villages round about, sought
ofttimes to enclose within moats and palisades some part of the city
around the Duomo; but they of the city of Fiesole, and their allies,
the counts of Mangone, and of Montecarelli, and of Capraia, and of
Certaldo, which were all of one lineage with the counts of Santafiore,
which were descended from the Lombards, hindered and opposed them, and
would not allow them to rebuild; but whatsoever was being built they
came in force, and under arms, and caused it to be violently beaten
down and destroyed, so that, for this cause and by reason of the
adversities which the Romans were enduring, as has afore been related,
and because the Fiesolans always held with the Goths, and afterwards
with the Lombards, and with all the rebels and enemies of the Empire
of Rome and Holy Church, and were so great and powerful in strength
that none of their neighbours durst oppose them, they would not suffer
the city of Florence to be rebuilt; and in this wise it abode long
time, until God put an end to the adversity of the city of Florence,
and brought her to the blessing of her restoration, as by us shall be
narrated in the following chapter and Third Book.

END OF SELECTIONS FROM BOOK II.

BOOK III.

_Goes back somewhat to tell how the city of Florence was
rebuilt by the power of Charles the Great and the Romans._

[Sidenote: 801 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Inf. xiii. 146-150. Par. xvi. 145, 146.]

[Sidenote: Purg. xvi. 65-78.]

[Sidenote: Cf. Inf. xv. 73-78.]

Sec. 1.--It came to pass, as it pleased God, that in the time of the
good Charles the Great, Emperor of Rome and king of France, of whom
above we have made a long record, after that he had beaten down the
tyrannical pride of the Lombards and Saracens, and of the infidels
against Holy Church, and had established Rome and the Empire in good
state and in its liberty, as afore we have made mention, certain
gentlemen and nobles of the region round about Florence (whereof it is
reported that the Giovanni, the Guineldi and the Ridolfi, descended
from the ancient noble citizens of the former Florence, were the
heads) assembled themselves together with all the inhabitants of the
place where Florence had been, and with all other their followers
dwelling in the country around Florence, and they ordained to send to
Rome ambassadors from the best among them to Charles the Emperor, and
to Pope Leo, and to the Romans; and this was done, praying them t