# 30. What Steps should be taken by a Prince or by a Republic to avoid this Vice of Ingratitude, and what should be done by a General or by a Citizen who does not want to suffer from it

To avoid the necessity of having to spend his life suspecting people and displaying ingratitude, a prince should go in person on any expedition, as in the beginning the Roman emperors did, as in our day the Turk does, and as courageous princes both have done and still do. Because, if they win, both the glory and the territory gained is wholly theirs; but, if they are not there, the glory is another’s, and they feel the glory of that other, they cannot make use of the acquisition until they obliterate a glory which they did not know how to acquire. So they become ungrateful and unjust, and thus unquestionably lose more than they gain. But when they stay idly at home owing to negligence or lack of prudence, and send a general in their stead, I have no maxim to give them other than that which they can find out for themselves.

But to the general I would point out that, since he cannot in my opinion escape the jaws of ingratitude, he should do one of two things. Either he should, immediately after the victory, quit the army and place himself in the hands of his prince, abstaining from any act savouring of arrogance or ambition, so that his prince may have no ground for suspicion and in consequence will either reward him or at least refrain from harming him. Or, if this does not appear to him to be the thing to do, let him strenuously do just the opposite, i.e. use every means he thinks appropriate to make the acquisition his own and not his prince’s: ingratiate himself with soldiers and with subjects, enter into friendly relations with neighbouring powers, put his own men in possession of fortresses, corrupt the leading officers of his army, and make sure of those whom he cannot corrupt; and in such-like ways seek to punish his master for the ingratitude he might perhaps display towards him. There are no other alternatives. But, as has already been remarked, men know not how to be either wholly bad or wholly good. Hence it always happens that after a victory generals are loath at once to give up their command and find it impossible to behave modestly, yet hesitate to resort to violent measures which may win him honour so that owing to the ambiguity of their position while they hesitate and doubt, they are overcome.

For a republic which desires to avoid the vice of ingratitude, it is not possible to prescribe the same remedies as for a prince, i.e. that they should accompany, not send out, expeditions, for they are obliged to put one of their citizens in command. The remedy I should prescribe in their case, therefore, is that they should keep to the methods used by the republic of Rome, methods which caused it to display less ingratitude than any other. This was the result of the way in which it was governed, for in time of war it availed itself of everybody in the city, whether they were nobles or not nobles, and in consequence there was always to be found in Rome at any given epoch so many virtuous mena with various victories to their name that the people had no cause to be dubious in regard to any of them, since there were so many that one looked after the other. In fact, so carefully did they maintain their integrity and so studious were they to avoid the least semblance of ambition lest it should cause the populace to attack them as ambitious persons, that, when there came to be a dictator, he acquired the more fame the sooner he resigned. Wherefore, since behaviour of this kind could not render men suspect, they did not evoke ingratitude. A republic, then, which does not want to have ground for ingratitude, should be governed as Rome was governed; and a citizen who wishes to escape the jaws of ingratitude should keep within the bounds to which Roman citizens kept.