ABSTRACT
Measured against the Roman republic, proud Florence, convinced its sophistication, culture, and economic prowess were unparalleled, was a puny thing, indeed. Rome had been a glorious success, Florence was an abject failure; Rome had been powerful, Florence was weak; Rome had been noble, Florence was ignoble; Rome had been virtuous, Florence was corrupt. Weak, vacillating, indecisive leadership had marked, so Machiavelli believed, the Florentine republic of 1494 to 1512. For four years Florentine affairs were dominated by the religious zealot Savonarola, whose enthusiasm and prophecy had not the same effect on Machiavelli as on the Florentine populace. The other major cause of Florentine degradation, accounted for systematically and historically in the Florentine History, is the triumph of the commercial oligarchy, a class unskilled in the art of rule, internally divided, and lacking in virtù. What once was can be again because human nature is no different now than it was in ancient times.
