Machiavelli lists four types of armed forces: mercenaries, auxiliaries, indigenous troops and mixed troops. Mercenaries, or soldiers hired to fight for a commission, are considered “ambitious, undisciplined, disloyal, and quarrelsome[some]” (Machiavelli, 2009, p. 48), and are therefore useless and dangerous. Auxiliaries, or troops borrowed from a more powerful state to fight on their side, are just as ineffective as mercenaries due to their loyalty to another ruler. Native troops, or your own army made up of soldiers from your territory, are the most effective and safest type of army. Mixed troops, or a combination of native and non-native soldiers, are a compromise between the three military styles mentioned above and are inferior to an all-native army. Machiavelli repeatedly emphasizes the need for a local army for the effective security of a territory, citing an adage: “There is nothing so weak and unstable as a reputation for power which is not supported by one's army” (Machiavelli, 2009 , p..