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Ancients and Moderns under the Empire of Circe: Machiavelli’s The Ass, Commentary2 8 9At the opening of the poem the hero is utterly deficient in such knowledge.He has fallen into the harsh valley; knows neither where he is nor howhe got there; and any exploration of the terrain he might attempt is blockedbecause of the darkness setting in and the paralysis that his own “great fear”has caused. He seems to fear above all “death…with his scythe and painteda color that each one of his consorts paints herself” (II.31–33). The color thatdistinguishes the appearance of death and his spouses is black. It is the Christianpriesthood with the pontifex maximus at its head that has paralyzed ourhero with fear and made it impossible for him to begin an exploration of theterrain that might lead him to a knowledge of sites: that terrain is securelyheld by the opposing forces. These forces comprise a novel army whose weaponsare those of the mind: teachings, dogmas, and doctrines. With theseweapons this army has conquered and gained possession of a novel, spiritualempire, an empire over the minds of men. It is this empire that is now decayingand it is these men who comprise the weakened legions that continue tosupport it in its decline. It is their envy, fear, and hatred of novelty that wouldoppose any effort to accelerate the destruction of the old order in the interestof the erection of the new. 20As a consequence of the occupation of the terrain by the spouses of death,our hero at the opening of the poem has been afflicted with two related evils.First, he has “let go all freedom” (II.24); second, his “virtue” (virtu) has beenrendered “prostrate and defeated” (II.36). The terms “freedom” and “virtue”are both used equivocally by Machiavelli. This is most easily demonstrated inthe latter case. Machiavelli employs “virtue” in The Ass to mean, on one hand,that virtue which propels realms upward (V.79–81) and, on the other, thatvirtue which makes possible his union with the beautiful woman (IV.129).“Virtue” can mean political virtue or it can mean erotic virtue, the warlikevirtue of the citizen or the aphrodisian virtue of the lover. Now the hero’slove and intimacy with the beautiful woman, as well as the beautiful womanherself, are clearly of allegorical significance. The beautiful woman standsin relation to the hero of The Ass as Virgil stands in relation to the hero ofthe Comedy. Virgil, however, is a figure of ancient wisdom. The allegoricalsignificance of the beautiful woman, we may therefore infer, is comparable tothat of Virgil. We are led to the suggestion that the hero’s love for her is hislove for ancient wisdom and his union with her his coming to understand the20The current ambiguous time of transition is articulated by the presence of at least three differentclasses of men: the select band, which hunts with Diana; the asses who bray and laugh; and death andhis spouses. The empire of death has made possible the ubiquity of the asinine and necessitated theconcealment of Diana and her fellow hunters.