# CHAPTER 10 — The Founders of a Republic or a Kingdom Deserve As Much Praise As Those Who Found a Tyranny Deserve Blame

Among all men who are praised, the most highly praised are those who have been leaders and founders of religions. Close afterwards come those who have founded either republics or kingdoms. After them the most celebrated men are those who, placed at the head of armies, have enlarged either their own realm or that of their native country. To these may be added men of letters, who, being of many types, are each celebrated according to his level of accomplishment. To other men, infinite in number, some portion of praise may be attributed, on the basis of their profession or its practice. On the contrary, infamous and detestable are those men who have been destroyers of religions, wasters of kingdoms and republics, enemies of the virtues, of letters, and of every other profession that brings honour and advantage to the human race, such as the impious, the violent, the ignorant, the worthless, the lazy, and the cowardly. And no one will ever be so foolish or so wise, so bad or so good, that, faced with the choice between these two kinds of men, he will not praise what is to be praised and blame what is to be blamed. None the less, in the end almost all men, deceived by a false good and a false glory, allow themselves, either willingly or through ignorance, to pass into the ranks of those who deserve more blame than praise, and having the capacity to create, to their everlasting honour, either a republic or a kingdom, they turn to tyranny, failing to realize how much fame, how much glory, how much honour, security, tranquillity, and peace of mind they are losing through this choice, and how much infamy, disgrace, blame, danger, and anxiety they incur.

If they read the histories and made good capital out of the records of ancient affairs, it would be impossible for those living as private citizens in a republic, even if they have become its princes through fortune or exceptional ability, not to want to live in their native land as Scipio rather than Caesar, if they are private citizens, and as Agesilauses, Timoleons, and Dions, rather than Nabises, Phalarises, and Dionysiuses, if they are princes, because they would see that the latter were strongly condemned, while the former were extravagantly praised. * They would also see that Timoleon and the others possessed no less authority in their countries than Dionysius and Phalaris, and that they had greater security over a long period of time.

Nor should anyone be deceived by Caesar’s glory, hearing him celebrated with the highest praise by the ancient writers, because those who praise him are seduced by his good fortune and terrified by the duration of the empire which was ruled under his name and did not permit writers to speak freely about him. * But anyone who wishes to know what writers, when free, would say about him should see what they say about Catiline. * Caesar is all the more detestable, just like the man who is to be blamed more for committing an evil deed than for wishing to do so. Also, let the reader see how they celebrate Brutus with so much praise, to the extent that, unable to blame Caesar because of his power, they celebrate his enemy. *

Furthermore, let any man who has become a prince in a republic consider how much more deserving of praise were those emperors who lived under the laws and as good princes after Rome became an empire than those who lived in a contrary fashion, and he will see that Titus, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, and Marcus had no need of praetorian guards or a multitude of legions to defend them, because their habits, the goodwill of the people, and the love of the senate defended them. Such a prince will also observe that for Caligula, Nero, Vitellius, and so many other villainous emperors the eastern and western armies were insufficient to save them from the enemies that their evil habits and their wicked lives had created for them. If the history of these men were carefully examined, it would be a sufficient lesson to demonstrate to any prince the path to glory or to blame, and to security or to fear. Of the twenty-six emperors that existed from Caesar to Maximinus, sixteen of them were murdered and ten died natural deaths; and if among those who were murdered there were several good ones, such as Galba and Pertinax, they were killed by the corruption their predecessors had left behind in the soldiers; and if among those who died natural deaths there was one wicked man, such as Severus, it came about as the result of his very great fortune and ability, * two qualities found together in few men. A prince will also see through the reading of this history how one can organize a good kingdom: all the emperors who took the imperial throne through hereditary succession, with the exception of Titus, were bad; those who did so through adoption were all good, as were those five from Nerva to Marcus; and when the empire lapsed into hereditary succession, it came again to ruin.

Let a prince, therefore, carefully consider the times from Nerva to Marcus, let him compare them with the times that came before and afterward, and then let him choose the period in which he would like to be born or in which he would like to be put in charge. * In those times governed by good emperors, he will see a ruler secure in the midst of secure citizens, and the world full of peace and justice; he will see the senate with its authority, the magistrates with their honours, the wealthy citizens enjoying their wealth, nobility and talent exalted; he will see every kind of tranquillity and well-being, and, on the other hand, the elimination of every kind of rancour, licence, corruption, and ambition; he will see a golden age where each person can hold and defend the opinions that he wishes. He will see, in conclusion, the world in triumph, its prince in possession of respect and glory, its peoples of love and security. If he will next consider in close detail the times of the other emperors, he will see them filled with atrocities on account of the wars, filled with dissension on account of sedition, cruel both in times of peace and in times of war; he will see so many princes dead by the sword, so many civil wars, so many foreign wars; and he will see Italy afflicted and full of new disasters, * her cities devastated and sacked. He will see Rome burned, the Capitol destroyed by her own citizens, the ancient temples desolate, their rites corrupted, the cities filled with adulteries; he will see the sea covered with exiles, the shores with blood. He will see countless cruelties committed in Rome, and he will see nobility, wealth, past honours, and, above all, exceptional ability judged to be capital sins. He will see false accusers rewarded, servants corrupted to turn against their masters and freedmen against their [former] owners, and those who lack enemies oppressed by their friends. He will then understand very well what a debt Rome, Italy, and the world owe to Caesar.

And without doubt, if he is of human birth, the prince will be dismayed by any imitation of evil times and will burn with a powerful desire to follow the good ones. Truly, if a prince seeks earthly glory, he should have the desire to possess a corrupt city, not to ruin it completely, as Caesar did, but to reorganize it, as Romulus did, for the heavens cannot bestow upon men a greater opportunity for glory, nor can men wish for a greater one. If it were necessary to abandon a city in order to reorganize it properly, a man who failed to do so in order to avoid losing his rank might deserve some excuse, but were he able both to retain the principality and to reorganize it, he would deserve no excuse whatsoever. In conclusion, let those to whom the heavens grant such opportunities consider that there are two paths open before them: one enables them to live in security and, after their death, renders them illustrious; the other causes them to live in continuous anxiety and, after their death, to leave behind an eternal legacy of infamy.