ABSTRACT
The commune of Siena was hardly in the first rank of Italian powers in the late fifteenth century, and it might appear at first sight difficult to justify devoting an essay to the analysis of a failed attempt by Sienese exiles, mostly belonging to the Monte dei Nove, to return to their native city. Unsuccessful endeavours of this sort were, after all, hardly rarae aves in the political life of fifteenth-century Italy, and the story of this one is, at a superficial level, easily told. The exiles and Giulio Orsini with about two thousand infantry assembled in Perugia, Todi and Spoleto,I and some men at arms, moved on Siena in early May 1485 and were defeated by government troops at San Quirico on Monday 9 May. The exiles' force fled in various directions, the bulk of the men-at-arms retreating to the area of Transteverina, which was in the territory of the Orsini.2 This was, therefore, no Homeric enterprise, but one ending with a whimper rather than a bang.
