Pagina 168 di 310

1. Some princes, so as to hold securely the state, have disarmed

their subjects; others have kept their subject towns distracted

by factions; others have fostered enmities against themselves;

others have laid themselves out to gain over those whom they

distrusted in the beginning of their governments; some have built

fortresses; some have overthrown and destroyed them. And although

one cannot give a final judgment on all of these things unless

one possesses the particulars of those states in which a decision

has to be made, nevertheless I will speak as comprehensively as

the matter of itself will admit.