Machiavelli’s Virtuous Princes
Rhetoric, Power, and the Politics of Ironic Historiography
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10185494 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michelle T Clarke (0000-0001-5427-2413, Dartmouth Hospital, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 84 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 483-495 |
| Publication date | 2021-06-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3816 • E-ISSN: 1468-2508 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/715596 |
| OpenAlex | W3166322407 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 30 |
In The Prince, Machiavelli often associates power with force and the ability to compel obedience. In the Discourses on Livy and Florentine Histories, however, he emphasizes the role that moral authority has played in the construction of princely power, especially in republics like ancient Rome and modern Florence. This article explores the alternative style of princely virtù that Machiavelli associates with these princes and contrasts it with cruder forms of fraud, like moral hypocrisy, playing the hero, and ideological innovation. Finally, it shows how Machiavelli's analysis of power and princely virtù constitutes a revival of the historiographic tradition epitomized by Thucydides, Sallust, and Tacitus, in which irony is used to critique the social grammars that princes have used to underwrite their domination
Ancient history · Art · Emperor · HERO · Historiography · Hypocrisy · Ideology · Irony · Literature · Obedience · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Rhetoric · Style (visual arts · Theology · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Philosophy · Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
Thoughts on Machiavelli
A Great and Wretched City
Historians and Historiography in the Italian Renaissance
Virtue Politics
Machiavelli and Republicanism
Realism and International Relations
Economy and Society
Machiavelli and the Rhetorica ad Herennium
The Theme of Gloria in Machiavelli
Language, Stasis and the Role of the Historian in Thucydides, Sallust and Tacitus
The Nature of History in Ancient Greece and Rome
The Ideology of Classicism
Plutocratic Philanthropy
Republicanism and the Problem of Ambition
Varieties of Realism
The Virtues of Republican Citizenship in Machiavelli’sDiscourses on Livy
Machiavelli's Concept of Virtù in the Prince and the Discourses Reconsidered
Machiavelli's Concept of Virtù Reconsidered
Virtù and the Example of Agathocles in Machiavelli's Prince
On the Impersonality of the Modern State
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |