What is the source of the allusion in the sentence below?
His Machiavellian strategies landed him a promotion.

 - a song
 - history
The source of the allusion Machiavellian is history.
During the Renaissance, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince, an essay that claims that achieving and maintaining political power requires dishonesty and ruthlessness.
The allusion Machiavellian means deceptive and cutthroat.