Machiavelli, Polybius, and Janus Lascaris: the Hexter Thesis Revisited

Abstract

This paper resolves an old controversy. It aims to prove that Niccolò Machiavelli did read Polybius vi in the Latin translation of Janus Lascaris some time after he entered the Rucellai circle in 1515. This is the only way to explain the wording of specific passages in Machiavelli’s Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio and the Arte della guerra. It also seeks to demonstrate that he read books xix and xx of Diodorus Siculus’ Bibliotheca Historica in the translation of Lascaris and used the memory of that reading in his Vita di Castruccio Castrucane of 1520.