ay to reproach them with the disgrace of servitude. And
to the prince there is another advantage in this method of government,
namely, that as the judges and magistrates who administer the laws civil
and criminal within these cities, are not under his control, no decision
of theirs can throw responsibility or discredit upon him; so that he
thus escapes many occasions of calumny and hatred. Of the truth whereof,
besides the ancient instances which might be noted, we have a recent
example here in Italy. For Genoa, as every one knows, has many times
been occupied by the French king, who always, until lately, sent thither
a French governor to rule in his name. Recently, however, not from
choice but of necessity, he has permitted the town to be self-governed
under a Genoese ruler; and any one who had to decide which of these two
methods of governing gives the greater security to the king's authority
and the greater content to the people themselves, would assuredly have
to pronounce in favour of the latter.

Men, moreover, in proportion as they see you averse to usurp authority
over them, grow the readier to surrender themselves into your hands; and
fear you less on the score of their freedom, when they find you acting
towards them with consideration and kindness. It was the display of
these qualities that moved the Capuans to ask the Romans for a praetor;
for had the Romans betrayed the least eagerness to send them one, they
would at once have conceived jealousy and grown estranged.

But why turn for examples to Capua and Rome, when we have them close at
hand in Tuscany and Florence? Who is there but knows what a time it is
since the city of Pistoja submitted of her own accord to the Florentine
supremacy? Who, again, but knows the animosity which down to the present
day exists between Florence and the cities of Pisa, Lucca, and Siena?
This difference of feeling does not arise from the citizens of Pistoja
valuing their freedom less than the citizens of these other towns or
thinking themselves inferior to them, but from the Florentines having
always acted towards the former as brothers, towards the latter as
foes. This it was that led the Pistojans to come voluntarily under our
authority while the others have done and do all in their power to escape
it. For there seems no reason to doubt, that if Florence, instead of
exasperating these neighbours of hers, had sought to win them over,
either by entering into league with them or