“So much was the plebs more willing to desire things in Rome than to possess them in Anzio”. On Multitude and Desire in Machiavelli|“Tanto era quella plebe più pronta a volere desiderare le cose in Roma che a possederle in Anzio” Su moltitudine e desiderio in Machiavelli

This article examines the concept of the multitude in Machiavelli’s thought, with a particular focus on the organic relationship between desire and the dynamic constitution that structures and articulates its collective essence. Moving beyond reductive interpretations, the Machiavellian multitude emerges as an irreducible conceptual figure, animated by a constitutive tension between potentiality and actuality, order and conflict. Through a reinterpretation of two emblematic episodes from the Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy – the Roman plebs’ refusal to relocate to the colony of Antium (Discourses I, 37) and Pacuvius Calavius’ stratagem in Capua (Discourses I, 47) – this study highlights how collective desire transcends mere material aspiration to become a principle of openness to the possible, a negative force capable of continuously regenerating the political. In this perspective, the multitude is a collective subject in perpetual becoming, where conflict is not an obstacle to order but its condition of possibility. This study integrates Machiavelli’s thought with contemporary interpretations, exploring the multitude as a key to understanding the nature of the political as a site of tension, transformation, and inexhaustible potential.