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Siena |
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SienaTown in Tuscany, Italy, about 50 km/31 mi south of Florence; population (2001) 52,600. Founded by the Etruscans, it has medieval sculpture including works in the 13th-century unfinished Gothic cathedral by Niccolo Pisano and Donatello, and many examples of the Sienese school of painting that flourished from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The Palio (‘banner’, in reference to the prize) is a dramatic and dangerous horse race in the main square, held annually (2 July and 16 August) since the Middle Ages. HistoryThe town was a Roman colony in the time of Augustus. In the 12th century it became a free city adhering to the pro-imperial Ghibelline faction. Siena was politically unstable internally as well as being involved in external warfare for most of the period 1355–1559. It was governed by the Visconti of Milan 1399–1404; by the pope 1458–63; and by the despot Pandolfo Petrucci in 1487. It came under heavy Spanish influence from the 1520s to 1552, and was ruled directly by Spain 1555–57; it was then sold to Cosimo de' Medici, duke of Florence.
Siena
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After this, Lucca and Siena yielded at once, partly through hatred and partly through fear of the Florentines; and the Florentines would have had no remedy had he continued to prosper, as he was prospering the year that Alexander died, for he had acquired so much power and reputation that he would have stood by himself, and no longer have depended on the luck and the forces of others, but solely on his own power and ability. |
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