# 25. To attack a Divided City in the Hope that its Divisions will facilitate the Conquest of it is Bad Policy

There was so much discord between the plebs and the nobility in the Roman republic that the Veientes, in conjunction with the Etruscans, thought this disunion would enable them to destroy the power of Rome. Having, therefore, formed an army and invaded Roman territory, the senate sent Gaius Manlius and Marcus Fabius to engage them. When the army they were leading drew near to the army of the Veientes, the latter kept on attacking and vilifying the Roman name with insults and abuse. And so great was their rashness and insolence that the Romans became united instead of disunited, and, when it came to a fight, broke and defeated the enemy. Thus one sees, as we have said above, how mistaken men are when in coming to decisions they rely on discord, and how often, when they think they have a sure thing they lose. The Veientes thought that if they attacked the Romans, when disunited, they would overcome them; but their attack caused the Romans to unite and brought about their own ruin. For discord in a republic is usually due to idleness and peace, and unity to fear and to war. Had the Veientes been wise, then, the more disunited they found the Romans to be, the more studiously should they have refrained from going to war with them, and have striven to get the better of them by the artifices men use in time of peace.

The way to set about this is to win the confidence of the city which is disunited; and, so long as they do not come to blows, to act as arbitrator between the parties, and, when they do come to blows, to give tardy support to the weaker party, both with a view to keeping them at it and wearing them out; and, again, because stronger measures would leave no room for any to doubt that you were out to subjugate them and make yourself their ruler. When this scheme is well carried out, it will happen, as always, that the end you have in view will be attained. The city of Pistoia, as I have said in another discourse and apropos of another topic, was acquired by the republic of Florence by just such an artifice; for it was divided and the Florentines supported now one, now the other, party and, without making themselves obnoxious to either, led them on until they got sick of their turbulent way of living and in the end came to throw themselves voluntarily into the arms of Florence.

The city of Siena has never changed its form of government with the help of the Florentines except when their help was weak and infrequent; for, when it was frequent and strong, its effect was to make that city united in defence of the government in power.

I wish to add to the above-mentioned examples a further example. Filippo Visconti, Duke of Milan, several times made war on the Florentines, relying on their disunion, and in all cases came out the loser, so that when he was bewailing these attacks, he used to say that the follies of the Florentines had involved him in an expenditure of two millions in gold to no purpose.

It remained, then, that the Veientes and the Tuscans were mistaken on this point, as was said above, so that in the end there came a battle when the Romans conquered them. And in like manner will others find themselves mistaken, should they imagine that by such means and in such circumstances they can bring a people into subjection.