_Here begins the Second Book: how the city of Florence was
destroyed by Totila, the scourge of God, king of the Goths
and Vandals._
[Sidenote: 440 A.D.]
[Sidenote: Inf. xv. 67.]
[Sidenote: 450 A.D.]
Sec. 1.--In the year of Christ 440, in the time of S. Leo the Pope, and
of Theodosius and Valentinian emperors, in the northern parts there
was a king of the Vandals and of the Goths, which was called Bela, and
surnamed Totila. This man was a barbarian and had no religion, and was
cruel in customs and in all things, born of the province of Gothland
and Sweden, and in his cruelty he slew his brother and subdued many
divers nations of peoples by his might and lordship; and afterwards he
was minded to destroy and take away the Empire of the Romans, and lay
Rome waste; and thus by his sovereignty he gathered together
innumerable people from his own country, and from Sweden and from
Gothland, and afterwards from Pannonia, which is Hungary, and from
Denmark, to enter into Italy. And when he desired to pass into Italy,
he was opposed by the Romans and Burgundians and French, and a great
battle was fought against him in the district of Lunina, that is to
say of Friuli and Aquilea, with the greatest number of slain that had
ever been in any battle, both on one side and on the other; and the
king of Burgundy was slain. And Totila, being discomfited, returned to
his own country with the followers which were left to him. But
afterwards, desiring to carry out his purpose of destroying the Empire
of Rome, he gathered a larger army than before, and came into Italy.
And first he laid siege to the city of Aquilea; so it continued three
years, and then he took it, and burnt and destroyed it with all the
inhabitants; and when he had entered into Italy, after the same manner
he destroyed Vicenza, and Brescia, and Bergamo, and Milan, and Ticino,
and well-nigh all the cities of Lombardy, save Modena, for the merits
of S. Gemignano, which was bishop thereof; for when he was passing
through this city with his people, by a divine miracle he did not see
it save when he was without the city, and by reason of the miracle he
passed it by, and did not destroy it: and he destroyed Bologna and put
to martyrdom S. Proculus, bishop of Bologna, and thus he destroyed
well-nigh all the cities of Romagna. And afterwards passing through
Tuscany he found the city of Florence strong and powerful. Hearing the
fame thereof, and how it had been built by the noblest Romans, and was
the treasure-house of the Empire and of Rome, and how in this country
had been slain Radagasius, king of the Goths, his predecessor, with so
great a multitude of Goths, as before has been narrated, he commanded
that it should be besieged, and long time he sat before it in vain.
And seeing that he could not obtain it by siege, inasmuch as it was
very strong in towers and in walls and in many good soldiers, he set
about to gain it by deceit and by flattery and by treachery. Now the
Florentines had continual war with the city of Pistoia; and Totila
ceased laying waste the country around the city, and sent to the
Florentines that he desired to be their friend, and in their service
would destroy the city of Pistoia, promising and making show of great
love, and to give them privileges with very generous covenants. The
imprudent Florentines (and for this cause they were ever afterwards
called _blind_ in the proverb) believed his false flatteries and vain
promises; they opened the gates to him, and admitted him and his
followers into the city, and lodged him in the Capitol. And when the
cruel tyrant was within the city with all his forces, under false
seeming he showed love to the citizens, and one day he invited to his
council the greatest and most powerful chiefs of the city in great
numbers; and when they came to the Capitol, as they passed one by one
through an entry, he caused them to be slain and massacred, none
perceiving ought of the fate of the other; and afterwards he had them
thrown into the ducts of the Capitol, to wit, the conduit of the Arno
which flows underground by the Capitol, to the end that no man might
know thereof. And thus he put them to death in great numbers, and
nought was perceived thereof in the city of Florence save that at the
exit from the city where the said aqueduct or conduit issued forth and
flowed back into the Arno, the water was seen to be all red and
bloody. Then the people perceived the deceit and treachery; but it was
in vain and too late, seeing that Totila had armed all his followers;
and when he perceived that his cruelty was discovered, he commanded
them to overrun the city and slay both great and small, men and women,
and from this there was no escape, forasmuch as the city was unarmed
and unprepared, and we find that at that time there were in the city
of Florence 22,000 men-at-arms, beside the aged and children. When the
people of the city perceived that they were come to such sorrow and
destruction, they escaped who could, fleeing into the country and
hiding themselves in strongholds, and in woods and in caves; but the
most part of the citizens were slain, or wounded, or taken, and the
city was all despoiled of substance and riches by the said Goths,
Vandals, and Hungarians. And after that Totila had thus wasted it of
inhabitants and of goods, he commanded that it should be destroyed and
burnt, and laid waste, and that there should not remain one stone upon
another, and this was done; save that in the west there remained one
of the towers which Gneus Pompey had built, and on the north and on
the south one of the gates, and within the city near to the gate the
"casa" or "domo," which we take to be the duomo of S. Giovanni, called
of yore the "casa" [house] of Mars. And verily it never was entirely
destroyed, nor shall be destroyed to eternity, save at the day of
judgment, even as is written on the cement of the said duomo. And
there were also left standing certain lofty towers or temples,
indicated in the ancient chronicles by letters of the alphabet, the
which we cannot interpret, to wit S, and casa P, and casa F. The city
had four gates and six posterns, and there were towers marvellous
strong over the gates. And the idol of the god Mars which the
Florentines took from the temple and set upon a pillar, then fell into
the Arno, and abode there as long as the city remained in ruins. And
thus was destroyed the noble city of Florence by the infamous Totila
on the 28th day of June, in the year of Christ 450, to wit 520 years
after its foundation; and in the said city the blessed Maurice, bishop
of Florence, was put to death with great torments by the followers of
Totila, and his body lies in Santa Reparata.
Sec. 2.--_How Totila caused the city of Fiesole to be rebuilt._
After that the city of Florence was destroyed, Totila went into the
hill where had been the ancient city of Fiesole, and encamped there
with his banners and tents and booths, and commanded that the said
city should be rebuilt, and issued a proclamation that whosoever
desired to return and dwell there, swearing to him to oppose the
Romans, should abide in safety and freedom, and this in order that the
city of Florence should never be rebuilt. For the which thing many
which were descended from of old from Fiesole, returned to dwell
thither, and of the Florentines themselves which had escaped, which
did not know where to dwell or whither to go; and thus in a short time
the city of Fiesole was restored and rebuilt, and made strong by walls
and by inhabitants, and afterwards, as before so now, it continually
rebelled against Rome.
Sec. 3.--_How Totila departed from Fiesole to go towards Rome, and
destroyed many cities, and died an evil death._
Sec. 4.--_How the Goths remained lords of Italy after the death of
Totila._
[Sidenote: Circ. 470 A.D.]
[Sidenote: Cf. Inf. xxxii. 62. De Vulg. El. i. 10: 18, 19.]
* * * * And the King Theodoric held the Empire of Rome for the said
Zeno, the Emperor, doing him homage therefor and paying him tribute.
In these times, about the year of Christ 470, while Leo, Emperor of
Rome, was reigning in Constantinople, was born in Great Britain, which
is now called England, Merlin the prophet (of a virgin, they say, by
conception or machination of a devil), which wrought in that country
many marvels by necromancy, and ordained the Round Table of Knights
Errant in the time when Uther Pendragon reigned in Britain, which was
descended from Brutus, grandson of Aeneas, the first inhabitant of that
land, as afore we made mention; and afterwards the Round Table was
restored by the good King Arthur, his son, which was a lord of great
power and valour, and more gracious and knightly than all other lords,
and he reigned long time in happy state, as the Romances of the
Britons make mention, and whereof the Martinian Chronicle is not
silent when treating of those times.
Sec. 5.--_How the Goths were driven the first time out of Italy, and
how they recovered their sovereignty by means of the young Theodoric,
their king._ Sec. 6.--_How the Goths were entirely driven out of Italy
by Belisarius, patrician of the Romans._ Sec. 7.--_Of the coming of the
Lombards into Italy._ Sec. 8.--_Of the beginning of the religion and
sect of the Saracens, instituted by Mahomet._ Sec. 9.--_Of the
successors of Rotharis, king of the Lombards._
Sec. 10.--_How Charles Martel came from France to Italy at the summons
of the Church against the Lombards; and of the origin of the city of
Siena._
[Sidenote: 735 A.D.]
[Sidenote: 740 A.D.]
In the time of the said Eliprando [Liutprand], albeit he was a
Christian, yet by reason of avarice, and of desire to usurp the rights
of Holy Church, and by the counsel of the emperor of Constantinople,
he began war against the Romans and against Pope Gregory III., and
came with all his forces to besiege the said Pope in Rome, he by way
of Lombardy, and Grimoald, king of the Samnites and of the Apulians,
with his troops from Apulia, in the year of Christ 735. For the which
thing, after a council had been held in Rome, the Church with the
Romans sent to France for aid from Charles Martel, which Charles was
son to Pepin, a great baron of France, and was of the Twelve Peers,
and governed all the realm and the king himself; and the said Charles
Martel did likewise, forasmuch as the king which then was, called
Chilperic, had the name only, but Charles had the strength and
lordship; and he was the son of the sister of Dodon, king of
Aquitania, and afterwards was father of the good King Pepin, which was
father of Charles the Great, and he had the surname of Martel, because
he bore a hammer as his arms. And in truth he was a hammer, forasmuch
as by his prowess he struck at all Germany, Saxony, Suabia, Bavaria,
and Denmark as far as Norway, at England, Aquitania, and Navarre and
Spain, and Burgundy and Provence, and became ruler over them all, and
they became his tributaries. Then, at the summons of the said Pope, he
passed into Italy as far as Apulia, and freed Rome and the Church from
the encroachments of the Lombards. And it is said that at that time,
about the year of Christ 740, was the place first inhabited where is
now the city of Siena, by the aged and sick [non sana] people which
came in with Charles Martel, and remained in that place as has been
told afore concerning the building of Siena.
Sec. 11.--_How Eraco [Rachis], the Lombard king of Apulia, returned to
obedience to Holy Church._
Sec. 12.--_How Telofre [Astolf], king of the Lombards, persecuted Holy
Church, and how King Pepin at the summons of Pope Stephen came from
France and defeated him, and took him prisoner._
[Sidenote: Cf. Purg. xx. 53 and the Commentators.]
[Sidenote: 755 A.D.]
After King Rachis there succeeded to the realm of Lombardy, and to
that of Apulia, Astolf, called in Latin Telofre, brother of the said
Rachis. He was a lord of great power, and cruel, and an enemy of Holy
Church and of the Romans; and by the counsel of evil and rebellious
Romans, he took Tuscany and the valley of Spoleto, and devastated
them, and claimed tribute on every man's head; and made a conspiracy
with Leo, and Constantine, his son, emperors of Constantinople, and at
his request they came to Rome, and together with Telofre they took it,
and sacked it, and burnt the churches and holy places, and carried to
Constantinople the riches of Rome, and all the images from the
churches in Rome, and in contempt of the Pope and of the Church and to
the shame of the Christians he burnt them all with fire, and many
faithful Christians they destroyed and consumed in Rome and in all
Italy. For which thing Pope Stephen II. excommunicated them, and as a
punishment for the misdeed took away from the emperor the kingdom of
Apulia and of Sicily, and established by a decree that it should
pertain to Holy Church for ever. And afterwards, not being able to
resist the force of the said tyrants and so much affliction, he went
in person into France to Pepin, prince and governor of the French, to
require and pray him to come into Italy to defend Holy Church against
Telofre, king of the Lombards, and he gave to the said Pepin many
privileges and graces, and made and confirmed him king of France, and
deposed Childeric, the king which was of the first race, forasmuch as
he was a man of no account, and he became a monk. Which Pepin, a
faithful and loving son of Holy Church, received him with great
honour, and afterwards with all his forces with the said Pope Stephen
came into Italy, in the year of Christ 755, and fought great battles
with the said Telofre, king of the Lombards. In the end, by force of
arms and of his folk, the said Telofre was overcome and defeated by
the good King Pepin, and he obeyed the command of the Pope and of Holy
Church, and made all amends, just as he and his cardinals chose to
devise; and he left to the Church by compact and privilege the realm
of Apulia and of Sicily, and the patrimony of S. Peter. And when the
said Pepin was come to Rome with the said Pope, they were received
with great honour by the Romans; and the said Pepin was made
patrician, that is, vicar of Rome, and father of the Roman Republic.
And when Rome and Holy Church were restored to their liberty and good
estate, he returned into France, and ended his life with great honour,
and Charles the Great, his son, succeeded him as king of France.
Sec. 13.--_How Desiderius, son of Telofre, began war again with Holy
Church, for the which thing Charles the Great passed into Italy, and
defeated him, and took away and destroyed the lordship of the
Lombards._
[Sidenote: De Mon. iii. (11) 1-6.]
[Sidenote: 775 A.D.]
[Sidenote: Par. vi. 94-96.]
[Sidenote: Ep. v. (4).]
[Sidenote: Cf. Par. xv. 110, 111.]
[Sidenote: De Mon. iii. 11: 6. Par. xviii. 43.]
When King Pepin was departed from Italy and was returned to France,
the Church of Rome and the country was in repose and tranquillity for
a time, by reason of the covenant which Pepin had made with Telofre,
king of Lombardy, and the victory which he had gained over him; but
when Telofre was dead, Desiderius, his son, succeeded to him, which
was a worse enemy and persecutor of Holy Church than his father, and
broke the peace, and leagued himself with Constantine, which was the
son of Leo, the emperor of Constantinople, and with his forces began
to make war in Apulia, and Desiderius on his side in Tuscany more
than ever his father had done at the first. For the which thing Pope
Adrian, which was then governing Holy Church, sent into France for
Charles the Great, son of Pepin, to come into Italy to defend the
Church from the said Desiderius and from his following, the which
Charles, king of France, passed into Lombardy in the year of Christ
775, and after many battles and victories gained against Desiderius,
he besieged him in the city of Pavia, and when he had won the city by
siege, he took the said Desiderius captive, and his wife and his sons;
save that the eldest son, which was called Algise [Adelchis], fled
into Constantinople to the Emperor Constantine, and continued the war.
After he had taken Desiderius and his wife and his sons, Charles the
Great caused him to swear fealty to Holy Church, and did the like to
all the barons and cities of Italy; and when this was done, he sent
the said Desiderius and his wife and his sons prisoners into France,
and there they all died in prison. And thus was destroyed, by the
power of the Franks and of the good Charles the Great, the sovereignty
of the kings of the Lombards, formerly called Longobards, which had
endured two hundred and five years in Italy; for never afterwards was
there a king in Lombardy. Of a truth there remained the families of
the lords and barons and great citizens descended from the Lombards,
both in Lombardy and in Apulia; and still to-day there are certain
gentlemen of ancient lineage whom in common speech we call Lombard
Cattani, descended from the said Lombards which had been lords of
Italy. Charles the Great, after the said victory, came to Rome, and by
the said Adrian and by the Romans was received with great triumph and
honour; and as Charles the Great drew nigh to Rome, and beheld the
holy city from Montemalo, he alighted from his horse, and reverently
entered Rome on foot; and when he came thither, he kissed the gates of
the city and of all the churches, and gave rich offerings to every
Church. And when he came to Rome he was made patrician of Rome, and he
restored the affairs of Holy Church, and of the Romans, and of all
Italy, and he restored them to privileges and liberty, having subdued
in all parts the forces of the emperor of Constantinople, and of the
king of the Lombards, and of their followers, and confirmed the Church
in the donation which Pepin, his father, had given to her, and beyond
that he endowed the Church with the duchy of Spoleto and of Benevento.
And in the kingdom of Apulia he fought many battles against the
Lombards and the rebels against Holy Church, and besieged and
destroyed the city of Lacedonia, which is in Abruzzi between Aquila
and Sermona, and besieged and conquered Tuliverno, the strong fortress
at the entrance of Terra di Lavoro. And many other cities of the
Kingdom [Apulia] which were held by the rebels against Holy Church, he
entirely subdued to his governance. And when he had done this, leaving
Rome and all Italy in peaceful condition under his lordship, in happy
hour he was minded to attack the Saracens which had taken possession
of Provence, and of Navarre, and of Spain, and with the troops of his
twelve barons and peers of France, called Paladins, he entirely
conquered and destroyed them; and he passed beyond seas at the request
of the Emperor Michael of Constantinople and of the Patriarch of
Jerusalem, and conquered the Holy Land and Jerusalem, which were
occupied by the Saracens, and gained for the emperor of
Constantinople all the empire of the East which had been occupied by
the Saracens and the Turks. And when he returned to Constantinople,
albeit the Emperor Michael desired to give him many very great
treasures, yet would he take nothing, save the wood of the holy cross
and the nail of Christ, which he brought back into France, and which
is in Paris to this day. And when he had returned to France, he ruled
by his prowess and virtue not only over the realm of France, but all
Germany, Provence, Navarre, and Spain, and all Italy.
Sec. 14.--_Of the progeny of Charles the Great, and of his successors._
Sec. 15.--_How Charles the Great, king of France, was made Emperor of
Rome._
[Sidenote: Par. vi. 94. De Monarchia iii. 11.]
[Sidenote: 801 A.D.]
When Charles the Great had returned from over seas into France, as we
have said, and had subdued Germany, Italy, and Spain, and Provence,
the wicked Romans, with the powerful Lombards and Tuscans, rebelled
against the Church, and seized Pope Leo III., which was then reigning,
at Rome, as he was going to the procession of the Litanies (S. Mark's
Day, April 25th), and put out his eyes and slit his tongue, and drave
him out of Rome. And as it pleased God, by divine miracle, and because
he was innocent and holy, he recovered the sight of his eyes and the
power of speech, and went into France to Charles the Great, praying
him to come to Rome to restore the Church to her liberty; which
Charles, at the request of the said Pope Leo, came together with him
to Rome and restored the Pope and the Church to their state and
liberty, and took great vengeance against all the rebels and enemies
of Holy Church throughout all Italy. For the which thing the said
Pope Leo, with his cardinals and general council, with the consent of
the Romans, by reason of the virtuous and holy deeds done by the said
Charles the Great on behalf of Holy Church and of all Christendom,
took away the Roman Empire from the Greeks by a decree, and elected
the said Charles the Great Emperor of the Romans, as being most worthy
of the Empire; and by the said Pope Leo he was consecrated and crowned
in Rome, in the year of Christ 801, with great solemnity and honour,
on Easter Day.
The said Charles reigned with great good fortune fourteen years one
month and four days, ruling over all the empire of the West, and the
provinces afore named, and also the emperor of Constantinople was
under his obedience; and he caused as many abbeys to be built as there
are letters in the alphabet, and the name of each one began with a
different letter. And he caused his son Louis to be crowned lord over
the Empire and the kingdom of France, giving all his treasure to the
poor in God's name after this manner; for he left the third part of
his treasure (which was infinite) to all the poor Christians seeking
alms, and the other two parts he left to all his archbishops of his
empire and realm, that they might distribute them amongst their
bishops and all the churches and monasteries and hospitals.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 814 A.D.]
And this done, he commended his spirit in holiness to Christ, in the
city of Aquisgrana, in Germany, and was there buried with great
honour, to wit, at Aix-la-Chapelle. This was in the year of Christ
814, and he lived seventy-two years, and many signs appeared before
his death, as we read in the chronicles of the doings of France. This
Charles much extended Holy Church, and Christendom both far and near,
and was a man of great virtue.
Sec. 16.--_How, after Charles the Great, Louis, his son, became Emperor._
Sec. 17.--_How the Saracens of Barbary crossed to Italy, and were
defeated, and all slain._ Sec. 18.--_Further, how the Saracens crossed
to Calabria and to Normandy in France._ Sec. 19.--_How and in whose
person the empire and realm of France fell from the progeny of Pepin._
Sec. 20.--_Of the same matter, and of how the lineage of Hugh Capet
reigned thereafter._
Sec. 21.--_How the city of Florence lay waste and in ruins for 350
years._
After the destruction of the city of Florence, wrought by Totila, the
scourge of God, as has afore been mentioned, it lay thus ruined and
deserted about 350 years by reason of the evil state of Rome and of
the Empire, which, at first by Goths and Vandals, and afterwards by
Lombards and Greeks and Saracens and Hungarians, was persecuted and
brought low, as has afore been related. Truly there were, where
Florence had been, certain dwellings and inhabitants round about the
duomo of S. Giovanni, forasmuch as the Fiesolans held market there one
day in the week, and it was called the Campo Marti, as of old, for it
had always been the market-place of the Fiesolans, and had borne this
name before Florence was built. It came to pass ofttimes, during the
years when the city lay waste and in ruins, that the said inhabitants
of the borough and of the market-place, with the aid of certain nobles
of the country which of old were descended from the first citizens of
Florence and of the inhabitants of the villages round about, sought
ofttimes to enclose within moats and palisades some part of the city
around the Duomo; but they of the city of Fiesole, and their allies,
the counts of Mangone, and of Montecarelli, and of Capraia, and of
Certaldo, which were all of one lineage with the counts of Santafiore,
which were descended from the Lombards, hindered and opposed them, and
would not allow them to rebuild; but whatsoever was being built they
came in force, and under arms, and caused it to be violently beaten
down and destroyed, so that, for this cause and by reason of the
adversities which the Romans were enduring, as has afore been related,
and because the Fiesolans always held with the Goths, and afterwards
with the Lombards, and with all the rebels and enemies of the Empire
of Rome and Holy Church, and were so great and powerful in strength
that none of their neighbours durst oppose them, they would not suffer
the city of Florence to be rebuilt; and in this wise it abode long
time, until God put an end to the adversity of the city of Florence,
and brought her to the blessing of her restoration, as by us shall be
narrated in the following chapter and Third Book.
END OF SELECTIONS FROM BOOK II.