Read this paragraph from chapter 5 of The Prince.
There are, for example, the Spartans and the Romans.
The
Spartans held Athens and Thebes, establishing
there an oligarchy: nevertheless they lost them. The
Romans, in order to hold Capua, Carthage, and
Numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them.
They wished to hold Greece as the Spartans held it,
making it free and permitting its laws, and did not
succeed. So to hold it they were compelled to
dismantle many cities in the country, for in truth there is
no safe way to retain them otherwise than by ruining
them. And he who becomes master of a city
accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may
expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has
always the watchword of liberty and its ancient
privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor
benefits will ever cause it to forget. And whatever you
may do or provide against, they never forget that name
or their privileges unless they are disunited or
What idea is stressed in the passage?
O the desire for liberty
the establishment of an oligarchy
the dismantling of an acquired state
the tendency toward rebellion