ABSTRACT
Ave , rex Iudeorum! et dabant ei alapas; so Clement VII said with a bitter smile to the devilish don Ugo and the Spanish captains who kneeling respectfully and implacably before him sought absolution for their sacrilegious outrage. But apart from this typically Florentine quip, the Medici Pope had no other means of revenging himself on his enemies. He was therefore obliged to accept a truce for four months, under which he was to withdraw his forces from Lombardy, forgive the Colonna party, and hand over Filippo Strozzi as hostage for his good intentions. Strozzi was a man who besides being a relation of the Pope was said to be worth a million ducats. With the signing of this pact, and as long as he observed its conditions, the war was over as far as he was concerned; and so too was Machiavelli’s military life.
