The Nexus Archive
Political Realism · Treatise
The Art of War
by Machiavelli · The Honest Advisor of Power · Renaissance, 1469-1527
- Advanced
- ~6 hr read
- 16 chapter guides
- Public domain
Start reading · Read the Machiavelli's Proheme guide free
Before the text
Editor's Prelude
A Garden Full of Armies
When Niccolò Machiavelli published The Art of War in 1521, he had already helped Florence organize a citizen militia and seen its republic fall. The Medici returned to power in 1512, and he lost the public office from which he had conducted diplomacy and military affairs. Italy was being fought over by powers with larger armies, while its own rulers often relied on hired soldiers. The question of who should bear arms was a question about a state's ability to survive.
Machiavelli gives that question to a conversation in the gardens of Cosimo Rucellai, a young Florentine whom the opening remembers after his death. His principal speaker is the veteran captain Fabrizio Colonna, called Fabricio in this translation. Cosimo and three companions ask him to explain what ancient armies could teach their contemporaries. They also challenge his authority: if he admires those armies so much, why has he not organized one himself? This is a dialogue shaped by Machiavelli, rather than a transcript of the historical captain's teaching.
Its military terms often name groups of men. A ‘battaile’ may be a company or formation, not an engagement; ‘Targaet men’ carry shields, and ‘Veliti’ are lightly armed troops. Recruiting, carrying food, digging, responding to signals and finding one's place after a formation breaks are all part of the same problem. Fabricio wants men who can return to civilian occupations and serve under public authority. Cosimo asks whether arming those men might endanger the government it is meant to protect.
The English is Peter Whitehorne's translation, first printed in 1560 and reproduced here from a 1905 edition. It opens with Whitehorne's dedication to Elizabeth I, followed by Machiavelli's address to Lorenzo Filippo Strozzi. These are distinct appeals to different patrons, before the garden conversation begins. The dialogue's military prescriptions belong to the age of pikes, swords and early gunpowder weapons, when the power of artillery itself was an argument its speakers had to confront.
The opening pages
Machiavelli's Proheme
THE PROHEME
OF NICHOLAS MACHIAVELL,
Citezein and Secretarie of Florence,
upon his booke of the Arte of Warre, unto
Laurence Philippe Strozze, one of the
nobilitie of Florence.
There have Laurence, many helde, and do holde this opinion, that there is no maner of thing, whiche lesse agreeth the one with the other, nor that is so much unlike, as the civil life to the Souldiours. Wherby it is often seen, that if any determin in thexercise of that kinde of service to prevaile, that incontinent he doeth not only chaunge in apparel, but also in custome and maner, in voice, and from the facion of all civil use, he doeth alter: For that he thinketh not meete to clothe with civell apparell him, who wil be redie, and promt to all kinde of violence, nor the civell customes, and usages maie that man have, the whiche judgeth bothe those customes to be effeminate, and those usages not to be agreable to his profession: Nor it semes not convenient for him to use the civill gesture and ordinarie wordes, who with fasing and blasphemies, will make afraied other menne: the whiche causeth in this time, suche opinion to be moste true. But if thei should consider thauncient orders, there should nothing be founde more united, more confirmable, and that of necessitie ought to love so much the one the other, as these: for as muche as all the artes that are ordeined in a common weale, in regarde or respecte of common profite of menne, all the orders made in the same, to live with feare of the Lawe, and of God should be vaine, if by force of armes their defence wer not prepared, which, well ordeined, doe maintain those also whiche be not well ordeined. And likewise to the contrarie the good orders, without the souldiours help, no lesse or otherwise doe disorder, then the habitacion of a sumptuous and roiall palais, although it wer decte with gold and precious stones, when without being covered, should not have wherewith to defende it from the raine. And if in what so ever other orders of Cities and Kyngdomes, there hath been used al diligence for to maintain men faithfull, peaceable, and full of the feare of God, in the service of warre, it was doubled: if for in what man ought the countrie to seke greater faith, then in him, who must promise to die for the same? In whom ought there to bee more love of peace, then in him, whiche onely by the warre maie be hurte? In whome ought there to bee more feare of GOD, then in him, which every daie committyng himself to infinite perilles, hath moste neede of his helpe? This necessitie considered wel, bothe of them that gave the lawes to Empires, and of those that to the exercise of service wer apoincted, made that the life of Souldiours, of other menne was praised, and with all studie folowed and imitated. But the orders of service of war, beyng altogether corrupted, and a greate waie from the auncient maners altered, there hath growen these sinisterous opinions, which maketh men to hate the warlike service, and to flie the conversacion of those that dooe exercise it. …
Chapter guides · 16
Machiavelli's Proheme
Arms Beneath the Laws
Machiavelli argues that civil order needs defenders, while admitting the limits of his own military experience.
Two dedications
Whitehorne addresses Elizabeth I as the English translator and soldier seeking her protection. Machiavelli's Proheme addresses Lorenzo Filippo Strozzi. Its concern is the apparent gulf between respectable civil life and the violent, irreligious conduct associated with soldiers.
A roof for the city
Machiavelli argues that laws, religion and common prosperity cannot endure without military defence. An undefended political order resembles a splendid palace without a roof. The soldier's readiness to risk death should require fidelity and reverence, rather than release him from them. The misconduct of contemporary armies is therefore a corruption of military life, not its necessary character.
A proposal that can be corrected
He acknowledges that he has not practised war professionally. His defence of writing is deliberately limited: mistaken advice can be corrected before it harms anyone, whereas mistakes made in command can destroy a state. He asks Strozzi to judge the proposal, rather than treating admiration for antiquity as sufficient authority.
Book I: Ancient Discipline
The Captain Is Challenged
Cosimo welcomes Fabricio as an expert, then asks why his admiration for ancient armies has not produced reform.
A conversation remembered
Machiavelli introduces the gathering as a memorial to Cosimo Rucellai, whose early death prevented the public achievements his friends expected of him. Cosimo entertains Fabricio on his passage through Florence and brings three younger companions into the discussion. The garden's carefully chosen trees prompt the first disagreement.
What deserves imitation
Fabricio prefers ancient public virtues to the imitation of ancient luxury. Cosimo objects that severe ancient ways of living would appear absurd today. Fabricio distinguishes them from the practices he actually wants restored: honouring merit, respecting poverty, discouraging faction and putting public interests before private advantage.
Expertise put on trial
Cosimo turns the argument upon his guest. Fabricio has commanded armies; why has he not made them resemble the armies he praises? Fabricio answers that knowledge must be prepared before an opportunity to use it arises. Cosimo welcomes the longer account and asks that his companions be allowed to interrupt with important questions.
Book I: Arms and Civic Virtue
Arms Must Not Become a Trade
Fabricio argues that the professional soldier's private interest eventually conflicts with public peace.
Book I: Discipline and Horsemen
A Militia Under Public Command
Fabricio answers fears that citizen soldiers will either fail in war or become dangerous at home.
Book II: Ancient Arms
Equipment Follows a System
Fabricio combines weapons that resist cavalry with weapons that can prevail once infantry closes.
Book II: Ordering the Battle
Finding One's Place Again
Drill matters most when a company must recover order after its formation has broken.
Book II: Command and Corruption
Who Gets to Become Capable?
The discussion of military signals opens into an argument about the political conditions that sustain military skill.
Book III
A Battle Won in Words
Luigi tests the imagined victory, and Fabricio explains what his arrangement assumes and how it must be practised.
Book IV
The Captain Governs Courage
Fabricio considers both soldiers too eager to fight and soldiers unwilling to face a necessary battle.
Book V
The Army Moves as It Fights
Marching order must answer an enemy whose position is not yet known.
Book VI: A New Questioner
Food, Spoils and the Road
A moving army depends on supply discipline, reliable knowledge of the country and suspicion of easy opportunities.
Book VI: Camp Size and Stratagems
The Camp Must Hold Together
Fabricio's portable city joins predictable space and provision to a severe discipline of obedience.
Book VII: Walls and Ditches
A Ditch Behind the Wall
Fabricio proposes a defence that remains dangerous to the attacker after artillery has broken its outer wall.
Book VII: Taking Towns
The Siege Works Through People
Fabricio's siege examples connect the shape of a defence to its defenders' vigilance, confidence and decisions.
Book VII: Final Rules and the Captain
Rules for a Captain Who Must Invent
The maxims condense the discussion without relieving the captain of judgement.
Book VII: Fabricio's Closing Answer
Knowledge Waits on Political Power
Fabricio returns to Cosimo's challenge and places the responsibility for reform upon rulers who can train their own subjects.
Questions readers ask
- How long does it take to read The Art of War?
- About 6 hr in total.
- How difficult is The Art of War?
- Advanced. A long treatise; about 6 hours of reading.
- Which translation is this?
- The Peter Whitehorne translation from the Italian, first published in 1521. The text follows Machiavelli, Volume I: The Arte of Warre and The Prince (1905).
- Can I read The Art of War for free?
- The Art of War is part of Nexus Premium, so reading it needs an account and a Premium subscription. The opening above and two chapter guides on this page are free to read.
- How many chapter guides are there?
- 16 chapter guides, written by the Nexus editors. Two open in full here; the rest show their opening line.
About Machiavelli
Machiavelli served the Florentine Republic as a diplomat and civil servant during an age of invasion and political instability. After the Medici returned to power, he was imprisoned, tortured, and pushed out of public life, where he wrote his most famous works.
“What does power actually demand?”
Machiavelli forces political thought to confront the gap between private virtue and public survival.
Source text: public domain. Chapter guides: original Nexus writing. The Art of War is part of The Nexus Archive, guided Quests through the great works.