# Niccolò Machiavelli — Romola character guide

> Niccolò Machiavelli in Romola by George Eliot.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Niccolò, our young Niccolò Macchiavelli, Niccolò Macchiavelli, young Niccolò Macchiavelli, Macchiavelli

**First appearance:** 0042-xxxix-a-supper-in-the-rucellai-gardens

## Snapshot

A young Florentine diplomat whose cool political eye cuts through the pieties of the Rucellai garden circle, measuring men and republics by what they actually do.

## Who they are

In the cultivated debates of Bernardo Rucellai's gardens, this two-and-twenty-year-old observer listens more sharply than he speaks, already thinking in the cold arithmetic of power that will one day make his name infamous. He belongs to the world of Florentine statecraft that Eliot renders with such exactness — the world of embassies, factions, and calculated advantage — and his presence quietly frames the novel's question of what a city is worth when its citizens are small-souled. He matters because he gives the early intellectual scenes their edge: a mind that treats virtue as a variable, set against Romola's belief that faithfulness and love are substantial goods.

## In the story

### [The Shipwrecked Stranger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/chapters/i-the-shipwrecked-stranger)

A forceful speaker who dismisses Goro's complaints and shows his pragmatic and outspoken nature.

### [XVI: A Florentine Joke](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/chapters/xvi-a-florentine-joke)

Meets Tito and invites him to the Rucellai Gardens; comments on Piero de' Medici and the political situation.

### [XXV: Outside the Duomo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/chapters/xxv-outside-the-duomo)

Mentioned among the men of ideas who attend Savonarola's sermons to observe and report.

### [XLV: At the Barber's Shop](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/chapters/xlv-at-the-barber-s-shop)

Present at Nello's shop, engages in political analysis of Savonarola's position, showing his characteristic cynicism and insight.

### [LX: The Scaffold](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/chapters/lx-the-scaffold)

Engages in a cynical discussion about statecraft, arguing that the only safe blows are those too heavy to be avenged, and criticizing the Frate's blunder of not being thorough enough.

### [LXIII: Ripening Schemes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/chapters/lxiii-ripening-schemes)

Machiavelli is mentioned as the provisional substitute for Tito's office, indicating Tito's plans to leave Florence.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/niccolo_machiavelli
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters