# 38. Weak Republics suffer from Irresolution and cannot reach Decisions; and, when they do arrive at one, it is due rather to Necessity than to Choice

When there was a very great pestilence in Rome and for this reason it seemed to the Volsci and the Aequi that the time had come for them to be able to overcome Rome, these two peoples got together a very big army, attacked the Latins and the Hernici, and laid waste their territory, so that they were forced to turn to Rome and to beg the Romans to defend them. The Romans, burdened by the epidemic, replied that the Latins and the Hernici had better look to their own defence, using their own forces, since they were unable to defend them. This shows the generosity and the prudence of the Roman senate; and how, whatever happened, it always wanted to take the lead in the decisions which those dependent on it had to make and how it was never ashamed to adopt a course which was contrary to its usual procedure and to other decisions it had made, when necessity required it.

I say this because on other occasions the same senate had forbidden these peoples to arm in their own defence, so that by a senate less prudent than was this, it would have been regarded as a loss of dignity to allow them thus to defend themselves. The Roman senate, however, always faced facts as they should be faced, and always took the lesser evil to be the better alternative. For bad as it felt it to be not to be able to defend its own subjects, and bad as it felt it to be that subjects should have recourse to arms without them, none the less for the reasons given and many others that are obvious, recognizing that with the enemy at their doors they must needs fly to arms in any case, it did the honourable thing, preferring that what they had to do should be done with Rome’s permission, so that having disobeyed because needs must, they should not get into the habit of disobeying by choice.

But though it would seem that this alternative ought to be adopted by any republic, the fact remains that weak and ill-advised republics neither know how to adopt it nor how to derive honour from such occasions of necessity. Duke Valentine had taken Faenza and made Bologna submit to his terms. Then, since he wanted to return to Rome via Tuscany, he sent one of his men to Florence to ask leave for himself and his army to pass through. A consultation was held in Florence as to what should be done in the matter, and no one advised that leave should be granted. Now, this was not in accord with Roman procedure; for the Duke had armed forces of very great strength, whereas the Florentines were so badly armed mat they could not prevent his passage. Hence it would have accorded far better with their honour to have seemed to allow his passage of their own accord, rather than be forced to it; for, whereas it brought on them nothing but shame, there would have been less of it had they managed things differently.

But the worst thing about weak republics is that they are irresolute, so that all the choices they make, they are forced to make: and, if they should happen to do the right thing, it is force, not their own good sense, that makes them do it. I will give two examples which occurred in our day to the government of our city.a

In 1500 King Louis XII of France, having retaken Milan, was ready to restore Pisa for the fifty thousand ducats which had been promised to him by the Florentines on its recovery. So he sent his armies to Pisa under the command of Monsieur de Beaumont, who, though a Frenchman, was none the less a man in whom the Florentines had considerable trust. The army and its commander took up a position between Cascina and Pisa, that they might proceed to attack its walls. While waiting a day or so to prepare for the attack, Pisan envoys came to Beaumont and offered to surrender the city to the French troops on these terms: he was to promise, on the king’s word, not to hand the city over to the Florentines for four months. This offer was turned down altogether by the Florentines, so that the net result was a journey to lay siege to Pisa and their departure in shame. The only reason for declining this offer was that the Florentines did not trust the king’s word. Their policy had been so weak that they had been forced to put themselves in the king’s hands, yet they did not trust him. Nor did they see that it was better for the king to be in Pisa and to hand that city over, or, by failing to do so, to disclose his intentions, than for him to promise it them when he hadn’t yet got it, and for them to be forced to pay for the promises. Hence they would have done much better to have agreed to Beaumont’s taking it under whatever conditions.

A similar incident occurred afterwards in 1502, when Arezzo was in revolt, and the Kings of France sent Monsieur Imbault with a French army to the help of the Florentines. Having reached the neighbourhood of Arezzo, he began before long to discuss terms with the people of Arezzo, who were ready to surrender the town under certain conditions, just as the Pisans had been. In Florence the offer was turned down. When Monsieur Imbault saw this, it seemed to him that the Florentines had not shown much sense, so he began to discuss terms on his own account, without informing the commissioners. In this he was so successful that a treaty was made to his liking, under which he entered Arezzo with his army, and gave the Florentines to understand that they were mad and had no understanding of the ways of the world. If they wanted Arezzo, they should apply to the king, who was in a better position to give it them now that his army was in the city, than when it was outside. In Florence there was no end to the cutting remarks and vituperation showered on Imbault; nor did it stop until at length they realized that, if Beaumont had been like Imbault, they might have had Pisa as well as Arezzo.

In regard, then, to the question under discussion, irresolute republics never choose the right alternative unless they are driven to it, for their weakness does not allow them to arrive at a decision where there is any doubt; and, unless this doubt is removed by some compelling act of violence, they remain ever in suspense.