of prosecuting the war.
Had Fabius, therefore, been King of Rome, he might well have caused the
war to end unhappily, not knowing how to accommodate his methods to the
change in the times. As it was, he lived in a commonwealth in which
there were many citizens, and many different dispositions; and which
as it produced a Fabius, excellent at a time when it was necessary to
protract hostilities, so also, afterwards gave birth to a Scipio, at a
time suited to bring them to a successful close.

And hence it comes that a commonwealth endures longer, and has a more
sustained good fortune than a princedom, because from the diversity in
the characters of its citizens, it can adapt itself better than a
prince can to the diversity of times. For, as I have said before, a man
accustomed to follow one method, will never alter it; whence it must
needs happen that when times change so as no longer to accord with
his method, he will be ruined. Piero Soderini, of whom I have already
spoken, was guided in all his actions by patience and gentleness, and
he and his country prospered while the times were in harmony with these
methods. But, afterwards, when a time came when it behoved him to have
done with patience and gentleness, he knew not how to drop them, and was
ruined together with his country. Pope Julius II., throughout the whole
of his pontificate, was governed by impulse and passion, and because the
times were in perfect accord, all his undertakings prospered. But had
other times come requiring other qualities, he could not have escaped
destruction, since he could not have changed his methods nor his
habitual line of conduct.

As to why such changes are impossible, two reasons may be given. One is
that we cannot act in opposition to the bent of our nature. The other,
that when a man has been very successful while following a particular
method, he can never be convinced that it is for his advantage to try
some other. And hence it results that a man's fortunes vary, because
times change and he does not change with them. So, too, with
commonwealths, which, as we have already shown at length, are
ruined from not altering their institutions to suit the times. And
commonwealths are slower to change than princes are, changes costing
them more effort; because occasions must be waited for which shall stir
the whole community, and it is not enough that a single citizen alters
his method of acting.

But since I have made mention of Fabius