ar to the then rising town. By this increase, the place
became so filled with dwellings, that it might with propriety be
enumerated among the cities of Italy.

There are various opinions concerning the derivation of the word
Florentia. Some suppose it to come from Florinus, one of the principal
persons of the colony; others think it was originally not Florentia, but
Fluentia, and suppose the word derived from _fluente_, or flowing of the
Arno; and in support of their opinion, adduce a passage from Pliny, who
says, "the Fluentini are near the flowing of the Arno." This, however,
may be incorrect, for Pliny speaks of the locality of the Florentini,
not of the name by which they were known. And it seems as if the word
Fluentini were a corruption, because Frontinus and Cornelius Tacitus,
who wrote at nearly the same period as Pliny, call them Florentia and
Florentini; for, in the time of Tiberius, they were governed like
the other cities of Italy. Besides, Cornelius refers to the coming of
ambassadors from the Florentines, to beg of the emperor that the waters
of the Chiane might not be allowed to overflow their country; and it is
not at all reasonable that the city should have two names at the same
time. Therefore I think that, however derived, the name was always
Florentia, and that whatever the origin might be, it occurred under the
Roman empire, and began to be noticed by writers in the times of the
first emperors.

When the Roman empire was afflicted by the barbarians, Florence was
destroyed by Totila, king of the Ostrogoths; and after a period of two
hundred and fifty years, rebuilt by Charlemagne; from whose time, till
the year 1215, she participated in the fortune of the rest of Italy;
and, during this period, first the descendants of Charles, then the
Berengarii, and lastly the German emperors, governed her, as in our
general treatise we have shown. Nor could the Florentines, during those
ages, increase in numbers, or effect anything worthy of memory,
on account of the influence of those to whom they were subject.
Nevertheless, in the year 1010, upon the feast of St. Romolo, a solemn
day with the Fiesolani, they took and destroyed Fiesole, which must have
been performed either with the consent of the emperors, or during the
interim from the death of one to the creation of his successor, when
all assumed a larger share of liberty. But then the pontiffs acquired
greater influence, and the authority of the German emp