the fifteenth century the efforts of the Condottieri to erect
tyrannies were most frequent. Braccio da Montone established himself
in Perugia in 1416, and aspired, not without good grounds for hope,
to acquiring the kingdom of Italy. Francesco Sforza, before gaining
Milan, had begun to form a despotism at Ancona. Sforza's rival,
Giacomo Piccinino, would probably have succeeded in his own attempt,
had not Ferdinand of Aragon treacherously murdered him at Naples in
1465. In the disorganization caused by Charles VIII., Vidovero of
Brescia in 1495 established himself at Cesena and Castelnuovo, and
had to be assassinated by Pandolfo Malatesta at the instigation of
Venice. After the death of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, in 1402, the
generals whom he had employed in the consolidation of his vast
dominions attempted to divide the spoil among themselves. Naples,
Venice, Milan, Rome, and Florence were in course of time made keenly
alive to the risk of suffering a captain of adventure to run his
course unchecked.

There remains the _sixth_ and last class of despots to be mentioned.
This again is large and of the first importance. Citizens of eminence,
like the Medici at Florence, the Bentivogli at Bologna, the Baglioni of
Perugia, the Vitelli of Città di Castello, the Gambacorti of Pisa, like
Pandolfo Petrucci in Siena (1502), Roméo Pepoli, the usurer of Bologna
(1323), the plebeian, Alticlinio, and Agolanti of Padua (1313), Giovanni
Vignate, the millionaire of Lodi (1402), acquired more than their due
weight in the conduct of affairs, and gradually tended to tyranny. In
most of these cases great wealth was the original source of despotic
ascendency. It was not uncommon to buy cities together with their
Signory. Thus the Rossi bought Parma for 35,000 florins in 1333; the
Appiani sold Pisa; Astorre Manfredi sold Faenza and Imola in 1377. In
1444 Galeazzo Malatesta sold Pesaro to Alessandro Sforza, and