feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/cliffnotes/The Prince/section_11_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: The Prince.chapter 13
feat_summary_id: chapter 13
feat_summary: {"name": "Chapter 13", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20201108110625/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/p/the-prince/summary-and-analysis/chapter-13", "summary": "Auxiliaries are troops sent by another ruler to help you. Just as with mercenaries, if they lose, you are ruined, and if they win, you are in their power. Auxiliaries come to you as a united body trained to obey others. Mercenaries are less dangerous, because they are not united behind their leaders. A wise prince would rather lose his own troops than win with someone else's, because a victory with borrowed troops is not really a victory. A principality that does not have its own army is not really secure, because it depends on fortune, not its own strength. Nothing is weaker than a reputation for power that is not based on your own strength.", "analysis": "Machiavelli views auxiliaries, troops loaned by another ruler, as even more destructive than mercenaries. While mercenaries are only self-interested, auxiliaries are actually loyal to someone else, namely a rival prince who may use them to conquer you. Using forces that belong to someone else puts you in that person's power. Returning once again to his theme that the only real strength is self-sufficiency, Machiavelli remarks that it is better to lose with one's own troops than to win with the strength of others, because that victory belongs to them. Unless a prince can field an army of his own citizens or subjects, he has no real power. Virtu, a prince's own strength, is always preferable to relying on luck or the favor of others. Glossary Julius Pope Julius II tried to take Ferrara, allied with the French, in 1510. Julius probably allied with Spain more out of fear of French power in Italy than out of specific desire to conquer Ferrara. Constantinople former name for Istanbul. Christian capital of the Byzantine Empire. During a period of civil war, the emperor asked Ottoman Turkish forces to intervene. Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. David the great king of the Israelites, only a young shepherd boy when he fought for King Saul against the Philistine giant, Goliath. David's refusal of Saul's armor appears in I Samuel 17:38-40. Charles VIII  King of France. His royal ordinances established permanent infantry and cavalry in the French army. His successor Louis XII reversed this policy. Goths Germanic people who invaded and conquered most of the Roman Empire."}
text: 
  Auxiliaries, which are the other useless arm, are employed when a prince
  is called in with his forces to aid and defend, as was done by Pope
  Julius in the most recent times; for he, having, in the enterprise
  against Ferrara, had poor proof of his mercenaries, turned to
  auxiliaries, and stipulated with Ferdinand, King of Spain,(*) for his
  assistance with men and arms. These arms may be useful and good
  in themselves, but for him who calls them in they are always
  disadvantageous; for losing, one is undone, and winning, one is their
  captive.
  
  And although ancient histories may be full of examples, I do not wish
  to leave this recent one of Pope Julius the Second, the peril of which
  cannot fail to be perceived; for he, wishing to get Ferrara, threw
  himself entirely into the hands of the foreigner. But his good fortune
  brought about a third event, so that he did not reap the fruit of his
  rash choice; because, having his auxiliaries routed at Ravenna, and
  the Switzers having risen and driven out the conquerors (against all
  expectation, both his and others), it so came to pass that he did
  not become prisoner to his enemies, they having fled, nor to his
  auxiliaries, he having conquered by other arms than theirs.
  
  The Florentines, being entirely without arms, sent ten thousand
  Frenchmen to take Pisa, whereby they ran more danger than at any other
  time of their troubles.
  
  The Emperor of Constantinople,(*) to oppose his neighbours, sent ten
  thousand Turks into Greece, who, on the war being finished, were not
  willing to quit; this was the beginning of the servitude of Greece to
  the infidels.
  
  Therefore, let him who has no desire to conquer make use of these arms,
  for they are much more hazardous than mercenaries, because with them the
  ruin is ready made; they are all united, all yield obedience to others;
  but with mercenaries, when they have conquered, more time and better
  opportunities are needed to injure you; they are not all of one
  community, they are found and paid by you, and a third party, which you
  have made their head, is not able all at once to assume enough authority
  to injure you. In conclusion, in mercenaries dastardy is most dangerous;
  in auxiliaries, valour. The wise prince, therefore, has always avoided
  these arms and turned to his own; and has been willing rather to lose
  with them than to conquer with the others, not deeming that a real
  victory which is gained with the arms of others.
  
  I shall never hesitate to cite Cesare Borgia and his actions. This duke
  entered the Romagna with auxiliaries, taking there only French soldiers,
  and with them he captured Imola and Forli; but afterwards, such forces
  not appearing to him reliable, he turned to mercenaries, discerning less
  danger in them, and enlisted the Orsini and Vitelli; whom presently,
  on handling and finding them doubtful, unfaithful, and dangerous, he
  destroyed and turned to his own men. And the difference between one
  and the other of these forces can easily be seen when one considers
  the difference there was in the reputation of the duke, when he had the
  French, when he had the Orsini and Vitelli, and when he relied on his
  own soldiers, on whose fidelity he could always count and found it ever
  increasing; he was never esteemed more highly than when every one saw
  that he was complete master of his own forces.
  
  I was not intending to go beyond Italian and recent examples, but I am
  unwilling to leave out Hiero, the Syracusan, he being one of those I
  have named above. This man, as I have said, made head of the army by the
  Syracusans, soon found out that a mercenary soldiery, constituted like
  our Italian condottieri, was of no use; and it appearing to him that he
  could neither keep them not let them go, he had them all cut to pieces,
  and afterwards made war with his own forces and not with aliens.
  
  I wish also to recall to memory an instance from the Old Testament
  applicable to this subject. David offered himself to Saul to fight with
  Goliath, the Philistine champion, and, to give him courage, Saul armed
  him with his own weapons; which David rejected as soon as he had them
  on his back, saying he could make no use of them, and that he wished to
  meet the enemy with his sling and his knife. In conclusion, the arms of
  others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind
  you fast.
  
  Charles the Seventh,(*) the father of King Louis the Eleventh,(+) having
  by good fortune and valour liberated France from the English, recognized
  the necessity of being armed with forces of his own, and he established
  in his kingdom ordinances concerning men-at-arms and infantry.
  Afterwards his son, King Louis, abolished the infantry and began to
  enlist the Switzers, which mistake, followed by others, is, as is now
  seen, a source of peril to that kingdom; because, having raised the
  reputation of the Switzers, he has entirely diminished the value of
  his own arms, for he has destroyed the infantry altogether; and his
  men-at-arms he has subordinated to others, for, being as they are so
  accustomed to fight along with Switzers, it does not appear that they
  can now conquer without them. Hence it arises that the French cannot
  stand against the Switzers, and without the Switzers they do not come
  off well against others. The armies of the French have thus become
  mixed, partly mercenary and partly national, both of which arms together
  are much better than mercenaries alone or auxiliaries alone, but much
  inferior to one's own forces. And this example proves it, for the
  kingdom of France would be unconquerable if the ordinance of Charles had
  been enlarged or maintained.
  
  But the scanty wisdom of man, on entering into an affair which looks
  well at first, cannot discern the poison that is hidden in it, as I have
  said above of hectic fevers. Therefore, if he who rules a principality
  cannot recognize evils until they are upon him, he is not truly wise;
  and this insight is given to few. And if the first disaster to the Roman
  Empire(*) should be examined, it will be found to have commenced only
  with the enlisting of the Goths; because from that time the vigour of
  the Roman Empire began to decline, and all that valour which had raised
  it passed away to others.
  
       (*) "Many speakers to the House the other night in the
       debate on the reduction of armaments seemed to show a most
       lamentable ignorance of the conditions under which the
       British Empire maintains its existence. When Mr Balfour
       replied to the allegations that the Roman Empire sank under
       the weight of its military obligations, he said that this
       was 'wholly unhistorical.' He might well have added that the
       Roman power was at its zenith when every citizen
       acknowledged his liability to fight for the State, but that
       it began to decline as soon as this obligation was no longer
       recognized."--Pall Mall Gazette, 15th May 1906.
  
  I conclude, therefore, that no principality is secure without having its
  own forces; on the contrary, it is entirely dependent on good fortune,
  not having the valour which in adversity would defend it. And it has
  always been the opinion and judgment of wise men that nothing can be so
  uncertain or unstable as fame or power not founded on its own strength.
  And one's own forces are those which are composed either of subjects,
  citizens, or dependents; all others are mercenaries or auxiliaries. And
  the way to make ready one's own forces will be easily found if the rules
  suggested by me shall be reflected upon, and if one will consider
  how Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, and many republics and
  princes have armed and organized themselves, to which rules I entirely
  commit myself.
  
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Chapter 13
target: Auxiliaries are troops sent by another ruler to help you. Just as with mercenaries, if they lose, you are ruined, and if they win, you are in their power. Auxiliaries come to you as a united body trained to obey others. Mercenaries are less dangerous, because they are not united behind their leaders. A wise prince would rather lose his own troops than win with someone else's, because a victory with borrowed troops is not really a victory. A principality that does not have its own army is not really secure, because it depends on fortune, not its own strength. Nothing is weaker than a reputation for power that is not based on your own strength.
feat_summary_analysis: Machiavelli views auxiliaries, troops loaned by another ruler, as even more destructive than mercenaries. While mercenaries are only self-interested, auxiliaries are actually loyal to someone else, namely a rival prince who may use them to conquer you. Using forces that belong to someone else puts you in that person's power. Returning once again to his theme that the only real strength is self-sufficiency, Machiavelli remarks that it is better to lose with one's own troops than to win with the strength of others, because that victory belongs to them. Unless a prince can field an army of his own citizens or subjects, he has no real power. Virtu, a prince's own strength, is always preferable to relying on luck or the favor of others. Glossary Julius Pope Julius II tried to take Ferrara, allied with the French, in 1510. Julius probably allied with Spain more out of fear of French power in Italy than out of specific desire to conquer Ferrara. Constantinople former name for Istanbul. Christian capital of the Byzantine Empire. During a period of civil war, the emperor asked Ottoman Turkish forces to intervene. Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. David the great king of the Israelites, only a young shepherd boy when he fought for King Saul against the Philistine giant, Goliath. David's refusal of Saul's armor appears in I Samuel 17:38-40. Charles VIII  King of France. His royal ordinances established permanent infantry and cavalry in the French army. His successor Louis XII reversed this policy. Goths Germanic people who invaded and conquered most of the Roman Empire.