Question

ead 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.

What organizational structure does Machiavelli use to develop the central idea in this passage?

argumentative
cause and effect
compare and contrast
problem and solution

Answer 1

compare and contrast

Machiavelli compares the different approaches and outcomes of the Spartans and the Romans—showing their methods (oligarchy vs. dismantling) and the resulting success or failure—to develop the central idea.