We recall that Machiavelli found a means of introducing his discussion of the
league alternative right at the start of this Discourse, and after discussing it for awhile
turned to the other two modes of expansion. He promised at the conclusion of his first
discussion to explain further why the Tuscan league “could not go beyond Italy with (its)
acquisitions” and why “even a great part of (Italy) remained intact” while the league held
sway; this promise hangs over the account of the other two modes. And, when we recall
this, we see that in his account of the Roman mode of expansion Machiavelli makes clear
how employing that mode Rome went beyond Italy and why under that mode Italy did
not remain intact. We thus would expect Machiavelli, in his presentation of leagues, to
make good on his promise. In connection with this, we also might recall that in the
previous discussion Machiavelli introduces a standard for judgment of the three modes,
namely, usefulness, and he implies that his understanding of “usefulness” in this context
is acquiring dominion that one can keep, since acquiring “dominion (one) cannot keep” is
“useless.” He also implies there that two of the three modes of expansion are in some
way useless, the mode employed by Sparta and Athens being “entirely useless.” And we
recall that he does not call Rome’s mode “useful,” even when we expect him to do so;
instead, he calls that mode “certain” or “true” and claims that Rome rose to an “excessive
power.” We would expect, then, that if Machiavelli is presenting leagues as a genuine
alternative to Rome’s mode of expansion, he will in his presentation of leagues make
clear that leagues fulfill his standard of the “useful.” In this section we will see that in his
discussion of the alternative of leagues Machiavelli, at least on the face of things,
suggests that leagues succeed in addressing both of these matters. At the same time,
however, we will see that his presentation also leads us to raise questions – questions
which we will raise for the most part in the footnotes that accompany this section -- about
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Convention