ompagnacci_, one of the three great
parties, only numbered 800 persons.

In addition to the evils of internal factions we must reckon all the
sources of mutual mistrust to which the republics were exposed. As the
Italians had no notion of representative government, so they never
conceived a confederation. The thirst for autonomy in each state was as
great as of old among the cities of Greece. To be independent of a
sister republic, though such freedom were bought at the price of the
tyranny of a native family was the first object of every commonwealth.
At the same time this passion for independence was only equaled by the
greed of foreign usurpation. The second object of each republic was to
extend its power at the expense of its neighbors. As Pisa swallowed
Amalfi, so Genoa destroyed Pisa, and Venice did her best to cripple
Genoa. Florence obliterated the rival burgh of Semifonte, and Milan
twice reduced Piacenza to a wilderness. The notion that the great
maritime powers of Italy or the leading cities of Lombardy should
permanently co-operate for a common purpose was never for a moment
entertained. Such leagues as were formed were understood to be
temporary. When their immediate object had been gained, the members
returned to their initial rivalries. Milan, when, on the occasion of
Filippo Maria Visconti's death, she had a chance of freedom, refused to
recognize the liberties of the Lombard cities, and fell a prey to
Francesco Sforza. Florence, under the pernicious policy of Cosimo de'
Medici, helped to enslave Milan and Bologna instead of entering into a
republican league against their common foes, the tyrants. Pisa, Arezzo,
and the other subject cities of Tuscany were treated by her with such
selfish harshness that they proved her chiefest peril in the hour of
need.[1] Competition in commerce increased the mutual hatred of the
free burghs. States like Venice, Florence, Pisa, Genoa, depending for
their existence upon mercantile wealth, and governed by men of
business, took every opportunity they could of ruining a rival in the
market. So mean and narrow was the spirit of Italian policy that no one
accounted it unpatriotic or dishonorable for Florence to suck the very
life out of Pisa, or for Venice to strangle a competitor so dangerous
as Genoa.

[1] See the instructions furnished to Averardo dei Medici, quoted by
Von Reumont in his _Life of Lorenzo_, vol. ii. p. 122, German
edition.

Thus the jeal