assailants. For the causes of division in a commonwealth are, for the
most part, ease and tranquillity, while the causes of union are fear and
war. Wherefore, had the Veientines been wise, the more divided they saw
Rome to be, the more should they have sought to avoid war with her, and
endeavoured to gain an advantage over her by peaceful arts. And the best
way to effect this in a divided city lies in gaining the confidence of
both factions, and in mediating between them as arbiter so long as they
do not come to blows; but when they resort to open violence, then to
render some tardy aid to the weaker side, so as to plunge them deeper in
hostilities, wherein both may exhaust their forces without being led by
your putting forth an excess of strength to suspect you of a desire to
ruin them and remain their master. Where this is well managed, it will
almost always happen that you succeed in effecting the object you
propose to yourself.

The city of Pistoja, as I have said already in connection with another
matter, was won over to the Florentine republic by no other artifice
than this. For the town being split by factions, the Florentines, by now
favouring one side and now the other, without incurring the suspicions
of either, brought both to such extremities that, wearied out with their
harassed life, they threw themselves at last of their own accord into
the arms of Florence. The city of Siena, again, has never made any
change in her government which has had the support of the Florentines,
save when that support has been slight and insignificant; for whenever
the interference of Florence has been marked and decided, it has had the
effect of uniting all parties in support of things as they stood.

One other instance I shall add to those already given. Oftener than once
Filippo Visconti, duke of Milan, relying on their divisions, set wars on
foot against the Florentines, and always without success; so that, in