Many readers come to Machiavelli with their minds made up about who he was and what he espoused. A more balanced assessment must take into account many approaches to his work and possible influences from the classical world.

Evaluating Machiavelli

In order to evaluate Machiavelli one must first decide what he was doing and second decide how to balance the assessment of the texts. The traditional assessment of Machiavelli is "expedient egoist." Under this reading one would cite passages from The Prince in which rulers are advised to employ deceit and cruelty for the sake of political advantage. However, it is unclear whether these passages should be taken at face value or rather as an invective set in its European historical perspective: (a) a striving to connect to the past—particularly to the Roman Empire and its eloquent Republican spokesman...