the name of the Flavian family--the family of Vespasian [Titus
Flavius Vespasian]. The nine Emperors who were successively
invested with the purple, in the space of the 123 years from
his accession, were not all, however, of Flavian race, even by
the rites of adoption, which in Rome was become a second
nature; but the respect of the world for the virtues of
Flavius Vespasian induced them all to assume his name, and
most of them showed themselves worthy of such an affiliation.
Vespasian had been invested with the purple at Alexandria, on
the 1st of July, A. D. 69; he died in 79. His two sons reigned
in succession after him; Titus, from 79 to 81; Domitian, from 81
to 96. The latter having been assassinated, Nerva, then an old
man, was raised to the throne by the Senate (A. D. 96-98). He
adopted Trajan (98-117); who adopted Adrian (117-138). Adrian
adopted Antoninus Pius (138-161); who adopted Marcus Aurelius
(161-180); and Commodus succeeded his father, Marcus Aurelius
(180-192). No period in history presents such a succession of
good and great men upon any throne: two monsters, Domitian and
Commodus, interrupt and terminate it."
_J. C. L. Sismondi,
Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 2._
FLEETWOOD, OR BRANDY STATION, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (JUNE: VIRGINIA).
FLEIX, The Peace of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1578-1580.
FLEMINGS.--FLEMISH.
See FLANDERS.
FLEMISH GUILDS.
See GUILDS OF FLANDERS.
FLEURUS, Battle of (1622).
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1621-1633.
FLEURUS, Battle of (1690).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1689-1690.
FLEURUS, Battle of (1794).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1794 (MARCH-JULY).
FLODDEN, Battle of (A. D. 1513).
See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1513.
FLORALIA, The.
See LUDI.
FLORÉAL, The month.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (OCTOBER).
FLORENCE:
Origin and Name:
"Fæsulre was situated on a hill above Florence. Florentine
traditions call it the metropolis of Florence, which would
accordingly be a colony of Fæsulre; but a statement in
Machiavelli and others describes Florence as a colony of
Sulla, and this statement must have been derived from some
local chronicle. Fæsulre was no doubt an ancient Etruscan
town, probably one of the twelve. It was taken in the war of
Sulla [B. C. 82-81]. ... My conjecture is, that Sulla not only
built a strong fort on the top of the hill of Fæsulre, but
also the new colony of Florentia below, and gave to it the
'ager Fæsulanus.'"
_B. G. Niebuhr,
Lectures on Ancient Ethnography and Geography.
volume 2, page 228._
"We can reasonably suppose that the ancient trading nations
may have pushed their small craft up the Arno to the present
site of Florence, and thus have gained a more immediate
communication with the flourishing city of Fiesole than they
could through other ports of Etruria, from whatever race its
people might have sprung. Admitting the high antiquity of
Fiesole, the imagined work of Atlas, and the tomb of his
celestial daughter, we may easily believe that a market was
from very early times established in the plain, where both by
land and water the rural produce could be brought for sale
without ascending the steep on which that city stood. Such
arrangements would naturally result from the common course of
events, and a more convenient spot could scarcely be found
than the present site of Florence, to which the Arno is still
navigable by boats from its mouth, and at that time perhaps by
two branches. ... 'There were,' says Villani, 'inhabitants
round San Giovanni, because the people of Fiesole held their
market there one day in the week, and it was called the Field
of Mars, the ancient name: however it was always, from the
first, the market of the Fiesolines, and thus it was called
before Florence existed.'
{1130}
And again: 'The Pæetor Florinus, with a Roman army, encamped
beyond the Arno towards Fiesole and had two small villages
there, ... where the people of Fiesole one day in the week
held a general market with the neighbouring towns and
villages. ... On the site of this camp, as we are also assured
by Villani, was erected the city of Florence, after the
capture of Fiesole by Pompey, Cæsar, and Martius; but Leonardo
Aretino, following Malespini, asserts that it was the work of
Sylla's legions, who were already in possession of Fiesole.
... The variety of opinions almost equals the number of
authors. ... It may be reasonably concluded that Florence,
springing originally from Fiesole, finally rose to the rank of
a Roman colony and the seat of provincial government; a
miniature of Rome, with its Campus Martius, its Capitol,
Forum, temple of Mars, aqueducts, baths, theatre and
amphitheatre, all erected in imitation of the 'Eternal City;'
for vestiges of all these are still existing either in name or
substance. The name of Florence is as dark as its origin, and
a thousand derivations have confused the brains of
antiquarians and their readers without much enlightening them,
while the beautiful Giagiolo or Iris, the city's emblem, still
clings to her old grey walls, as if to assert its right to be
considered as the genuine source of her poetic appellation.
From the profusion of these flowers that formerly decorated
the meads between the rivers Mugnone and Arno, has sprung one
of the most popular opinions on the subject; for a white plant
of the same species having shown itself amongst the rising
fabrics, the incident was poetically seized upon and the Lily
then first assumed its station in the crimson banner of
Florence."
_H. E. Napier,
Florentine History,
book 1, chapter 1._
FLORENCE: A. D. 406.
Siege by Radagaisus.
Deliverance by Stilicho.
See ROME: A. D. 404-408.
FLORENCE: 12th Century.
Acquisition of republican independence.
"There is ... an assertion by Villani, that Florence contained
twenty-two thousand fighting men, without counting the old men
and children,' about the middle of the sixth century; and
modern statisticians have based on this statement an estimate
which would make the population of the city at that period
about sixty-one thousand. There are reasons too for believing
that very little difference in the population took place
during several centuries after that time. Then came the sudden
increase arising from the destruction, more or less entire, of
Fiesole, and the incorporation of its inhabitants with those
of the newer city, which led to the building of the second
walls. ... An estimate taking the inhabitants of the city at
something between seventy and eighty thousand at the period
respecting which we are inquiring [beginning of the 12th
century] would in all probability be not very wide of the
mark. The government of the city was at that time lodged in
the hands of magistrates exercising both legislative and
administrative authority, called Consuls, assisted by a senate
composed of a hundred citizens of worth--buoni uomini. These
Consuls 'guided everything, and governed the city, and decided
causes, and administered justice.' They remained in office for
one year. How long this form of government had been
established in Florence is uncertain. It was not in existence
in the year 897; but it was in activity in 1102. From 1138 we
have a nearly complete roll of the names of the consuls for
each year down to 1219. ... The first recorded deeds of the
young community thus governed, and beginning to feel conscious
and proud of its increasing strength, were characteristic
enough of the tone of opinion and sentiment which prevailed
within its walls, and of the career on which it was entering.
'In the year 1107,' says Malispini, 'the city of Florence
being much increased, the Florentines, wishing to extend their
territory, determined to make war against any castle or
fortress which would not be obedient to them. And in that year
they took by force Monte Orlando, which belonged to certain
gentlemen who would not be obedient to the city. And they were
defeated, and the castle was destroyed.' These 'gentlemen,' so
styled by the civic historian who thus curtly records the
destruction of their home, in contradistinction to the
citizens who by no means considered themselves such, were the
descendants or representatives of those knights and captains,
mostly of German race, to whom the Emperors had made grants of
the soil according to the feudal practice and system. They
held directly of the Empire, and in no wise owed allegiance or
obedience of any sort to the community of Florence. But they
occupied almost all the country around the rising city; and
the citizens' wanted to extend their territory.' Besides,
these territorial lords were, as has been said, gentlemen, and
lived as such, stopping wayfarers on the highways, levying tolls
in the neighbourhood of their strongholds, and in many ways
making themselves disagreeable neighbours to peaceable folks.
... The next incident on the record, however, would seem to
show that peaceful townsfolk as well as marauding nobles were
liable to be overrun by the car of manifest destiny, if they
came in the way of it. 'In the same year,' says the curt old
historian, 'the men of Prato rebelled against the Florentines;
wherefore they went out in battle against it, and took it by
siege and destroyed it.' Prato rebelled against Florence! It
is a very singular statement; for there is not the shadow of a
pretence put forward, or the smallest ground for imagining
that Florence had or could have claimed any sort of suzerainty
over Prato. ... The territorial nobles, however, who held
castles in the district around Florence were the principal
objects of the early prowess of the citizens; and of course
offence against them was offence against the Emperor. ... In
1113, accordingly, we find an Imperial vicar residing in
Tuscany at St. Miniato; not the convent-topped hill of that
name in the immediate neighbourhood of Florence, but a little
mountain city of the same name, overlooking the lower
Valdarno, about half way between Florence and Pisa. ... There
the Imperial Vicars perched themselves hawk-like, with their
Imperial troops, and swooped down from time to time to
chastise and bring back such cities of the plain as too
audaciously set at naught the authority of the Emperor. And
really these upstart Florentines were taking the bit between
their teeth, and going on in a way that no Imperial Vicar
could tolerate. ... So the indignant cry of the harried Counts
Cadolingi, and of several other nobles holding of the Empire,
whose houses had been burned over their heads by these
audacious citizens, went up to the ears of 'Messer Ruberto,'
the Vicar, in San Miniato.
{1131}
Whereupon that noble knight, indignant at the wrong done to
his fellow nobles, as well as at the offence against the
authority of his master the Emperor, forthwith put lance in
rest, called out his men, and descended from his mountain
fortress to take summary vengeance on the audacious city. On
his way thither he had to pass through that very gorge where
the castle of Monte Orlando had stood, and under the ruins of
the house from which the noble vassals of the Empire had been
harried. ... There were the leathern-jerkined citizens on the
very scene of their late misdeed, come out to oppose the
further progress of the Emperor's Vicar and his soldiers. And
there, as the historian writes, with curiously impassible
brevity, 'the said Messer Ruberto was discomfited and killed.'
And nothing further is heard of him, or of any after
consequences resulting from the deed. Learned legal
antiquaries insist much on the fact, that the independence of
Florence and the other Communes was never 'recognised' by the
Emperors; and they are no doubt perfectly accurate in saying
so. One would think, however, that that unlucky Vicar of
theirs, Messer Ruberto, must have 'recognised' the fact,
though somewhat tardily."
_T. A. Trollope,
History of the Commonwealth of Florence,
book 1, chapter 1 (volume 1)._
Countess Matilda, the famous friend of Pope Gregory VII.,
whose wide dominion included Tuscany, died in 1115,
bequeathing her vast possessions to the Church.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1077-1102.
"In reality she was only entitled thus to bequeath her
allodial lands, the remainder being imperial fiefs. But as it
was not always easy to distinguish between the two sorts, and
the popes were naturally anxious to get as much as they could,
a fresh source of contention was added to the constant
quarrels between the Empire and the Church. 'Henry IV.
immediately despatched a representative into Tuscany, who
under the title of Marchio, Judex, or Praeses, was to govern
the Marquisate in his name.' 'Nobody,' says Professor Villari,
'could legally dispute his right to do this: but the
opposition of the Pope, the attitude of the towns which now
considered themselves independent and the universal confusion
rendered the Marquis's authority illusory. The imperial
representatives had no choice but to put themselves at the
head of the feudal nobility of the contado and unite it into a
Germanic party hostile to the cities. In the documents of the
period the members of this party are continually described as
Teutonici.' By throwing herself in this juncture on the side
of the Pope, and thus becoming the declared opponent of the
empire and the feudal lords, Florence practically proclaimed
her independence. The grandi, having the same interests with
the working classes, identified themselves with these; became
their leaders, their consuls in fact if not yet in name. Thus
was the consular commune born, or, rather, thus did it
recognize itself on reaching manhood; for born, in reality, it
had already been for some time, only so quietly and
unconsciously that nobody had marked its origin or, until now,
its growth. The first direct consequence of this
self-recognition was that the rulers were chosen out of a
larger number of families. As long as Matilda had chosen the
officers to whom the government of the town was entrusted, the
Uberti and a few others who formed their clan, their kinsmen, and
their connections had been selected, to the exclusion of the
mass of the citizens. Now more people were admitted to a share
in the administration: the offices were of shorter duration,
and out of those selected to govern each family had its turn.
But those who had formerly been privileged--the Uberti and
others of the same tendencies and influence--were necessarily
discontented with this state of things, and there are
indications in Villani of burnings and of tumults such as
later, when the era of faction fights had fairly begun, so
often desolated the streets of Florence."
_B. Duffy,
The Tuscan Republics,
chapter 6._
See ITALY: A. D. 1056-1152.
FLORENCE: A. D. 1215-1250.
The beginning, the causes and the meaning of the strife of the
Guelfs and Ghibellines.
Nearly from the beginning of the 13th century, all Italy, and
Florence more than other Italian communities, became
distracted and convulsed by a contest of raging factions. "The
main distinction was that between Ghibellines and Guelphs--two
names in their origin far removed from Italy. They were first
heard in Germany in 1140, when at Winsberg in Suabia a battle
was fought between two contending claimants of the Empire; the
one, Conrad of Hohenstauffen, Duke of Franconia, chose for his
battle-cry 'Waiblingen,' the name of his patrimonial castle in
Würtemburg; the other, Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, chose
his own family name of 'Welf,' or 'Wölf.' Conrad proved
victorious, and his kindred to the fourth ensuing generation
occupied the imperial throne; yet both war-cries survived the
contest which gave them birth, lingering on in Germany as
equivalents of Imperialist and anti-Imperialist. By a process
perfectly clear to philologists, they were modified in Italy
into the forms Ghibellino and Guelfo; and the Popes being
there the great opponents of the Emperors, an Italian Guelph
was a Papalist. The cities were mainly Guelph; the nobles most
frequently Ghibelline. A private feud had been the means of
involving Florence in the contest."
_M. F. Rossetti,
A Shadow of Dante,
chapter 3._
"The Florentines kept themselves united till the year 1215,
rendering obedience to the ruling power, and anxious only to
preserve their own safety. But, as the diseases which attack
our bodies are more dangerous and mortal in proportion as they
are delayed, so Florence, though late to take part in the
sects of Italy, was afterwards the more afflicted by them. The
cause of her first division is well known, having been
recorded by Dante and many other writers; I shall, however,
briefly notice it. Amongst the most powerful families of
Florence were the Buondelmonti and the Uberti; next to these
were the Amidei and the Donati. Of the Donati family there was
a rich widow who had a daughter of exquisite beauty, for whom, in
her own mind, she had fixed upon Buondelmonti, a young
gentleman, the head of the Buondelmonti family, as her
husband; but either from negligence, or because she thought it
might be accomplished at any time, she had not made known her
intention, when it happened that the cavalier betrothed
himself to a maiden of the Amidei family. This grieved the
Donati widow exceedingly; but she hoped, with her daughter's
beauty, to disturb the arrangement before the celebration of
the marriage; and from an upper apartment, seeing Buondelmonti
approach her house alone, she descended, and as he was passing
she said to him, 'I am glad to learn you have chosen a wife,
although I had reserved my daughter for you'; and, pushing the
door open, presented her to his view.
{1132}
The cavalier, seeing the beauty of the girl, ... became
inflamed with such an ardent desire to possess her, that, not
thinking of the promise given, or the injury he committed in
breaking it, or of the evils which his breach of faith might
bring upon himself, said, 'Since you have reserved her for me,
I should be very ungrateful indeed to refuse her, being yet at
liberty to choose'; and without any delay married her. As soon
as the fact became known, the Amidei and the Uberti, whose
families were allied, were filled with rage," and some of
them, lying in wait for him, assassinated him as he was riding
through the streets. "This murder divided the whole city; one
party espousing the cause of the Buondelmonti, the other that
of the Uberti; and ... they contended with each other for many
years, without one being able to destroy the other. Florence
continued in these troubles till the time of Frederick II.,
who, being king of Naples, endeavoured to strengthen himself
against the church; and, to give greater stability to his
power in Tuscany, favoured the Uberti and their followers,
who, with his assistance, expelled the Buondelmonti; thus our
city, as all the rest of Italy had long time been, became
divided into Guelphs and Ghibellines."
_N. Machiavelli,
History of Florence,
book 2, chapter 1._
"Speaking generally, the Ghibellines were the party of the
emperor, and the Guelphs the party of the Pope; the
Ghibellines were on the side of authority, or sometimes of
oppression, the Guelphs were on the side of liberty and
self-government. Again, the Ghibellines were the supporters of
an universal empire of which Italy was to be the head, the
Guelphs were on the side of national life and national
individuality. ... If these definitions could be considered as
exhaustive, there would be little doubt as to the side to
which our sympathies should be given. ... We should ... expect
all patriots to be Guelphs, and the Ghibelline party to be
composed of men who were too spiritless to resist despotic
power, or too selfish to surrender it. But, on the other hand,
we must never forget that Dante was a Ghibelline."
_O. Browning,
Guelphs and Ghibellines,
chapter 2._
See, also, ITALY: A. D. 1215.
FLORENCE: A. D. 1248-1278.
The wars of a generation of the Guelfs and Ghibellines.
In 1248, the Ghibellines, at the instigation of Frederick II.,
and with help from his German soldiery, expelled the Guelfs
from the city, after desperate fighting for several days, and
destroyed the mansions of their chiefs, to the number of 38.
In 1250 there was a rising of the people--of the under-stratum
which the cleavage of parties hardly penetrated--and a popular
constitution of government was brought into force. At the same
time, the high towers, which were the strongholds of the
contending nobles, were thrown down. An attempt was then made
by the leaders of the people to restore peace between the
Ghibellines and the Guelfs, but the effort was vain; whereupon
the Guelfs (in January, 1251) came back to the city, and the
Ghibellines were either driven away or were shut up in their
city castles, to which they had retired when the people rose.
In 1258 the restless Ghibellines plotted with Manfred, King of
the Two Sicilies, to regain possession of Florence. The plot
was discovered, and the enraged people drove the last
lingerers of the faction from their midst and pulled down
their palaces. The great palace of the Uberti family, most
obnoxious of all, was not only razed, but a decree was made
that no building should ever stand again on its accursed site.
The exiled Ghibellines took refuge at Siena, and there plotted
again with King Manfred, who sent troops to aid them. The
Florentines did not wait to be attacked, but marched out to
meet them on Sienese territory, and suffered a terrible defeat
at Montaperti (September 4, 1260), in the battle that Dante
refers to, "which coloured the river Arbia red." "'On that
day,' says Villani, ... 'was broken and destroyed the old
popular government of Florence, which had existed for ten
years with so great power and dignity, and had won so many
victories.' Few events have ever left a more endurable
impression on the memory of a people than this great battle
between two cities and parties animated both of them by the
most unquenchable hatred. The memory of that day has lasted
through 600 years, more freshly perhaps in Siena than in
Florence." As a natural consequence of their defeat at
Montaperti, the Guelfs were again forced to fly into exile
from Florence, and this expatriation included a large number
of even the commoner people. "So thorough had been the defeat,
so complete the Ghibelline ascendency resulting from it, that
in every city the same scene on a lesser scale was taking
place. Many of the smaller towns, which had always been Guelph
in their sympathies, were now subjected to Ghibelline
despotism. One refuge alone remained in Tuscany--Lucca. ...
And thither the whole body of the expatriated Guelphs betook
themselves. ... The Ghibellines entered Florence in triumph on
the 16th of September, three days after their enemies had left
it. ... The city seemed like a desert. The gates were standing
open and unguarded; the streets were empty; the comparatively
few inhabitants who remained, almost entirely of the lowest
class of the populace, were shut up in their obscure
dwellings, or were on their knees in the churches. And what
was worse, the conquerors did not come back alone. They had
invited a foreign despot to restore order;" and so King
Manfred's general, Giordano da Anglona, established Count
Guido Novello in Florence as Manfred's vicar. "All the
constitutional authorities established by the people, and the
whole frame-work of the former government, were destroyed, and
the city was ruled entirely by direction transmitted from the
King's Sicilian court." There were serious proposals, even,
that Florence itself should be destroyed, and the saving of
the noble city from that untimely fate is credited to one
patriotic noble, of the Uberti family, who withstood the
proposition, alone. "The Ghibelline army marched on Lucca, and
had not much more difficulty in reducing that city. The
government was put into Ghibelline hands, and Lucca became a
Ghibelline city like all the rest of Tuscany. The Lucchese
were not required by the victors to turn their own Guelphs out
of the city. But it was imperatively insisted on that every
Guelph not a native citizen should be thrust forth from the
gates." The unfortunate Florentines, thus made homeless again,
now found shelter at Bologna, and presently helped their friends
at Modena and Reggio to overcome the Ghibellines in those
cities and recover control. But for five years their condition
was one of wretchedness. Then Charles of Anjou was brought
into Italy (1265) by the Pope, to snatch the crown of the Two
Sicilies from King Manfred, and succeeded in his undertaking.
See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 1250-1268.