Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy on May 3, 1469. His family owned farm and rental properties and Machiavelli's father, Bernardo, practiced law. Machiavelli received a quality, classical education, characteristic of the humanist traditions of Renaissance Italy. As a young boy, Machiavelli showed great interest in the works of ancient Latin writers, such as Dante, Livy, and Cicero.
In Machiavelli's youth, Florence was ruled by Lorenzo de' Medici, or Lorenzo the Magnificent, the great liberal statesman, patron of the arts, and man of letters. After Lorenzo's death, Florence went through a period of political instability, starting with the French invasion of Charles VIII (1494) and ending with the rise and fall of Savaronola, a Dominican friar, who through his prophetic sermons established a theocratic state until its fall in 1498. At the age of 29, Machiavelli, who never held a governmental position before, became second chancellor of the newly established Republic of......
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