Discourses on Livy · Chapter
XVI explained
Machiavelli discusses the difficulty a people accustomed to living under a prince faces in preserving freedom if they suddenly become free, using the example of Rome after the expulsion of the Tarquins.
What happens
Machiavelli discusses the difficulty a people accustomed to living under a prince faces in preserving freedom if they suddenly become free, using the example of Rome after the expulsion of the Tarquins. He argues that such a people, like a wild animal raised in captivity, is ill-equipped to maintain liberty and often falls back under a heavier yoke. He also examines the challenges of a newly free state, which makes bitter enemies of those who benefited from the old tyranny but gains few warm friends, as the common benefits of freedom are often taken for granted. The remedy, he suggests, is to eliminate the sons of Brutus—those who conspire against the new order—and to secure the state by making the people friends through laws that ensure general security.
Themes in this chapter
Leadership and Moral Character
Machiavelli discusses the difficult choices a prince or ruler must make to secure his authority, such as eliminating enemies and enacting laws that satisfy the people, highlighting the moral complexities of leadership.
Necessity and Reason of State
The chapter emphasizes the necessity of harsh measures, like slaying the sons of Brutus, to preserve a newly free state, illustrating the principle that the security of the state may require actions that would otherwise be considered unjust.
Virtù and Fortune
The discussion of a people's ability to maintain freedom after becoming free touches on the role of virtù (civic virtue and capability) versus fortune (accidental circumstances), as a corrupted people cannot sustain liberty.
Characters to notice
- Clearchus
Tyrant of Heraclea who, after being recalled by the nobles, killed them to satisfy the people's desire for vengeance and secure his position.
- Brutus
His sons conspired against the newly free Roman republic because they missed the privileges they enjoyed under the kings; Machiavelli cites the necessity of eliminating such threats.
- Tarquin
The Tarquins were expelled from Rome, leading to the establishment of a free republic; their removal is a key example of a people becoming free.
Key passages
“Should a people accustomed to live under a prince by any accident become free, as did the Romans on the expulsion of the Tarquins, we know from numberless instances recorded in ancient history, how hard it will be for it to maintain that freedom.”
If a people who have always been ruled by a prince suddenly gain their freedom, like the Romans did after kicking out the Tarquins, history shows it's extremely difficult for them to keep that freedom.
Machiavelli introduces the central thesis of the chapter, comparing such a people to a wild animal raised in captivity.
“For a people in such circumstances may be likened to the wild animal which, though destined by nature to roam at large in the woods, has been reared in the cage and in constant confinement and which, should it chance to be set free in the open country, being unused to find its own food, and unfamiliar with the coverts where it might lie concealed, falls a prey to the first who seeks to recapture it.”
Such a people is like a wild animal that was raised in a cage; if released into the wild, it doesn't know how to find food or hide, so it quickly gets caught again.
This metaphor illustrates the vulnerability of a people unaccustomed to self-governance.
“Now, to meet these difficulties and their attendant disorders, there is no more potent, effectual, wholesome, and necessary remedy than to slay the sons of Brutus.”
The best and most necessary solution to these problems is to eliminate the sons of Brutus—those who conspire against the new order.
Machiavelli advocates for decisive, even violent, action to secure a newly free state against internal threats.