Question

read the passage from chapter 17 of the prince. and of all princes, it is impossible for the new prince to avoid the imputation of cruelty, owing to new states being full of dangers. hence virgil, through the mouth of dido, excuses the inhumanity of her reign owing to its being new, saying: -
es dura, et regni novitas me talia cogunt moliri, et late fines custode tueri.\(*) nevertheless he ought to be slow to believe and to act, nor should he himself show fear, but proceed in a temperate manner with prudence and humanity, so that too much confidence may not make him incautious and too much distrust render him intolerable.... against my will, my fate a throne unsettled, and an infant state, bid me defend my realms with all my powrs, which type of evidence does machiavelli use in the story of dido to show that a ruler should be cruel in certain circumstances? ○ machiavelli uses historical evidence to point out that many new rulers have used cruelty. ○ machiavelli uses empirical evidence to makes points about the use of power. ○ machiavelli uses logical evidence to assert that it is acceptable for new princes to use cruelty. ○ machiavelli uses anecdotal evidence to show that new rulers need to be cruel.

Explanation:

Dido is a figure from classical mythology/legend, a single specific story used by Machiavelli. Historical evidence would reference real, documented rulers; empirical relies on observable data; logical uses deductive reasoning. This is a specific anecdote to illustrate his point.

Answer:

Machiavelli uses anecdotal evidence to show that new rulers need to be cruel.