Niccolò Machiavelli, author of the Discourses on Livy, lives during the height of the Italian Renaissance. He works as a successful diplomat and military commander for the Florentine government, traveling extensively and learning the habits and techniques of many players in the game of Italian power politics. An employ of Soderini during the Florentine republic, Machiavelli is exiled when the Medici family retakes the city. During exile, Machiavelli writes a number of works, including his most famous, the Discourses and The Prince. Because of The Prince, he is widely regarded as a purveyor of evil techniques for dictators, but political theorists consider him a supporter of republican values who also teaches the cold-blooded techniques of realpolitik that all leaders need. 

The sourcebook for the Discourses is a large history of Rome by Titus Livius, or Livy, called Ab Urbe Condita (“From the Founding of the City,” but more commonly translated as “The History of Rome”), which traces Rome from 753 BCE to the reign of the first emperor, Augustus. Essentially a history of the Roman Republic, it sets out the main characters, events and beliefs of the ancient Romans that Machiavelli so admires.