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176 IL PRINCIPE.
principati. I principati sono o ereditari, de' quali il sangue
del loro signore ne sia stato lungo tempo principe, o e'
ways, [e.g. Disc. i. 4° ; Op. 3. Is3 : ' tal magistrato--the Decemvirate-veniva
ad essere al tutto pr#wipe di Roma ;' St. F1or. iii ; Op. i. i47 ,
'i motori e prmcipi di esse'--i.e, the leaders of parties in the state ; St.
Fior. vi ; Op. e. ios, 'dolevansi i princzpz, rammaricavansi i popolari 'i.e.
the nobles]. Though Venice was a republic, the Doge was the
Principe. But though the word was habitually used in a general sense
in Machiavelli's age, as the English ' Prince' in Bacon's day, it was
only gradually assumed by the Italian rulers, and originally signified
that the Signore in question acknowledged no temporal superior.
The gradual adopUon of the title is traced by Muratori [Antmhit/t
Italiane, vol. vii. dissertazione 54].
P. 175, 1.6. repubbliehe o prineipati] This antithesis runs through
the whole of Machiavelli's works, always with the imphcation that the
only practically possible form of government is either a repubhc or a
monarchy; all intermediate forms are defective and unstable. Cf.
Discorso sulla Rlforma ; Op. iv. iii: ' Nessuno stato si pu6 ordinare
che sia stabile se non _ o veto principato, o vera repubblica ; perch6
tutti i governi posti intra questi duoi sono difettivi. La cagione 6
chiarissima, perch_ il principato ha solo una via alla sua resoluzione,
la quale _ scendere verso la repubbhca; e cosi la repubblica ha solo una
via da resolversi, la quale _ salire verso il principato. Gli staff di mezzo
hanno due vie, potendo salire verso il principato, e scendere verso la
repubblica, donde nasce la loro instabilitM The hint for this passage
may have been derived from Tacitus, Ann. iv. 33: ' Nam cunctas
nationes et urbes populus aut primores aut singuli regunt ; delecta ex
his et consociata reipublicae forma, ]audari facilius quam evenire, vel si
evenit, haud diuturna esse potest.' The perpetual antithesis between
republic and monarchy which runs through Tacitus [Principatus
et Libertas, Agric, ch. iii; Rex et Libertas, Ann. i. i; Libertas et
Domini, Hist. iv. ch. 64] led Amelot de la Houssaie to attempt to
trace in detail the influence of Tacltus upon Machiavelli. Tacltus is
quoted in Disc. iii. 6 ; Op. 3. 315, but Machiavelli's debt is not a large
one, and the resemblance between the two has been much exaggerated.
In Discorsi i. s there is an important passage in which Machiavelli
discusses the possible forms of government, their relations to each
other, their origin and decay. He there seems to admit the possibility
of a mixed form of goverment [' rimanendo mista--the Roman
constitution--fece una repubblica perfetta'], and altogether of six distinct
forms, three good and three debased. There is thus at first sight
an apparent contradiction with the present passage; but the broad
distinction of all governments into Republics and Monarchies does not
necessarily make it impossible to admit variations of both, which for