They might then have stood against the world.
Instead of that, these cities presented nothing but mutual rancors, hostilities, and jealousies to the common enemy.

Moreover, the Italians were so used to petty intrigues and to a system of balance of power within the peninsula, that they could not comprehend the magnitude of the impending danger.

It was difficult for a politician of the Renaissance, accustomed to the small theater of Italian diplomacy, schooled in the traditions of Lorenzo de' Medici, swayed in his calculations by the old pretensions of Pope and Emperor, dominated by the dread of Venice, Milan, and Naples, and as yet but dimly conscious of the true force of France or Spain, to conceive that absolutely the only chance of Italy lay in union at any cost and under any form.
Machiavelli indeed seems too late to have discerned this truth.

But he had been lessoned by events, which rendered the realization of his cherished schemes impossible; nor, could he find a Prince powerful enough to attempt his Utopia.

Of the Republics he had abandoned all hope.
To the laws which governed the other republics of Italy, Venice offered in many respects a notable exception.