Scipio the Elder, according to Cicero, appeared to his nephew This dream of Machiavelli's is reminiscent of another, Scipio's famous dream that Cicero describes in his treatise on the republic. After telling hisįriends of his dream, Machiavelli remarked that he would be far happier in Hell, where he could discuss politics with the great men of the ancient world, than in Heaven, where he would languish in boredom among the blessed "We are the damned of Hell" was their answer. Again, he asked them who they were and where they were going. In their midst he recognized the great philosophers and historians of antiquity who had writtenįundamental works on politics and the state, such as Plato, Plutarch, and Tacitus. Then he saw a crowd of solemnly attired men, noble and grave in appearance, speaking seriously of important political matters.
They replied, "We are the saintly and the blessed we are on our way to Heaven." In his dream, he had seen a band of poorly dressed men, ragged and miserable in appearance. Translated by ANTONY SHUGAAR.Īccording to legend, just before his death on 21 June 1527, Niccolò Machiavelli told the faithful friends who had stayed with him to the very end about a dream he had had, a dream that over the centuries became renowned as "Machiavelli's
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