# Machiavelli’s Virtuous Princes: Rhetoric, Power, and the Politics of Ironic Historiography

Michelle T. Clarke. Journal article, 2022.
Journal of Politics 84, no. 1 (2022): 483–495.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/715596
Author's site: https://michelletclarke.com/

## Summary

Contrasts The Prince, where princely power rests on arms and force, with the Discourses on Livy and Florentine Histories, where princes in Rome and Florence rise through moral authority. With Cosimo de’ Medici as the central case, it shows how a reputation for generosity and good works, extended through personal rather than public channels, built networks of obligation that converted popular favor into princely rule, an art subtler than hypocrisy or heroics. Machiavelli exposes it through ironic history-writing in the tradition of Thucydides, Sallust, and Tacitus, teaching republican readers to doubt the moral language that legitimates domination.

## Topics

- Machiavelli
- Cosimo de’ Medici
- Power
- Moral authority
- Rhetoric
- Irony
- Historiography

## How to cite

Clarke, Michelle T. “Machiavelli’s Virtuous Princes: Rhetoric, Power, and the Politics of Ironic Historiography.” *Journal of Politics* 84, no. 1 (2022): 483–495. https://doi.org/10.1086/715596.

```bibtex
@article{clarke2022princes,
  author    = {Clarke, Michelle T.},
  title     = {{Machiavelli's Virtuous Princes: Rhetoric, Power, and the Politics of Ironic Historiography}},
  year      = {2022},
  journal   = {Journal of Politics},
  volume    = {84},
  number    = {1},
  pages     = {483--495},
  doi       = {10.1086/715596},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.1086/715596}
}
```

## Related work by the author

- Curing Virtue: Epicureanism and Erotic Fantasy in Machiavelli’s Mandragola (Political Theory, 2022): https://michelletclarke.com/articles/machiavelli-mandragola-curing-virtue.md
- Style Is the Man Himself: Eloquence and the Revival of Roman Virtue in Renaissance Humanism (The Good Society, 2022): https://michelletclarke.com/articles/style-is-the-man-himself-humanism.md
- Machiavelli: Menace to Societas (The Ciceronian Tradition in Political Theory, 2021): https://michelletclarke.com/articles/machiavelli-menace-to-societas.md