The presence of great statesmen is, of course, a very rare occurrence, and Machiavelli
himself admits that this is so. Nevertheless, the truly great Roman republic that he praises
throughout The Discourses owes itself to the great legislators that he praises. “Those who read
what the beginning was of the city of Rome and by what legislators and how it was ordered,” he
writes, “will not marvel that so much virtue was maintained for many centuries in that city, and
that afterward the empire that the republic attained arose there.”
And despite their rarity, it is
these men that Machiavelli implores the readers of The Discourses to imitate. In the preface to
the first book he declares that his intention in writing The Discourses was to turn men away from
the error that “imitation is not only difficult but impossible,” that the things which were once
possible in the ancient world are no longer possible today. Since “men are born, live, and die
always in one and the same order” one should not fear that such imitation is impossible.
But what makes these men great statesmen is more than simply their virtue. As quoted
above, the great legislator does not engage in statecraft from private ambition alone, but from a
devotion to the common good, and a desire for the prosperity of the fatherland. It is this element
most of all that is lacking in the characters of Callimaco and Ligurio and it is this lack of care for
the common good that most clearly illustrates the gulf between the truly great leaders that
Machiavelli praises and the ‘prince’ in La Mandragola. In fact, all of the characters in the play
act almost solely out of private ambition. Callimaco is driven by his desire to sleep with
Lucretia. Ligurio is motivated to help Callimaco by the monetary reward that he will receive for
his advice. Frate Timoteo is willing to manipulate Lucretia for a bribe and to contravene the
teachings of his religion. Messer Nicia is willing to make his wife sleep with another man so
that he may have a son to inherit his estate. Even Lucretia is portrayed as being swayed by the
lures of a younger man to continue deceiving her husband.
27
Ibid, Book I, Chapter 1.
28
Ibid, Book I, Chapter 12.
19
Convention