 Lipsius’s Politica, written in the heated atmosphere of civil wars and radical attempts at religious reform, can be seen as an attempt to produce a synthesis between the traditional mirror of princes, a popular genre among humanists, and Machiavelli’s Prince. Lipsius was a self-proclaimed supporter of monarchy and a moderate form of absolutism, at least when based on Stoic virtues. The way to prevent a monarch from abusing his power was not to threaten him with revolt or tyrannicide, but rather to educate him thoroughly in Stoic ethics. Lipsius’s ideal monarchy was not based on amoral despotism or Machiavellian power. Its foundation was instead Neostoic moral philosophy, whose precepts and doctrines would ensure that unruly emotions were governed by reason.