Abstract

The essay concerns the analysis of the decadence of the free republics, and in particular of the Roman republic, that Machiavelli carries out in the chapters XVII and XVIII of the "Discourses". This decadence resulted from the passive submission of the people to the illegitimate domination by «the powerful». Also the analysis of decadence we find in chapter XXXVII of the "Discourses" (referred by Machiavelli to the intensification of the original and universal relation of conflict) is commented. The author of this essay highlights the difficulty of seeing these analyses as something unitary, and considers the not fully successful attempt made on this purpose by Machiavelli in Florentine Histories III 1.