Three Ways to Rule a Free People: Only One of Them Actually Works — The Prince

Taking over a place that used to govern itself is one of the hardest jobs in power. Machiavelli offers three paths: destroy it, go live there yourself, or let it keep its laws while paying tribute and installing a friendly oligarchy loyal to you because it depends on your support.

History shows how high the stakes are. The Spartans set up oligarchies in Athens and Thebes and still lost them. The Romans destroyed Capua, Carthage, and Numantia and kept them. They tried to hold Greece the Spartan way, preserving freedom and local laws, and failed until they dismantled cities across the country. Machiavelli's blunt lesson: a free city you do not destroy will destroy you. In revolt it rallies around liberty and old privileges, which neither time nor benefits erase, as Pisa did against Florence after a hundred years of subjugation.

The closing contrast matters. Cities used to obeying a prince, once the royal line is gone, struggle to unite around a new ruler and are easier to secure. Republics and free cities carry more vitality, hatred, and hunger for vengeance; they will not let the memory of liberty die. For them, the safest paths are ruin or residence.