Siena was founded as a Roman colony in the time of Emperor Augustus and was named Julia Saena.
The news scarce reliable foundation prior to suggest the existence of a community which Etruscan settled on the Roman military colony at the time of Augustus.

The first document that we know where the community is quoted Siena dates back to DC 70 and carries the signature of Tacitus that, in the fourth book of Historiae, shows the following episode: Senator Manlio Patruito reported in Rome that he was ridiculed and beaten with a mock funeral during his official visit to Saena Julia, a small colony of Tuscia military. The Roman Senate decided to punish the main culprits and retrieve the Sienese strictly to a greater respect for authority.

Dell'alto Middle Ages not have documents that could shed light about cases of civilian life in Siena. Is there any news on the institution of the bishop and the diocese, especially for issues arising between the Bishop of Siena and Arezzo, because of jurisdictional boundaries of the area of each: issues in which the king intervened Lombard Liutprand, pronunziando judgement for the diocese Arezzo. But Siena were not satisfied and therefore in 853, when Italy passed by the domination Lombard than frank, managed to obtain the annulment of the ruling issued by King Liutprand. It seems, therefore, that at the time of the Lombards, Siena was governed by a Gastaldo, representative of the king: gastaldo which was later replaced by an imperial Conte after the coronation of Charlemagne. The first count of which have concrete news was Winigi, son of Ranieri, 867. After 900 reigned in Siena Emperor Louis, whose reign did not last so long, since 903 in the chronicles tell of a return to power of the accounts under the new government of King Berenguer.

Siena is reflected in the tenth century in the middle of major trade routes that led to Rome and, thanks to what became a major medieval town. In the twelfth century, the city will devise commune type consular begins to expand its territory and tightens the first alliances. This situation of significance both politically and economically, lead Siena to fight for domains of northern Tuscany, against Florence. From the first half of the twelfth century onwards Siena prosperous and becomes an important commercial centre, having good relations with the State of the Church; bankers Sienese were a point of reference for the authorities in Rome, which turned to loans or financing.

At the end of the twelfth century Siena Ghibelline supporting the cause, we found again against Florence, which at first had the worst, but then the Sienese still lost the war in the battle of Colle Val d'Elsa, which led in 1287 l ' Rise of the Government of Nine. Under this new government, Siena reaches its peak, both economically and culturally. After the plague of 1348, comiciò the slow decline of the Republic of Siena, which reached the epilogue in 1555, the year in which the city had to surrender the supremacy Florentine.

A curious episode, about halfway between the historic and scientific occurred in the south-east of Siena on June 16, 1794, when a shower of meteorites fell on the city.

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