CHAPTER
TWENTY
ON
THE DANGERS TO A PRINCE OR REPUBLIC IN MAKING USE OF AN AUXILIARY
OR MERCENARY ARMY
Had I not discussed at length in another of my works the uselessness of a mercenary and auxiliary army as opposed to the usefulness of one’s own, I would have extended my discussion further in this chapter.180 But as I have already discussed this matter extensively, I shall be brief. However, I did not think it appropriate to pass over it entirely, as I found in Livy so many examples of the use of auxiliary troops. Auxiliary troops are those which another prince or republic sends to help you, and which they pay and command. Turning to Livy’s text,181 the Romans had in two instances routed Samnite armies with troops that they had sent to help the Campanians who were warring with the Samnites. Having freed the Campanians from the Samnites, the Romans returned to Rome, leaving two legions in their city of Capua as a defense force so that the Campanians would not fall prey to the Samnites again. These legions succumbed to idleness, which they came to enjoy so much that they forgot Rome and their duty to the Senate, and decided to take up arms and become masters of the territory they had so skillfully defended. In their view, the Campanians were not worthy of owning the land they could not defend.182 When Rome realized what was happening, it intervened, as I shall discuss in greater detail when I talk about conspiracies.183 Therefore I repeat: Of all the kinds of soldiers, auxiliary troops are the most harmful, because the prince or republic that resorts to them has no authority over them; only he who has sent the auxiliary troops does. As I have pointed out, auxiliary troops are sent by a ruler under the command of his own generals and banners, and are paid by him, as was the army that the Romans had sent to Capua. After a victory, such troops will in most cases prey on those who called upon them for defense as well as those whom they were there to fight. These auxiliaries will do this either through the malignity of the ruler who sent them, or because of their own ambitions. Though Rome had intended to uphold its treaties and agreements with the Campanians, those two legions had overcome the Campanians with such ease that Rome did not long hesitate to seize their government and territories. One could cite many examples, but I would like this one to suffice, along with that of the people of Rhegium, whose lives and lands were taken by a legion that the Romans had sent to defend them.184
Therefore, princes or republics must choose any means other than auxiliary troops to defend them if they have to depend on them entirely, because any pact or agreement with the enemy, no matter how harsh, will be easier to bear than this alternative. If one reads carefully about past events and examines present events, one will find that for every ruler who benefited from auxiliary troops there have been countless rulers who were deceived. An ambitious prince or republic cannot hope for a better opportunity to occupy a city or country than to be asked to send in his army to defend it. Consequently, anyone so ambitious as to call in an auxiliary army, not only in his own defense but in order to attack others, is seeking to acquire territory he cannot hold and which can easily be taken from him. But man’s ambition is so great that in order to satisfy a wish of the moment, he will not think of the evil that will soon enough descend upon him as a result. Nor do examples from ancient times move him in this or any other matter we have discussed, because if man took notice of them, he would understand that the more generosity he shows toward his neighbors and the more disinclination to occupy them, the more eager they will be to throw themselves into his arms.
180. See The Prince, chapter 12, titled “Of the Different Types of Armies, and of Mercenaries,” and chapter 13, titled “The Auxiliary Army, the Citizen Army, and the Army That Combines the Two.”
181. Livy, Book VII, chapter 33 and following.
182. Livy (Book VII, chapter 38) writes: “The soldiers, beguiled by all the pleasures and delights around them, soon relinquished all memory of Rome. In the winter they gathered together to conspire on how they might seize Capua by illicit means. […] ‘Why should these lands, the most fertile in all of Italy, and this worthy city, belong to the Campanians, who cannot even defend their lives or their possessions? Why should Capua not belong to our victorious army, the army that drove away the Samnites with our sweat and blood?’”
183. See Book III, chapter 6, p. 285.
184. Polybius in Histories (Book I, chapter 7) writes: “The people of Rhegium, when Pyrrhus was crossing to Italy […] requested protection and help from the Romans. A Roman garrison of four thousand, under the command of a Campanian named Decius, entered the city and for a time preserved it and the people’s faith […] but attracted to the pleasant land and the private wealth of the citizens, they seized the city.”