Note 184 — Chapter V

“Conspiring against one prince,” says Machiavelli, “is a doubtful and dangerous undertaking; but to conspire against two at the same time must be either downright folly or madness:” and he enforces his principle by the examples of the Pazzi and of Harmodius and Aristogiton. “Pelopidas,” he adds, “had ten tyrants instead of two to deal with:” it would be very dangerous, however, for any man to build on the success of this conspiracy, which, indeed, was almost miraculous, and is mentioned by all writers who speak of it, as not only a rare, but almost unexampled event.—Political Discourses, book iii. chap. 6.