To the west, in Tuscany, the phænomena are somewhat different. The characteristic of this part of Italy was the grouping together of the smaller cities under the power of the larger. Nearly all the land came in the end under princely rule; but both acknowledged princely rule and the tyrannies out of which it sprang came into importance in Tuscany later than anywhere else. ♦Lucca under Castruccio Castracani, 1320-1338.♦ _Lucca_ had in the fourteenth century a short time of greatness under her illustrious tyrant Castruccio; but, before and after his day, she plays, as a commonwealth, only a secondary part in Italy. Still she remained a commonwealth, though latterly an oligarchic one, through all changes down to the general crash of the French Revolution. ♦Pisa.♦ _Pisa_ kept for a while her maritime greatness, and her rivalry with the Ligurian commonwealth of _Genoa_. ♦Genoa.♦ Genoa, less famous in the earliest times, proved a far more lasting power. ♦Her rule in Corsica.♦ She established her dominion over the coast on both sides of her, and kept her island of Corsica down to modern times. ♦Sardinia ceded to Aragon, 1428. | Pisa subject to Florence, 1416.♦ Physical causes caused the fall of the maritime power of Pisa; Sardinia passed from her to become a kingdom of the House of Aragon, and she herself passed under the dominion of _Florence_. ♦Greatness of Florence.♦ This last illustrious city, the greatest of Tuscan and even of Italian commonwealths, begins to stand forth as the foremost of republican states about the time when her forerunner Milan came under the rule of tyrants. She extended her dominion over _Volterra_, _Arezzo_, and many smaller places, till she became mistress of all northern Tuscany. ♦Siena.♦ To the south the commonwealth of _Siena_ also formed a large dominion. ♦Rule of the Medici. 1434-1494. | 1512-1527.♦ In Florence the rule of the Medici grew step by step into a hereditary tyranny; but it was an intermittent tyranny, one which was supported only by foreign force, and which was overturned whenever Florence had strength to act for herself. ♦Alexander, Duke of Florence, 1530.♦ It was only after her last overthrow by the combined powers of Pope and Cæsar that she became, under Alexander, the first duke of the house of Medici, an acknowledged principality. ♦Cosmo annexes Siena, 1557. | Elba, &c.♦ Cosmo the First, the second duke, annexed Siena, and all the territory of that commonwealth, except the lands known as _Stati degli Presidi_, that is the isle of _Elba_ and some points on the coast. These became parts of the kingdom of Naples; that is, at that time, parts of the dominion of Spain. The state thus formed by Cosmo was one of the most considerable in Italy, taking in the whole of Tuscany except the territory of Lucca and the lands which became Spanish. ♦Cosmo Grand Duke of Tuscany, 1567.♦ Its ruler presently exchanged by papal authority the title of Duke of Florence for that of Grand Duke of Tuscany.