Machiavellian freedom

In his Discourses on Livy , Machiavelli speculates nostalgically that the anemic modern attachment to freedom is due to the insipidity of modern sacrifice:

“When I meditated on the reason why people were more in love with freedom in those ancient times than they are now, I saw it was because they have grown weaker now than formerly, which is a result of the difference in education, this again being based on the difference of their religion from ours . . . . This may be seen from the magnificence of their sacrifices as compared with ours. There is more delicacy than splendor in our display, and no ferocious or jubilant action whatsoever. There was no lack of display then, nor lack of magnificence in their ceremonies, but added to it was the action of the sacrifice full of blood and ferocity, where a multitude of animals were slaughtered; which sight, being so terrible, made man behave likewise.”