If you’re not already familiar with the stereotype of a Taurus, it’s this: Stubborn, manipulative, undercover weirdo, materialistic. All of these characteristics tend to make Taureans a bit eccentric, unapproachable and great as dictators (see: Adolf Hitler). Niccolò Machiavelli is the ultimate embodiment of an archetypal Taurus exhibiting all of their worst traits.
Machiavelli asserted himself as a political mastermind for the Florentine government during the Renaissance. He served during a time when the Medicis were not in power, and later chose to write about them when they rose back to prominence in his scathing assessment of politics, The Prince. His incendiary manifesto was controversial for a number of reasons, chief among them his advocation of unethical, immoral behavior in order to sustain political authority.
Ultimately, The Prince would go on to generate the illustrious negative term “Machiavellian,” meaning scheming or unscrupulous in one’s dealings. Although Machiavelli produced other works and discourses, including Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy, it would always be his cutthroat Taurean nature revealed in The Prince that he was remembered for. And so the Taurus stereotype of sociopathy prevails.
