Famous analogies
The family Machiavelli hoped to impress by writing the Prince
Medici family
Machiavelli's term for adaptability, strength, and political skill?
Virtu
When describing the type of man fortune typically favors, Machiavelli describes fortune as this
A woman
The ideal model prince who combines cruelty and strategy effectively
Cesare Borgia
The unpredictable force that controls roughly half of human affairs
What is fortuna (fortune)
Machiavelli compares decisive cruelty to this type of medical procedure that is done all at once
Surgery / amputation
The Warrior Pope, who Cesare supported, ultimately leading to his downfall
Pope Julius II
The main goal of a prince
Maintain power / stability of a state
Machiavelli says a prince must imitate these two kinds of beasts
The lion and the fox
The foreign ruler who ousted the Medici on his way down to Milan, which he lost because of his reliance on auxiliary arms
King Louis XII
Machiavelli distrusts these types of soldiers above any other kind
Mercenaries
Machiavelli compares these two aspects of life's events to 1) a river and 2) building infrastructure to guide it in case of a flood
What are fortuna and virtu
The brutal ruler from Ancient Greece who rose from a private citizen to king but was hated
Agathocles
This political approach, inspired by Machiavelli, emphasizes practical results over traditional morality
realpolitik