The public ethics of his day had sunk to this low level.

Success by means of plain dealing was impossible.

The game of statecraft could only be carried on by guile and violence.

Even the clear genius of Machiavelli had been obscured by the muddy medium of intrigue in which he had been working all his life.

Even his keen insight was dazzled by the false splendor of the adventurer Cesare Borgia.
To have formulated the ethics of the _Principe_ is not diabolical.