Instrumentum regni (literally, "instrument of monarchy", therefore "of government") is a
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
phrase
In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...
perhaps inspired by
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars.
Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...
,
[«''Nullum maius boni imperii instrumentum quam bonos amicos esse''» Tacitus, '' Historiae'', IV 7. ("No better instrument of good government than being good friends")] used to express the exploitation of
religion
Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...
by
State or
ecclesiastical polity as a means of controlling the masses, or in particular to achieve political and
mundane ends.
History
The concept expressed by the phrase has undergone various forms and has been taken up by several writers and philosophers throughout history. Among these
Polybius
Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 ...
,
Lucretius
Titus Lucretius Carus ( ; ; – October 15, 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, which usually is t ...
,
Machiavelli,
Montesquieu,
Vittorio Alfieri and
Giacomo Leopardi.
Among the oldest and most important there was undoubtedly the Greek historian Polybius, who in his ''
Histories'' says:
Before Polybius, a similar thesis was expressed in the
fifth century BC. from the Athenian politician and writer
Critias
Critias (; , ''Kritias''; – 403 BC) was an ancient Athenian poet, philosopher and political leader. He is known today for being a student of Socrates, a writer of some regard, and for becoming the leader of the Thirty Tyrants, who ruled Athens ...
, disciple of Socrates, in a satirical drama called ''
Sisyphus'', of which a long fragment has been handed down to us.
In the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
the concept was taken up by
Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian who lived during the Italian Renaissance. He is best known for his political treatise '' The Prince'' (), writte ...
in his ''
The Prince
''The Prince'' ( ; ) is a 16th-century political treatise written by the Italian diplomat, philosopher, and Political philosophy, political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli in the form of a realistic instruction guide for new Prince#Prince as gener ...
''.
See also
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References
{{Reflist, 2
Latin words and phrases
Political terminology
Religion and politics
Superstitions