From Book III, Chapter 26 of Discourses on Livy by Niccolo Machiavelli

How a State Is Ruined Because of Women

In the cIty of Ardea a conflict arose between the patricians and the plebeians because of a wedding in which when a beautiful woman had to marry, a plebeIan and a patrician alike asked for her, and as she did not have a father, her guardians wanted to unite her to the plebeian, her mother to the patrician. Such a uproar arose from this that they came to arms; in which all the patricians armed themselves in favor of the patrician, and all the plebeians in favor of the plebeian. When the plebs were overcome, they went out from Ardea and sent to the Volscians for aid, while the patricians sent to Rome.

The Volscians arriving first, surrounded Ardea and besieged it. When the Romans arrived, they shut in the Volscians between the town and themselves, so that they constrained them (being pressed by hunger) to surrender themselves at discretion. And when the Roman entered the city, they put to death all the heads of the sedition, and restored order in Ardea.

There are several things to note in this text. First it is seen that women have been the cause of many ruinations, and have done great damage to those who govern a city, and have caused many divisions in them: and (as has been seen in our history) the excess committed against Lucretia deprived the Tarquins of their state; and the other committed against Virginia deprived the Ten (Decemvirs) of their authority. And Aristotle, among the first causes of the ruin of the tyrants, places the injury they committed on women, either by seduction, by violence, or corruption of marriages, as we have discussed this subject at length in the chapter in which we treated of conspiracies.

I say, therefore, that absolute princes and governors of republics do not have to take little account of this subject, but ought to consider the disorders which may arise from such incidents, and remedy them in time that it does not injure and disgrace their state or republic; as happened to the Ardeans, who, for allowing the rivalry to increase among their citizens, were led to become divided among themselves, and wanting to reunite, had to send for outside succor, which is a great beginning to a sure servitude.