The name Florence corresponds to that of Florentia, founded in 59 B.C.
The ceremony of its founding took place during a celebration, "Ludi Florales" for the arrival of spring in honor of the god Flora from which the city got the name Florentia. The coat of arms of Florence, the red lily, derives from the Florentine white iris, very common in the territory.
It remains that almost nothing is known about the first gothic Byzantine emperor.
From 568 to 774 it was under the dominion of the Lombards and then passed over to the Franche in 854.
Around 1115 the Florentine municipal was initiated, guided by the lower and middle local aristocrats. Dante Alighieri, a figure who was tightly connected to the events of Florentine political life, was born in 1265. During that period, Florence was on its way to becoming the most powerful city in central Italy due to international commerce and its importance in the world of art. The wars between the Guelfs, loyal to the pope, and the Ghibelines, loyal to the emperor, became always more bitter until the point, with the birth of Dante, the Guelfs were expulsed and the city remained in the hands of the Ghibelines. However, in 1266 Florence returned under the Guelfs and in turn the Ghibelines were expulsed.
At the age of nine years old, Dante met Beatrice, daughter of the rich Folco Portiniari, to whom his profound love was never reciprocal.
Unfortunately, Beatrice was united in marriage with Simone Bardi and Dante with Gemma Donati with whom he had 4 children. The death of Beatrice in 1290 represented a real trauma for Dante and it was then that he decided to start his collection of rhymes and poetry, which tell the story of his love for her in "La Vita Nova".
It was also during this period that he began his political commitment, contrasting the authority of Pope Boniface VIII, which brought him condemnation and exile from Florence and led him to begin his pilgrimage for shelter in the jurisdictions of Forli, Verona, and Lunigiana.
In the "Divine Comedy", begun in1306 and worked on for the rest of his life, he transpired his resentment for the injustice he sustained by the pope, who he had appear in a cycle of Inferno or Hell.
The Divine Comedy is not a story about people who had existed in time; these people are referred to only as examples of creatures who have lived in human error. It is not only an imaginary journey of an exalted fantasy, but the truthful representation of the "Comedy of Life" and of the evolution of the being who is distressed by the dangerous ascent towards perfection.
In 1321 Dante was sent to Venice as ambassador. Returning from his embassy duty, he suffered an attack of malaria and died in Ravenna, where his tomb is found, on the night of the 23rd of September, 1321, at the age of 56.
The Medici family also had a relevant importance in the Florentine political life. Cosimo was the only real lord of the city and was called "father of the patriarchy", for his wisdom, while his grandson Lorenzo, called the "Magnificent" was a shrewd politician who, due to his ability, did not permit the invasion of Florence by foreigners.
With the death of Lorenzo in 1492, the Florentine republic ended and, after numerous wars, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany found its origin and reigned until the political unification of Italy.
For 5 years, from 1865 to 1870, Florence was the capital of Italy for it was during that period that it was the most suited due to historical, geographic, and cultural reasons.