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History of Florence - part I

The city of Florence was started as a place established by Julius Caesar in 59 BC for his veteran soldiers to settle. It was called Florentia (Flourishing) and built as an army camp with the main streets intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated at the Via Cassia, the main route between Rome and the North, and within the lush valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial center. Emperor Diocletian made Florentia capital of the province of Tuscia in the 3rd century AD.

St Minias was Florence's first martyr. He was beheaded at about 250 AD, during the anti-Christian persecutions of the Emperor Decius. The Basilica di San Miniato al Monte now stands near the spot where he walked to, carrying his head all the way after it was removed. The city experienced subsequent turbulent periods of Ostrogothic rule, during which the city was often troubled by warfare between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantines, which may have caused the population to fall to as few as 1,000 people.

Centuries later, peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century. Conquered by Charlemagne in 774, Florence became part of the duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to grow again and commerce prospered. In 854, Florence and Fiesole were united into one city.

Margrave Hugo chose Florence as his residency instead of Lucca in about 1000 AD. This started the Golden Age of Florentine art. In 1013, construction began in the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte. The exterior of the baptistry was reworked in Roman style between 1059 and 1128.

Pisa (defeated by Genoa in 1284 and subjugated by Florence in 1406), and the exercise of power by the mercantile elite following an anti-aristocratic movement, led by Giano della Bella, that resulted in a set of laws called the Ordinances of Justice (1293).

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