15 h 41 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the quarrels that divide a city also help keep it free?
In Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius, Niccolò Machiavelli turns Rome’s early history into a study of freedom and power. Drawing on the historian Livy, he examines founders, restless citizens and generals. Each scene opens a hard question: how does a republic take root, defend itself and avoid falling under a tyrant?
The book moves through three parts: Rome’s laws, offices and religion; its wars and growth; and the deeds of individual men. Machiavelli argues that ordinary citizens can guard liberty better than nobles. He asks you to judge political choices by their results, not their good intentions, and to see conflict as more than a threat.
What you’ll discover
- The uses of conflict Explore why Machiavelli sees Rome’s struggles between nobles and common people as a source of freedom.
- Citizens who guard liberty Meet a thinker who trusts ordinary people and fears the reach of tyranny.
- Laws, belief and belonging Examine how Rome’s laws, offices and religion help hold its civic life together.
- War beyond the battlefield Follow Machiavelli’s questions about citizen armies, military choices and the reasons for Rome’s growth.
- The weight of leadership Consider how a single person’s deeds can renew a state or bring it to ruin.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers of political thought, history and Roman antiquity, and anyone curious about how freedom survives or dies. It asks patience, since the chapters are many and loosely ordered, so those wanting a single quick plot of argument may find it less suited.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Learn from Rome by imitating it
- Founders must act alone, and governments cycle
- Conflict between classes kept Rome free
- Trust the people to guard liberty
- Religion binds citizens to law and oath
- Corrupt states need renewal and a strong hand
- Citizen armies win wars and build empires
- Leaders, conspiracies and the force of fortune
- How the Discourses have been read and argued over
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Discorsi über die erste Dekade des Titus Livius
by Niccolò Machiavelli· 1531
Rome’s history offers lessons on building and preserving republics.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
Learn from Rome by imitating it
Machiavelli opens by complaining about his own age. People admire ancient statues and buy ancient coins, he says, but when it comes to government and war they refuse to copy the ancients. They treat Roman examples as impossible, as if the sun and the human heart had changed since then. He denies this. Human nature, he holds, stays much the same across time, so old cases can guide new choices.
That is why he turns to Livy. Livy's history of Rome starts with the city's founding and gives a long record of how a small town grew into a power. Machiavelli reads it as a laboratory. Here are cases of good and bad laws, of wise and foolish leaders, and of what followed from each. His task is to pull out the causes.
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The author
Niccolò Machiavelli
1469–1527 · Italian political philosopher
Niccolò Machiavelli was born in Florence in 1469 and died there in 1527. He served the Florentine republic as an official and diplomat from 1498 to 1512. He wrote The Prince in 1513 and Discourses on Livy during the 1510s. He also wrote plays, poetry, and a history of Florence.
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What is Discourses on Livy about?
It is a study of how republics rise, last and fall, based on the early books of Livy's history of Rome. Machiavelli draws lessons on laws, religion, war, class conflict and leadership from Roman examples.
What is the difference between The Prince and the Discourses?
The Prince is a short guide for a ruler seeking and keeping power. The Discourses is longer and favors republics. Together they show his wider view that power must be understood by looking at results.
Why did Machiavelli write about Livy?
Livy gave a full account of Rome's early rise. Machiavelli thought that studying it could teach practical rules for states that wish to stay free, and that his own age had failed to copy the best ancient examples.
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