Let us turn now to those republics which build fortresses not within
their own territories, but in towns whereof they have taken possession.
And if the above example of France and Genoa suffice not to show the
futility of this course, that of Florence and Pisa ought, I think, to
be conclusive. For in erecting fortresses to hold Pisa, the Florentines
failed to perceive that a city which had always been openly hostile to
them, which had lived in freedom, and which could cloak rebellion under
the name of liberty, must, if it were to be retained at all, be retained
by those methods which were used by the Romans, and either be made a
companion or be destroyed. Of how little service these Pisan fortresses
were, was seen on the coming of Charles VIII. of France into Italy, to
whom, whether through the treachery of their defenders or from fear of
worse evils, they were at once delivered up; whereas, had there been no
fortresses in Pisa, the Florentines would not have looked to them as
the means whereby the town was to be held; the king could not by their
assistance have taken the town from the Florentines; and the methods
whereby it had previously been preserved might, in all likelihood, have
continued sufficient to preserve it; and, at any rate, had served that
end no worse than the fortresses.

These, then, are the conclusions to which I come, namely, that
fortresses built to hold your own country under are hurtful, and that
those built to retain acquired territories are useless; and I am content
to rely on the example of the Romans, who in the towns they sought to
hold by the strong hand, rather pulled down fortresses than built them.
And if any, to controvert these views of mine, were to cite the case of
Tarentum in ancient times, or of Brescia in recent, as towns which when
they rebelled were recovered by means of their citadels; I answer, that
for the recovery of Tarentum, Fabius Maximus was sent at the end of a