Plutarch and Machiavelli: What could they have in common? Machiavelli may have mined Plutarch for historical exempla, but his political arguments could not be more different. Or could they? In this article, I make the case that Plutarch in fact is the source of some of the more iconoclastic claims of The Prince, from the conquest of fortune to the importance of being feared, and even the necessity, on occasion, of immoral acts. If this connection has been overlooked, I suggest, in conclusion, it is because we have artificially segregated Plutarch and Machiavelli into “moralist” and “realist” camps when both actually participate in a common style of political thought, which can be called “prudential politics.”
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