146 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph from Alice Rohe 



THE INAUGURAL PROCESSION IN SAN MARINO 



The two regents, heads of the State, are seen leaving the palace preceded by an attendant 

 who bears the keys and seals of the Republic. An inauguration takes place every six months. 

 Regents may not serve two successive terms. 



the cross, carved with "Libertas," upon 

 Mount Titanus, seemed doomed forever 

 in the sixteenth century, when Caesar 

 Borgia, having destroyed the lordships of 

 Umbria, the Marches, and Romagna, 

 raised his avaricious eyes against the land 

 of liberty. At the death of his father, 

 Pope Alexander VI, Borgia was forced 

 to abandon his designs upon Italy and the 

 Republic's lost liberty was soon regained. 



The infamous Cardinal Alberoni occu- 

 pancy, from October 17, 1739, to Febru- 



ary 5, 1740, when the town was sacked, 

 following the refusal of the Sammarinesi 

 to renounce allegiance to their Republic, 

 was the longest usurpation of their lib- 

 erty. The event, which still stirs resent- 

 ment in the hearts of these people, was 

 immortalized by Carducci in his address 

 at the dedication of the new government 

 palace in 1894. 



Napoleon respected San Marino's in- 

 dependence in 1797, offering large tracts 

 of territory, which the Sammarinesi cour- 



