The Discourses

Elected by the people to one-year terms, two consuls serve simultaneously as the highest authorities in the Roman Republic. They command armies but are subject to term limits and must step down after their year in office.

In emergencies, Rome elects a dictator who holds supreme power for a six-month term. Usually a dictator oversees the republic during a war, famine, or other severe situation. Until late in the Republic, all dictators, on completion of their duties, relinquish authority and resume their regular lives. This changes during the conflict over agrarian rights during the early first century BCE between the plebeians and the nobles, when consuls Marius and Sulla each bend the rules to hold power longer than they should. Julius Caesar takes that power in 49 BCE, declaring himself dictator for life, and the republic falls. 

A major power in Renaissance Italy, Florence is a republic and then an autocracy ruled by the Medici family. Florence dominates its region commercially and militarily and is home to a vast trove of fine art, including Michelangelo’s famous statue of David. Machiavelli, who serves for a time as a Florentine diplomat, in the Discourses contrasts Florence’s relatively feeble foreign policy with the vigorous one of ancient Rome.