The DiscoursesBy: Niccolo Machiavelli Few figures in intellectual history have proved as notorious and ambiguous as Niccol Machiavelli. But while his treatise The Prince made his name synonymous with autocratic ruthlessness and cynical manipulation, The Discourses (c. 1517) shows a radically different outlook on the world of politics. In this carefully argued commentary on Livys history of republican Rome, Machiavelli proposed a system of government that would