Dwarkesh Patel

From the perspective of every other polity in the world, the rulers of Florence are the rank of their valet.

Right.

There is no nobility left in the city.

In fact, Florence can't run its own armies or head its own police because you're not going to surrender if you're told to surrender in the name of some guy who doesn't have a coat of arms.

Right.

That would be weird.

So they actually have to hire a nobleman to come to the city.

and be their chief of police to arrest people in the name of the Holy Roman Emperor.

And one at a time, they'll invite a skilled military commander nobleman.

He'll come to the city.

He'll be potestà.

He'll live in the palace, which is also the prison.

He'll arrest people who enforce the law.

They will pay him handsomely.

At the end of the year, escort him to the gates and then banish him from the city for life on pain of death so that he cannot return and make use of

the power that he had in the city to try to take over.

So they're very, very wary of any nobleman.

And they've set up a really weird republic, weird from the perspective of everyone around them, in which a bunch of merchants are trying to share power by being lotteried into the Senate.

And so you put names in a bag.

You examine all of the merchant members of guilds.