The Prince

Written by Niccolò Machiavelli in 1513 after he lost his post in Florence, and published in 1532, after his death, this short book advises a prince on winning and keeping power: how to hold new territories, why one should rely on one's own soldiers, whether it is better to be loved or feared (safer, he says, to be feared), when to keep one's word, and how a ruler must be both a fox and a lion. Its model is Cesare Borgia, and it ends with an appeal to free Italy from foreign armies. This edition adds his account of how Borgia trapped his rebellious captains, and his life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca.

It shocked readers by describing politics as it is practised rather than as it should be, and 'Machiavellian' became a byword for ruthlessness; yet many see it as the first work of modern political science. The translation is by W. K. Marriott. It is best read beside his republican Discourses on Livy.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) served the Florentine republic for fourteen years as a senior official and diplomat, meeting kings, popes and the ruthless Cesare Borgia. When the Medici family returned to power in 1512 he lost his post, was imprisoned and tortured, and retired to his small farm outside Florence.

There, in the evenings, he put on his best clothes to read the ancient historians, and wrote The Prince, his Discourses on Livy and the comedy The Mandrake. His frank description of how power really works made his name a byword for cunning, but he was also a passionate defender of republics.