Betrayal, cruelty, and civil principality: Machiavelli against “the writers”

Abstract

In chapter 8 of The Prince, Machiavelli discusses an alternative way to that of virtù and fortune to reach the principality, crime. The Florentine maintains that although things like betrayal, cruelty and murder can be conducive to power, they do not lead to glory: “one cannot call it virtue to kill one’s citizens, betray one’s friends, to be without faith, without mercy; these modes can enable one to acquire empire, but not glory”. This essay argues that this condemnation of betrayal and crime is only apparent. The main example of the criminal route to the principality, Agathocles, does things that in other parts of the book are not only not condemned but become models of action for future princes. This unequal treatment, it will be suggested, is understood only when this chapter is placed within the context of Machiavelli’s dispute against the ancient “writers”, who despised the multitude. The discussion on the “tyrant” Agatocles is thus read here in conjunction with the chapter on the “civil prince”, where Machiavelli maintains that the foundation of the power of the prince should be the people, not the nobles.