CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ON HOW ONE RISES FROM LOW TO HIGH ESTATE THROUGH DECEPTION MORE THAN THROUGH FORCE

I consider it true that men of low fortune rarely if ever reach high rank without using either force or deception, though such rank can also be reached by gift or heredity. I also believe that force alone is never enough, though deception alone can be. Anyone who reads about the lives of Philip of Macedon, Agathocles of Sicily¹⁶⁷ and many other such men will see that those of the lowest or at least limited fortune have gained kingdoms or great empires through deception. Xenophon in his life of Cyrus also demonstrates the necessity of deception.¹⁶⁸ If one considers Cyrus’s first expedition against the king of Armenia, one will see that it is marked by deception, and that Cyrus occupied that kingdom through trickery, not force.¹⁶⁹ One can only conclude that a prince who aspires to great deeds must learn to deceive. Cyrus also deceived his maternal uncle Cyaxares, the king of the Medes, in many ways, and Xenophon demonstrates how Cyrus would not have been able to achieve the greatness that he did without this deception.

Nor do I believe that any man of low fortune who attained great power managed to do so through sincerity and open force, but only through deception. Giovanni Galeazzo’s seizing power and control of Lombardy from his uncle, Messer Bernabò, is another example.¹⁷⁰ And what a prince is compelled to do as he begins to expand his state, a republic must also do until it has become powerful enough to use force alone. Rome prevailed because by choice or chance it always used any means necessary to achieve greatness. As Rome began to expand, it could not have resorted to greater deception than it used in acquiring allies, which I have described above, because through these alliances it made these allies its slaves, which was the fate of the Latins and the other peoples surrounding Rome. First Rome used these peoples’ armies to subjugate the peoples living adjacent to their territories and strengthen Rome’s standing and prestige, and then, having subjugated them, Rome grew to such an extent that it could vanquish anyone. And all the while, the Latins did not realize they had become slaves until they saw the Samnites twice defeated and forced into a treaty¹⁷¹ Through this victory, the Romans increased their standing with distant princes, who now encountered Rome’s prestige though not Rome’s armies. But this victory also generated envy and suspicion among those who did encounter and experience Rome’s armies, among them the Latins. This envy and fear were so great that not only the Latins, but also their colonies in Latium, along with the Campanians, who had only recently been defended by the Romans, all conspired against Rome. The Latins started the war, as I have already mentioned, in the way most wars are started: They did not attack the Romans, but defended the Sidicini against the Samnites, who were fighting with the sanction of the Romans. Livy shows us that the Latins attacked once they became aware of the Roman deception. He has Annius Setinus say: “For under the semblance of a treaty between equals we have already been enslaved.”¹⁷² So it is clear that in their initial expansions the Romans were ready enough to resort to deception, which has always been necessary for those wanting to reach sublime heights from small beginnings. This deception is less deserving of vituperation the more it is concealed, as was the deception of the Romans.

167. Machiavelli also refers to Philip of Macedon (360–336 BCE) and Agathocles (361—289 BCE) in The Prince. In chapter 12: “The Thebans had made Philip of Macedon their general after the death of Epaminondas, but once Philip was victorious in battle he took away the Thebans’ liberty.” And in chapter 8: “One morning Agathocles called together the people and the senate of Syracuse as if to discuss important issues concerning the republic, and then at a signal to his soldiers had them kill all the senators and the richest men of the city.” (See also note 30 in The Prince.)

168. Machiavelli is referring to Xenophon’s Cyropaedia: In Book I, chapter 6, young Cyrus asks his father how one overcomes the enemy in battle, to which the father answers: “My son, this is not a simple question you are asking. He who intends to do this must be a plotter, cunning, deceitful, a cheat, a thief, and rapacious, and outdo his enemy in everything.”

169. Xenophon in Cyropaedia, Book II, chapter 4, has Cyrus explain his tactics of organizing hunting expeditions with his men near the borders of Armenia. When the day comes for him to invade, his presence with a large force of men will not arouse the suspicions of the Armenians.

170. Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1351–1402), ruler of Pavia, seized Milan and other territories of Lombardy from his uncle after imprisoning and executing him.

171. Livy describes these incidents in Book VII, chapters 33, 36, and 37.

172. Machiavelli is quoting Livy, Book VIII, chapter 4, in Latin: Nam si etiam nunc sub umbra foederis aequi servitutem pati possumus.