Machiavel, la guerre, les anciens. Les "antichi scrittori" dans l'"Arte della guerra"

Abstract

This article examines Machiavelli’s borrowing from ancient writers in L’Arte della guerra, focusing on some emblematic passages: the section of the first book dealing with military conscription, permeated with echoes of Vegetius, Livy, and Polybius; the strategies “to inflame soldiers” for the fight; and the “general rules” of war, compared with Vegetius’ regulae bellorum generales. Besides the idea of the literariness of L’Arte della guerra (for instance, Frontinus’ exempla provide the Machiavellian text with “the variety of accidents”), this article advances another thesis: L’Arte della guerra offers a topical political-military programme for present times of which ancient authors are an integral part.

Keywords

• literature
• history
• renaissance
• latin