Ridpath's history of the world : being an account of the principal events in the career of the human race from the beginnings of civilization to the present time : comprising the development of social institutions and the story of all nations . against the barbarians,defeated them in battle, raised the siege, andput Radagasius to death. During the Gothicinvasion Florence was captured and destroyedby Totila. Near the close of the eighth cent-ury the city was rebuilt by for nearly two hundred years .she years, the Guelphic or papal party was over-thrown and expelled from t
Ridpath's history of the world : being an account of the principal events in the career of the human race from the beginnings of civilization to the present time : comprising the development of social institutions and the story of all nations . against the barbarians,defeated them in battle, raised the siege, andput Radagasius to death. During the Gothicinvasion Florence was captured and destroyedby Totila. Near the close of the eighth cent-ury the city was rebuilt by for nearly two hundred years .she years, the Guelphic or papal party was over-thrown and expelled from the city. Not long after this political revolution,another convulsion, more important in its re-sults, occurred. The citizens rose against thenobles, attacked and demolished their palaces-and villas, and cstablislied a democratic gov-ernment on the ruins of the aristocracy. In-stead of the consulate and senate, two chiefmagistrates, the one styled captain of thepeople and the other podestn, were elected,while the legislative power was remanded togeneral assemblies. THE PEOPLE AND THE KINGS.—THE FREE CITIES. 43 The strifes between the Guelphs aud theGhibellines continued to vex the people ofFlorence during the greater part of the thir-. teenth century. In the year 1282 the gov-ernment was again revolutionized, and fortu-nately for the city the new political formswhich were instituted were morestable than those which had preceded ^ them. The Republic continued forseveral hundred years without un-dergoing further political upheavals,and notwithstanding the dissensionsto which Florence, in common withher sister republics, was troubled,her growth in wealth and popula-tion continued without census showed a list of a hun-dred and fifty thousand inhabitants,of whom no fewer than twenty-fivethousand were armed militia. The intellectual activity of theFlorentines was equal to that of theVenetians, and at an early date inthe Middle Ages there were evi-dences of a revival of
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