Machiavelli

Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469, in Florence, during the time Italy was broken up into four city-states.

During a French invasion was happening, the Medici family fled and Machiavelli became a diplomat in Italy's Florentine Republic. In the 14 years of a diplomat, Machiavelli earned a reputation for being deceitful, and he enjoyed appearing more shameless that he truly was.

When the Medici family gained power again, Machiavelli decided to form a Florentine militia- military formed through civil population- against the Medici family. Fortunately, his plan to get rid of the Medici family failed, but he was soon captured, tortured, jailed, then banished from an active role in political service. In 1519, Leo X commissioned Machiavelli to write a report about the changes of the states of Florence. In 1521-1525, Machiavelli was employed in diplomatic services and as an historiographer.

The Prince was about monarchical rule and how to rule. Some people however, believed that Machiavelli wrote the Prince as a satire- for humor, irony, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity- in this case, Lorenzo de' Medici.

Pope Clement VIII condemned the Prince for its approval of deceit and fear. One excerpt from the book says, "Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved." One reason Pope Clement VIII condemned this book is this sentence, because it is saying that if we were to choose, we should make people fear us, rather than show kindness.

Here is a little video where I read a few excerpts from the Prince