Conflito, ordenação e movimento: a dinâmica da cidade em Maquiavel

Abstract

In the second chapter of the first book of his Discourses on Livy, in order to understand the dynamics of Romeʼs reorganization, Machiavelli revisits passages from book VI of Polybiusʼ Histories in which the roman historian discusses the constitutions of cities, the cycle through which they transform, and the mixed regime, the constitution that brings stability to the city. However, Machiavelliʼs reference to Polybius is strategic because the florentine does not intend to endorse the roman historianʼs positions, but rather to use him as a starting point for his reflection to develop his own discourse on the relationship between
conflict and order, and on the action of the people as subjects who, in accordance with their desire not to be dominated, reorder the city according to freedom. Thus, in this text, we intend to revisit the first chapters of the first book of Machiavelliʼs Discourses and some passages from book VI of Polybiusʼ Histories, to show how the Florentine takes distance from Polybius with regard to the ordering of the City and social and political experience.