Siena and The Prince

Siena's city square where the Horse Races are held

This past weekend the institute provided us with a trip to Tuscany. The first day we went to Siena and were able to have a guided tour throughout the city. One of the main focuses that Margarita, our tour guide, really stressed was the different sections of Siena. They are basically like little neighborhoods or burrows that have their own animal symbols and flags. It is very segregated in Siena. Each separate section has their own standards and ideals and it is very taboo to think about another section in anything else other than rivalry. We were told that once you move to Siena it is nearly impossible to move from one segment of the city to another one. Also if you marry someone from a different neighborhood than during social events you have to stay with your original home section while your significant other must stay with their original one. However, this rivalry between burrows really comes into play during the horse races. There are two a year and the whole city gathers in the center of town to watch this event. Each neighborhood has their own jockey and horse and whoever wins gets the bragging rights and also the rights to celebrate in the Duomo with the artwork of the Virgin Mary. It is a large part of Siena culture. While we were learning about this throughout the course of the day I began to consider how Machiavelli would have assessed this event. I began thinking about him when another student and I realized that all of the Italian cities were built on hills to prevent invasions from other city-states. Because of Italian history and the fact that it wasn’t a nation until 150 years ago, it is understandable that all of the cities were built on hills and had towers and medieval walls. It was for the protection of the city. I think that both of these things would have been appreciated by Machiavelli. Even though his instructions were for how the prince should act, I think that it is also applicable to the city because it is the job of the Prince to maintain the state. The different sections of Siena would have appealed to Machiavelli because they had such rigid rules. It would be against the good of the city to intermingle and lose that respect/tension between each region. I think he would have encouraged the horse races and the rewards because with that competition there was also the respect built into the winning. So despite the fact that this is not based on one person but instead a whole community, it is possible to see the Machiavellian ideals applied to the Italian city states.