History of Florence

Florence (Italian: Firenze) is a major historical city in Italy, distinguished as one of the most outstanding economic, cultural, political and artistic centres in the peninsula from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

In the Quaternary Age the Florence-Prato-Pistoia plain was occupied by a great lake bounded by Monte Albano in the west, Monte Giovi in the North and the foothills of Chianti in the South. Even after most of the water had receded, the plain, 50 metres (160 ft) above sea level, was strewn with ponds and marshes which remained until the 18th century when the land was reclaimed. Most of the marshland was in the region of Campi Bisenzio, Signa and Bagno a Ripoli.

It is thought that there was already a settlement at the confluence of the Mugnone with the River Arno between the 10th and the 8th century BC. Between the 7th and 6th centuries BC Etruscans had discovered and used the ford of the Arno near this confluence, closer to the hills of the North and South. A bridge or a ferry was probably constructed here, about ten metres away from the current Ponte Vecchio, but closer to the ford itself. The Etruscans, however, preferred not to build cities on the plain for reasons of defence and instead settled about six kilometres away on a hill. This settlement was a precursor of the fortified centre of Vipsul (today's Fiesole), which was later connected by road to all the major Etruscan centres of Emilia to the North and Lazio to the South.

Florence was founded in 59 BC as a settlement for former soldiers who were allotted land by Julius Caesar in the rich farming valley of the Arno. Dubbed Florentia, the city was built in the style of a military camp with a castrum of grid pattern and the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica, which can still be seen in the city center. Florentia was situated at the Via Cassia, the main route between Rome and the North, which position enabled it to rapidly expand as a commercial center. Emperor Diocletian made Florentia capital of the province of Tuscia in the 3rd century AD.

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