Niccolo Machiavelli

Military Studies.--On his return to

Florence early in January 1503, Machiavelli turned his mind to the existing conditions of military service in Italy. He was familiar with the disadvantages of the use of professional captains of adventure and mercenary troops. The bad faith of the condottiere Paolo Vitelli (beheaded at Florence in 1499) had deeply impressed him. In the war with Pisa he had observed the insubordination and untrustworthiness of soldiers gathered from the dregs of different districts, serving under irresponsible commanders. From Livy he learned to admire the Roman system of employing armies raised from the body of the citizens ; and Cesare Borgia's method of gradually substituting the troops of his own duchy for aliens and mercenaries showed him that the plan was feasible. He now determined, with the sup port of Soderini, to furnish Florence with a national militia. Early in 1503 Machiavelli drew up for Soderini a speech, Discorso sully provisione del danaro, in which the necessity of liberal expenditure on defence was expounded upon principles of sound political phil osophy. Between this date and the last month of 1506 Machiavelli worked out memorials on the subject for his office, and suggested the outlines of a new military organization. On Dec. 6, 1506, his plan was approved by the signoria, and a special ministry, called the nove di ordinanza e milizia, was appointed with Machiavelli as secretary. The country districts of the Florentine dominion were now divided into departments, and levies of foot soldiers were made in order to secure a standing militia. A commander-in-chief was found in Don Micheletto, Cesare Borgia's cut-throat and assassin. The appointment illustrates a radical infirmity in Machia velli's genius. His scheme in itself was inspired by principles of political wisdom and by the purest patriotism. But he failed to perceive that such a ruffian as Micheletto could not inspire the troops of Florence with patriotism and a healthy moral tone. Here, as elsewhere, he was insensible to ethical considerations.

Meanwhile Alexander VI. had died suddenly of fever, and Julius II. had ascended the papal chair. The duke of Valentinois had been checked in mid-career of conquest. The collapse of the Borgias threw Central Italy into confusion ; and Machiavelli had, in 1505, to visit the Baglioni at Perugia and the Petrucci at Siena. In the following year he accompanied Julius upon his march through Perugia into the province of Emilia, to subdue the rebel lious cities of the Church. Upon these embassies Machiavelli rep resented the Florentine dieci. Meanwhile the war for the recovery of Pisa dragged on. Machiavelli had to attend the camp and pro vide for levies amid his many other occupations. Yet in the autumn. of 1504 he began his Decennali, or Annals of Italy, a poem com posed in rough terza rima. About the same time he composed a comedy Le Maschere, now lost, on the model of Aristophanes.

At the end of 1507 European affairs diverted Machiavelli from his duties in organizing the new militia. Maximilian was arranging for his coronation in Rome, and was levying subsidies from the imperial burghs. The Florentines thought his demands excessive, and Machiavelli was sent to his court in December. He travelled by Geneva, through Switzerland, to Bozen (Bolzano), where he found the emperor. This journey enabled him to study the Swiss and the Germans in their homes ; his report on it is among his most effective political studies, remarkable for his concentrated effort to realize the exact political weight of the German nation, and to penetrate the causes of its strength and weakness. He

attempts to grasp the national character as a whole, and to deduce practical conclusions. The same qualities are noticeable in his Ritratti delle rose di Francia, which he drew up after an embassy to Louis XII. at Blois in 1510. These French notes are more scattered than the German report. But they reveal the same imaginative penetration into the very essence of national existence.

Machiavelli returned from Germany in June 1508. Chiefly through his exertions the Pisan war was terminated by the sur render of Pisa in June 1509. Meanwhile the league of Cambrai had disturbed the peace of Italy, and Florence found herself in a perilous position between Spain and France. Soderini's govern ment grew weaker. The Medicean party lifted up its head. To the league of Cambrai succeeded the Holy League. The battle of Ravenna was fought, and the French retired from Italy. The cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, who was present at the battle of Ravenna, brought a Spanish army into Tuscany. Prato was sacked in the August of 1512. Florence, in extreme terror, deposed the gonfalonier Soderini, and opened her gates to the Medici.

Fall of Machiavelli.

The government on which Machiavelli depended had fallen, never to rise again. The national militia in which he placed unbounded confidence had proved inefficient to protect Florence. His political and personal enemies regarded him with jealousy as the ex-gonfalonier's right-hand man. He showed no repugnance to a change of masters, and began to make over tures to the Medici. The nove della milizia were, however, dis solved ; and on Nov. 7, 1512, Machiavelli was deprived of his appointments. He was exiled from Florence and confined to the dominion for one year, and on Nov. 17 was prohibited from set ting foot in the Palazzo Pubblico. He was implicated in the con spiracy of Pier Paolo Boscoli in February 1513, though he had no share in it, because his name was found upon a memorandum dropped by Boscoli. He was racked, and only released upon Giovanni de' Medici's election to the papacy in March '513. When he left his dungeon he retired to a farm near San Casciano. His political career, now at an end, left him with only disappointment and annoyance. Losing his emoluments, he could barely support his family.

He had lived a continuously active life. Much as he enjoyed the study of the Latin and Italian classics, literature was not his business ; nor had he looked on writing as more than an occasional amusement. He was now driven in upon his books for the employ ment of a restless temperament ; and to this irksomeness of en forced leisure may be ascribed the production of the Principe, the Discorsi, the Arte della guerra, the comedies, and the Historie fiorentine. His letters to Vettori paint a man of vigorous intellect and feverish activity, dividing his time between studies and vulgar dissipation. It is very difficult to understand the spirit in which the author of the Principe sat down to exchange obscenities with the author of the Sommario della storia d'Italia. This coarseness of taste did not blunt his intellectual sagacity. His letters on public affairs in Italy and Europe, especially those which he meant Vettori to communicate to the Medici at Rome, are marked by extraordinary fineness of perception, and philosophical breadth.