1 The effect of this was to render easy any enterprise in which the senate or great men of Rome thought fit to engage.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER XI. 2 They would see, too, how Timoleon and others like him, had as great authority in their country as Dionysius or Phalaris in theirs, while enjoying far greater security.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER X. 3 We should, therefore, be careful how we censure the government of Rome, and should reflect that all the great results effected by that republic, could not have come about without good cause.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER IV. 4 And if among those who died a natural death, there be found some bad emperors, like Severus, it is to be ascribed to their signal good fortune and to their great abilities, advantages seldom found united in the same man.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER X. 5 Rome might, therefore, following the example of Sparta, have created a king for life and a senate of limited numbers, but desiring to become a great empire, she could not, like Sparta, have restricted the number of her citizens.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER VI. 6 Now, as these lasted down to the time of the Gracchi, when they brought about the overthrow of freedom, some may think it matter for regret that Rome should not have achieved the great things she did, without being torn by such disputes.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER VI. 7 No one who reads how the city of Rome had its beginning, who were its founders, and what its ordinances and laws, will marvel that so much excellence was maintained in it through many ages, or that it grew afterwards to be so great an Empire.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER I. 8 In making this inquiry we must first look to those republics which have enjoyed freedom for a great while, undisturbed by any violent contentions or tumults, and see what their government was, and whether it would have been possible to introduce it into Rome.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER VI. 9 In the former case he would have to shape its constitution as nearly as possible on the pattern of the Roman, leaving room for dissensions and popular tumults, for without a great and warlike population no republic can ever increase, or increasing maintain itself.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER VI. 10 Some, indeed, have made use of calumny as a means for raising themselves to power, and have found their advantage in traducing eminent citizens who withstood their designs; for by taking the part of the people, and confirming them in their ill-opinion of these great men, they made them their friends.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER VIII. 11 And, doubtless, if we examine the aims which the nobles and the commons respectively set before them, we shall find in the former a great desire to dominate, in the latter merely a desire not to be dominated over, and hence a greater attachment to freedom, since they have less to gain than the others by destroying it.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER V. 12 Whether in this he said truth or no, I take not on me to pronounce, since of so great a man we must speak with reverence; but this I do say, that very many believed him without having witnessed anything extraordinary to warrant their belief; his life, his doctrines, the matter whereof he treated, being sufficient to enlist their faith.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER XI. 13 Though Rome had Romulus for her first founder, and as a daughter owed him her being and nurture, nevertheless, when the institutions of Romulus were seen by Heaven to be insufficient for so great a State, the Roman senate were moved to choose Numa Pompilius as his successor, that he might look to all matters which Romulus had neglected.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER XI. 14 Among those who have earned special praise by devising a constitution of this nature, was Lycurgus, who so framed the laws of Sparta as to assign their proper functions to kings, nobles, and commons; and in this way established a government, which, to his great glory and to the peace and tranquility of his country, lasted for more than eight hundred years.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER II. 15 It is certain, however, that such States can never be reformed without great risk; for, as a rule, men will accept no new law altering the institutions of their State, unless the necessity for such a change be demonstrated; and since this necessity cannot arise without danger, the State may easily be overthrown before the new order of things is established.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER II. 16 When Alexander the Great thought to add to his renown by founding a city, Dinocrates the architect came and showed him how he might build it on Mount Athos, which not only offered a strong position, but could be handled that the city built there might present a semblance of the human form, which would be a thing strange and striking, and worthy of so great a monarch.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER I. 17 For Lycurgus having by his laws established in Sparta great equality as to property, but less equality as to rank, there prevailed there an equal poverty; and the commons were less ambitious, because the offices of the State, which were held to their exclusion, were confined to a few; and because the nobles never by harsh treatment aroused in them any desire to usurp these offices.
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