Lehal Library

the prince planning and doing great things, keeping his people in a state of suspense and admiration, concentrated as they were on the outcome of his various campaigns. Since each of these came as a consequence of the one before, he never gave the more powerful men in the country any slack time between wars when they could plot against him. A leader can also win acclaim by giving impressive demon- strations of character in his handling of domestic affairs, as Bernabò Visconti did in Milan; whenever anyone does any- thing remarkable, whether for good or ill, in civil life, you think up some reward or punishment that will cause a stir. But above all a ruler must make sure that everything he does gives people the impression that he is a great man of remarkable abilities. A ruler will also be respected when he is a genuine friend and a genuine enemy, that is, when he declares himself unam- biguously for one side and against the other. This policy will always bring better results than neutrality. For example, if you have two powerful neighbours who go to war, you may or may not have reason to fear the winner afterwards. Either way it will always be better to take sides and fight hard. If you do have cause to fear but stay neutral, you’ll still be gobbled up by the winner to the amusement and satisfaction of the loser; you’ll have no excuses, no defence and nowhere to hide. Because a winner doesn’t want half-hearted friends who don’t help him in a crisis; and the loser will have nothing to do with you since you didn’t choose to fight alongside him and share his fate. When Antiochus was sent to Greece by the Aetolians to push back the Romans, he sent ambassadors to the Achaeans, who were allied to the Romans, asking them to remain neu- tral, while for their part the Romans encouraged them to join the war on their side. The Achaean council debated the matter and after Antiochus’s ambassador had spoken, asking them to remain neutral, the Roman ambassador replied: ‘With