In Italy, during the greater part of the sixteenth century,
assassinations, murders, and even murders under trust, seem to have been almost
familiar among the superior ranks of people. Caesar Borgia invited four of the
little princes in his neighbourhood, who all possessed little sovereignties,
and commanded little armies of their own, to a friendly conference at
Senigaglia, where, as soon as they arrived, he put them all to death. This
infamous action, though certainly not approved of even in that age of crimes,
seems to have contributed very little to the discredit, and not in the least to
the ruin of the perpetrator. That ruin happened a few years after from causes
altogether disconnected with this crime. Machiavel, not indeed a man of the
nicest morality even for his own times, was resident, as minister from the
republic of Florence, at the court of Caesar Borgia when this crime was
committed. He gives a very particular account of it, and in that pure, elegant,
and simple language which distinguishes all his writings. He talks of it very
coolly; is pleased with the address with which Caesar Borgia conducted it; has
much contempt for the dupery and weakness of the sufferers; but no compassion
for their miserable and untimely death, and no sort of indignation at the
cruelty and falsehood of their murderer. The violence and injustice of great
conquerors are often regarded with foolish wonder and admiration; those of
petty thieves, robbers, and murderers, with contempt, hatred, and even horror
upon all occasions. The former, though they are a hundred times more
mischievous and destructive, yet when successful, they often pass for deeds of
the most heroic magnanimity. The latter are always viewed with hatred and
aversion, as the follies, as well as the crimes, of the lowest and most worthless
of mankind.
IR Folks from Times Past
