lfare. When
I look for remedies for this state of things, I find two: first, to keep
the citizens poor, so that wealth without worth shall corrupt neither
them nor others; second, to be so prepared for war as always to be ready
to make war; for then there will always be a need for worthy citizens,
as was the case in Rome in early times. For as Rome constantly kept her
armies in the field, there was constant opportunity for men to display
their valour, nor was it possible to deprive a deserving man of his post
and give it to another who was not deserving. Or if ever this were done
by inadvertency, or by way of experiment, there forthwith resulted
such disorder and danger, that the city at once retraced its steps and
reverted to the true path. But other republics which are not regulated
on the same plan, and make war only when driven to it by necessity,
cannot help committing this injustice, nay, will constantly run into it,
when, if the great citizen who finds himself slighted be vindictive, and
have some credit and following in the city, disorder will always
ensue. And though Rome escaped this danger for a time, she too, as has
elsewhere been said, having no longer, after she had conquered Carthage
and Antiochus, any fear of war, came to think she might commit her
armies to whom she would, making less account of the valour of her
captains than of those other qualities which gain favour with the
people. Accordingly we find Paulus Emilius rejected oftener than once
when he sought the consulship; nor, in fact, obtaining it until the
Macedonian war broke out, which, being judged a formidable business, was
by the voice of the whole city committed to his management. After the
year 1494 our city of Florence was involved in a series of wars, in
conducting which none of our citizens had any success until chance threw
the command into the hands of one who showed us how an army should be
led. This was Antonio Giacomini, and so long as there were dangerous
wars on foot, all rivalry on the part of other citizens was suspended;
and whenever a captain or commissary had to be appointed he was
unopposed. But when a war came to be undertaken, as to the issue of
which no misgivings were felt, and which promised both honour and
preferment, so numerous were the competitors for command, that three
commissaries having to be chosen to conduct the siege of Pisa, Antonio
was left out; and though it cannot with certainty be shown that any
harm res