Beginning, renewal and foundation are recurrent motifs in Machiavelli’s writings. Starting with the famous episode of Stefano Porcari from the ‚History of Florence‘, the following article explores the notion of political renewal in Machiavelli’s work where it takes the form of a paradox: Political renovation can only be achieved by going back to antiquity, in particular to the period of the Roman Republic which, according to Machiavelli, constitutes the paradigm of the well-balanced republican government. In his ‚Discourses‘ on Livy, Machiavelli retraces the genealogy of this republican model through a series of exemplary case studies. Among these, the story of Brutus and Lucretia offers a poignant example, an epitome of republican politics.