nt to the senate
of Rome to send them the best and most skilful masters that were in
Rome, and this was done. And they caused to be brought white and black
marbles and columns from many distant places by sea, and then by the
Arno; they brought stone and columns from Fiesole, and founded and
built the said temple in the place anciently called Camarti, and where
the Fiesolans held their market. Very noble and beautiful they built
it with eight sides, and when it had been built with great diligence,
they dedicated it to the god Mars, who was the god of the Romans, and
they had his effigy carved in marble in the likeness of an armed
cavalier on horseback; they placed him on a marble pillar in the midst
of that temple, and held him in great reverence, and adored him as
their god so long as paganism continued in Florence. And we find that
the said temple was begun during the reign of Octavianus Augustus, and
that it was built under the ascendant of such a constellation that it
will continue almost to eternity; and this we find written in a
certain place engraved within the space of the said temple.

Sec. 43.--_Tells how the province of Tuscany lies._ Sec.
44.--_Concerning the might and lordship possessed by the province of
Tuscany before Rome came into power._ Sec. 45.--_These are the
bishoprics of the cities of Tuscany._ Sec. 46.--_Of the city of
Perugia._ Sec. 47.--_Of the city of Arezzo._ Sec. 48.--_Of the city
of Pisa._ Sec. 49.--_Of the city of Lucca._

Sec. 50.--_Of the city of Luni._

[Sidenote: Par. xvi. 73.]

[Sidenote: Purg. xiii. 152.]

[Sidenote: Vita Nuova Sec. 2. Convivio ii. 15.]

The city of Luni, which is now destroyed, was very ancient, and we
find from the stones of Troy, that from the city of Luni there went a
fleet and soldiers in aid of the Greeks against the Trojans;
afterwards it was destroyed by soldiers from beyond the mountains, by
reason of a lady, the wife of a lord, who, when on the way to Rome,
was adulterously seduced in this city of Luni, wherefore, as the said
lord returned, he destroyed the city by force, and to-day the country
is desert and unhealthy. And note that of old the coasts were much
inhabited, and albeit inland there were few cities, and few
inhabitants, yet in Maremma and Maretima, towards Rome on the coast of
the Campagna, there were many cities and many inhabitants, which
to-day are consumed and brought to nought by reason of the corruption
of the air: for there was