The Two First Centuries of Florentine History: The Republic and Parties at the Time of Dante. Fourth Impression. — Dante Alighieri — John Shaqi
The Two First Centuries of Florentine History: The Republic and Parties at the Time of Dante. Fourth Impression.
Dante Alighieri · en
It is difficult to decide which rose to greater proportions during
these years--the heroic endurance of calamity on the part of the
Pisans, or the insatiable hatred of their victors. Soon after the
catastrophe of Meloria, Florence and Lucca proposed an alliance with
Genoa, in order to join that power in completing the extermination of
the rival republic. This alliance was to be maintained for twenty-five
years from the conclusion of the war. Hostilities were to commence
within fifteen days, Genoa being pledged to provide fifty galleys,
and Florence and Lucca to furnish an army. Thus the allies could make
combined attacks by sea and by land, and were bound to carry on the
campaign for at least forty days every year. Pisa understood that
her total overthrow was decreed, and her detestation of Lucca, and
still more of Florence, was so keen that, to avoid yielding to those
states, she professed her readiness to accept instead the terms of
submission Genoa had sought to impose. But it was now too late. On
the 13th of October the treaty of alliance was subscribed, in the
Badia at Florence, by delegates from Lucca and Genoa, together with
the representatives of Florence, of whom Brunetto Latini was one. An
arrangement was also made allowing the other Tuscan cities to join the
League, and, what was far more remarkable, another clause provided for
the admission of Pisan prisoners of influential position who should
have sworn to make war on their own state. Even Count Ugolino, his
sons, and the Judge of Gallura, were to be admitted on the same terms,
provided they became Genoese citizens and acknowledged the suzerainty
of Genoa over their estates. Nevertheless, no prisoners were to be
admitted without the general consent of the allies, and were not to
exceed twenty in number. This clause clearly proves that many Pisans
were traitorous, or disposed to treason. Nor was Florence forgetful
of the aim she had constantly in view; for even on this occasion she
took care to insert profitable commercial agreements in the treaty of
political alliance.[323]