# 11. It is not a Wise Course to make an Alliance with a Rulera whose Reputation is greater than his Strength

The mistake the Sidicines made in trusting to the Campanians for help, and the mistake the Campanians made in thinking they could defend them could not be shown more vividly than it is by Titus Livy when he writes: ‘The Campanians brought a name to the help of the Sidicines instead of forces to protect them.’ It should be noted here that leagues made with rulers who lack either the means to help because they are too far away, or the power to help because they are disorganized or for other reasons, bring rather repute than assistance to those who trust in them.

It happened thus in our day to the Florentines when in 1479 the Pope and the king of Naples attacked them. They were allies of the king of France, but from this alliance gained ‘rather a name than protection’. The same thing would happen to the ruler who should enter on some enterprise relying on the Emperor, Maximilian, for it would be one of those alliances that bring ‘rather a name than protection’, which is what Livy says the Capuans brought to the Sidicines. The Capuans, therefore, erred here in thinking their strength greater than it was.

So small is the prudence of men that they sometimes undertake to defend others when they neither know how, nor are able, to defend themselves. Thus, when the Roman army had taken the field against the Samnite army, the Tarentines sent ambassadors to the Roman consul to inform him that they wished there to be peace between these two peoples, and that they proposed to make war on whoever should disturb that peace. At this the consul laughed, and in the presence of the ambassadors had the trumpets sound for battle. He then told his army to go for the enemy, thereby showing, by actions, not by words, what answer he thought they deserved.

Having in this chapter discussed the means rulers take, to their own hurt, for the defence of others, in the next I propose to discuss the means they take to defend themselves.