Part 820

"The republic of Pisa was one of the first to make known to the world the riches and power which a small state might acquire by the aid of commerce and liberty. Pisa had astonished the shores of the Mediterranean by the number of vessels and galleys that sailed under her flag, by the succor she had given the crusaders, by the fear she had inspired at Constantinople, and by the conquest of Sardinia and the Balearic Isles. Pisa was the first to introduce into Tuscany the arts that ennoble wealth: her dome, her baptistery, her leaning tower, and her Campo Santo, which the traveller's eye embraces at one glance, but does not weary of beholding, had been successively built from the year 1063 to the end of the 12th century. These chefs-d'œuvre had animated the genius of the Pisans; the great architects of the 13th century were, for the most part, pupils of Nicolas di Pisa. But the moment was come in which the ruin of this glorious republic was at hand; a deep-rooted jealousy, to be dated from the conquest of Sardinia, had frequently, during the last two centuries, armed against each other the republics of Genoa and Pisa: a new war between them broke out in 1282. It is difficult to comprehend how two simple cities could put to sea such prodigious fleets as those of Pisa and Genoa. In 1282, Ginicel Sismondi commanded 30 Pisan galleys, of which he lost the half in a tempest, on the 9th of September; the following year, Rosso Sismondi commanded 64; in 1284, Guido Jacia commanded 24, and was vanquished. The Pisans had recourse the same year to a Venetian admiral, Alberto Morosini, to whom they intrusted 103 galleys: but whatever efforts they made, the Genoese constantly opposed a superior fleet. This year [1284], however, all the male population of the two republics seemed assembled on their vessels; they met on the 6th of August, 1284, once more before the Isle of Meloria, rendered famous 43 years before by the victory of the Pisans over the same enemies [when the Ghibelline friendship of Pisa for the Emperor Frederick II. induced her to intercept and attack, on the 3d of May, 1241, a Genoese fleet which conveyed many prelates to a great council called by Pope Gregory IX. with hostile intentions towards the Emperor, and which the latter desired to prevent]. Valor was still the same, but fortune had changed sides; and a terrible disaster effaced the memory of an ancient victory. While the two fleets, almost equal in number, were engaged, a reinforcement of 30 Genoese galleys, driven impetuously by the wind, struck the Pisan fleet in flank: 7 of their vessels were instantly sunk, 28 taken. 5,000 citizens perished in the battle, and 11,000 who were taken prisoners to Genoa preferred death in captivity rather than their republic should ransom them, by giving up Sardinia to the Genoese. This prodigious loss ruined the maritime power of Pisa; the same nautical knowledge, the same spirit of enterprise, were not transmitted to the next generation. All the fishermen of the coast quitted the Pisan galleys for those of Genoa. The vessels diminished in number, with the means of manning them; and Pisa could no longer pretend to be more than the third maritime power in Italy. While the republic was thus exhausted by this great reverse of fortune, it was attacked by the league of the Tuscan Guelphs; and a powerful citizen, to whom it had intrusted itself, betrayed his country to enslave it. Ugolino was count of the Gherardesca, a mountainous country situated along the coast, between Leghorn and Piombino: he was of Ghibeline origin, but had married his sister to Giovan di Gallura, chief of the Guelphs of Pisa and of Sardinia. From that time he artfully opposed the Guelphs to the Ghibelines." The Pisans, thinking him to be the person best able to reconcile Pisa with the Guelph league "named Ugolino captain-general for ten years: and the new commander did, indeed, obtain peace with the Guelph league; but not till he had caused all the fortresses of the Pisan territory to be opened by his creatures to the Lucchese and Florentines. … From that time he sought only to strengthen his own despotism." In July, 1288, there was a rising of the Pisans against him; his palace was stormed and burned; and he, his two sons and two grandsons, were dragged out of the flames, to be locked in a tower and starved to death—as told in the verse of Dante. "The victory over count Ugolino, achieved by the most ardent of the Ghibelines,. redoubled the enthusiasm and audacity of that party; and soon determined them to renew the war with the Guelphs of Tuscany. … Guido de Montefeltro was named captain. He had acquired a high reputation in defending Forli against the French forces of Charles of Anjou; and the republic had not to repent of its choice. He recovered by force of arms all the fortresses which Ugolino had given up to the Lucchese and Florentines. The Pisan militia, whom Montefeltro armed with cross-bows, which he had trained them to use with precision, became the terror of Tuscany. The Guelphs of Florence and Lucca were glad to make peace in 1293."

_J. C. L. de Sismondi, History of the Italian Republics, chapter 5._

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In 1290, when Pisa was in her greatest distress, Genoa suddenly joined again in the attack on her ancient rival. She sent an expedition under Conrad d'Oria which entered the harbor of Pisa, pulled down its towers, its bridge and its forts, and carried away the chain which locked the harbor entrance. The latter trophy was only restored to Pisa in recent years.

_J. T. Bent, Genoa, chapter 4._

ALSO IN: _H. E. Napier, Florentine History, book 1, chapter 12 (volume 1)._

PISA: A. D. 1100-1111. Participation in the first Crusades.

See CRUSADES: A. D. 1104-1111.

PISA: A. D. 1135-1137. Destruction of Amalfi.

See AMALFI.

PISA: 13th Century. Commercial rivalry with Venice and Genoa at Constantinople.

See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1261-1453.

PISA: A. D. 1311-1313. Welcome to the Emperor Henry VII. Aid to his war against Florence.

See ITALY: A. D. 1310-1313.

PISA: A. D. 1313-1328. Military successes under Uguccione della Faggiuola. His tyranny and its overthrow. Subjection to Castruccio Castracani and the deliverance.

See ITALY: A. D. 1313-1330.

PISA: A. D. 1341. Defeat of the Florentines before Lucca. Acquisition of that city.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1341-1343.

PISA: A. D. 1353-1364. Dealings with the Free Companies. War with Florence.

See ITALY: A. D. 1343-1393.

PISA: A. D. 1399-1406. Betrayal to Visconti of Milan. Sale to the Florentines. Conquest by them and subsequent decline.

See ITALY: A. D. 1402-1406.

PISA: A. D. 1409. The General Council of the Church.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1377-1417.

PISA: A. D. 1494-1509. Delivered by the French. The faithlessness of Charles VIII. Thirteen years of struggle against Florence. Final surrender.

"The Florentine conquest was the beginning of 90 years of slavery for Pisa —a terrible slavery, heavy with exaggerated imports, bitter with the tolerated plunder of private Florentines, humiliating with continual espionage. … Pisa was the Ireland of Florence, captive and yet unvanquished. … At last a favourable chance was offered to the Pisans. … In the autumn of 1494, the armies of Charles VIII. poured into Italy [see ITALY: A. D. 1494-1496]. It had been the custom of the Florentines, in times of war and danger, to call the heads of every Pisan household into Florence, as hostages for the good behaviour of their families and fellow citizens. But in the autumn of 1494, Piero de' Medici who forgot everything, who had forgotten to garrison his frontier, forgot to call the Pisan hostages to Florence, although the French were steadily advancing on Tuscany, and the Pisans eager to rebel. … The French army and the hope of liberty entered the unhappy city hand in hand [November 8, 1494]. … That night the Florentines in Pisa—men in office, judges, merchants, and soldiers of the garrison—were driven at the sword's point out of the rebellious city. … Twenty-four hours after the entry of the French, Pisa was a free republic, governed by a Gonfalonier, six Priors, and a Balia of Ten, with a new militia of its own, and, for the first time in eight and eighty years, a Pisan garrison in the ancient citadel." All this was done with the assent of the King of France and the promise of his protection. But when he passed on to Florence, and was faced there by the resolute Capponi, he signed a treaty in which he promised to give back Pisa to Florence when he returned from Naples. He returned from Naples the next summer (1495), hard pressed and retreating from his recent triumphs, and halted with his army at Pisa. There the tears and distress of the friendly Pisans moved even his soldiers to cry out in protestation against the surrender of the city to its former bondage. Charles compromised by a new treaty with the Florentines, again agreeing to deliver Pisa to them, but stipulating that they should place their old rivals on equal terms with themselves, in commerce and in civil rights. But Entragues, the French governor whom Charles had left in command at Pisa, with a small garrison, refused to carry out the treaty. He assisted the Pisans in expelling a force with which the Duke of Milan attempted to secure the city, and then, on the 1st of January, 1496, he delivered the citadel which he held into the hands of the Pisan signory. "During thirteen years from this date the shifting fortunes, the greeds and jealousies of the great Italian cities, fostered an artificial liberty in Pisa. Thrown like a ball from Milan to Venice, Venice to Maximilian, Max again to Venice, and thence to Cæsar Borgia, the unhappy Republic described the whole circle of desperate hope, agonized courage, misery, poverty, cunning, and betrayal."

_A. M. F. Robinson, The End of the Middle Ages: The French at Pisa._

In 1509 the Pisans, reduced to the last extremity by the obstinate siege which the Florentines had maintained, and sold by the French and Spaniards, who took pay from Florence (see VENICE: A. D. 1508-1509) for abandoning their cause, opened their gates to the Florentine army.

_H. E. Napier, Florentine History, book 2, chapter 8 (volume 4)._

ALSO IN: _T. A. Trollope, History of the Commonwealth of Florence, book 8, chapter 6 and book 9, chapters 1-10._

PISA: A. D. 1512. The attempted convocation of a Council by Louis XII. of France.

See ITALY: A. D. 1510-1513.

PISA: End--------

PISISTRATIDÆ, The.

See ATHENS: B. C. 560-510.

PISTICS.

See GNOSTICS.

PIT RIVER INDIANS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MODOCS, &c.

PITHECUSA.

The ancient name of the island of Ischia.

PITHOM, the store city.

See JEWS: THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS.

PITT, William (Lord Chatham). The administration of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1757-1760; 1760-1763; and 1765-1768.

PITT, William (Lord Chatham). The American Revolution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (JANUARY-MARCH).

PITT, William (the Younger). The Administration of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1783-1787, to 1801-1806.

PITTI PALACE, The building of the.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1458-1469.

PITTSBURG LANDING, OR SHILOH, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (FEBRUARY-APRIL: TENNESSEE).

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PITTSBURGH: Start--------

PITTSBURGH: A. D. 1754. Fort Duquesne built by the French.

See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1754.

PITTSBURGH: A. D. 1758. Fort Duquesne abandoned by the French, occupied by the English, and named in honor of Pitt.

See CANADA: A. D. 1758.

PITTSBURGH: A. D. 1763. Siege of Fort Pitt by the Indians. Bouquet's relieving expedition.

See PONTIAC'S WAR.

PITTSBURGH: A. D. 1794. The Whiskey Insurrection.

See PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1794.

PITTSBURGH: End--------

PIUS II., Pope, A. D. 1458-1464.

Pius III., Pope, 1503, September to October.

Pius IV., Pope, 1559-1565.

Pius V., Pope, 1566-1572.

Pius VI., Pope, 1775-1799.

Pius VII., Pope, 1800-1823.

Pius VIII., Pope, 1829-1830.

Pius IX., Pope, 1846-1878.

PIUTES, PAH UTES, &c.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SHOSHONEAN FAMILY.

PIZARRO, Francisco: Discovery and conquest of Peru.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1524-1528; and PERU: A. D. 1528-1531, and 1531-1533.

PLACARDS OF CHARLES V., The.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1521-1555.

PLACENTIA: Start--------

PLACENTIA (modern Piacenza): The Roman colony. Its capture by the Gauls.

See ROME: B. C. 295-191.

PLACENTIA: B. C. 49. Mutiny of Cæsar's Legions.

See ROME: B. C. 49.

PLACENTIA: A. D. 270. Defeat of the Alemanni.

See ALEMANNI: A. D. 270.

PLACENTIA: 14th Century. Under the tyranny of the Visconti.

See MILAN: A. D. 1277-1447.

PLACENTIA: A. D. 1513. Conquest by Pope Julius II.

See ITALY: A. D. 1510-1513.

PLACENTIA: A. D. 1515. Restored to the duchy of Milan, and with it to the king of France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1515-1518.

PLACENTIA: A. D. 1521. Retaken by the Pope. See FRANCE: A. D. 1520-1523.

PLACENTIA: A. D. 1545-1592. Union with Parma in the duchy created for the House of Farnese.

See PARMA: A. D. 1545-1592.

PLACENTIA: A. D. 1725. Reversion of the duchy pledged to the Infant of Spain.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1713-1725.

PLACENTIA: A. D. 1735. Restored to Austria.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1733-1735.

PLACENTIA: A. D. 1746. Given up by the Spaniards.

See ITALY: A. D. 1746-1747.

PLACENTIA: A. D. 1805. The duchy declared a dependency of France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1804-1805.

PLACENTIA: A. D. 1814. The duchy conferred on Marie Louise, the ex-empress of Napoleon.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (MARCH-APRIL).

PLACENTIA: Start--------

PLACILLA, Battle of (1891).

See CHILE: A. D. 1885-1891.

PLACITUM. PLAID.

See PARLIAMENT OF PARIS.

PLAGUE: Start--------

PLAGUE. PESTILENCE. EPIDEMICS:

PLAGUE: B. C. 466-463. At Rome.

See ROME: B. C. 466-463.

PLAGUE: B. C. 431-429. At Athens.

See ATHENS: B. C. 430-429.

PLAGUE: B. C. 405-375. Among the Carthaginians.

"Within the space of less than thirty years [from B. C. 405] we read of four distinct epidemic distempers, each of frightful severity, as having afflicted Carthage and her armies in Sicily, without touching either Syracuse or the Sicilian Greeks. Such epidemics were the most irresistible of all enemies to the Carthaginians. … Upon what physical conditions the frequent repetition of such a calamity depended, together with the remarkable fact that it was confined to Carthage and her armies—we know partially in respect to the third of the four cases [when it was attributable in some degree to the situation of the Carthaginian camp on low, marshy ground, at a season when hot days alternated with chill nights] but not at all in regard to the others."

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 83._

PLAGUE: A. D. 78-266. Plague after the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Plagues of Orosius, Antoninus, and Cyprian.

"On the cessation of the eruption of Vesuvius, which began on the 23d of August, A. D. 78, and which buried Herculaneum, Stabiæ and Pompeii in ashes, there arose … a destructive plague, which for many days in succession slew 10,000 men daily." The plague of Orosius (so called because Orosius, who wrote in the 5th century, described it most fully) began in the year A. D. 125. It was attributed to immense masses of grasshoppers which were swept by the winds, that year, from Africa into the Mediterranean Sea, and which were cast back by the waves to putrefy in heaps on the shore. "'In Numidia, where at that time Micipsa was king, 800,000 men perished, while in the region which lies most contiguous to the sea-shore of Carthage and Utica, more than 200,000 are said to have been cut down. In the city of Utica itself, 80,000 soldiers, who had been ordered here for the defence of all Africa, were destroyed.' … The plague of Antoninus (A. D. 164-180) visited the whole Roman Empire, from its most eastern to its extreme western boundaries, beginning at the former, and spreading thence by means of the troops who returned from putting down a rebellion in Syria. In the year 166 it broke out for the first time in Rome, and returned again in the year 168. … The plague depopulated entire cities and districts, so that forests sprung up in places before inhabited. … In its last year it appears to have raged again with especial fury, so that in Rome … 2,000 men often died in a single day. With regard to the character of this plague, it has been considered sometimes smallpox, sometimes petechial typhus, and again the bubo-plague. The third so-called plague, that of Cyprian, raged about A. D. 251-266. … For a long time 500 died a day in Rome. … After its disappearance Italy was almost deserted. … It has been assumed that this plague should be considered either a true bubo-plague, or smallpox."

_J. H. Baas, Outlines of the History of Medicine, pages 189-190._

"Niebuhr has expressed the opinion that 'the ancient world never recovered from the blow inflicted upon it by the plague which visited it in the reign of M. Aurelius.'"

_O. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 68, footnote._

ALSO IN: _P. B. Watson, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, chapter 4._

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PLAGUE: A. D. 542-594. During the reign of Justinian.

"The fatal disease which depopulated the earth in the time of Justinian and his successors first appeared in the neighbourhood of Pelusium, between the Serbonian bog and the eastern channel of the Nile. From thence, tracing as it were a double path, it spread to the east, over Syria, Persia, and the Indies, and penetrated to the west, along the coast of Africa, and over the continent of Europe. In the spring of the second year, Constantinople, during three or four months, was visited by the pestilence; and Procopius, who observed its progress and symptoms with the eyes of a physician, has emulated the skill and diligence of Thucydides in the description of the plague of Athens. … The fever was often accompanied with lethargy or delirium; the bodies of the sick were covered with black pustules or carbuncles, the symptoms of immediate death; and in the constitutions too feeble to produce an eruption, the vomiting of blood was followed by a mortification of the bowels. … Youth was the most perilous season; and the female sex was less susceptible than the male. … It was not till the end of a calamitous period of fifty-two years [A. D. 542-594] that mankind recovered their health, or the air resumed its pure and salubrious quality. … During three months, five and at length ten thousand persons died each day at Constantinople; … many cities of the east were left vacant; … in several districts of Italy the harvest and the vintage withered on the ground. The triple scourge of war, pestilence, and famine, afflicted the subjects of Justinian; and his reign is disgraced by a visible decrease of the human species, which has never been repaired in some of the fairest countries of the globe."

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 43._

ALSO IN: _T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, book 5, chapter 17._

_J. B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, book 4, chapter 6 (volume 1)._

PLAGUE: 6-13th Centuries. Spread of Small-pox.

"Nothing is known of the origin of small-pox; but it appears to have come originally from the East, and to have been known in China and Hindostan from time immemorial. … 'It seems to have reached Constantinople by way of Egypt about the year 569.' From Constantinople it spread gradually over the whole of Europe, reaching England about the middle of the 13th century."

_R. Rollo, Epidemics, Plagues, and Fevers, page 271._

PLAGUE: A. D. 744-748. The world-wide pestilence.

"One great calamity in the age of Constantine [the Byzantine emperor Constantine V., called Copronymus], appears to have travelled over the whole habitable world; this was the great pestilence, which made its appearance in the Byzantine empire as early as 745. It had previously carried off a considerable portion of the population of Syria, and the Caliph Yezid III. perished of the disease in 744. From Syria it visited Egypt and Africa, from whence it passed into Sicily. After making great ravages in Sicily and Calabria, it spread to Greece; and at last, in the year 747, it broke out with terrible violence in Constantinople, then probably the most populous city in the universe. It was supposed to have been introduced, and dispersed through Christian countries, by the Venetian and Greek ships employed in carrying on a contraband trade in slaves with the Mohammedan nations, and it spread wherever commerce extended. … This plague threatened to exterminate the Hellenic race." After it had disappeared, at the end of a year, "the capital required an immense influx of new inhabitants. To fill up the void caused by the scourge, Constantine induced many Greek families from the continent and the islands to emigrate to Constantinople."

_G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire, from 716 to 1057, book 1, chapter 1, section 3._

PLAGUE: A. D. 1348-1351. The Black Death.

See BLACK DEATH; also, ENGLAND: A. D. 1348-1349.

PLAGUE: A. D. 1360-1363. The Children's Plague.

"The peace of Bretigni [England and France, A. D. 1360], like the capture of Calais, was followed by a pestilence that turned the national rejoicings into mourning. But the 'Children's Plague,' as it was called, from the fact that it was most deadly to the young, was fortunately not a return of the Black Death, and did not approach it in its effects. It numbered, however, three prelates and the Duke of Lancaster among its victims, and caused such anxiety in London that the courts of law were adjourned from May to October. France felt the scourge more severely. It ravaged the country for three years, and was especially fatal at Paris and at Avignon. In Ireland, where the pestilence lingered on into the next year, and proved very deadly, it was mistaken for scrofula, a circumstance which probably shows that it attacked the glands and the throat."

_C. H. Pearson, English History in the 14th Century, chapter 7._

PLAGUE: A. D. 1374. The Dancing Mania.