Castruccio Castracani is a short book that tells a larger story it will show that greatness, as Machiavelli defined it five centuries ago, is made, not born. -- Richard Overy Machiavelli was a pioneer of political science. He was a republican and a patriot. His prose style was as clear as Julius Caesars. He was a literary genius. * The Times * Machiavelli is a pivotal figure in the history of political thought. His views of human nature, society and government mark a break with medieval philosophy and sixteenth-century political thought based on assumptions about Gods purposes for man. * New Statesman * We are much beholden to Machiavelli and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do. * Francis Bacon *