. Mediæval and modern history . ominal dependenceupon Pope or Emperor. Towards the close of the thirteenthcentury northern and central Italy was divided among abouttwo hundred contentious little city-republics. Italy had becomeanother Greece. 170. The Rise of Despots. The constant wars of the Italiancities with each other and the incessant strife of parties withineach city led to the same issue as that to which tended the end-less contentions and divisions of the Greek cities in ancient democratic institutions were overthrown, and by the endof the thirteenth century a large part of
. Mediæval and modern history . ominal dependenceupon Pope or Emperor. Towards the close of the thirteenthcentury northern and central Italy was divided among abouttwo hundred contentious little city-republics. Italy had becomeanother Greece. 170. The Rise of Despots. The constant wars of the Italiancities with each other and the incessant strife of parties withineach city led to the same issue as that to which tended the end-less contentions and divisions of the Greek cities in ancient democratic institutions were overthrown, and by the endof the thirteenth century a large part of the city-republics ofnorthern and central Italy had fallen into the hands of domestictyrants, many of whom by their crimes rendered themselves asodious as the worst of the tyrants who usurped supreme power inthe cities of ancient Hellas. We shall now relate some circumstances, for the most part ofa commercial or social character, which concern some of the mostrenowned of the Italian city-states. 158 GROWTH OF THE TOWNS [§ 171. 171. Venice. Venice, the most famous of the Italian cities,had its beginnings in the fifth century in the rude huts of somerefugees who fled out into the marshes of the Adriatic to escapethe fury of the Huns of Attila. Here, secure from the pursuit ofthe barbarians, who were unprovided with boats, they graduallybuilt up, on some low islets, a number of little villages, whichfinally, towards the close of the seventh century, coalesced to forma single city, at whose head was placed a ruler bearing the title of Duke, or Doge, aname destined to acquirea wide renown. Conquests and nego-tiations gradually ex-tended century aftercentury the possessionsof the island republic,until she finally came tocontrol the coast andwaters of the easternMediterranean in muchthe same way thatCarthage had mastery ofthe western Mediter-ranean at the time of theFirst Punic War. Evenbefore the Crusades her trade with the East was very extensive,and by those expeditions was expa
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