any one from Florence, and there was
found there a merchant from Oltrarno, by name Pera Balducci, discreet
and wise. The king asked him of the state and condition of Florence,
whom the Pisans called their Arabs; the which answered wisely, showing
the power and magnificence of Florence, and how Pisa in comparison was
neither in power nor in inhabitants the half of Florence, and that
they had no golden money, and that the florin was the fruit of many
victories gained by the Florentines over them. For the which cause the
Pisans were shamed, and the king, by reason of the florin and by the
words of our wise fellow-citizen, made the Florentines free of the
city, and allowed them a place of habitation and a church in Tunis,
and he gave them the same privileges as the Pisans. And this we knew
to be true from the said Pera, a man worthy of faith, for we were
among his colleagues in the office of prior.

[Sidenote: 1253 A.D.]

Sec. 54.--_How the Florentines marched upon Pistoia and took it, and then
upon Siena and took many of their fortresses._

Sec. 55.--_How the Florentines marched against Siena, and the Sienese
came to terms with them, and there was peace between them._

[Sidenote: 1254 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Cf. Inf. xxxi. 40, 41.]

The next year, 1254, Messer Guiscardo da Pietrasanta, of Milan, being
Podesta of Florence, the Florentines marched against the city of Siena
and encamped against the castle of Montereggioni and laid siege to it,
and of a surety they would have taken it, for the German garrison was
in treaty to surrender it for 50,000 lire of 20 soldi to the gold
florin; and in one single night the Ancients found twenty citizens
each of whom offered a thousand of them, without counting smaller
sums, so well disposed for the good of the commonwealth were the
citizens of those days. But the Sienese, for fear of losing
Montereggioni, agreed to the terms of the Florentines, and peace was
made between them and the Sienese, and they completely surrendered the
castle of Montalcino to the Florentines.

[Sidenote: 1254 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1260 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1256 A.D.]

Sec. 56.--_How the Florentines seized the fortress of Poggibonizzi and
that of Mortennana._ Sec. 57.--_How the Florentines routed them of
Volterra and took their city in the fight._ Sec. 58.--_How the
Florentines marched against Pisa, and the Pisans submitted to their
terms._ Sec. 59.--_How the great Khan of the Tartars became a Christian,