








CHAPTER V - CONCERNING THE WAY TO GOVERN CITIES OR PRINCIPALITIES WHICH LIVED UNDER THEIR OWN LAWS BEFORE THEY WERE ANNEXED

WHENEVER those states which have been acquired as stated have been
accustomed to live under their own laws and in freedom, there are
three courses for those who wish to hold them: the first is to ruin
them, the next is to reside there in person, the third is to permit
them to live under their own laws, drawing a tribute, and establishing
within it an oligarchy which will keep it friendly to you. Because
such a government, being created by the prince, knows that it cannot
stand without his friendship and interest, and does its utmost to
support him; and therefore he who would keep a city accustomed to
freedom will hold it more easily by the means of its own citizens than
in any other way.

There are, for example, the Spartans and the Romans. The Spartans
held Athens and Thebes, establishing there an oligarchy,
nevertheless they lost them. The Romans, in order to hold Capua,
Carthage, and Numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them. They
wished to hold Greece as the Spartans held it, making it free and
permitting its laws, and did not succeed. So to hold it they were
compelled to dismantle many cities in the country, for in truth
there is no safe way to retain them otherwise than by ruining them.
And he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not
destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it
has always the watch-word of liberty and its ancient privileges as a
rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it
to forget. And what ever you may do or provide against, they never
forget that name or their privileges unless they are disunited or
dispersed but at every chance they immediately rally to them, as
Pisa after the hundred years she had been held in bondage by the
Florentines.

But when cities or countries are accustomed to live under a
prince, and his family is exterminated, they, being on the one hand
accustomed to obey and on the other hand not having the old prince,
cannot agree in making one from amongst themselves, and they do not
know how to govern themselves. For this reason they are very slow to
take up arms, and a prince can gain them to himself and secure them
much more easily. But in republics there is more vitality, greater
hatred, and more desire for vengeance, which will never permit them to
allow the memory of their former liberty to rest; so that the safest
way is to destroy them or to reside there.


