Discourses on Livy

The Discourses on Livy (Italian: Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, literally "Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy") is a work of political history and philosophy written in the early 16th century (ca. 1517) by the Italian writer and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli, best known as the author of The Prince. Where the latter is nominally devoted to advising the ruler of a principality, in other words a type of monarchy, the Discourses purport to explain the structure and benefits of a republic, a form of government based on some level of popular consent and control.

Machiavelli dedicated this work to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai, two of the greatest exponents of the Orti Oricellari in Florence, where aristocratic young people met in order to discuss politics, art and literature.

Outline

The Prince is written in the form of a short digest, based primarily on empirical observations about great men. Machiavelli wrote the Discourses in the form of a longer commentary on Livy's work on the history of Ancient Rome, Ab Urbe condita. However, both books include empirical observations—particularly from the political landscape of Renaissance Italy—and historical generalizations. Machiavelli himself does not make a sharp distinction between the two methods of inquiry, as he thinks that all ages are fundamentally similar. Machiavelli seeks to use both methods to discover the laws of motion in human affairs, which he indicates are as unchanging as those of heaven, the sun and the elements.^[1]

The text is composed of three books. In Book I Machiavelli focuses on the internal structure of the republic. Book II is about matters of warfare. Book III is perhaps most similar to the teachings of The Prince, as it concerns individual leadership. The three books combined provide guidance to those trying to establish or reform a republic. However, his advice is (after Machiavelli's fashion) rather unorthodox, including a very long section on conspiracies, and seemingly providing advice to people seeking to overthrow a republic as well as those trying to establish one.

Although the formal title of the text translates as Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy, Machiavelli makes liberal references and allusions to the other surviving books of Ab Urbe conditia, as well as to other works of classical literature. He particularly makes jibes—mainly indirect—at Aristotle's Politics. He also cites examples from especially Polybius and Plutarch, as well as Xenophon. There is also much implicit criticism of medieval prejudices against early Rome, deriving from such influential patristic works as Augustine's City of God.

Reception and reaction

Francesco Guicciardini, Machiavelli's friend, read the book and wrote critical notes (Considerazioni) on many of the chapters. Jean-Jacques Rousseau considered the Discourses (as well as the Florentine Histories) to be more representative of Machiavelli's true philosophy:

Machiavelli was a proper man and a good citizen; but, being attached to the court of the Medici, he could not help veiling his love of liberty in the midst of his country's oppression. The choice of his detestable hero, Cesare Borgia, clearly enough shows his hidden aim; and the contradiction between the teaching of the Prince and that of the Discourses on Livy and the History of Florence shows that this profound political thinker has so far been studied only by superficial or corrupt readers. The Court of Rome sternly prohibited his book. I can well believe it; for it is that Court it most clearly portrays.

—Rousseau, The Social Contract, Book III.

Notes

1. ^ See for example Machiavelli's preface to the Discourses.

Further reading

• Pocock, J. G. A. (2003) [1975], The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition (2nd ed.), Princeton: Princeton University Press, ISBN 0691114722 . Traces the republican ideal of civic virtue from the ancients, through Machiavelli, to the English, Scottish, and American political traditions.
• Pocock, J. G. A. (1981), "The Machiavellian Moment Revisited: a Study in History and Ideology", Journal of Modern History 53: 49, doi:10.1086/242241 
• Skinner, Quentin (1978), Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Volume 1: The Renaissance, New York: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521220238 . Skinner contextualizes Machiavelli, bringing to light the intellectual discussions that preceded and influenced his work.
• Strauss, Leo (1978) [1958], Thoughts on Machiavelli, Chicago: University of Chicago, ISBN 0226777022 .
• Mansfield, Harvey (2001), New Modes and Orders, A study of the Discourses on Livy, University of Chicago, ISBN 0226503704 .
• Minowitz, Peter (1993), "Machiavellianism Come of Age? Leo Strauss on Modernity and Economics", The Political Science Reviewer 22 (1): 157–197, http://www.mmisi.org/pr/22_01/minowitz.pdf .
• Baron, Hans (1953), "The Composition and Structure of Machiavelli's Discorsi", Journal of the History of Ideas 14 (1): 136–156 .
• Bock, Gisela; Skinner, Quentin; Viroli, Maurizio, eds. (1990), Machiavelli and Republicanism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521383765 .
• Najemy, John M. (1996), "Baron's Machiavelli and Renaissance Republicanism", American Historical Review 101 (1): 119–129, doi:10.2307/2169227 .

External links

• "Full Text of the Discourses", Liberty Fund, Inc., http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Machiavelli0156/Writings/HTMLs/0076-02_Pt02_Disc.html 
• "Full Text of the Discourses" (in Italian), Bibliotheca Philosophica, http://www.latinamericanhistory.net/discorsi1.html