Discourses On Livy

The Discourses on Livy (Italian: Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, literally "Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy") is a work of political history and philosophy written in the early 16th century (ca. 1517) by the Italian writer and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli, best known as the author of The Prince. The Discourses were published posthumously with papal privilege in 1531.

The title identifies the work's subject as the first ten books of Livy's Ab urbe condita, which relate the expansion of Rome through the end of the Third Samnite War in 293 BCE, although Machiavelli discusses what can be learned from other parts of Roman history, as well. Machiavelli makes liberal references and allusions to the other surviving books of Ab urbe condita, as well as to other works of classical literature. He particularly makes jibes—mainly indirect—at Aristotle's Politics. He also cites examples from Polybius and Plutarch, as well as Xenophon. There is also much implicit criticism of medieval prejudices against early Rome, deriving from such influential patristic works as Augustine's City of God.