Abstract:

Machiavelli is often considered as a mentor of the evil.In fact, the core of his thought is "liberty", and his ultimate goal to found a republic.He draws on resources about classical republican liberty in a critical way.Creatively, he expounds on internal relations among liberty, regime, virtue, law, customs and religion mainly from two aspects of free state and citizen's virtue.

Key words: Machiavelli, republicanism, liberty, virtue