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1WHY THE KINGDOM OF DARIUS, CONQUERED BY ALEXANDER, DID NOT REBEL AGAINST THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER AT HIS DEATH
2Considering the difficulties which men have had to hold to a newly acquired state, some might wonder how, seeing that
3Alexander the Great became the master of Asia in a few years, and died whilst it was scarcely settled (whence it might
4appear reasonable that the whole empire would have rebelled), nevertheless his successors maintained themselves, and had
5to meet no other difficulty than that which arose among themselves from their own ambitions. I answer that the
6principalities of which one has record are found to be governed in two different ways; either by a prince, with a body
7of servants, who assist him to govern the kingdom as ministers by his favour and permission; or by a prince and barons,
8who hold that dignity by antiquity of blood and not by the grace of the prince. Such barons have states and their own
9subjects, who recognize them as lords and hold them in natural affection. Those states that are governed by a prince and
10his servants hold their prince in more consideration, because in all the country there is no one who is recognized as
11superior to him, and if they yield obedience to another they do it as to a minister and official, and they do not bear
12him any particular affection. The examples of these two governments in our time are the Turk and the King of France. The
13entire monarchy of the Turk is governed by one lord, the others are his servants; and, dividing his kingdom into
14sanjaks, he sends there different administrators, and shifts and changes them as he chooses. But the King of France is
15placed in the midst of an ancient body of lords, acknowledged by their own subjects, and beloved by them; they have
16their own prerogatives, nor can the king take these away except at his peril. Therefore, he who considers both of these
17states will recognize great difficulties in seizing the state of the Turk, but, once it is conquered, great ease in
18holding it. The causes of the difficulties in seizing the kingdom of the Turk are that the usurper cannot be called in
19by the princes of the kingdom, nor can he hope to be assisted in his designs by the revolt of those whom the lord has
20around him. This arises from the reasons given above; for his ministers, being all slaves and bondmen, can only be
21corrupted with great difficulty, and one can expect little advantage from them when they have been corrupted, as they
22cannot carry the people with them, for the reasons assigned. Hence, he who attacks the Turk must bear in mind that he
23will find him united, and he will have to rely more on his own strength than on the revolt of others; but, if once the
24Turk has been conquered, and routed in the field in such a way that he cannot replace his armies, there is nothing to
25fear but the family of this prince, and, this being exterminated, there remains no one to fear, the others having no
26credit with the people; and as the conqueror did not rely on them before his victory, so he ought not to fear them after
27it. The contrary happens in kingdoms governed like that of France, because one can easily enter there by gaining over
28some baron of the kingdom, for one always finds malcontents and such as desire a change. Such men, for the reasons
29given, can open the way into the state and render the victory easy; but if you wish to hold it afterwards, you meet with
30infinite difficulties, both from those who have assisted you and from those you have crushed. Nor is it enough for you
31to have exterminated the family of the prince, because the lords that remain make themselves the heads of fresh
32movements against you, and as you are unable either to satisfy or exterminate them, that state is lost whenever time
33brings the opportunity. Now if you will consider what was the nature of the government of Darius, you will find it
34similar to the kingdom of the Turk, and therefore it was only necessary for Alexander, first to overthrow him in the
35field, and then to take the country from him. After which victory, Darius being killed, the state remained secure to
36Alexander, for the above reasons. And if his successors had been united they would have enjoyed it securely and at their
37ease, for there were no tumults raised in the kingdom except those they provoked themselves. But it is impossible to
38hold with such tranquillity states constituted like that of France. Hence arose those frequent rebellions against the
39Romans in Spain, France, and Greece, owing to the many principalities there were in these states, of which, as long as
40the memory of them endured, the Romans always held an insecure possession; but with the power and long continuance of
41the empire the memory of them passed away, and the Romans then became secure possessors. And when fighting afterwards
42amongst themselves, each one was able to attach to himself his own parts of the country, according to the authority he
43had assumed there; and the family of the former lord being exterminated, none other than the Romans were acknowledged.
44When these things are remembered no one will marvel at the ease with which Alexander held the Empire of Asia, or at the
45difficulties which others have had to keep an acquisition, such as Pyrrhus and many more; this is not occasioned by the
46little or abundance of ability in the conqueror, but by the want of uniformity in the subject state.
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