Others have argued that Machiavelli is only a particularly interesting example of trends which were happening around him.

Leo Strauss argued that the strong influence of Xenophon, a student of Socrates more known as an historian, rhetorician and soldier, was a major source of Socratic ideas for Machiavelli, sometimes not in line with Aristotle.

Aimed-for things which the Socratics argued would tend to happen by nature, Machiavelli said would happen by chance.

Strauss argued that Machiavelli may have seen himself as influenced by some ideas from classical materialists such as Democritus, Epicurus and Lucretius.

Strauss argued that Machiavelli may indeed have been influenced by pre-Socratic philosophers, but he felt it was a new combination :-

Famously, Machiavelli argued that virtue and prudence can help a man control more of his future, in the place of allowing fortune to do so.

Najemy shows how Machiavelli's friend Vettori argued against Machiavelli and cited a more traditional understanding of fortune.

While Machiavelli's approach had classical precedents, it has been argued that it did more than just bring back old ideas, and that Machiavelli was not a typical humanist.

Machiavelli argued against seeing mere peace and economic growth as worthy aims on their own, if they would lead to what Mansfield calls the " taming of the prince.

saw him as a major source of the republicanism that spread throughout England and North America in the 17th and 18th centuries and Leo, whose view of Machiavelli is quite different in many ways, agreed about Machiavelli's influence on republicanism and argued that even though Machiavelli was a teacher of evil he had a nobility of spirit that led him to advocate ignoble actions.

Scholars have argued that Machiavelli was a major indirect and direct influence upon the political thinking of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

At approximately the same period, Niccolò Machiavelli argued against the use of mercenary armies in his masterpiece The Prince.

Machiavelli argued, for example, that violent divisions within political communities are unavoidable, but can also be a source of strength which law-makers and leaders should account for and even encourage in some ways ( Strauss 1987 ).

Richard Beacon in Solon His Follie ( 1594 ), directed towards English colonisation in Ireland, used text derived from the Six livres, as well as much theory from Machiavelli ; he also argued against Bodin the proposition that France was a mixed monarchy.

Machiavelli focused on the consistency and clear oratory of the magistrates, and argued that with no clear and consistent rationale for rule, it was inordinately difficult to maintain it.

A critical period in the history of this work's influence is at the end of the Middle Ages, and beginning of modernity, when several authors such as Niccolò Machiavelli, Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes, argued forcefully and largely successfully that the medieval Aristotelian tradition in practical thinking had become a great impediment to practical political thinking in their time.

It has been argued that Machiavelli was not a classical republican, since he described mostly medieval political relations.

The idealized Prince bears some resemblance to Tacitus's Tiberius ; a few ( most notably Giuseppe Toffanin ) have argued that Machiavelli had made more use of Tacitus than he let on.

To improve the well-being of her subjects she studied architecture, agriculture, and industry, and followed the principles that Niccolò Machiavelli had set forth for rulers in his book The Prince.

He also had a scheme for diverting the flow of the Arno River, a project on which Niccolò Machiavelli also worked.

Aside from that, Machiavelli believed that public and private morality had to be understood as two different things in order to rule well.

That Machiavelli had a wide range of influences is in itself not controversial.

Another theme of Gentillet was more in the spirit of Machiavelli himself: he questioned the effectiveness of immoral strategies ( just as Machiavelli had himself done, despite also explaining how they could sometimes work ).

By the time Machiavelli began work on The Prince, he had decided to refer to both aristocracies and democracies as republics.

A political philosophy of republicanism that formed during the Renaissance period, and initiated by Machiavelli, was thought to have had little impact on the founders of the United States.

Forty-four years after his death, on 7 June 1871, his remains were brought to Florence, and with all the pride, pomp and circumstance of a great national mourning, found their final resting-place beside the monuments of Machiavelli and Alfieri, of Michelangelo and Galileo, in the church of Santa Croce, the pantheon of Italian glory he had celebrated in Dei sepolcri.

* Ruin them, like Rome destroyed Carthage, and also like Machiavelli says the Romans eventually had to do in Greece, even though they had wanted to avoid it.

Machiavelli suggested they should treat the church as a princedom, like the Borgia family had, in order to conquer Italy, and found new modes and orders.

Machiavelli stands strongly against the use of mercenaries, and in this he was innovative, and he also had personal experience in Florence.

King Ferdinand of Spain is cited by Machiavelli as an example of a monarch who gained esteem by showing his ability through great feats and who, in the name of religion, conquered many territories and kept his subjects occupied so that they had no chance to rebel.

This chapter shows a low opinion of flatterers ; Machiavelli notes that “ Men are so happily absorbed in their own affairs and indulge in such self-deception that it is difficult for them not to fall victim to this plague ; and some efforts to protect oneself from flatterers involve the risk of becoming despised .” Flatterers were seen as a great danger to a prince, because their flattery could cause him to avoid wise counsel in favor of rash action, but avoiding all advice, flattery or otherwise, was equally bad ; a middle road had to be taken.

After first mentioning that a new prince can quickly become as respected as a hereditary one, Machiavelli says princes in Italy who had long standing power and lost it can not blame bad luck, but should blame their own indolence.

Fortune, Machiavelli argues, seems to strike at the places where no resistance is offered, as had recently been the case in Italy.

Another theme of Gentillet was more in the spirit of Machiavelli himself: he questioned the effectiveness of immoral strategies ( just as Machiavelli had himself done, despite also explaining how they could sometimes work ).

Yet Machiavelli is keenly aware of the fact that an earlier pro-republican coup had been thwarted by the people's inaction that itself stemmed from the prince's liberality.

Drawing on Niccolò Machiavelli in The Prince, and trying to understand why there had been no Communist revolution in Western Europe, whilst there had been in Russia, Gramsci conceptualised this hegemony as a centaur, consisting of two halves.

Machiavelli attributes two episodes to Cesare Borgia that were at least partially executed by his father: the method by which the Romagna was pacified, which Machiavelli describes in chapter VII of The Prince, and the assassination of his captains on New Year's Eve of 1503 in Senigallia.

This seemingly makes it obvious that Machiavelli admired Cesare Borgia's father but not Cesare himself.

Julius features prominently in The Prince of Niccolò Machiavelli, both as an enemy of a leading protagonist of The Prince, Cesare Borgia, and as an example of an ecclesiastical prince who consolidates authority and wisely follows Fortuna.

Machiavelli cites Cesare Borgia as an example of a lucky prince who escaped this pattern.

* Daedalus, a play by David Davalos recounting Leonardo da Vinci's time as a military engineer to Cesare Borgia, in the company of Lucrezia Borgia and Niccolo Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli, author of The Prince and Discourses on Livy, served under him as second chancellor and as ambassador to Cesare Borgia, Rome and France.

* Niccolò Machiavelli: Historically a political theorist and an admirer of Cesare Borgia, in the manga he is a sorcerer with the ability to change into a moth.

* The Ground is Burning by Samuel Black explores the intersection of Leonardo's life with those of Niccolò Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia.

* David Davalos's 2002 play Daedalus tells a fantasized story of Leonardo's time as a military engineer in the service of Cesare Borgia, in the company of Lucrezia Borgia and Niccolo Machiavelli.