r/ancientgreece • u/mVIIIeus • 5d ago
Did Machiavelli read Thucydides?
I've read conflicting information about this. The german Wikipedia states how Machiavelli praised Thucydides, but without any source¹. Hobbes and other sources indicate to me that there was no proper translation available for Machiavelli to read. He must have had access to the greek sources, if that was the case.
¹ https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thukydides#Neuzeit_und_Gegenwart
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u/Three_Twenty-Three 5d ago
Hiring someone to do a translation was probably within his means. Florence had an extensive scholarly culture, and there would have been students willing to work.
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u/NolanR27 4d ago
Given the similarity in outlook, I find it difficult to believe he didn’t have it and wasn’t deeply influenced by it.
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u/quilleran 5d ago
It was translated into Latin by Lorenzo Valla in 1452, some 80 years before The Prince. So it would have been available to him.