Florence Conquers Pisa

1406

After a brutal starvation siege, the Arno republic swallowed its coastal rival and finally gained a seaport. Florentine galleys could now reach Alexandria without begging Genoese permission. The triumph funded a generation of Medici banking and, indirectly, the paintings that would define the next century. Pisa's population, decimated by siege, was further reduced by Florentine reprisals that scattered its merchants across Italy.