By the age of twenty-nine he held a leading position in the Florentine government, and so got to know some of the movers and shakers of the time, including Cesare Borgia, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian, and Pope Julius II. So why the low reputation?īorn in Florence at yet another time of upheaval, tumult, and war in Italy, Machiavelli witnessed first-hand the ways of man, and he wasn’t impressed. As Rousseau said of him, he was ‘an honest man and a good citizen’ – and given Rousseau didn’t think much of anyone, that’s high praise. But Niccolo Machiavelli was actually a really nice guy. We even call the Devil ‘Old Nick’ after him. Today his name is associated with all that’s dirty, underhanded and despicable in politics.
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