Conquest with policy
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus is the legitimacy profile: conquest joined to selective tolerance, restoration, and cheaper forms of rule.
The instrument of power.
Cyrus shows that force is not the only way to govern conquered peoples. Local customs, restored temples, and managed goodwill can make empire less costly to maintain.
The Machiavellian lesson is that mercy can be strategic. Legitimacy may preserve what conquest wins.
The warning.
Tolerance can be virtue or policy. Cyrus belongs here because wise rule may use restoration sincerely, strategically, or both, and the difference matters.