Niccolo Machiavelli belonged to an impoverished family who came from among the urban nobility and played at one time a role in the political life of the Florentine republic.
His father was a lawyer, family income was modest and did not allow the young Niccolo university education. But growing up in the circle of the Florentine humanist intellectuals, he learned Latin well enough to freely read ancient authors. From a young age the predominant interest in politics, in modern political life defined the range of his reading - primarily works of historians of classical antiquity.
In the political arena
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