Divide et impera
Michael Zeleny
Is there a classical or modern source for the complementary admonition
to the proprietor, to acquire and multiply, prior to Guizot's generic
« Enrichissez-vous ! » What is the natural way to formulate both
maxims in Greek and Latin?
--
Michael Zel...@post.harvard.edu
http://larvatus.livejournal.com/
Stratum
> Who attributes this maxim of power to Philip II of Macedonia?
The Wikipedia, although how Latin comes out of the mouth
of Phillip 150 years before the Republic amounts to
anything, the Wikipedia does not presently state.
Hartmut Gastens
> Is there a classical or modern source for the complementary admonition
> to the proprietor, to acquire and multiply, prior to Guizot's generic
> « Enrichissez-vous ! »
Prosper Mérimée (Chronique du règne de Charles IX, preface) attributes
this dictum in French language ("diviser pour régner") to Louis XI.
(*1423, +1483)
The latin "divide et impera" is first cited in Traiano Boccalini, La
bilancia politica, 1,136 and 2,225 as a common maxim in politics.
greetinx
Hartmut
Michael Zeleny
> Michael Zeleny schrieb:
> > Is there a classical or modern source for the complementary admonition
> > to the proprietor, to acquire and multiply, prior to Guizot's generic
> > « Enrichissez-vous ! »
> Prosper Mérimée (Chronique du règne de Charles IX, preface) attributes
> this dictum in French language ("diviser pour régner") to Louis XI.
> (*1423, +1483)
Likewise Alexandre Dumas, père in Les Trois mousquetaires, Chapitre
LI:
Le cardinal ... résolut donc de faire la guerre tout seul et de
n'attendre tout succès étranger que comme on attend une chance
heureuse. Il continua de faire élever la fameuse digue qui devait
affamer La Rochelle ; en attendant, il jeta les yeux sur cette
malheureuse ville, qui renfermait tant de misère profonde et tant
d'héroïques vertus, et, se rappelant le mot de Louis XI, son
prédécesseur politique, comme lui-même était le prédécesseur de
Robespierre, il murmura cette maxime du compère de Tristan
[l'Hermite]: « Diviser pour régner. »
On the other hand, Jonathan Swift observes On The Irish Bishops in
1731:
As Machiavel taught 'em, divide and ye govern.
In fact, Machiavelli recommends in Dell'arte della guerra, Book VI,
that a Captain should endeavor with every art to divide the forces of
the enemy, either by making him suspicious of his men in whom he
trusted, or by giving him cause that he has to separate his forces,
and, because of this, become weaker. Although I cannot find more
specific formulations in his other works, Alberto Lumbroso mentions
the principle of government of Roman Senate, "Divide et impera" or
"Divide ut regnes", repeated and justified by Machiavelli and wisely
used by the Habsburgs, in Le origini economiche e diplomatiche della
guerra mondiale, 1926. Other vague attributions to Roman policies are
found in numerous XIXth and XXth century historical surveys. As
examples of such policies, some of them take Gabinius' division of the
Jewish nation into five conventions, reported by Flavius Josephus in
De bello Judaico, I.169-170, and Strabo's reference in Geography,
8.7.3, to the dissolution of the Achaean League under the Romans, who
did not deal with the several states in the same way, but wished to
preserve some and to destroy others. I would be thrilled to see more
specific attributions and more rigorous arguments.
> The latin "divide et impera" is first cited in Traiano Boccalini, La
> bilancia politica, 1,136 and 2,225 as a common maxim in politics.
Also see a comeback reported by Edward Coke in Chapter I of the Fourth
Part of the Institutes: "For the third, when it was demanded by the
Lords and Commons what might be a principall motive for them to have
good successe in Parliament, it was answered, Eritis insuperabiles, si
fueritis inseparabiles. Explosum est illud diverbium: Divide, &
impera, cum radix & vertex imperii in obedientium consensus rata
sunt." In a minor variation, Sir Francis Bacon touts the cunning maxim
of "separa et impera" in a letter to James I of 15 February 1615.
Likewise James Madison, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson of 24 October
1787: "Divide et impera, the reprobated axiom of tyranny, is under
certain qualifications, the only policy, by which a republic can be
administered on just principles."
John W. Kennedy
The same way Sophocles wrote "Oedipus Rex"?
--
John W. Kennedy
"Those in the seat of power oft forget their failings and seek only the
obeisance of others! Thus is bad government born! Hold in your heart
that you and the people are one, human beings all, and good government
shall arise of its own accord! Such is the path of virtue!"
-- Kazuo Koike. "Lone Wolf and Cub: Thirteen Strings" (tr. Dana Lewis)
Stratum
> Stratum wrote:
>
>> Michael Zeleny writes:
>>
>>> Who attributes this maxim of power to Philip II of Macedonia?
>>
>>
>> The Wikipedia, although how Latin comes out of the mouth
>> of Phillip 150 years before the Republic amounts to
>> anything, the Wikipedia does not presently state.
>
>
> The same way Sophocles wrote "Oedipus Rex"?
That's right. He wrote in Attic Latin.
(Memo to Loeb Classics: Fellas, Sophocles gets a *red* cover.)
Francis A. Miniter
Hmmm.
I have an old set of Plato with Greek on one page and Latin on the facing page.
Maybe he couldn't make up his mind. Like Beckett writing his plays in both
English and French.
Sign Plato up for a striped red and green cover.
Francis A. Miniter