Discourses on Livy · Chapter
How Princes and Commonwealths May Avoid the Vice of Ingratitude explained
This chapter examines the problem of ingratitude faced by princes and commonwealths toward successful military captains.
What happens
This chapter examines the problem of ingratitude faced by princes and commonwealths toward successful military captains. Machiavelli advises that a prince who wishes to avoid ingratitude should personally lead his armies, as the early Roman emperors and the Turk do. For a captain serving under an absent prince, only two courses are safe: either to modestly relinquish command after victory, or to boldly secure power for himself. Most captains, unable to be wholly good or wholly bad, waver and are destroyed. A commonwealth, unlike a prince, must send citizens as captains; Rome avoided ingratitude by involving the whole city in war, producing many valiant soldiers who checked each other's ambition, and by citizens who lived uprightly and showed no ambition.
Themes in this chapter
Ingratitude and Suspicion in Republics
The chapter directly addresses how princes and commonwealths can avoid the vice of ingratitude toward successful captains, and how suspicion leads to ingratitude.
Leadership and Moral Character
Discusses the character of princes who lead personally versus those who stay at home, and the conduct of captains who must choose between modesty or boldness.
Necessity and Reason of State
The chapter presents the necessity for a captain to either submit or seize power, and for a commonwealth to structure its military to avoid internal threats.
Characters to notice
- Titus Livius
Livy is the source for Roman examples of military conduct and the avoidance of ingratitude.
Key passages
“That he may not be tormented by suspicion, nor show ungrateful, a prince should go himself on his wars as the Roman emperors did at first, as the Turk does now, and, in short, as all valiant princes have done and do.”
To avoid suspicion and ingratitude, a prince should personally lead his armies, following the example of early Roman emperors, the current Turkish sultan, and all courageous rulers.
Machiavelli's core advice for princes to prevent ingratitude.
“I would counsel the captain whom he sends, since I am sure that he can never escape the attacks of ingratitude, to follow one or other of two courses, and either quit his command at once after a victory, and place himself in the hands of his prince, while carefully abstaining from every vainglorious or ambitious act, so that the prince, being relieved from all suspicion, may be disposed to reward, or at any rate not to injure him; or else, should he think it inexpedient for him to act in this way, to take boldly the contrary course, and fearlessly to follow out all such measures as he thinks will secure for himself, and not for his prince, whatever he has gained.”
For a captain serving an absent prince, only two safe paths exist: either humbly resign command after victory, avoiding all ambition, so the prince has no reason to suspect him; or, if that seems unwise, boldly seize control of the army, fortresses, and alliances to secure his own position against the prince's expected ingratitude.
Machiavelli's two options for a captain to survive the inevitable ingratitude of a prince.
“For the whole city, nobles and commons alike, taking part in her wars, there were always found in Rome at every stage of her history, so many valiant and successful soldiers, that by reason of their number, and from one acting as a check upon another, the nation had never ground to be jealous of any one man among them; while they, on their part, lived uprightly, and were careful to betray no sign of ambition, nor give the people the least cause to distrust them as ambitious; so that he obtained most glory from his dictatorship who was first to lay it down.”
Because all Roman citizens participated in war, there were always many capable commanders who kept each other in check, preventing jealousy toward any individual. The citizens themselves lived virtuously and showed no ambition, so the dictator who resigned his power most quickly earned the greatest glory.
Explanation of how Rome's inclusive military structure and virtuous citizens prevented ingratitude.