History Of Florence and Of The Affairs Of Italy

Go to thy father, and tell him that sword wounds are cured with iron and not with words...!

eBook DESCRIPTION

Theodoric possessed great talents both for war and peace; in the former he was always conqueror, and in the latter he conferred very great benefits upon the cities and people under him. He distributed the Ostrogoths over the country, each district under its leader, that he might more conveniently command them in war, and govern them in peace. He enlarged Ravenna, restored Rome, and, with the exception of military discipline, conferred upon the Romans every honor.

eBook TAGS

Tyrannical Rule, Greatness, Political Strategy, Political Science, Political Philosophy, Fortune, Virtue, War, Human Nature, Power, Florence Italy History, Military Art, Political Ethics

eBook EXCERPT or SYNOPSIS

Florence is a major historical city in Italy, distinguished as one of the most outstanding economic, cultural, political and artistic centers in the peninsula from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Machiavelli was an Italian historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He was for many years an official in the Florentine Republic, with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He was a founder of modern political science, and more specifically political ethics. He also wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. His personal correspondence is renowned in the Italian language. He was Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici were out of power. He wrote his masterpiece, The Prince, after the Medici had recovered power and he no longer held a position of responsibility in Florence.
The Florentine Histories: Machiavelli?s longest work?commissioned by Pope Leo X in 1520, presented to Pope Clement VII in 1525, and first published in 1532?is a history of Florence from its origin to the death of Lorenzo di Piero de? Medici in 1492. Adopting the approach of humanist historians before him, Machiavelli used the plural ?histories,? dividing his account into ?books? with nonhistorical introductions and invented speeches presented as if they were actual reports. His history, moreover, takes place in a nonhistorical context?a contest between virtue and fortune. The theme of the Florentine Histories is the city?s remarkable party division, which, unlike the divisions in ancient Rome, kept the city weak and corrupt. Like the Discourses on Livy, the Florentine Histories contains (less bold) criticism of the church and popes and revealing portraits of leading characters, especially of the Medici (the book is organized around the return of Cosimo de? Medici [1389?1464] to Florence in 1434 after his exile). It also features an exaggeratedly ?Machiavellian? oration by a plebeian leader, apparently Michele di Lando, who was head of the 1378 Revolt of the Ciompi (?wool carders?), a rebellion of Florence?s lower classes that resulted in the formation of the city?s most democratic (albeit short-lived) government. Although not a modern historian, Machiavelli, with his emphasis on ?diverse effects,? exhibits some of the modern historian?s devotion to facts.