The Art of War, a treatise by…

The Art of War, a treatise by Niccolò Machiavelli, the Italian Renaissance political philosopher and historian, takes the form of a socratic dialogue.

The purpose, declared by Lord Fabrizio Colonna (perhaps Machiavelli's persona) at the outset, "To honor and reward virtù, not to have contempt for poverty, to esteem the modes and orders of military discipline, to constrain citizens to love one another, to live without factions, to esteem less the private than the public good."

To these ends, Machiavelli notes in his preface, the military is like the roof of a palazzo protecting the contents.

Machiavelli writes that war must be expressly defined.

He develops the philosophy of "limited warfare"—that is, when diplomacy fails, war is an extension of politics.

Art of War also emphasizes the necessity of a state militia and promotes the concept of armed citizenry.

He believes that all society, religion, science, and art rest on the security provided by the military.

Written between 1519 and 1520 and published the following year, it is Machiavelli's only historical or political work printed during his lifetime, though he had been appointed official historian of Florence in 1520 and entrusted with minor civil duties.

However at the time he was writing, firearms, both technologically and tactically, are in their infancy and the rushing of enemy missile-armed troops, of artillery even, between salvos, by a charge of pikes and sword and shield men is still a viable tactic.

In addition Machiavelli is not writing in a vacuum; Art of War is written as a practical proposition to the rulers of Florence as an alternative to the unreliable condottieri mercenaries upon which all the Italian city states are reliant.

A standing army of the prosperous and pampered citizens that would have formed the cavalry would have been little better.

Machiavelli therefore "talks up" the advantages of a militia of those arms that Florence can realistically muster and equip from her own resources.

However, his basic notion of emulating Roman practices will be slowly and pragmatically adapted by many later rulers and commanders, most notably Maurice of Nassau and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.

They will lay the foundations for the system of Linear Tactics that will dominate the warfare of Europe and the world until after the Napoleonic Wars.

While Machiavelli's influence as a military theorist is often given a backseat to his writings as a political philosopher, that he considers Dell'arte della guerra to be his most important work is clear from his discussions of the military science and soldiery in other works.

For example, in The Prince he declares that "a prince should have no other object, no any other thought, nor take anything as his art but that of war and its orders and discipline; for that is the only art which is of concern to one who commands.”