Villani's Chronicle. Giovanni Villani

the people, and prætors, and censors, and chiliarchs. And in this time there were in Rome many changes, and wars, and battles, not only with their neighbours, but with all the nations of the world; the which Romans by force of arms, and virtue and the wisdom of good citizens, ruled over well-nigh all the provinces and realms and dominions in the world, and gained sovereignty over them, and made them tributary, with the greatest battles, and with slaughter of many nations of the world, and of the Romans themselves, in divers times, well-nigh innumerable to relate. And also among the citizens themselves, by reason of envy against the rulers, and strifes between magnates and them of the people; and on the cessation of foreign wars, there arose much fighting and slaughter ofttimes among the citizens; and, in addition to this, from time to time intolerable pestilences arose among the Romans. And this government endured until the great battles of Julius Cæsar against Pompey, and then against his sons, in which Cæsar was victorious; then the said Cæsar did away with the office of consuls and of dictators, and he first was called Emperor. And after him Par. vi. 79-81. Convivio iv. 5: 16-29. De Monarchia ii. 9: 99-105; and ii. 12. Epist. vii. (3) 64-73. Octavianus Augustus, who ruled in peace, after many battles, over the whole world, at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ, 700 years after the foundation of Rome; and thus it is seen that Rome was governed by kings for 254 years, and by consuls 450 years, as we have aforesaid, and it is told more at length by Titus Livius and many other authors. But note that the great power of the Romans was not alone in themselves, save in so far that they were at the head and leaders; but first all the Tuscans and then all the Italians followed them in their wars and in their battles, and were all called Romans. But we will now leave the order of the history of the Romans and of the Emperors, save in so far as it shall pertain to our matter, returning to our subject of the building of Florence, which we promised to narrate. And we have made this long exordium, forasmuch as it was necessary to show how the origin of the Roman builders of Florence (as hereafter will be narrated) was derived from the noble Trojans; and the origin and beginning of the Trojans was from Dardanus, son of Atlas, of the city of Fiesole, as we have briefly recounted; and afterwards from the descendants of the noble Romans, and of the Fiesolans, by the force of the Romans a people was founded called Florentines.

§ 30.—How a conspiracy was formed in Rome by Catiline and his followers.

      680 a.u.c.

At the time when Rome was still ruled by the government of consuls, in the year 680 from the foundation of the said city, Mark Tully Cicero and Caius Antony being consuls, and Rome in great and happy state and lordship, Catiline, a very noble citizen, descended by birth from the royal house of Tarquin, being a man of dissolute life but brave and daring in arms and a fine orator, but not wise, being envious of the good and rich and wise men who ruled the city, their lordship not being pleasing to him, formed a conspiracy with many other nobles and other followers disposed to evil-doing, and purposed to slay the consuls and part of the senators, and to destroy their office, and to overrun the city, robbing and setting fire to many parts thereof, and to make himself ruler thereof; and this he would have done had it not been warded off by the wit and foresight of the wise consul, Mark Tully. So he defended the city from such ruin, and found out the said conspiracy and treason; but because of the greatness and power of the Convivio iv. 5: 172-176. said Catiline, and because Tully was a new citizen in Rome, his father having come from Capua or from some other town of the Campagna, he did not dare to have Catiline seized or to bring him to justice, as his misdeeds required; but by his great wit and fine speech he caused him to depart from the city; but many of his fellow-conspirators and companions, from among the greatest citizens, and even of the order of senators, who abode still in Rome after Catiline's departure, he caused to be seized, and to be strangled in prison, so that they died, as the great scholar, Sallust, relates in due order.

§ 31.—How Catiline caused the city of Fiesole to rebel against the city of Rome.

Catiline having departed from Rome, with part of his followers came into Tuscany, where Manlius, one of his principal fellow-conspirators, who was captain, had gathered his people in the ancient city of Fiesole, and Catiline being come thither, he caused the said city to rebel against the lordship of the Romans, assembling all the rebels and exiles from Rome and from many other provinces, with lewd folk disposed for war and for ill-doing, and he began fierce war with the Romans. The Romans, hearing this, decreed that Caius Antony, the consul, and Publius Petreius, with an army of horse and many foot, should march into Tuscany against the city of Fiesole and against Catiline; and they sent by them letters and messengers to Quintus Metellus, who was returning from France with a great host of the Romans, that he should likewise come with his force from the other side to the siege of Fiesole, and to pursue Catiline and his followers.

§ 32.—How Catiline and his followers were discomfited by the Romans in the plain of Piceno.

Now when Catiline heard that the Romans were coming to besiege him in the city of Fiesole, and that Antony and Petreius were already with their host in the plain of Fiesole, upon the bank of the river Arno, and how that Metellus was already in Lombardy with his host of three legions which were coming from France, and the succour which he was expecting from his allies which had remained in Rome had failed him, he took counsel not to shut himself up in the city of Fiesole, but to go into France; and therefore he departed from that city with his people and with a lord of Fiesole who was called Fiesolanus, and he had his horses' shoes reversed, to the end that when they departed the hoofprints of the horses might show as if folk had entered into Fiesole, and not sallied forth thence, to cause the Romans to tarry near the city, that he might depart thence the more safely. And having departed by night, to avoid Metellus, he did not hold the direct road through the mountains which we call the Alps of Bologna, but took the plain by the side of the mountains, and came where to-day is the city of Pistoia, in the place called Campo Piceno, that was below where to-day is the fortress of Piteccio, purposing to cross the Apennine mountains by that way, and descend thence into Lombardy; but Antony and Petreius, hearing of his departure, straightway followed after him with their host along the plain, so that they overtook him in the said place, and Metellus, on the other side, set guards at the passes of the mountains, to the end he might not pass thereby. Catiline, seeing himself to be thus straitened, and that he could not avoid the battle, gave himself and his followers to the chances of combat with great courage and boldness, in the which battle there was great slaughter of Romans from the city and of rebel Romans and of Fiesolans; at the end of which fierce battle Catiline was defeated and slain in that place of Piceno with all his followers; and the field remained to the Romans, but with such dolorous victory that the said two consuls, with twenty horse, who alone escaped, did not care to return to Rome. The which thing could not gain credence with the Romans till the senators sent thither to learn the truth; and, this known, there was the greatest sorrow thereat in Rome. And he who desires to see this history more fully, let him read the book of Sallust called Catilinarius. The injured and wounded of Catiline's people who had escaped death in the battle, albeit they were but few, withdrew where is to-day the city of Pistoia, and there in vile habitations became the first inhabitants thereof, whilst their wounds were healing. And afterwards, by reason of the good situation and fruitful soil, the inhabitants thereof increased, which afterwards built the city of Pistoia, and by reason of the great mortality and pestilence which was near that place, both of their people and of the Romans, they gave it the name of Pistoia; and therefore it is not to be marvelled at if the Pistoians have been and are a fierce and cruel people in war among themselves and against others, being descended from the race of Catiline and from the remnants of such people as his, discomfited and wounded in battle.

§ 33.—How Metellus with his troops made war upon the Fiesolans.

      After that Metellus, who was in Lombardy near the mountains of the Apennine Alps in the country of Modena, heard of the defeat and death of Catiline, straightway he came with his host to the place where the battle had been, and having seen the slain, through amazement at the strange and great mortality he was afeared, marvelling within himself as at a thing impossible. But afterwards he and his followers equally despoiled the camp of the Romans from the city and that of the enemy, seizing that which they found there; and this done he came towards Fiesole to besiege the city. The Fiesolans vigorously took to arms, and sallied forth from the city to the plain, fighting with Metellus and with his