The chief danger he had to fear was conspiracy; and in providing himself against this peril he expended all the resources suggested by refined ingenuity and heightened terror.

Yet, when the Despot was attacked and murdered, it followed of necessity that the successful conspirator became in turn a tyrant.
'Cities,' wrote Machiavelli,[2] 'that are once corrupt and accustomed to the rule of princes, can never acquire freedom, even though the prince with all his kin be extirpated.

One prince is needed to extinguish another; and the city has no rest except by the creation of a new lord, unless it chance that one burgher by his goodness and great qualities may during his lifetime preserve its temporary independence.' Palace intrigues, therefore, took the place of Piazza revolutions, and dynasties were swept away to make room for new tyrants without material change in the condition of the populace.
[1] _Mur.Scr.

R.It._ xv.826.Compare what G.Merula wrote about Azzo Visconti: 'He conciliated the people to him by equal justice without distinction of Guelf or Ghibelline.' [2] _Discorsi_.i.

17.
It was the universal policy of the Despots to disarm their subjects.
Prompted by considerations of personal safety, and demanded by the necessity of extirpating the factions, this measure was highly popular.
It relieved the burghers of that most burdensome of all public duties, military service.