Niccolò Machiavelli - Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius, Book 1

In «Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius», posthumous work by the author of The Prince, Machiavelli discusses the useful lessons that could be learnt from the past for his present. As the title mentions, the subject of the work is the first ten books of Livy's Ab urbe condita, which cover the expansion of Rome from the legendary monarchy of Romulus to the end of the Third Samnite War (293 BCE). The whole work contains three books, with 142 numbered chapters — perhaps not a coincidence, since Livy's history also contained 142 books. In the first book, the author discusses things that happened inside of Rome as the result of public counsel. — Summary by Leni