especially when we remember the Florentine saying which these same wise
men often quote, to the effect that Pisa and other like cities must be
held by fortresses Doubtless, had those old Romans been like-minded with
our modern sages, they would not have neglected to build themselves
fortresses, but because they far surpassed them in courage, sense, and
vigour, they refrained. And while Rome retained her freedom, and adhered
to her own wise ordinances and wholesome usages, she never built a
single fortress with the view to hold any city or province, though,
sometimes, she may have suffered those to stand which she found already
built.

Looking, therefore, to the course followed by the Romans in this
particular, and to that adopted by our modern rulers, it seems proper to
consider whether or not it is advisable to build fortresses, and whether
they are more likely to help or to hurt him who builds them In the first
place, then, we are to remember that fortresses are built either as a
defence against foreign foes or against subjects In the former case, I
pronounce them unnecessary, in the latter mischievous. And to state the
reasons why in the latter case they are mischievous, I say that when
princes or republics are afraid of their subjects and in fear lest they
rebel, this must proceed from knowing that their subjects hate them,
which hatred in its turn results from their own ill conduct, and that
again from their thinking themselves able to rule their subjects by mere
force, or from their governing with little prudence. Now one of the
causes which lead them to suppose that they can rule by mere force, is
this very circumstance of their people having these fortresses on
their backs So that the conduct which breeds hatred is itself mainly
occasioned by these princes or republics being possessed of fortresses,
which, if this be true, are really far more hurtful than useful First,
because, as has been said already, they render a ruler bolder and more