# The Virtues of Republican Citizenship in Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy

Michelle T. Clarke. Journal article, 2013.
Journal of Politics 75, no. 2 (2013): 317–329.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381613000030
Author's site: https://michelletclarke.com/

## Summary

Argues that Machiavelli is skeptical of the Roman social virtues, especially aspects of fides (good faith), because they bound clients to powerful patrons and let elites gather power outside the law. Rereading the classic exemplum of Manlius Torquatus, he shows how personal loyalties endanger republican liberty and sketches a model of citizenship in which ‘unsociable’ traits are central. Republicanism, on this reading, is a politics of limits, and Machiavelli attacks the culture of personal trust from within the republican tradition itself.

## Topics

- Machiavelli
- Citizenship
- Fides
- Patronage
- Manlius Torquatus
- Republicanism

## How to cite

Clarke, Michelle T. “The Virtues of Republican Citizenship in Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy.” *Journal of Politics* 75, no. 2 (2013): 317–329. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381613000030.

```bibtex
@article{clarke2013virtues,
  author    = {Clarke, Michelle T.},
  title     = {{The Virtues of Republican Citizenship in Machiavelli's \emph{Discourses on Livy}}},
  year      = {2013},
  journal   = {Journal of Politics},
  volume    = {75},
  number    = {2},
  pages     = {317--329},
  doi       = {10.1017/S0022381613000030},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381613000030}
}
```

## Related work by the author

- Liberty, the People, and Republican Constitutionalism in Cicero’s Pro Rabirio perduellionis reo (Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought, 2025): https://michelletclarke.com/articles/cicero-pro-rabirio-liberty.md
- Curing Virtue: Epicureanism and Erotic Fantasy in Machiavelli’s Mandragola (Political Theory, 2022): https://michelletclarke.com/articles/machiavelli-mandragola-curing-virtue.md
- Machiavelli’s Virtuous Princes: Rhetoric, Power, and the Politics of Ironic Historiography (Journal of Politics, 2022): https://michelletclarke.com/articles/machiavelli-virtuous-princes.md