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Empire Without Glory
Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince

The author distinguishes between the acquisition of power and the attainment of glory, noting that while ruthless cruelty can secure an empire, it prevents a leader from being celebrated as truly excellent.

...to be content with the possession of Africa. [1] Agathocles the Sicilian, born 361 B.C., died 289 B.C. Therefore, he who considers the actions and the genius of this man will see nothing, or little, which can be attributed to fortune, inasmuch as he attained pre-eminence, as is shown above, not by the favour of any one, but step by step in the military profession, which steps were gained with a thousand troubles and perils, and were afterwards boldly held by him with many hazardous dangers.
Yet it cannot be called talent to slay fellow-citizens, to deceive friends, to be without faith, without mercy, without religion; such methods may gain empire, but not glory. Still, if the courage of Agathocles in entering into and extricating himself from dangers be considered, together with his greatness of mind in enduring and overcoming hardships, it cannot be seen why he should be esteemed less than the most notable captain. Nevertheless, his barbarous cruelty and inhumanity with infinite wickedness do not permit him to be celebrated among the most excellent men.
What he achieved cannot be attributed either to fortune or genius. In our times, during the rule of Alexander the Sixth, Oliverotto da Fermo, having been left an orphan many years before, was brought up by his maternal uncle, Giovanni Fogliani, and in the early days of his youth sent to fight under Pagolo Vitelli, that, being trained under his discipline, he might attain some high position in the military profession. After Pagolo died, he fought under his brother Vitellozzo, and in a very shor...
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Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Maxims

Fame's True Measure

La Rochefoucauld asserts that the fame of great men should be judged by the means they used to acquire it. This echoes Machiavelli's core distinction between gaining empire through cruel methods and achieving true glory, emphasizing that evaluation of greatness must consider the methods employed.

The fame of great men ought always to be estimated by the means used to acquire it.

Julius Evola

Revolt Against the Modern World

Plebeian Rule

Evola criticizes rulers who govern through cunning and violence as 'plebeian' rather than 'heroic,' arguing that true governance should be based on higher principles and tradition. This directly challenges Machiavelli's nuanced evaluation of Agathocles by rejecting the premise that such methods can be worthy of esteem, even in terms of capability.

...eror, but rather against God (obviare Deo). By divine injunction (jubente Deo ) the prince waged war against them as the representative of Charlemagne, brandishing the "avenging sword" in order to restore the ancient order (redditur res publica). Finally, especially in the case of Italy, in the so-called seigneuries (the counterpart or the successors of the communes) it is possible to detect another aspect of the new climate, of which Macchiavelli's Prince represented a clear barometric index.
During these times, the only person considered fit for government was a powerful individual who would rule not by virtue of a consecration, his nobility, and his representing a higher principle and a tradition, but rather in his own name and by employing cunning, violence, and the means of "politics," which by then was regarded as an "art," a technique devoid of scruples, honor, and truth with religion having become only an instrument to be employed in its service. Dante correctly said: "Italorum principum . . . qui non heroico more sed plebeo, secuntur superbiam. " Thus, the substance of such...
On the one hand, we see the reappearance of the model of ancient tyrannies; on the other hand, we find the expression of that unrestrained individualism that characterizes these new times according to multiple forms. Here we also find the anticipation, in a radical way, of the type of "absolute politics" and the will to power that in later times will be implemented on a much greater scale. The cycle of the medieval restoration ended with these processes. Somehow we can say that the gynaecocrat...

Niccolo Machiavelli

The Prince

Cruelty's Calculated Use

Machiavelli explains why some rulers, like Agathocles, can commit cruelties yet maintain power securely: it depends on whether severities are applied decisively and out of necessity, rather than persisted in unnecessarily. This provides the underlying mechanism for Agathocles' relative success despite his wickedness.

...uring which he held the principality, not only was he secure in the city of Fermo, but he had become formidable to all his neighbours. And his destruction would have been as difficult as that of Agathocles if he had not allowed himself to be overreached by Cesare Borgia, who took him with the Orsini and Vitelli at Sinigalia, as was stated above. Thus one year after he had committed this parricide, he was strangled, together with Vitellozzo, whom he had made his leader in valour and wickedness.
Some may wonder how it can happen that Agathocles, and his like, after infinite treacheries and cruelties, should live for long secure in his country, and defend himself from external enemies, and never be conspired against by his own citizens; seeing that many others, by means of cruelty, have never been able even in peaceful times to hold the state, still less in the doubtful times of war. I believe that this follows from severities being badly or properly used. Those may be called properly used, if of evil it is possible to speak well, that are applied at one blow and are necessary to one’s...
The badly employed are those which, notwithstanding they may be few in the commencement, multiply with time rather than decrease. Those who practise the first system are able, by aid of God or man, to mitigate in some degree their rule, as Agathocles did. It is impossible for those who follow the other to maintain themselves. [2] Mr Burd suggests that this word probably comes near the modern equivalent of Machiavelli’s thought when he speaks of “crudelta” than the more obvious “cruelties.”...

Blaise Pascal

Pensees

Touching Both Extremes

Pascal reframes the discussion by arguing that true greatness lies not in possessing a single virtue to an extreme, but in balancing opposite virtues, such as valor and kindness. This shifts the lens from evaluating Agathocles based on his courage versus his cruelty to considering whether he embodied a harmonious excellence that touches both extremes.

...possesses, others can do likewise. There are feverish movements which health cannot imitate. Epictetus[130] concludes that since there are consistent Christians, every man can easily be so. 351 Those great spiritual efforts, which the soul sometimes assays, are things on which it does not lay hold.[131] It only leaps to them, not as upon a throne, for ever, but merely for an instant. 352 The strength of a man's virtue must not be measured by his efforts, but by his ordinary life. 353
I do not admire the excess of a virtue as of valour, except I see at the same time the excess of the opposite virtue, as in Epaminondas, who had the greatest valour and the greatest kindness. For otherwise it is not to rise, it is to fall. We do not display greatness by going to one extreme, but in touching both at once, and filling all the intervening space. But perhaps this is only a sudden movement of the soul from one to the other extreme, and in fact it is ever at one point only, as in the case of a firebrand. Be it so, but at least this indicates agility if not expanse of soul.
354 Man's nature is not always to advance; it has its advances and retreats. Fever has its cold and hot fits; and the cold proves as well as the hot the greatness of the fire of fever. The discoveries of men from age to age turn out the same. The kindness and the malice of the world in general are the same. Plerumque gratæ principibus vices.[133] 355 Continuous eloquence wearies. Princes and kings sometimes play. They are not always on their thrones. They weary there. Grandeur must b...

Arthur Schopenhauer

The Wisdom of Life

Fame's Paradoxical Pursuit

Schopenhauer reflects on the elusive nature of fame, suggesting that it often avoids those who actively seek it. This meta-commentary questions our ability to definitively assign glory or blame, implying that the pursuit of glory itself may be paradoxical and that historical judgment is uncertain.

...f all in the case of philosophical works, because the result at which they aim is rather vague, and, at the same time, useless from a material point of view; they appeal chiefly to readers who are working on the same lines themselves. It is clear, then, from what I have said as to the difficulty of winning fame, that those who labor, not out of love for their subject, nor from pleasure in pursuing it, but under the stimulus of ambition, rarely or never leave mankind a legacy of immortal works.
The man who seeks to do what is good and genuine, must avoid what is bad, and be ready to defy the opinions of the mob, nay, even to despise it and its misleaders. Hence the truth of the remark, (especially insisted upon by Osorius de Gloria), that fame shuns those who seek it, and seeks those who shun it; for the one adapt themselves to the taste of their contemporaries, and the others work in defiance of it.
But, difficult though it be to acquire fame, it is an easy thing to keep when once acquired. Here, again, fame is in direct opposition to honor, with which everyone is presumably to be accredited. Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost. But there lies the difficulty! For by a single unworthy action, it is gone irretrievably. But fame, in the proper sense of the word, can never disappear; for the action or work by which it was acquired can never be undone; and fame attaches to its au...

Niccolo Machiavelli

The Prince

Avoiding Hatred

Machiavelli offers practical advice to a prince: he should inspire fear in a way that avoids hatred, specifically by refraining from seizing the property and women of his subjects. This directly answers the 'what to do' question arising from Agathocles' example, guiding how to use fear without incurring the hatred that marred Agathocles' legacy.

...ther precautions, is ruined; because friendships that are obtained by payments, and not by greatness or nobility of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied upon; and men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.
Nevertheless a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred; because he can endure very well being feared whilst he is not hated, which will always be as long as he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects and from their women. But when it is necessary for him to proceed against the life of someone, he must do it on proper justification and for manifest cause, but above all things he must keep his hands off the property of others, because men more quickly forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony. Besides, pre...
But when a prince is with his army, and has under control a multitude of soldiers, then it is quite necessary for him to disregard the reputation of cruelty, for without it he would never hold his army united or disposed to its duties. Among the wonderful deeds of Hannibal this one is enumerated: that having led an enormous army, composed of many various races of men, to fight in foreign lands, no dissensions arose either among them or against the prince, whether in his bad or in his good fort...