Read this passage from chapter 5 of The Prince . There are, for example, the Spartans and the Romans. The Spartans held Athens and Thebes, establishing there an oligarchy: nevertheless they lost them. The Romans, in order to hold Capua, Carthage, and Numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them. They wished to hold Greece as the Spartans held it, making it free and permitting its laws, and did not succeed. So to hold it they were compelled to dismantle many cities in the country, for in truth there is no safe way to retain them otherwise than by ruining them. What organizational structure does Machiavelli use to develop the central idea in this passage?
Machiavelli develops the idea by comparing how the Spartans and Romans tried to control conquered cities. The Spartans allowed Athens and Thebes to remain under oligarchies and later lost them, while the Romans dismantled cities and retained control. This contrast supports his point that destroying conquered cities is the safer way to hold them, so the structure is compare and contrast.
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