Abstract

The “arts of peace”, as described in Machiavelli’s Discourses on the first Decade of Titus Livius, raise questions. Though wanting to identify them as the art of diplomacy and oppose them to the art of war is only natural, the reality is quite different. Constantly informed by the contexts from which they are extracted, the “arts of peace” are intrinsically tied to the concept of religion. In chapter 19 of book I, which is specifically studied in this paper, they lie –through the examples of the Romans, the Hebrews and of the Ottomans– at the very core of Machiavelli’s conceptual framework. This paper attempts to show that these “arts of peace” –by evolving between peace and war, weakness and virtue, dynasties’ downfall and glory– sublimate these internal tensions while providing with a way to recognize them. Therefore, what are they exactly and how do they enable the understanding of the complex relationship between internal peace and external war in Machiavelli’s thought?