








CHAPTER IV - WHY THE KINGDOM OF DARIUS, CONQUERED BY ALEXANDER, DID NOT REBEL AGAINST THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER AT HIS DEATH

CONSIDERING the difficulties which men have had to hold a newly
acquired state, some might wonder how, seeing that Alexander the Great
became the master of Asia in a few years, and died whilst it was yet
scarcely settled (whence it might appear reasonable that the whole
empire would have rebelled), nevertheless his successors maintained
themselves, and had to meet no other difficulty than that which
arose among themselves from their own ambitions.

I answer that the principalities of which one has record are found
to be governed in two different ways: either by a prince, with a
body of servants, who assist him to govern the kingdom as ministers by
his favour and permission; or by a prince and barons, who hold that
dignity by antiquity of blood and not by the grace of the prince. Such
barons have states and their own subjects, who recognize them as lords
and hold them in natural affection. Those states that are governed
by a prince and his servants hold their prince in more
consideration, because in all the country there is no one who is
recognized as superior to him, and if they yield obedience to
another they do it as to a minister and official, and they do not bear
him any particular affection.

The examples of these two governments in our time are the Turk and
the King of France. The entire monarchy of the Turk is governed by one
lord, the others are his servants; and, dividing his kingdom into
sanjaks, he sends there different administrators, and shifts and
changes them as he chooses. But the King of France is placed in the
midst of an ancient body of lords, acknowledged by their own subjects,
and beloved by them; they have their own prerogatives, nor can the
king take these away except at his peril. Therefore, he who
considers both of these states will recognize great difficulties in
seizing the state of the Turk, but, once it is conquered, great ease
in holding it. The causes of the difficulties in seizing the kingdom
of the Turk are that the usurper cannot be called in by the princes of
the kingdom, nor can he hope to be assisted in his designs by the
revolt of those whom the lord has around him. This arises from the
reasons given above; for his ministers, being all slaves and
bondmen, can only be corrupted with great difficulty, and one can
expect little advantage from them when they have been corrupted, as
they cannot carry the people with them, for the reasons assigned.
Hence, he who attacks the Turk must bear in mind that he will find him
united, and he will have to rely more on his own strength than on
the revolt of others; but, if once the Turk has been conquered, and
routed in the field in such a way that he cannot replace his armies,
there is nothing to fear but the family of the prince, and, this being
exterminated, there remains no one to fear, the others having no
credit with the people; and as the conqueror did not rely on them
before his victory, so he ought not to fear them after it.

The contrary happens in kingdoms governed like that of France,
because one can easily enter there by gaining over some baron of the
kingdom, for one always finds malcontents and such as desire a change.
Such men, for the reasons given, can open the way into the state and
render the victory easy; but if you wish to hold it afterwards, you
meet with infinite difficulties, both from those who have assisted you
and from those you have crushed. Nor is it enough for you to have
exterminated the family of the prince, because the lords that remain
make themselves the heads of fresh movements against you, and as you
are unable either to satisfy or exterminate them, that state is lost
whenever time brings the opportunity.

Now if you will consider what was the nature of the government of
Darius, you will find it similar to the kingdom of the Turk, and
therefore it was only necessary for Alexander, first to overthrow
him in the field, and then to take the country from him. After which
victory, Darius being killed, the state remained secure to
Alexander, for the above reasons. And if his successors had been
united they would have enjoyed it securely and at their ease, for
there were no tumults raised in the kingdom except those they provoked
themselves.

But it is impossible to hold with such tranquillity states
constituted like that of France. Hence arose those frequent rebellions
against the Romans in Spain, France, and Greece, owing to the many
principalities there were in these states, of which, as long as the
memory of them endured, the Romans always held an insecure possession;
but with the power and long continuance of the empire the memory of
them passed away, and the Romans then became secure possessors. And
when fighting afterwards amongst themselves, each one was able to
attach to himself his own parts of the country, according to the
authority he had assumed there; and the family of the former lord
being exterminated, none other than the Romans were acknowledged.

When these things are remembered no one will marvel at the ease with
which Alexander held the Empire of Asia, or at the difficulties
which others have had to keep an acquisition, such as Pyrrhus and many
more; this is not occasioned by the little or abundance of ability
in the conqueror, but by the want of uniformity in the subject state.


