In the meantime, he had met many important rulers, and
especially Cesare Borgia, a prince of the Papal
States.
Borgia, a despotic and cunning man, is
precisely the source of inspiration of Machiavelli in The
Prince.
Although Machiavelli did not truly like
the ways of Borgia, he thought that Borgia was one of the
few rulers who could undertake the unification of Italy
under the flag of Florence.
The
Prince was written by Machiavelli to gain influence at the
Court of the ruling
Medici.
Unfortunately, the public
was outraged when the book was published, and a new
adjective, "Machiavelian", synonym of "evil", came
progressively into the common
languages.
