《君主论·第十九章·应当避免受轻视与憎恨》第15节
But returning to the subject of our discourse, I say that whoever will consider it will acknowledge that either hatred or contempt has been fatal to the above-named emperors, and it will be recognized also how it happened that, a number of them acting in one way and a number in another, only one in each way came to a happy end and the rest to unhappy ones. Because it would have been useless and dangerous for Pertinax and Alexander, being new princes, to imitate Marcus, who was heir to the principality; and likewise it would have been utterly destructive to Caracalla, Commodus, and Maximinus to have imitated Severus, they not having sufficient valour to enable them to tread in his footsteps. Therefore a prince, new to the principality, cannot imitate the actions of Marcus, nor, again, is it necessary to follow those of Severus, but he ought to take from Severus those parts which are necessary to found his state, and from Marcus those which are proper and glorious to keep a state that may already be stable and firm.
注释摘要
马基雅维利在这一段里收束了他对罗马皇帝群像的长篇分析，提出一个贯穿整章的核心规则：君主之所以覆灭，几乎无例外地源于被憎恨或被蔑视，但在不同的统治处境下，避免这两者的方法截然不同。他考察了从哲学家皇帝马可·奥勒留到马克西米努斯之间一连串元首的成败，发现行事风格相近的皇帝，结局却可能截然相反：有人仁厚而殒命，有人残酷却善终，有人同样残酷却迅速覆亡。他要解释的正…