《君主论·第十九章·应当避免受轻视与憎恨》第9节
From these causes it arose that Marcus, Pertinax, and Alexander, being all men of modest life, lovers of justice, enemies to cruelty, humane, and benignant, came to a sad end except Marcus; he alone lived and died honoured, because he had succeeded to the throne by hereditary title, and owed nothing either to the soldiers or the people; and afterwards, being possessed of many virtues which made him respected, he always kept both orders in their places whilst he lived, and was neither hated nor despised. But Pertinax was created emperor against the wishes of the soldiers, who, being accustomed to live licentiously under Commodus, could not endure the honest life to which Pertinax wished to reduce them; thus, having given cause for hatred, to which hatred there was added contempt for his old age, he was overthrown at the very beginning of his administration. And here it should be noted that hatred is acquired as much by good works as by bad ones, therefore, as I said before, a prince wishing to keep his state is very often forced to do evil; for when that body is corrupt whom you think you have need of to maintain yourself—it may be either the people or the soldiers or the nobles—you have to submit to its humours and to gratify them, and then good works will do you harm.
注释摘要
马基雅维利在第十九章的这一段里，搬出了罗马帝国的几位皇帝，来回应一个他预料中的反驳。他之前一直强调，君主要避免被憎恨和轻视，但翻开罗马史，有些皇帝明明具有崇高品德，却照样被推翻或杀害，这不是跟他的主张矛盾吗？他在这里就是要说明，那些看似反例的皇帝之死，原因恰恰就是落入了“被憎恨”或者“被轻视”的陷阱，只不过陷阱的触发机制，在新君主和世袭君主那里完全不一样。…