# 11. That he who has to deal with several Foes, even though he be Weaker than they are, can actually Win, provided he can sustain their First Attack

The power of the tribunes of the plebs in the city of Rome was considerable, which was necessary since otherwise they could not have checked the ambition of the nobility, as we have frequently pointed out;61 and the nobility would in that case have corrupted the republic long before they did. Nevertheless, because inherent in everything is its own peculiar malady, as has been said elsewhere, and this gives rise to fresh misfortunes, it is necessary to provide against them by fresh enactments. Hence, when the tribunes grew arrogant in the use of their authority and became a menace alike to the nobility and to the whole of Rome, there would have arisen an inconvenience harmful to Roman liberty if Appius Claudius had not shown how the ambition of the tribunes might be counteracted. This consisted in looking among them for someone who was either timorous or corruptible or devoted to the common good, and who could thus be induced to oppose the will of the rest when they were proposing to do something contrary to the will of the senate. This remedy acted in no small measure as a restraint on the excessive authority of the tribunes and was often of service to Rome.

This leads me on to consider how it sometimes happens that, when many powers are united against a single power, though in combination they are much more powerful than it is, yet more is always to be expected from the single power, though less strong, than from the many even though very strong, for apart from the many advantages which a single power has over the many – and they are countless – there is always this: it will be able by using a little industry to break up the many, and to make what was a strong body, weak. I shall not adduce examples from ancient history, for they would be many, but shall content myself with modern examples which have happened in our own times.

In 1483 all Italy formed a confederation against the Venetians, who, since they had lost everything and their army could no longer hold its own in the field, suborned Signor Ludovico who was ruling in Milan and by means of this managed to obtain terms by which they not only recovered their lost lands, but obtained part of the state of Ferrara. Thus, though they were losing the war, when peace came, they were better off than before.

A few years ago the whole world formed a confederation against France, yet, before the war came to an end, Spain had fallen out with the confederation and made peace on its own account, with the result that the remaining confederates shortly afterwards also had to come to terms with France.

The conclusion to be drawn from this is obvious. If the many make war on the one, the one will come out of it best provided her virtue be such that she can sustain the first attack and await her opportunity by procrastinating. For, should she not be able to do this, a host of dangers may ensue, as happened to Venice in ’08 when, could she have temporized with the French army and have found time to win over one of the states confederated against her, she might have avoided disaster. But since in arms she was not sufficiently stronga to be able to temporize with the enemy, and so had not time to persuade any power to leave the confederation, she was undone. Yet one finds that the Pope, once he had recovered his lost territory, became her ally, and so did Spain; and either of these two princes would have been very glad to help her to save Lombardy so as to prevent the French becoming too powerful in Italy, had they been able to do so. Hence the Venetians, by giving up part of their territories, might have saved the rest; and this would have been a very wise course had it been done in time before the war broke out so that they should not appear to have been driven to it. But after the war had begun it would have been reprehensible, and probably of but little use. Yet, before war broke out, few Venetian citizens saw the danger, and still fewer the remedy; and there was no one to advise them.

But to come back to where we started. The conclusion I draw from this discourse is that, just as the Roman senate found means to save their country from the ambition of the tribunes because there were many tribunes, so any prince who is assailed by many, has a remedy to hand, if he be wise enough to take appropriate steps to break up the confederation.