Buy an essay: Niccolo Machiavelli

“From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both: but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved,” – this is one of the truths once stated by Niccolo Machiavelli in one of his most famous treatises, the Prince. Herein we get involved in the ideas expressed by this great philosopher and writer of the Middle Ages, who tried to explore the density of the human society and while investigating different types of social structure, relations of man and power, he went deeply inside the nature of a human being. Still he managed to uncover it not only in his political works, but in his literary ones as well. Of course, he did it in different manner and to understand what is common and what is in different, we should get acquainted with both these categories, making up the unsurpassed and at the same time contradictory heritage of this glorified rebel.
But to start, we first of all should look for the roots of his philosophy and system of views, and therefore study the circumstances and situation which formed this personality.
Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) was born in Italy and was destined to become “a civil servant of the Florentine Republic” . Niccolo started his life in a very chaotic period. There were a lot of wars, governments were coming and falling, and lands were conquered and ruined.
He had a very strict father, and received a very good education for that time. Then he became a diplomatic council, and worked for Florentine government. He was in charge of interaction with foreign countries and was responsible for the affairs in military sphere. Due to his duties he travelled much, and had much chance to study how different governments worked. Machiavelli visited France and Spain, but most of all he appreciated the work of Cesare Borgia (1475-1507), soldier and churchman at the same time who introduced rather efficient methods of building a state (Viroli, 2000). A lot was happening at that time in Italy. In 1509 the citizen militia under the guidance of Machiavelli conquered Pisa, but soon the Florentines were defeated by the Medici, and Machiavelli as one of the enemies of their regime was arrested and accused of espionage. He was tortured severely, but he didn’t give up and told no word against himself or other confederates. Finally he was released, nut sent to exile not far from his native Florence. It is here where he passionately worked on his sharp satiric philosophy and political treatises. They were not published during his life, but still he managed to gain unsurpassed glory. One of the evidences of that is that on the grave of Machiavelli it was written that No eulogy would be adequate to praise so great a name .