# CHAPTER 43 — That Men Born in One Province Display Almost the Same Nature in Every Age

Prudent men are in the habit of saying, neither by chance nor without reason, that anyone wishing to see what is to be must consider what has been: all the things of this world in every era have their counterparts in ancient times. This occurs since these actions are carried out by men who have and have always had the same passions, which, of necessity, must give rise to the same results. It is true that their actions are more effective at one time in this province than in that, and at another, in that rather than this one, according to the form of the education from which these peoples have derived their way of living. Understanding future affairs through past ones is also facilitated by observing how a nation over a lengthy period of time keeps the same customs, being either continuously avaricious or continuously deceitful, or having some other similar vice or virtue. Anyone who reads about the past affairs of our city of Florence and examines what has occurred recently will discover the German and French peoples to be full of greed, pride, ferocity, and faithlessness, because all these four qualities have, at different times, harmed our city. As for breach of faith, everyone knows how many times King Charles VIII was given money and how he promised to return the fortresses of Pisa and never did so. In this the king demonstrated his perfidiousness and extreme greed. But let us leave aside such fresh examples. Everyone has probably heard about what happened in the war that the Florentine people waged against the Visconti dukes of Milan; deprived of all other expedients, Florence thought about bringing the emperor with his reputation and forces into Italy to attack Lombardy. The emperor promised to come with many soldiers and to wage war against the Visconti and to defend Florence from their power, if the Florentines gave him 100,000 ducats to move his troops and another 100,000 when he arrived in Italy. The Florentines agreed to these conditions and gave him the first payment and then the second, but after he reached Verona he turned back without engaging in any action, claiming he remained behind because the Florentines had not kept the agreements between them. Thus, if Florence had not been constrained by necessity or overcome by passion, and if it had read about and understood the ancient customs of the barbarians, it would never have been, either on this occasion or on many others, deceived by them, since they have always acted in the same way and have always employed the same methods in every instance and with everyone. This is evident from what they did in ancient times to the Etruscans; oppressed by the Romans by virtue of having been put to flight and defeated by them many times, and seeing that with their own forces alone they could not resist the Roman onslaught, the Etruscans made an agreement with the Gauls who lived in Italy on this side of the Alps to give them a sum of money, so that they would be obligated to bring their armies to join with the Etruscans in the march against the Romans; and it came about that the Gauls, having taken the money, did not then want to take up arms on their behalf, claiming that they had not received the money to wage war with their enemies but rather to abstain from pillaging the Etruscan countryside. Thus, because of the greed and treachery of the Gauls, the Etruscan peoples were left in a single stroke deprived both of their money and the assistance they expected from the Gauls. So, this example of the ancient Etruscans and that of the Florentines make it clear that the French have always employed the same expedients, and for this reason, it is easy to speculate on how much faith princes can have in them.