1 Once more, therefore, I repeat that not gold but good soldiers constitute the sinews of war.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 2: CHAPTER X. 2 But making their wars with iron they never felt any want of gold; for those who stood in fear of them brought gold into their camp.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 2: CHAPTER X. 3 Whereupon Solon answered that he thought him no whit more powerful in respect of these treasures, for as war is made with iron and not with gold, another coming with more iron might carry off his gold.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 2: CHAPTER X. 4 I maintain, therefore, that it is not gold, as is vulgarly supposed, that is the sinews of war, but good soldiers; or while gold by itself will not gain you good soldiers, good soldiers may readily get you gold.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 2: CHAPTER X. 5 It would be tedious, too, to recite how many towns have been bought by the Florentines and by the Venetians, which, afterwards, have only been a trouble to them, from their not knowing how to defend with iron what they had won with gold.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 2: CHAPTER XXX. 6 Had the Romans chosen to make war with gold rather than with iron all the treasures of the earth would not have sufficed them having regard to the greatness of their enterprises and the difficulties they had to overcome in carrying them out.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 2: CHAPTER X. 7 After the death of Alexander the Great a tribe of Gauls, passing through Greece on their way into Asia, sent envoys to the King of Macedonia to treat for terms of accord; when the king, to dismay them by a display of his resources, showed them great store of gold and silver.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 2: CHAPTER X. 8 When besieged in the Capitol, the Romans although expecting succour from Veii and from Camillus, nevertheless, being straitened by famine, entered into an agreement to buy off the Gauls with gold But at the very moment when, in pursuance of this agreement, the gold was being weighed out, Camillus came up with his army.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 2: CHAPTER XXX. 9 Oftener than once Filippo Visconti, duke of Milan, relying on their divisions, set wars on foot against the Florentines, and always without success; so that, in lamenting over these failures, he was wont to complain that the mad humours of the Florentines had cost him two millions of gold, without his having anything to show for it.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 2: CHAPTER XXV. 10 The methods thus followed by the Romans in dividing plunder and in planting colonies had, accordingly, this result, that whereas other less prudent princes and republics are impoverished by war, Rome was enriched by it; nay, so far was the system carried, that no consul could hope for a triumph unless he brought back with him for the public treasury much gold and silver and spoils of every kind.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 2: CHAPTER VI.