Read this passage from chapter 5 of The Prince. There are, for example, the Spartans and the Romans. The Spartans held Athens and Thebes, establishing there an oligarchy: nevertheless they lost them. The Romans, in order to hold Capua, Carthage, and Numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them. They wished to hold Greece as the Spartans held it, making it free and permitting its laws, and did not succeed. So to hold it they were compelled to dismantle many cities in the country, for in truth there is no safe way to retain them otherwise than by ruining them. And he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watchword of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget. And whatever you may do or provide against, they never forget that name or their privileges unless they are disunited or dispersed, but at every chance they immediately rally to them, as Pisa after the hundred years she had been held in bondage by the Florentines.

What is Machiavelli’s primary purpose in writing this passage?

A. to inform readers about the history of Rome and Sparta and how they built their empires
B. to inform readers about the fates of the cities conquered by the Spartans and the Romans
C. to persuade readers that a conquering prince must destroy a former republic if he hopes to hold it
D. to persuade readers that a republic will remember freedom and someday rebel against a conqueror