I Went Looking for Machiavelli's God. I Found Something Else.

In 1513 they tied Machiavelli's hands behind his back, lifted him by a rope, and let him fall. Then he wrote that he was "really pleased with myself." I only wanted to know one small thing about him: did he believe in God? I still cannot tell you. But I found out what he loved, and it was not what I expected. It was a kind of noise: people who argue. This film is about that noise, about how Rome, as I read it, gave it up for a rest, and about why I think we are getting ready to switch it off. The part about A.I. is my own opinion. Machiavelli did not predict it, and I do not say he did. 0:00 A man on a rope 1:21 A name that means cunning 2:05 Mud by day, robes by night 3:14 A small book, to get a job 4:19 The fighting is the good part 5:26 The rope 6:03 Two Romes 7:12 The sweets of repose 8:38 Parasites 9:15 If men were angels 10:24 The next ruler 11:53 Eleven days Sources Machiavelli, letters to Francesco Vettori: 18 March 1513 ("really pleased with myself"), 10 December 1513 (the farm, the robes, the four hours, the rock), 16 April 1527 ("I love my country more than my soul"). The English of the first two is Linda Villari's, in P. Villari, The Life and Times of Niccolò Machiavelli (1892). The English of the third is my own, from the Italian "amo la patria mia più dell'anima". Machiavelli, The Prince, chapter 18, translated by W. K. Marriott ("Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are"). Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, I.4, I.11 and I.37, translated by N. H. Thomson ("the prime cause of Rome becoming free"; "lasts for a brief time only"; "the first tyrant in Rome"). Tacitus, Annals 1.2, 1.3 and 1.72, translated by Church and Brodribb ("the sweets of repose"; "How few were left who had seen the republic!"; "words went unpunished"). Augustus, Res Gestae 34 (the golden shield). Livy 2.33 (the tribunes). Plutarch, Cicero 46 (the death list). The Federalist No. 51, 1788 ("If men were angels, no government would be necessary"). His life and the dates: G. Inglese, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (2006); C. Nederman, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2023). Notes The drops of the rope: a poem with his name on it says six. His grandson's record says four. Neither is an official count. He died on 21 June 1527 by the two modern reference works above. Villari and Marriott say 22 June. "One old biography" is Villari (1892). "A man who was there, and did not like him" is Giovambattista Busini, in a letter of 1549. The words "really pleased with myself" are in the letter dated 18 March in the Italian text. Villari gives them to a letter of 13 March. "The prime cause of Rome becoming free" is Thomson's English. The Italian says "of keeping Rome free". Pictures drawn in code. Narration is a synthetic voice. Music made with Google's Lyria.