Sec. 16.--_How, after Charles the Great, Louis, his son, became Emperor._ Sec. 17.--_How the Saracens of Barbary crossed to Italy, and were defeated, and all slain._ Sec. 18.--_Further, how the Saracens crossed to Calabria and to Normandy in France._ Sec. 19.--_How and in whose person the empire and realm of France fell from the progeny of Pepin._ Sec. 20.--_Of the same matter, and of how the lineage of Hugh Capet reigned thereafter._ Sec. 21.--_How the city of Florence lay waste and in ruins for 350 years._ After the destruction of the city of Florence, wrought by Totila, the scourge of God, as has afore been mentioned, it lay thus ruined and deserted about 350 years by reason of the evil state of Rome and of the Empire, which, at first by Goths and Vandals, and afterwards by Lombards and Greeks and Saracens and Hungarians, was persecuted and brought low, as has afore been related. Truly there were, where Florence had been, certain dwellings and inhabitants round about the duomo of S. Giovanni, forasmuch as the Fiesolans held market there one day in the week, and it was called the Campo Marti, as of old, for it had always been the market-place of the Fiesolans, and had borne this name before Florence was built. It came to pass ofttimes, during the years when the city lay waste and in ruins, that the said inhabitants of the borough and of the market-place, with the aid of certain nobles of the country which of old were descended from the first citizens of Florence and of the inhabitants of the villages round about, sought ofttimes to enclose within moats and palisades some part of the city around the Duomo; but they of the city of Fiesole, and their allies, the counts of Mangone, and of Montecarelli, and of Capraia, and of Certaldo, which were all of one lineage with the counts of Santafiore, which were descended from the Lombards, hindered and opposed them, and would not allow them to rebuild; but whatsoever was being built they came in force, and under arms, and caused it to be violently beaten down and destroyed, so that, for this cause and by reason of the adversities which the Romans were enduring, as has afore been related, and because the Fiesolans always held with the Goths, and afterwards with the Lombards, and with all the rebels and enemies of the Empire of Rome and Holy Church, and were so great and powerful in strength that none of their neighbours durst oppose them, they would not suffer the city of Florence to be rebuilt; and in this wise it abode long time, until God put an end to the adversity of the city of Florence, and brought her to the blessing of her restoration, as by us shall be narrated in the following chapter and Third Book. END OF SELECTIONS FROM BOOK II. BOOK III. _Goes back somewhat to tell how the city of Florence was rebuilt by the power of Charles the Great and the Romans._ [Sidenote: 801 A.D.] [Sidenote: Inf. xiii. 146-150. Par. xvi. 145, 146.] [Sidenote: Purg. xvi. 65-78.]