《君主论·第十三章·援军·混合军与自己的军队》第3节
I shall never hesitate to cite Cesare Borgia and his actions. This duke entered the Romagna with auxiliaries, taking there only French soldiers, and with them he captured Imola and Forli; but afterwards, such forces not appearing to him reliable, he turned to mercenaries, discerning less danger in them, and enlisted the Orsini and Vitelli; whom presently, on handling and finding them doubtful, unfaithful, and dangerous, he destroyed and turned to his own men. And the difference between one and the other of these forces can easily be seen when one considers the difference there was in the reputation of the duke, when he had the French, when he had the Orsini and Vitelli, and when he relied on his own soldiers, on whose fidelity he could always count and found it ever increasing; he was never esteemed more highly than when every one saw that he was complete master of his own forces. I was not intending to go beyond Italian and recent examples, but I am unwilling to leave out Hiero, the Syracusan, he being one of those I have named above. This man, as I have said, made head of the army by the Syracusans, soon found out that a mercenary soldiery, constituted like our Italian condottieri, was of no use; and it appearing to him that he could neither keep them nor let them go, he had them all cut to pieces, and afterwards made war with his own forces and not with aliens.
注释摘要
这一段的核心论证，是马基雅维利对三类武力最彻底的一次等级排序：自己的军队第一，雇佣军是较差的选择，而援军则最危险。他借着切萨雷·博尔贾与叙拉古的希耶罗这两个例子，从正面与侧面同时证明，唯有自己控制、由本国臣民或属民组成的武力，才是一个君主真正的立足之本。 切萨雷·博尔贾的例证，是一条清晰的从依赖到独立的三步演进路线。他起初以援军进入罗马涅，带来的是法王路易…