What is Machiavelli's secondary purpose in writing this passage?
Read this passage 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
to inform readers about the history of Rome and
Sparta and how they built their empires
o to inform readers about the tactics Sparta and Rome
used to hold cities and their effectiveness
o to persuade readers that a conquering prince must
destroy a former republic if he hopes to hold it
to persuade readers that a republic will remember
freedom and someday rebel against a conqueror