esult from their meeting, it will
be impossible for them to refrain from mutual injury. Of this we could
have no better instance than in the city of Pistoja.

Fifteen years ago this city was divided between the Panciatichi and
Cancellieri, as indeed it still continues, the only difference being
that then they were in arms, whereas, now, they have laid them aside.
After much controversy and wrangling, these factions would presently
proceed to bloodshed, to pulling down houses, plundering property, and
all the other violent courses usual in divided cities. The Florentines,
with whom it lay to compose these feuds, strove for a long time to do so
by using the third of the methods mentioned; but when this only led to
increased tumult and disorder, losing patience, they decided to try
the second method and get rid of the ringleaders of both factions by
imprisoning some and banishing others. In this way a sort of settlement
was arrived at, which continues in operation up to the present hour.
There can be no question, however, that the first of the methods named
would have been the surest. But because extreme measures have in them an
element of greatness and nobility, a weak republic, so far from knowing
how to use this first method, can with difficulty be brought to employ
even the second. This, as I said at the beginning, is the kind of
blunder made by the princes of our times when they have to decide on
matters of moment, from their not considering how those men acted who in
ancient days had to determine under like conditions. For the weakness of
the present race of men (the result of their enfeebling education and
their ignorance of affairs), makes them regard the methods followed by
the ancients as partly inhuman and partly impracticable. Accordingly,
they have their own newfangled ways of looking at things, wholly at
variance with the true, as when the sages of our city, some time
since, pronounced that _Pistoja was to be held by feuds and Pisa by
fortresses_, not perceiving how useless each of these methods is in
itself.

Having spoken of fortresses already at some length, I shall not further
refer to them here, but shall consider the futility of trying to hold
subject cities by keeping them divided. In the first place, it is
impossible for the ruling power, whether prince or republic, to be
friends with both factions. For wherever there is division, it is human
nature to take a side, and to favour one party more than a