The character of Machiavelli's republicanism comes most fully to light in his work Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy. His support of republics, then, is revealed in his treatment of Rome, which treatment, in turn, reveals much of the author himself; it presents a commentator delighting in Rome and its exploits. The Rome he embraces is marked by its dividedness, by its aggressiveness, and by its acquisitiveness. His is a republic that positively bristles with the energy emanating from the members of each class, the patricians and the plebeians, attempting to quench their unquenchable desires at the expense of the members of the other. With the desires of its population so highly keyed, Rome was an acquisitive dynamo because the safe outlet for these desires was the pursuit of empire.

As much as he admires Rome, he thinks he can improve on that ancient city. One sees the admirer actually recoil from his object of delight as he acknowledges that his esteemed republic eventually succumbed to tyranny. This recognition leads to others; he expresses hesitations with regard to the Roman Republic not only when it was in decline but also when it was seemingly at its most vigorous. Having ascertained the reasons for its collapse, Machiavelli charges that Rome did not have a sufficiently Machiavellian attitude toward its most ambitious men. Too respectful and, as a result, too permissive toward them, Rome was vulnerable to its great men's attempts to attain sole rule.