Essays in Idleness

While trying to recover the use of my brain, lately, I have been investing time and effort in reading authors whose surnames begin with “G” — Gobineau, Goethe, Guicciardini. I wish I could do this in French, German, and Italian, respectively, but even after whipping myself, I find that my linguistic abilities fall short. At the moment I am reading Francesco Guicciardini’s review of the Discourses of Machiavelli (his older contemporary, who was considering the historian, Livy), on the topic of the Guardianship of Freedom.

Would nobles or plebeians be the better choice for this task? And incidentally, which group is more likely to riot?

The power to arraign was balanced between both parties in ancient Rome; the consuls put down the conspiracies of the Gracchi and Catiline, and tribunes were appointed to protect the plebs, which they did with enthusiasm because they were plebs themselves.

Machiavelli would put the power of government into the hands of the plebs, given only a choice between the two, because he chiefly feared the ambitions of the nobles. Guicciardini, whom I have always preferred, would instinctively take the opposite view. He does not expect oppression from the “optimates” — who tend to promote conservatism and tradition — but instead from the shrieking and evil populist mob.