# CHAPTER 21 — How Much Blame a Prince or a Republic Which Lacks Its Own Armed Forces Deserves

Contemporary princes and modern republics who lack their own troops for either defence or offence should be ashamed of themselves, and they should consider, on the basis of Tullus’ example, * that such a defect is due not to a lack of men capable of military service, but rather to a defect of their own, since they have not known how to make soldiers out of their own men. When Tullus succeeded to the throne after Rome had been at peace for forty years, he did not find a single man who had ever been to war; nevertheless, while planning to wage war he did not think of using either the Samnites or the Etruscans or any other people accustomed to serving in armed forces, but he resolved, as the extremely prudent man he was, to use his own subjects. His skill was so exceptional that under his rule he was quickly able to create extremely fine soldiers. And it is more true than any other truth that wherever men are not soldiers, this arises from the fault of the prince and not from any defect either of the site or of nature.

Of this a very recent example can be found. Everyone knows how in recent times the king of England attacked the kingdom of France and took no other troops than his own subjects, and since that kingdom had spent more than thirty years without waging war, it possessed no soldiers nor any commander who had ever served in the military; nevertheless, he was not afraid to attack with such soldiers a kingdom full of commanders and good troops who had continuously been at arms during the Italian wars. * All this derives from the fact that the king was a prudent man with a well-organized kingdom, who in peacetime did not neglect the institutions of war.

The Thebans Pelopidas and Epaminondas, after having freed Thebes and having led her away from the servitude of Spartan rule, found themselves in a city accustomed to domination and amidst a people that had become soft, but so great was this people’s ability, that Pelopidas and Epaminondas did not fear arming the Thebans and, with them, taking the field against the Spartan armies and conquering them; the historian who writes about this feat * declares that in a short time these two men demonstrated that warriors were born not only in Lacedemonia but wherever men existed, if only one could find a man who knew how to train them for military service, as Tullus obviously knew how to train the Romans. And Virgil could not express this opinion better, nor could he show in any other words that he shared it, than where he says: ‘And Tullus restored his shiftless men to arms.’ *