Page:The Prince (translated by William K. Marriott).djvu/304

This page has been validated.
274
Notes and References
PAGE
54. Machiavelli was the accredited agent of the Florentine Republic to Cesare Borgia (1478–1507) during the transactions which led up to the assassinations of the Orsini and Vitelli at Sinigaila, and along with his letters to his chiefs in Florence he has left an account, written ten years before The Prince, of the proceedings of the duke in his "Descritione del modo tenuto dal duca Valentino nello ammazzare Vitellozzo Vitelli," etc., a translation of which is appended to the present work.
57. Sinigalia, December 31, 1502.
58. Ramiro d'Orco. Ramiro de Lorqua.
61. Alexander VI. died of fever, August 18, 1503.
61. Julius II. was Giuliano della Rovere, Cardinal of San Pietro ad Vincula, born 1443, died 1513.
63. San Giorgio is Raffaello Riario. Ascanio is Ascanio Sforza.
67. Agathocles the Sicilian, born 361 B.C., died 289 B.C.
72. "Severities." Mr. Burd suggests that this word probably comes nearer the modern equivalent of Machiavelli's thought when he speaks of "crudelta" than the more obvious "cruelties."
80. Nabis, tyrant of Sparta, conquered by the Romans under Flamininus in 195 B.C.; killed 192 B.C.
81. Messer Giorgio Scali. This event is to be found in Machiavelli's "Florentine History," book iii.
92. Charles VIII. invaded Italy in 1494.
94. Pope Leo X. was the Cardinal de' Medici.
98. "With chalk in hand," "col gesso." This is one of the bon mots of Alexander VI., and refers to the ease with which Charles VIII. seized Italy, implying that it was only necessary for him to send his quartermasters to chalk up the billets for his soldiers to conquer the country. Cf. "The History of Henry VII.," by Lord Bacon:—"King Charles had conquered the realm of Naples, and lost it again, in a kind of a felicity of a dream. He passed the whole length of Italy without resistance: so that it was true what Pope Alexander was wont to say. That the Frenchmen came into Italy with chalk in their hands, to mark up their lodgings, rather than with swords to fight."