class="tdrp">XX.

The Despotisms (1250-1350) 192 XXI. The Classical Revival (1350) 201 XXII. The Ills of the Fourteenth Century 209 XXIII. A Bird's-Eye View (1350-1450) 218 XXIV. The Early Renaissance (1400-1450) 231 XXV. The Renaissance (1450-1492) 242 XXVI. The Barbarian Invasions (1494-1537) 253 XXVII. The Papal Monarchy (1471-1527) 267 XXVIII. The High Renaissance (1499-1521) 281 XXIX. Italy and the Catholic Revival (1527-1563) 293 XXX. The Cinquecento (16th Century) 304 XXXI. A Survey of Italy (1580-1581) 319 XXXII. The Age of Stagnation, Politics (1580-1789) 335 XXXIII. The Age of Stagnation, the Arts (1580-1789) 348 XXXIV. The Napoleonic Era (1789-1820) 361 XXXV. The Reawakening (1820-1821) 369 XXXVI. Perturbed Inactivity (1821-1847) 377 XXXVII. Tumultuous Years (1848-1849) 386 XXXVIII. The Unity of Italy (1849-1871) 395 XXXIX. Conclusion (1872-1900) 409 APPENDIX I. Chronological Table of Popes and Emperors 421 II. Genealogy of the Medici 428 III. Skeleton Table of the Kings of the Two Sicilies 429 IV. List of Books for General Reading 430   INDEX 433

---

A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY

---

A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY

CHAPTER I

THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST (476 A. D.)

In the year 476 an unfortunate young man, mocked with the great names of the founders of the City and of the Empire, Romulus Augustus, nicknamed Augustulus, was deposed from the throne of the Cæsars by a Barbarian general in the Imperial service, and the Roman Empire in Italy came to its end. This act was but the outward sign that the power of Italy was utterly gone, and that in the West at least the Barbarians were indisputably conquerors in the long struggle which they had carried on for centuries with the Roman Empire.

That Empire, at the period of its greatness, embraced all the countries around the Mediterranean Sea; it was the political