Machiavelli
The Prince
14
The
Duties of a Prince with Regard to the Militia
A
prince should therefore have no other aim or thought, nor take up any
other thing for his study, but war and its organization and discipline,
for that is the only art that is necessary to one who commands, and it is
of such virtue that it not only maintains those who are born princes, but
often enables men of private fortune to attain to that rank. And one sees,
on the other hand, that when princes think more of luxury than of arms,
they lose their state. The chief cause of the loss of states, is the
contempt of this art, and the way to acquire them is to be well versed in
the same.
Francesco
Sforza, through being well armed, became, from private status, Duke of
Milan; his sons, through wishing to avoid the fatigue and hardships of
war, from dukes became private persons. For among other evils caused by
being disarmed, it renders you contemptible; which is one of those
disgraceful things which a prince must guard against, as will be explained
later. Because there is no comparison whatever between an armed and a
disarmed man; it is not reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will
obey willingly one who is unarmed; or that any unarmed man will remain
safe among armed servants. For one being disdainful and the other
suspicious, it is not possible for them to act well together. And
therefore a prince who is ignorant of military matters, besides the other
misfortunes already mentioned, cannot be esteemed by his soldiers, nor
have confidence in them.
He
ought, therefore, never to let his thoughts stray from the exercise of
war; and in peace he ought to practise it more than in war, which he can
do in two ways: by action and by study. As to action, he must, besides
keeping his men well disciplined and exercised, engage continually in
hunting and thus accustom his body to hardships; and meanwhile learn the
nature of the land, how steep the mountains are, how the valleys debouch,
where the plains lie, and understand the nature of rivers and swamps. To
all this he should devote great attention. This knowledge is useful in two
ways. In the first place, one learns to know one’s country, and can the
better see how to defend it. Then by means of the knowledge and experience
gained in one locality, one can easily understand any other that it may be
necessary to observe; for the hills and valleys, plains and rivers of
Tuscany, for instance, have a certain resemblance to those of other
provinces, so that from a knowledge of the country in one province one can
easily arrive at a knowledge of others. And that prince who is lacking in
this skill is wanting in the first essentials of a leader; for it is this
which teaches how to find the enemy, take up quarters, lead armies, plan
battles and lay siege to towns with advantage.
Philopoemen,
prince of the Achaei, among other praises bestowed on him by writers, is
lauded because in times of peace he thought of nothing but the methods of
warfare, and when he was in the country with his friends, he often stopped
and asked them: If the enemy were on that hill and we found ourselves here
with our army, which of us would have the advantage? How could we safely
approach him maintaining our order? If we wished to retire, what ought we
to do? If they retired, how should we follow them? And he put before them
as they went along all the contingencies that might happen to an army,
heard their opinion, gave his own, fortifying it by argument; so that
thanks to these constant reflections there could never happen any incident
when actually leading his armies for which he was not prepared.
But
as to exercise for the mind, the prince ought to read history and study
the actions of eminent men, see how they acted in warfare, examine the
causes of their victories and defeats in order to imitate the former and
avoid the latter, and above all, do as some men have done in the past, who
have imitated some one, who has been much praised and glorified, and have
always kept his deeds and actions before them, as they say Alexander the
Great imitated Achilles, Caesar Alexander, and Scipio Cyrus. And whoever
reads the life of Cyrus written by Xenophon, will perceive in the life of
Sapio how gloriously he imitated the former, and how, in chastity,
affability, humanity, and liberality Scipio conformed to those qualities
of Cyrus as described by Xenophon.
A wise prince should follow similar methods and never remain idle in peaceful times, but industriously make good use of them, so that when fortune changes she may find him prepared to resist her blows and to prevail in adversity.