a celebrated Italian general, was born at Lucca in Tuscany in 1284. Being exposed as an infant in a vineyard, he was found by Dianaora, a widow lady of the family of the Castracani, who brought him up and educated him as her own. She intended him for the priesthood; but he was scarcely fourteen years old when he began to devote himself to military sports and those athletic exercises which suited his great strength of body. The factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines then shared all Italy between them; dividing not only popes and emperors, but those of the same town, and even members of the same family. Francis Guinigi, a leader of the Ghibelline party, observing Castruccio's spirit and ability, prevailed with Antonio, the brother of Castruccio's guardian, to permit him to become a soldier. Castruccio soon became an adept in military tactics, and was made lieutenant of a company of foot by Guinigi. In his first campaign the fame of his courage and conduct spread over all Lombardy; and soon afterwards Guinigi when dying committed to him the care of his son and the management of his estate. His exploits, however, provoked the envy of his commander-in-chief, who by stratagem procured his imprisonment in order to put him to death. He obtained his release; and the people of Lucca, in gratitude for his former services, chose him as their sovereign prince. The Ghibellines regarded him as the chief of their party; and those who had been banished from their country fled to him for protection, and unanimously promised that if he could restore them to their estates, they would serve him so effectually that the sovereignty of their country should be his reward. Flattered by these promises, he entered into a league with the prince of Milan; and kept his army constantly on foot, employing it as best suited his own designs. For the services he had rendered the pope, he was made senator of Rome with more than ordinary ceremony; but during his residence at the capital he received news which obliged him to hasten back to Lucca. The Florentines proclaimed war against him; but Castruccio routed their army, and the supreme authority of Tuscany was about to fall into his hands, when a period was put to his life. In May 1328 he gained a complete victory over his enemies, amounting to 30,000 foot and 10,000 horse; and 22,000 of them were slain, while the loss on his part fell short of 1600. But as he was returning from the field of battle, tired and heated with the action, he halted a while, in order to address his soldiers as they passed; an imprudence which proved fatal to him, for he was immediately seized with an ague, at first neglected, but which carried him off in a few days, in the forty-fourth year of his age. Machiavelli, who has written the life of Castruccio, says that he was not only an extraordinary man in his own age, but that he would have been so in any other.