the ringleaders in
this dispute to the sword, composed the disorders of the city.

In connection with this affair there are several points to be noted.
And in the first place we see how women have been the occasion of many
divisions and calamities in States, and have wrought great harm to
rulers; as when, according to our historian, the violence done to
Lucretia drove the Tarquins from their kingdom, and that done to
Virginia broke the power of the decemvirs. And among the chief causes
which Aristotle assigns for the downfall of tyrants are the wrongs
done by them to their subjects in respect of their women, whether by
adultery, rape, or other like injury to their honour, as has
been sufficiently noticed in the Chapter wherein we treated "_of
Conspiracies_"

I say, then, that neither absolute princes nor the rulers of free
States should underrate the importance of matter, but take heed to the
disorders which it may breed and provide against them while remedies can
still be used without discredit to themselves or to their governments
And this should have been done by the rulers of Ardea who by suffering
the rivalry between their citizens to come to a head, promoted their
divisions, and when they sought to reunite them had to summon foreign
help, than which nothing sooner leads to servitude.

But now let us turn to another subject which merits attention, namely,
the means whereby divided cities may be reunited; and of this I propose
to speak in the following Chapter.

CHAPTER XXVII.

_How a divided City may be reunited, and how it is a false opinion that
to hold Cities in subjection they must be kept divided._

From the example of the Roman consuls who reconciled the citizens of
Ardea, we are taught the method whereby the feuds of a divided city may
be composed, namely, by putting the ringleaders of the disturbances to
death; and that no other remedy should be used. Three courses, indeed,
are open to you, since you may either put to death, as these consuls
did, or banish, or bind the citizens to live at peace with one another,
taking security for their good behaviour. Of which three ways the last
is the most hurtful, the most uncertain, and the least effectual;
because when much blood has been shed, or other like outrage done, it
cannot be that a peace imposed on compulsion should endure between men
who are every day brought face to face with one another; for since fresh
cause of contention may at any moment r