'Machiavellian' can signify duplicity and amorality in politics, but Machiavelli himself is far more complex than this cliché. A high-ranking Florentine government official and prolific writer of hugely influential political, military and historical works, Machiavelli was also a vernacular poet, first-rank dramatist and religious radical, rejecting not only the contemporary Catholic Church but Christianity itself. From champion of Florentine popular republicanism to political radical to conservative, Rober