The Art of War

By Niccolò Machiavelli

Written after 1513’s “The Prince,” Niccolo Machiavelli’s war treatise, “The Art of War”, is a dazzling array of war tactics and strategies based on the military strength of the Romans. Machiavelli wrote “The Art of War” as a dialogue between a group of young men in the Florentine republic. The main narrator, Lord Fabrizio Colonna, is the voice of knowledge and wisdom. The others ask questions about military tactics, and Fabrizio gives them advice on an army’s training, deployment, and organization. Much like how the military communicates within itself, Machiavelli’s “The Art of War” is a clear, precise, and structured text. It doesn’t have the same wit and cynicism of Machiavelli’s other works, but by choosing this style, the author was purposefully mimicking his subject. He also calls upon the classical tradition of a dialogue to share his wisdom. While yielding to classic Roman strategies may seem outdated, Machiavelli was an expert on the subject. He spent fourteen years as the secretary to the Chancery of Florence, allowing him to oversee the day-to-day activities, weaponry, and logistics of the army. After “The Art of War” was released in 1521, world leaders and military tacticians slowly adopted his war philosophies as their own; the Roman strategies outlined in Machiavelli’s treatise had already proved reliable for over one-thousand years, and they would continue to be applicable for many more years to come. This edition includes a biographical afterword and follows the translation of Henry Neville.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Jul 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781420974119

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THE ART OF WAR

By NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI

Translated by HENRY NEVILLE

The Art of War

By Niccolò Machiavelli

Translated by Henry Neville

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-7349-5

eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-7411-9

This edition copyright © 2021. Digireads.com Publishing.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Cover Image: a detail of The Battle of San Romano, by Paolo Uccello (1397-1475), c. 1438-40 (tempera on poplar) / Bridgeman Images.

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CONTENTS

The Preface

The First Book.

Chapter I.

Chapter II.

Chapter III.

Chapter IV.

Chapter V.

Chapter VI.

Chapter VII.

Chapter VIII.

Chapter IX.

Chapter X.

Chapter XI.

Chapter XII.

The Second Book.

Chapter I.

Chapter II.

Chapter III.

Chapter IV.

Chapter V.

Chapter VI.

Chapter VII.

Chapter VIII.

Chapter IX.

Chapter X.

Chapter XI.

Chapter XII.

Chapter XIII.

Chapter XIV.

The Third Book.

Chapter I.

Chapter II.

Chapter III.

Chapter IV.

Chapter V.

Chapter VI.

Chapter VII.

Chapter VIII.

The Fourth Book.

Chapter I.

Chapter II.

Chapter III.

Chapter IV.

Chapter V.

Chapter VI.

Chapter VII.

Chapter VIII.

Chapter IX.

Chapter X.

The Fifth Book.

Chapter I.

Chapter II.

Chapter III.

Chapter IV.

Chapter V.

Chapter VI.

Chapter VII.

Chapter VII.

Chapter IX.

Chapter X.

Chapter XI.

The Sixth Book.

Chapter I.

Chapter II.

Chapter III.

Chapter IV.

Chapter V.

Chapter VI.

Chapter VII.

Chapter VIII.

Chapter IX.

Chapter X.

Chapter XI.

Chapter XII.

Chapter XIII.

Chapter XIV.

Chapter XV.

Chapter XVI.

Chapter XVII.

The Seventh Book.

Chapter I.

Chapter II.

Chapter III.

Chapter IV.

Chapter V.

Chapter VI.

Chapter VII.

Chapter VIII.

Chapter IX.

Chapter X.

Chapter XI.

Chapter XII.

Chapter XIII.

Chapter XIV.

Chapter XV.

Chapter XVI.

Chapter XVII.

Figures

Biographical Afterword

The Preface

OF NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI,

TO

Lorenzo, the Son of Filippo Strozzi, Gentleman of Florence.

Many have been, and are still of opinion, that in the whole world no two things are more incongruous and dissimilar than a Civil, and a Military life; insomuch that many times when a man designs himself for a Soldier, he not only takes upon him a new habit, but he changes his Customs, his Company, his manner of Discourse, and leaves off all ways of civil conversation; for he who would be light and nimble, and ready for the execution of all sort of violence, looks upon a civil habit as improper and cumbersome; civil customs are unsuitable to him who thinks them soft and effeminate, and inconsistent with the life he proposes; and indeed it would be indecent if a man whose business it is to look big, and Hector, and fright the whole world with his Oaths and his Blasphemies, should carry himself demurely, and behave himself with the usual gentleness and complacency of other men; and this is it which in our days makes this opinion true: But if we consider the condition and method of old times, we shall find no two things more united, more conformable; nor more necessarily amicable than they. For all the Arts which are contrived in a City for the common good; all the courses invented to keep men in fear of God and the Laws would be useless and vain, were not force provided for their defence; which force (if well ordered) will be able to make them good, though perhaps the Laws are not so exact in themselves; for this is most certain, good Orders without Military Coercion will quickly molder to nothing, and run to decay like a Noble and Princely Palace that is uncovered at the top, and has nothing but the splendor and richness of its furniture to defend it from the weather. And if anciently Kingdoms and States employed great industry to keep people in peace, and in the faith and fear of God; certainly in the regulation of their Military Discipline they employed much more; for where can ones Country repose greater confidence, than in him who has promised to die for it? Where can there be greater inclination to Peace, than in him who is not capable of molestation or injury, but by War? Where can there be more fear of God, than in him who being obnoxious to hourly dangers, has more need of his divine assistance. This necessity being well considered by those who gave Laws to Kingdoms, and those who had the Command of their Armies, was the cause that the life of a Soldier was in great reputation with all people, and much imitated and followed. But Military discipline being now totally depraved, and degenerated from the practice of the ancients; that depravity hath been the occasion of several ill opinions, which have brought that Discipline into contempt, and made all people hate and avoid the conversation of a Soldier. But considering with myself both from what I have seen and read, that it is not impossible to revive the discipline of our Ancestors; and reduce it to its primitive excellence, I resolved (to keep myself from idleness) to write what I thought might be to the satisfaction of such persons as were studious of the art of War, and lovers of Antiquity; ’tis true, ’tis more than ordinary boldness to treat of this Subject, where others have been so scrupulous and wary; yet I cannot think it an error to write of what others have professed and exercised with much more audacity and presumption; For my faults in writing, may be corrected without prejudice to anybody; but those faults which they commit in the execution, cannot be repaired, but by the destruction and ruin of several people; consider then (Sir) the quality of my labors, and according to your judgment let them be approved or rejected, as you think they deserve: I send them to you as a testimony of my gratitude, though my abilities are not in the least commensurate with the greatness of your favors: besides it being the custom to address things of this nature to persons that are Illustrious for their Birth, wealth, parts, or generosity: I knew you had not many equals in your Nobility and Fortune, fewer in your parts; but in Generosity and Liberality, none at all.

THE ART of WAR, IN SEVEN BOOKS.

The First Book.

Chapter I.

How the Seigneur Fabritio Colonna being refreshing himself one evening with some other Gentlemen in a beautiful Garden, took occasion to enter upon this discourse of War.

Seeing I am of opinion, that after a man is dead, it is lawful for anybody to commend him without danger of reproof, (because there can be no occasion nor suspicion of flattery) I shall make no difficulty to speak something in praise of our renowned and true friend Cosimo Rucellai, whose name I cannot remember without tears in my eyes, having known in him all the good qualities, which one good Friend or good Citizen would desire in another; for I know not anything so dear to him, that he would not have sacrificed for his friend; nor anything so dreadful, that he would not have undertaken for his Country: and I confess freely among all with whom I have had any acquaintance and conversion, I do not know any man whose heart was more disposed to great and magnificent things. At his death nothing troubled him so much (as he complained often to his friends) as that he should die young, and in his own house without honor, or the satisfaction of having been serviceable to any man as he desired, for he was sensible that no more could be said of him than that he died a good friend. However it follows not but we who were acquainted with him, may bear testimony of his virtues and good qualities, seeing there is nothing left of his works or actions to recommend him to the World: and yet fortune was not so much his enemy but she suffered him to leave a short monument of the dexterity of his wit, which appears in certain Sonnets, and amorous Verses of his composition; in which way (though he was not amorous) he entertained himself at idle times in his youth, till his Stars had conducted him to higher thoughts, by which Verses it may easily be discerned with what comeliness and felicity he could have expressed his conceptions, and how honorable he would have made himself by his Poetry, had he made it his business. But fortune having deprived us of such a friend, it seems to me that no better remedy can be applied, than for us (as far as is possible) to make as much of his memory as we can, and recollect such of his sayings, or arguments, as were either witty or solid. And because there is nothing of him more fresh than the discourse which he had lately with Fabritio Colonna in his Garden, (where the said Fabritio gave a large account of all the mysteries of War one the one side, and Cosimo proposed, and objected, and argued with as much gravity one the other) being then present by accident with other of our friends, I have thought fit to put in writing, that by reading it, such of Cosimo’s friends as were there may, renew the memory of his Virtues; such as were not there, may be troubled for their absence, and learn several things profitable not only for military, but civil conversation.

I say then Fabritio Colonna returning from Lombardy, where for a long time he had done very honorable service for the King of Spain, passing by Florence to repose himself some time in that City, visit the Duke, and enjoy the company of certain Gentlemen with whom he had had a former acquaintance, Cosimo held himself obliged to invite him to his Gardens not so much to show his own liberality and magnificence, as to have larger opportunity of discoursing with him, and informing himself of such things as might be expected from a person of his experience, and spending a whole day in discoursing of what might be to the satisfaction of his mind. Fabritio accepted his invitation, came to his house, and was entertained very nobly by Cosimo, with several other of his more particular friends as Zanobi Buondelmonti, Battista della Palla, Luigi Alamanni and others, all of them young Gentlemen, his intimate friends, and ardently studious of the same things, of whose qualifications I shall say nothing in this place, because being still living, their own actions do recommend them every hour of the day.

Fabritio was regalled with as much pomp and magnificence as were consistent with the time and the place: but dinner being ended, the tables taken way, and all the formalities of the Feast over, which among persons of great minds, whose thoughts are employed upon more honorable things, are not so tedious as with other people) the day being long, and heat excessive, Cosimo thought it convenient for the better satisfaction of his designs, under pretence of avoiding the heat, to carry Fabritio into a close and shady Arbor in the Garden, where they might discourse with more leisure and privacy; and having brought him and the rest of the Company to the place, some of them disposed themselves upon the grass, (which was very pleasant and green) and others upon seats under the shadow of those lofty trees; Fabritio began to applaud the delightsomeness of the place, and then looking particularly upon the trees, and not knowing of some of them, he stood still, as it were in suspense, which being observed by Cosimo, he told him, ’tis possible, Sir, you may not be acquainted with those trees, but ’tis no wonder, for some of them were in more request with our fore-Fathers than they are with us, and having told him their names, and what delight Seignior Bernardo his Grand-father took in planting, Fabritio replied, I thought they were as you say; but the pleasantness of this place, and the innocence of that employment puts me in mind of some Princes in the Kingdom of Naples who delighted themselves exceedingly in those kind of diversions, and would plant, and make delicate Arbors to keep themselves from the heat; and thereupon breaking off short in his discourse, he stood still for a while, as in some serious suspense, but presently he told them if I thought I should not misbehave myself, (which among my friends I suppose is not easy) I would give you my opinion of it, not to traduce or calumniate them, but for discourse sake, and to pass away the time; for doubtless those Princes (under correction) had done much better to have imitated their Ancestors in great and heroic, rather than in soft and effeminate things; to have followed their examples in the heat of the Sun, rather than to have retired and withdrawn themselves into the coolness of a shade; and rather to have personated their fore-Fathers in what was solid and perfect, than in what was delicate, and corrupt; for since these kind of entertainments have been pleasing to our Country-men, our Country has gone to ruin, and all things declined.

Cosimo. You have opened a way to a discourse which I desire exceedingly, and therefore I beg of you that you would speak of it frankly, without respect to anybody, seeing I intend to interrogate you with the same freedom, and if in my demands or replies I excuse, or accuse any man, it will not be barely to excuse or accuse him, but to understand the truth.

Fabritio. I shall be well pleased to inform you of anything I know, and shall leave it to your discretion to judge whether what I say be true or false, expecting to learn as much from your demands, as you will do from my answers; for a wise question makes a man consider many things which perhaps he regarded not before; and understand others, which without interrogation he had never understood.

Cosimo. I will return to what you said first, that my Grand-father, and your fore-Fathers would have done more prudently to have imitated their Ancestors in difficult and generous things, rather than in what was delicate and soft; and in this I will excuse my part, and leave the other to be defended by you. I am of opinion that there was not a man in his time who detested all kind of effeminacy more than he, and who was a greater lover of that kind of activity and vigor which you so much commend, nevertheless he found that he could not make use of it either in his own person, or in the persons of his Children, being born in so corrupt an age, that a man who should have deviated from the common practice of those times, would have made himself contemptible to everybody. For if a man in the heat of Summer should have lien basking upon the sands; or in the midst of Winter should have taken up his quarters in the snow, (as Diogenes did) he would have been thought a fool, or a mad-man: should a man have followed the Spartan way, brought up his children in some cottage, taught them to sleep in the fields; to run about bare-foot and bare-headed; wash in cold water to inure them to hardship, and by making them less fond of life, to make them less sensible of death, he would have been despised for his pains; and have been thought rather a bruit than a man. Again should a man have been observed to starve his own carcass, and to live only upon beans and peas, and such kind of pulse, and have made as small account of money as Fabritius did of what was offered him by the Samnites, ’tis possible he might have been commended by some few, but he should have been followed by nobody: being discouraged therefore by the practice of the present age, he followed not the example of his Ancestors exactly, but followed them as much as he could, with as little notice and admiration to the World.

Fabritio. You have excused your Grand-father very handsomely on that particular, and what you have said is doubtlessly true; but I did not speak so much of that hard and rustic way of living, as of other ways that are more soft and effeminate; have greater conformity and correspondence with our present times, and are (in my judgment) easily to be introduced by any man who has the government of affairs: and in my discourse of this matter I shall not need to straggle into other Countries for examples, for the Romans (my own Country-men) will furnish me abundantly; whose Practices, and order of Government, if well considered, will not be found so impossible to be introduced in any other City where there is but the least spark of virtue and goodness.

Cosimo. What are those things that you would introduce according to the example of our Ancestors?

Fabritio. To honor and reward virtue; not to despise poverty; to value order and discipline of war; to constrain Citizens to love one another; to live without factions; to postpone all private interest to the public; and several other things that may easily accommodate with our times; and these things are not difficult to be introduced, provided it be done deliberately and by right means, because in them the truth is so manifest and apparent, that the commonest capacity may apprehend it. He therefore who orders his affairs in this manner, plants himself trees which will afford him a happier and more pleasant shelter and protection than these,

Cosimo. I will not reply to what you have said, but referring it to the discretion of the company, (who can easily judge of it) I shall address my discourse to you, who seems to find fault with all those who in their great and weighty affairs do not follow the examples of our Ancestors, supposing thereby I may be more easily satisfied in my intention. I would know therefore how it comes to pass that, on one side you condemn all those who do not imitate the practice of our Ancestors; and yet on the other, in your wars (which is your profession, and excellence) it does not appear that you have made use of anything of the ancient method and discipline, or done anything that resembled it.

Fabritio. You are now come to the point where I expected you, and indeed my discourse deserved, and I myself desired no other demand. And though I might save myself the labor, with a very plausible excuse, yet I will satisfy both your desire and my own, and that the more largely, because both time and place concurs to our convenience. Men who are desirous to do any great action, are first to prepare themselves with all diligence and industry, that when occasion is offered, they may be ready to execute and complete it. And because where those preparations are made cautiously, they are not to be discovered; no man is to be accused of negligence, unless occasion discovers him first, to which if he be remiss, and makes not use of his time to execute his design, it gives us to understand, that either he has not prepared as he ought to have been, or that he had not thought of it at all: and therefore no occasion having presented itself to me to discover the preparations which I had made to reduce our Militia into the form of the ancients; if I have not yet reduced it, I conceive I cannot justly be condemned, either by you, or anybody else: and this I think is a sufficient answer to your accusation.

Cosimo. It would be sufficient indeed, could I be assured that you never had any occasion.

Fabritio. But because I find you may doubt whether ever such occasion were offered or not, I am content to discourse more largely (upon condition you will have the patience to hear me) what preparations are necessary to be made; what occasion is necessary to be had; what difficulties obstruct our preparatives, and hinder our occasion; and how this is easy and hard to fall out at the same time, which seems a contradiction.

Cosimo. You cannot do me and the whole company a greater favor; and if it will be no trouble to you to enlarge, it will be none to us to attend: but because the discourse is like to be long, I desire I may have the assistance of my friends, yet with your license and permission; wherefore they and I do make it our request, that you would not take it a miss if we interrupt you sometimes with some importunate demand.

Fabritio. I am very well contented, that you (Cosimo) and these young Gentlemen your friends, ask anything of me, because I believe the heat of your youth makes you inclinable to arms, and by consequence more apt to give credit to what I shall say: and these other Gentlemen shall have the same liberty, because their grey heads, and their cold blood, makes them commonly enemies to warfare, and incorrigible, as people possessed with an opinion that it is the times, not the ill customs which constrains men to live at that rate. Question me then freely, as you please; ’tis the thing I desire, because I shall thereby have some respite and repose; and withal, the satisfaction of clearing your doubts, and leaving nothing unanswered in your minds.

Chapter II.

A person of honor and condition is not to make War his profession.

Fabritio. I Will begin my discourse with what you said, that in matter of War (which is my profession) I never made use of anything of the ancients, To which I answer, that War being a profession by which men cannot live honorable at all times, it is not to be taken up as a trade, unless it be by a Commonwealth, or a Kingdom, and if they be well constituted, they will neither of them suffer any of their Citizens or Subjects, or any other good man to make it his business; for he will never be thought a good