(October 30, 2012 at 3:57 pm)Chuck Wrote: The essence of machivellian is to succeed with unexpected underhandedness against reasonably cunninge adversary. There is little machivallian in repeating the same old tired trick over and over again on a bunch of sheep.
I am very sorry that my example did not measure up to your high standards, I only mentioned it because it was a story which Machiavelli probably alluded to in the Prince without directly mentioning.
Quote:Lycurgus is one of those who have merited high praise for devising constitutions of this kind. The laws he drew up in Sparta gave appropriate shares of power to the kings, to the senate, and to the people, creating a state which lasted more than 800 years, much to the honour of the legislator and the tranquillity of the citizens. Very different was the fate of the laws devised by Solon at Athens: for the state he set up was a simple democracy, and proved so shorted-lived that it gave way to the tyranny of Pisistratus before the death of the legislator.
Because he was writing for an audience well versed in the classics, they would probably understand what the phrase the 'tranquillity of the citizens' meant when speaking about Sparta.
Incidentally your reason for the dismissal of the story from apophenia seems at odds with those written by Machiavelli himself which were meant to display a particular action, not necessarily all the ramifications thereof.
