Walter Moyle's Machiavellianism, declared and otherwise, in An Essay upon the Constitution of the Roman Government

Walter Moyle's work, An Essay upon the Constitution of the Roman Government, is much more Machiavellian than it initially announces itself to be. Informed by James Harrington's and Niccolò Machiavelli's earlier commentaries on Rome, Moyle readily embraces that on which both of his predecessors agree—the desirability of a republic that seeks armed increase. Harrington, though, explicitly disagrees with Machiavelli's embrace of a tumultuous republic that seeks a return to its beginning through fostering fear. In contrast to Machiavelli, Harrington looks to economic and institutional arrangements that will render a republic so serene and stable that he claims immortality for it. Although initially Moyle forthrightly endorses Harrington's analysis, he ultimately relies on the harshest teachings of Machiavelli to maintain a republic, a reliance which finds him endorsing the distinctively Machiavellian directives to suspect, accuse, and punish its leaders in such a way as to return the republic to its beginnings. These teachings make Moyle's work a vessel for the transmission of a stern, aggressive republicanism. Even in this eventual enthusiastic embrace of Machiavelli's teachings, however, Moyle still displays some hesitation in citing him as the sole source for them as his attributions couple the Florentine's name inaccurately with other, more reputable republicans.

Research highlights
► Informed by James Harrington's and Niccolò Machiavelli's earlier commentaries on Rome, Walter Moyle's An Essay upon the Constitution of the Roman Government readily endorses that on which both of his predecessors agree—the desirability of an aggressive republic that seeks territorial expansion.
► Harrington explicitly disagrees with Machiavelli's embrace of Rome's tumults and looks to economic and institutional arrangements to render his imagined republic so serene and stable that he claims immortality for it.
► Moyle challenges the classical republican depiction of Harrington's thought by showing that Harrington's teaching, which makes economic considerations the driver of regime change, is fundamentally different from the ancient teaching, which makes moral reasons decisive.
► Ultimately, Moyle relies on Machiavelli's harsh teachings on accusations and punishments to maintain a republic by countering the moral depravity that will threaten the state.
► Although so reliant on Machiavelli's distinctive teachings, Moyle remains reluctant to identify Machiavelli as the sole source of his ideas regarding this stern and aggressive republicanism.