Chapter 16

CHAPTER IX

Many cities and territories, subject to the Florentines, rebel--
Prudent conduct adopted upon this occasion--The city is divided
into quarters--Disputes between the nobility and the people--The
bishop endeavors to reconcile them, but does not succeed--The
government reformed by the people--Riot of Andrea Strozzi--Serious
disagreements between the nobility and the people--They come to
arms, and the nobility are subdued--The plague in Florence of
which Boccaccio speaks.

These events taking place in the city, induced all the dependencies of
the Florentine state to throw off their yoke; so that Arezzo,
Castiglione, Pistoia, Volterra, Colle, and San Gemigniano rebelled.
Thus Florence found herself deprived of both her tyrant and her
dominions at the same moment, and in recovering her liberty, taught
her subjects how they might become free. The duke being expelled and
the territories lost, the fourteen citizens and the bishop thought it
would be better to act kindly toward their subjects in peace, than to
make them enemies by war, and to show a desire that their subjects
should be free as well as themselves. They therefore sent ambassadors
to the people of Arezzo, to renounce all dominion over that city, and
to enter into a treaty with them; to the end that as they could not
retain them as subjects, they might make use of them as friends. They
also, in the best manner they were able, agreed with the other places
that they should retain their freedom, and that, being free, they
might mutually assist each other in the preservation of their
liberties. This prudent course was attended with a most favorable
result; for Arezzo, not many years afterward, returned to the
Florentine rule, and the other places, in the course of a few months,
returned to their former obedience. Thus it frequently occurs that we
sooner attain our ends by a seeming indifferent to them, than by more
obstinate pursuit.

Having settled external affairs, they now turned to the consideration
of those within the city; and after some altercation between the
nobility and the people, it was arranged that the nobility should form
one-third of the Signory and fill one-half of the other offices. The
city was, as we have before shown, divided into sixths; and hence
there would be six signors, one for each sixth, except when, from some
more than ordinary cause, there had been twelve or thirteen created;
but when this had occurred they were again soon reduced to six. It now
seemed desirable to make an alteration in this respect, as well
because the sixths were not properly divided, as that, wishing to give
their proportion to the great, it became desirable to increase the
number. They therefore divided the city into