A dip in the medieval history.. Visit to the city of Siena in Tuscany, Italy

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Siena was founded as a Roman colony at the time of Emperor Augustus and was named Saena Iulia.
Inside the historical center of Siena were found in Etruscan sites, which may suggest the founding of Rome by the Etruscans.
The first document which is cited in Siena dates back to the community bears the signature of 70 and Tacitus who, in the fourth book of the Historiae, reports the following story: Senator Manlio Patruito reported in Rome that he was ridiculed and beaten with a mock funeral during his official visit to Saena Iulia, a small military colony of Tuscia. The Roman Senate decided to punish the main culprits and bring severely Siena to a greater respect toward authority.
The High Middle Ages did not have documents that can illuminate about cases of civilian life in Siena. Is there any news on the institution of the bishop and the diocese, especially for issues that have arisen between the Bishop of Siena and Arezzo, because of the boundaries of each district court: questions in which the Lombard king intervened Liutprando, pronouncing sentence in favor of the diocese of Arezzo. But the people of Siena were not satisfied and therefore the year 853, when Italy passed from Lombard domination in the free, managed to obtain the annulment of the decision issued by the king Liutprando. It seems, therefore, that at the time of the Lombards, Siena was ruled by a steward, a representative of the King: Gastaldo, which was later replaced by a count after the imperial coronation of Charlemagne. The first count of which we have concrete news Winigi was the son of Rainier, in 867. After 900 Siena reigned in the Emperor Louis III, whose reign did not last so long, since in 903 the chronicles tell of a return to power of the accounts under the new government of King Berengar.
The historic center of Siena
Siena can be found in the tenth century to the center of important trade routes that led to Rome and, thanks to what became an important medieval city. In the twelfth century, the city has equipped itself with local law-type console, begins to expand its territory and holds the first alliances. This situation of both political and economic significance, leading Siena to fight for the domains of northern Tuscany, with Florence. From the first half of the twelfth century onwards Siena prosperous and became an important commercial center, having good relations with the State of the Church, the Sienese bankers were a reference to the authority of Rome, to whom they turned for loans or financing.
At the end of the twelfth century Siena Ghibellines supported the cause (although there are, the Sienese families of the Guelph party in tune with Florence), he found himself again against Florence is famous victory over the Florentines in the battle, in 1260, celebrated by Dante Alighieri. But after a few years the people of Siena were defeated at the Battle of Colle Val d'Elsa, in 1269, which led later, in 1287, the ascent of the Government of the Nine, of the Guelph party. Under this new government, Siena reached its peak, both economically and culturally.
After the plague of 1348, began the slow decline of the Republic of Siena, but no way precluded the territorial expansion of Siena, which until the day of the fall of the Republic comprised one third of Tuscany. The end of the Sienese Republic, perhaps the only western state to implement a pure democracy to the people, took place April 25, 1555, when the city after a siege of more than a year, had to surrender exhausted by hunger, the empire of Charles V, supported by the Florentines, who gave in fief the territory of the Republic to the Medici rulers of Florence, to repay the costs incurred during the war. For the umpteenth time the citizens of Siena were able to stand up to an emperor, that only thanks to their enormous resources could bend the fierce resistance of this small republic and its citizens.
After the fall of the Republic of Siena few dall'esule also led the Florentine Piero Strozzi, unwilling to accept the fall of the Republic, took refuge in Montalcino, and created the Republic of Siena in Montalcino repaired, maintaining the alliance with France, which continued to exercise its power in the southern part of the territory of the Republic, creating considerable problems to the troops of the hated Florence. She lived until 31 May 1559 when he was betrayed by the Allies in France that Siena had always claimed that ending the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis with Emperor Charles V, in fact gave the Florentine Republic to the hated.