Power to persuade: that is the essence of rhetoric. Here is the second meaning of
power for Machiavelli, and it is eminently aesthetic in nature. Rhetoric does not aim to
describe reality as it really is: it is for the purpose of creating the conditions to convince
or persuade the audience of a point of view held by the author. This can be in writing or
in oratory—and it is far from the empirical attempt to methodically and dispassionately
ascertain the causes or effects of phenomena. In a word, there is nothing scientific to it.
If this is the case, we must explore the notion that Machiavelli’s writings are
largely rhetorical in character. There is ample evidence to support this thesis,
analysis of The Prince as a work written along the strict lines of a piece of rhetoric, to the
fact that the Florentine Histories possesses entire passages of made-up speeches that took
place hundreds of years before Machiavelli was born.
The Florentine author’s accounts
of the disorder of his homeland is marked by invented events and speeches that he
believes will help in the restoration of republicanism. His version of historiography is not
objective. It lends itself more to artistic fabrication rather than to scholarly rigor.
The fabrication is evident in one example. Cesare Borgia is a figure that
Machiavelli met during his lifetime but was never able to fully understand. However, he
admired the Spanish man profoundly, from his physical beauty all the way to the immoral
character that he possessed. The image of Borgia, il Valentino, that we get from The
Prince and other texts is not a factual one. Machiavelli presents the Duke as someone
who is thoroughly familiar with evil ways and seems to have no compunction when
committing deeds of immorality.
Yet, who would really believe that a human being is
fully devoid of a conscience that he would not show some sort of remorse? Machiavelli
2
See Kahn, Machiavellian Rhetoric (Princeton: Princeton UP 2001). See Also Viroli, Machiavelli (Oxford:
Oxford UP: 1998, p. 4).
3
See FH III.13, p. 122-123.
4
See P Ch. 13, p. 55, where Machiavelli says “I shall never hesitate to cite Cesare Borgia in his actions.”
9
Convention