# CHAPTER 20 — Two Continuous Successions of Able Princes Produce Great Results; and Since Well-Organized Republics Necessarily Have a Succession of Able Rulers, Their Acquisitions and Growth Are Also Great

After Rome had driven out its kings, the dangers threatening the city, which we have described above as resulting in the succession of a king who was either weak or evil, disappeared, because the supreme authority resided in the consuls, who came to hold that authority not through heredity or trickery or violent ambition, but rather through the free votes of the people, and they were always the most excellent men. Since Rome enjoyed the exceptional ability and good fortune of men such as these, the city was eventually able to reach its pinnacle of greatness in the same number of years it spent under the rule of the kings. * Thus, it is evident that two continuous successions of able princes, such as Philip of Macedonia and Alexander the Great, are sufficient to conquer the world. * A republic ought to be able to accomplish even more, since it possesses through its method of election not only two successions but an infinite number of the most able princes who may succeed each other: this kind of skilful succession should always exist in every well-organized republic.