# XXIV explained — Discourses on Livy

> Chapter companion for Discourses on Livy by Niccolò Machiavelli.

## What happens

This chapter argues that well-ordered states must maintain a strict separation between rewards for good deeds and punishments for misdeeds, never balancing past services against present crimes. Using the examples of Horatius, Manlius Capitolinus, and others, it shows how Rome upheld this principle, rewarding valor with modest gifts but punishing subsequent offenses without regard to former merits, thereby preserving liberty.

## Themes in this chapter

### Virtù and Fortune

The chapter emphasizes that individual virtue (e.g., Horatius's valor) must be rewarded, but fortune does not excuse subsequent crimes; the state must enforce justice regardless of past merits.

### Ingratitude and Suspicion in Republics

The apparent ingratitude of the Romans in trying Horatius is reinterpreted as a necessary safeguard against the arrogance that would arise if past services were allowed to excuse future misdeeds.

### Leadership and Moral Character

The examples of Horatius and Manlius illustrate how leaders must be held accountable for their actions, and how a republic must maintain strict moral discipline to prevent tyranny.

## Character check-ins

### Horatius Cocles

Rewarded with two ploughgates of public land for his valor in defending the bridge against the Etruscans.

### Manlius Capitolinus

Received a small measure of meal for saving the Capitol from the Gauls, but later thrown from the same Capitol for sedition.

## Key lines

> That well-ordered states always provide rewards and punishments for their citizens; and never set off deserts against misdeeds.

A properly governed republic must have a system of rewards for good actions and punishments for bad ones, and it must never allow past merits to cancel out current crimes.

_This is the central thesis of the chapter, illustrated by the Roman treatment of Horatius and Manlius._

> For when a citizen has rendered some splendid service to his country, if to the distinction which his action in itself confers, were added an overweening confidence that any crime he might thenceforth commit would pass unpunished, he would soon become so arrogant that no civil bonds could restrain him.

If a citizen who performs a great deed also believes that his past service will protect him from punishment for future crimes, he will become too arrogant to be controlled by law.

_Machiavelli explains why it is dangerous to allow past merits to excuse present misdeeds: it breeds arrogance and undermines civil order._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/discourses_on_livy_se/chapters/xxiv
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/discourses_on_livy_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/discourses_on_livy_se/chapters