D’Amboise encouraged Louis in his Italian adventures and drew on the support of Cesare Borgia in an attempt to have himself elected pope on the death of Borgia’s father Alexander VI.

  ROVERE, GIULIANO DE See JULIUS II.

  SANGIORGIOCardinal Raffaello Riario of Savona.

  SANSEVERINO, RUBERTODAMercenary commander who led Venetian forces in 1482 and died fighting for Venice in 1487.

  SAULFirst king of Israel, chosen by the people about 1025 BC.

  SAVONAROLA, GIROLAMO(1452-98) Born in Ferrara, Savonarola studied philosophy and medicine before taking up a religious vocation in the Dominican Order of friar preachers. He first preached in Florence between 1482 and 1487 but was largely ignored until, on the advice of the Humanist Pico della Miran dola, Lorenzo de’ Medici recalled him to Florence to head the influential monastery of San Marco in 1490. He then began a cycle of sermons denouncing corruption in the town and prophesying doom and foreign invasion. When Charles VIII invaded Italy in 1494 and the Medici fled, his preaching appeared to be vindicated and he became head of the Florentine government, leading the city as a theocracy from 1494 to 1498 and encouraging people to burn anything profane (books, paintings) on his so-called Bonfire of the Vanities. His impassioned preaching against every form of corruption in the Church and his insistence on a return to scriptural purity eventually led to his being excommunicated by Alexander VI, and when he lost support in Florence he was arrested, tortured and burned at the stake in the town’s central piazza.

  SCALI, GIORGIO One of the leaders of the briefly successful Ciompi (wool-workers) rebellion in Florence in 1378. Involved in an attempt to stop
magistrates punishing a friend, he was arrested and beheaded in 1382.

  SCIPIO Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (c.234-183 BC). A Roman general and statesman best known for his defeat of Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 201 BC. This decisive victory won him the name Africanus. Accused in the Senate of accepting bribes from enemies, he retired from Rome to his home on the coast of Campania.

  SEVERUS, LUCIUS SEPTIMIUS (146-211) Roman emperor (193-211), notorious for his militarization of Roman bureaucracy and the empire in general. After holding military commands under emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, on the murder of the emperor Pertinax in 193 he led his legions to Rome and seized power. In 194 he defeated Pescennius Niger, who had proclaimed himself emperor in the east, and in 196 he defeated another would-be emperor, Clodius Albinus, in Gaul. In the last years of his life he engaged in a long military campaign in Britain, dying in York in 211.

  SFORZA, CARDINALAscanio Sforza (1455-1505). Fifth child of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, and younger brother of Galeazzo and Ludovico who each in turn became duke. Appointed as cardinal in 1484, Ascanio made several fruitless attempts to be elected pope. Acting as a spy for Milan in Rome, he was demoted by Alexander VI when Milan aided the French invasion of 1494. Ascanio was subsequently reinstated but lost his power-base when the French took Milan under Louis XII. He was imprisoned by the French for three years before Georges d’Amboise, Archbishop of Rouen and adviser to Louis, persuaded the king to release him in the hope that Ascanio would support his, Rouen’s, candidature for the papacy.

  SFORZA, CATERINASeeFORLÍ , COUNTESS OF.

  SFORZA, FRANCESCO(1401-66) The most successful mercenary commander of his century, Francesco frequently fought for Filippo Visconti, Duke of Milan (1412-47). Visconti had no sons and only one daughter, Bianca Maria, whom he offered in marriage to Sforza to keep the powerful commander on Milan’s side, frequently delaying the wedding so as to retain his bargaining power. Having eventually married Bianca Maria in 1441, Sforza expected to become duke on Visconti’s death in 1447, but the people of Milan declared a republic. Sforza at first served the republic in a war against Venice, but then betrayed it and took Milan for himself, becoming duke in 1450.

  SFORZA, GIACOMOGiacomo (Muzio) Attendolo (1369-1424). Father of Francesco Sforza, who would become Duke of Milan. Joined the mercenary army of Alberigo da Barbiano in the 1380s and received the nickname Sforza for his strength and determination. Sforza served as mercenary commander for many Italian leaders and frequently found himself opposed to Braccio da Montone, who had also started his mercenary career under Alberigo da Barbiano. He was eventually killed in the service of Joanna of Naples.

  SFORZA, LUDOVICO (1452-1508) Second son of Francesco Sforza, and Duke of Milan (1494-1500). When Ludovico’s older brother and duke, Galeazzo Maria, was assassinated in 1476, power officially passed to his seven-year-old son Gian Galeazzo, but Ludovico seized control of the state and eventually became duke when Gian Galeazzo died in 1494. Since Naples favoured Gian Galeazzo’s attempt to regain his title, Ludovico supported the claim of Charles VIII to the Neapolitan throne and encouraged his invasion of Italy in 1494. However, the extent of French successes led him to join the League of Venice, an anti-French alliance, which pushed Charles out of Italy. In 1499, Ludovico lost Milan to Charles’s successor, Louis XII. He managed to recover the city briefly in 1500 but was then defeated and imprisoned by the French until his death in 1508. He is chiefly remembered for his patronage of Leonardo da Vinci.

  SIXTUSFrancesco della Rovere (1414-84) was elected pope in 1471, taking the name of Sixtus IV. Sixtus was renowned for his nepotism and in 1478 took part in the Pazzi conspiracy to topple the Medici in Florence. Following the failed assassination attempt on Lorenzo il Magnifico and the execution of the would-be assassins, Sixtus excommunicated Lorenzo, placed Florence under interdiction and, in alliance with Naples, declared war on the town. Sixtus’s nephew, Giuliano della Rovere, would become Pope Julius II in 1503.

  SODERINI, PIERO(1450-1522) Elected Gonfaloniere of Florence and hence head of state for life in 1502, Soderini was a friend of Machiavelli and promoted his career, but Machiavelli found him indecisive and eventually lost respect for him. In line with his predecessor, Savonarola, Soderini maintained an alliance with France throughout his period of government, but he was not an able statesman and had no protection to fall back on once the French were driven out of Italy by the Holy League of papal, Spanish and imperial forces. In 1512 Soderini attempted to resist Spanish forces at Prato, but had to flee the city as the League’s forces advanced and a Medici regime was reinstated.

  THESEUSLegendary Greek hero, son of Aegeus, King of Athens. He slew the Minotaur in the Cretan labyrinth and was the first lover of the adolescent Helen of Troy. He united the region of Attica under the administration of Athens.

  TITUSQUINTIUSFlaminius Titus Quintius (c.228-174 BC). A Roman general who led the campaign against Philip V of Macedonia. Titus defeated Philip at the battle of Cynoscephalae in Thessaly in 197. Philip was forced to retreat from all his Greek possessions but his Macedonian kingdom was left intact.

  VENAFRO, ANTONIO DA Antonio Giordano (1459-1530). Having helped Pandolfo Petrucci become the ruler of Siena, Antonio was chosen as his first minister and chief adviser and was entrusted with important diplomatic missions to Rome and other courts. In 1502 he was at Magione when Cesare Borgia’s mercenaries conspired to betray him. When Petrucci’s son, Borghese, lost power in 1516, Antonio returned to his home town of Venafro but later went to serve the government of Naples, where he died.

  VISCONTI, Bernabò (1323-85) Ruled Milan together with two brothers from 1354 to 1385. Imprisoned and killed by his nephew Gian Galeazzo Visconti.

  VISCONTI, FILIPPO (1392-1447) Duke of Milan (1412-47). Filippo was a cruel and paranoid manipulator who rebuilt the Duchy of Milan with the services of mercenary leaders such as Carmagnola and Francesco Sforza. To keep Sforza loyal, he promised him his only child and heir, Bianca Maria, in marriage, then made him wait many years for the wedding.

  VITELLI, NICCOLÒ (1414-86) Military commander in constant battle with papal forces for the control of Città di Castello, a town near Perugia, in Umbria. Forced out of the town by Sixtus IV in 1475, he received support from the Medici after the failed Pazzi conspiracy in which the pope had been involved. On recovering the town, he destroyed the fortresses that Sixtus had built in his absence.

  VITELLI, PAULO(1461-99) Son of Niccolò Vitelli. A mercenary commander who led the Florentine army in its siege of Pisa in 1498. Having breached the walls, Paulo behaved with inexplicable caution, failing to push home his advantage, as a result of which he was suspected of treachery, arrested and executed.

  VITELLI, THENoble family of mercenary commanders who controlled the town of Città di Castello, near Perugia in Umbria, for most of the fifteenth century.

  VITELLOZZOVitellozzo Vitelli (c.1458-1502). Son of Niccolò and brother of Paulo, Vitellozzo was serving Florence with Paulo when the latter was arrested and executed for treachery. Vitellozzo escaped and served Cesare Borgia. Together with the Orsini faction, he conspired against Borgia and was among the conspirators killed in Senigallia in 1502.

  XENOPHON(431-354 BC) An Athenian and friend of Socrates, Xenophon was opposed to democracy and spent much of his life in Sparta. He joined a group of 10,000 mercenaries who served Cyrus during his campaign against Artaxerxes in Asia Minor in 401. After Cyrus was killed, Xenophon was one of the generals who led the mercenaries on their 1,000-mile retreat home (fewer than 6,000 survived). He wrote about the campaign in Anabasis, one of his many books.

  1 The sale of Church benefices and indulgences.

  2 Quod nihil sit tam infirmum aut instabile quam fama potentiae non sua vi nixa.

  3 Res dura, et regni novitas me talia cogunt Moliri, et late fines custode tueri.

  4 Ferdinand of Aragon.

  5 Presumably Borgia.

  6 Machiavelli is addressing Lorenzo de’ Medici.

  7 Virtù
contro a furore Prenderà l’arme; e fia el combatter corto; Ché l’antico valore Nelli italici cor non è ancor morto.