Machiavelli's commentary on the first ten books of Livy, and the source of the argument that republics endure only by being drawn back to their beginnings.

Book III opens with the chapter the essay draws on, titled in Thomson's translation: "For a Sect or Commonwealth to last long, it must often be brought back to its Beginnings."

Those States consequently stand surest and endure longest which... can renew themselves... Now the way to renew them is, as I have said, to bring them back to their beginnings.

The essay's paraphrase is faithful. Its extension, that a state's first principles live in its law and no state can return to what it cannot read, is the essay's own.

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