nd undone, I found myself not a child in
arms, and I experienced great fear, and finally the greatest joy,
because of the shifting fortunes of the fight." It seems likely that
Dante was present, probably under arms, in the later part of the same
summer, at the surrender to the Florentines of the Pisan stronghold of
Caprona, where, he says ('Inferno,' xxi. 94-96), "I saw the foot
soldiers afraid, who came out under compact from Caprona, seeing
themselves among so many enemies."

Years passed before any other event in Dante's life is noted with a
certain date. An imperfect record preserved in the Florentine archives
mentions his taking part in a discussion in the so-called Council of a
Hundred Men, on the 5th of June, 1296. This is of importance as
indicating that he had before this time become a member of one of the
twelve Arts,--enrollment in one of which was required for the
acquisition of the right to exercise political functions in the State,
and also as indicating that he had a place in the chief of those
councils by which public measures were discussed and decided. The Art of
which he was a member was that of the physicians and druggists (_medici
e speziali_), an Art whose dealings included commerce in many of the
products of the East.

Not far from this time, but whether before or after 1296 is uncertain,
he married. His wife was Gemma dei Donati. The Donati were a powerful
family among the _grandi_ of the city, and played a leading part in the
stormy life of Florence. Of Gemma nothing is known but her marriage.

Between 1297 and 1299, Dante, together with his brother Francesco, as
appears from existing documentary evidence, were borrowers of
considerable sums of money; and the largest of the debts thus incurred
seem not to have been discharged till 1332, eleven years after his
death, when they were paid by his sons Jacopo and Pietro.

In May 1299 he was sent as envoy from Florence to the little, not very
distant, city of San Gemignano, to urge its community to take part in a
general council of the Guelf communes of Tuscany.

In the next year, 1300, he was elected one of the six priors of
Florence, to hold office from the 15th of June to the 15th of August.
The priors, together with the "gonfalonier of justice" (who had command
of the body of one thousand men who stood at their service), formed the
chief magistracy of the city. Florence had such jealousy of its rulers
that the priors held office but two month