certain extent, even, their respective ideologies were reflected in the alignment of the towns; in many towns of central Italy, and especially in that mainstay of the Guelph alliance, Florence, anti-aristocratic sentiment fitted well with Guelph propaganda, while aristocratic interests, especially in northern Italy, were naturally served by the Ghibelline outlook with its justification of structured aristocratic power derived ultimately from imperial authority. But it would not do to push the argument too far in order to find patterns where none exist. The dominant factions in the towns more often regarded these labels as flags of convenience, to be dropped or bargained for at will.

The next main problem for the emergent communes--indeed the test of whether they could become viable city-states--was the extent to which they could gain control over a sufficient area of the surrounding countryside or contado to ensure defence against predatory neighbours, the capacity to feed themselves and to raise adequate taxes, and the capacity to restrain large landowners in or around their territory. Control over powerful rural magnates was often never totally achieved; but subjection to at least manageable proportions was a sine qua non of the 'territorial state', which was what these citystates were soon to become. The process of bringing rural nobles into urban affairs had begun in the twelfth century and continued into the thirteenth. Once involved in the cities they tended to organize themselves in large extended families and alliances of them, consorterie, and thus became chiefly responsible for what all commentators of the time identified as the chief evil and weakness of the towns, namely factional rivalry which reached very violent and debilitating dimensions. The symbols of the consorterie's status were the defensive towers they built, a prime characteristic of the medieval urban landscape (several remain, particularly at San Gimignano and Bologna), and it was equally symbolic of the rise of communal authority when legislation was passed, and enforced, to raze these, and to limit the height of future buildings to less than that of the town hall. Other more practical measures were taken to stem the unfettered violence which was always asso-

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