دانلود کتاب ماکیاولی و مشکلات نیروی نظامی

Hiero II 1 performs an ambiguous role in Machiavelli’s works. Th e Syracusan king appears at key moments in both the Prince and the Discourses as an important example of a private individual who became prince, as Machiavelli explains, through possessing “arms of his own.” In the Prince , Machiavelli cites the example of Hiero at the close of Chapter 6 as someone who even exhibited a certain proportionality with the likes of new princes like Moses, Cyrus, Romulus and Th eseus, who acquired new principalities through their own arms and virtue when presented with the opportunity to do so. Machiavelli cites the example of Hiero II again in Chapter 13 of the Prince , during the discussion of diff erent qualities of armed force. Here he discusses why arms of one’s own are always to be preferred over employing mercenary or auxiliary arms. Machiavelli invokes the example of Hiero during this discussion as someone who destroyed the mercenary arms he inherited when he became captain of Syracuse, “and then made war with his own arms and not with alien arms.” Machiavelli inserts the discussion of Hiero between discussions of Cesare Borgia and the Biblical David. Th e career of Hiero resembled that of Borgia, the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI, in that the careers of both leaders began with their using the arms of others. According to Machiavelli, when Borgia detected the risks that came with making war with the arms of others, he replaced them and made war with his own. Machiavelli then examines the example of David, who abjured the use of Saul’s armor and sword and went to meet Goliath with arms of his own. On Machiavelli’s account, David’s arms included his sling and his knife. Of course the story of the battle between David and Goliath from Samuel I makes no mention of David fi ghting with a knife. In fact, Samuel kills Goliath and then cuts off his head using the Philistine’s own sword.