the prince

Nicolo Machiavelli, while in exile from the Florentine government in 1513, wrote The Prince. In this classic how-to book, he explains how princes must be cunning and strong, a fox and a lion. Rulers who were only foxes or only lions, according to Machiavelli, failed at maintaining a princedom while those who succeeded were both.
Princes had to be skillful and clever like a fox to sustain a princedom; however, simply having this quality got the prince almost nowhere. For instance, Pope Alexander VI had no military skills, but he was deceiving and sneaky, allowing all his frauds to succeed, but not advancing his power in any way. Also, Pertinax, chosen against the desire of the soldiery, slyly plotted Commodus’s murder so he could assume the throne, but once in power, he did nothing with the military, leading to them hating him and him soon being killed. Alexander, another example, had no strength, but never during his reign did he put someone to death without a trial; he was tho...