The townâs loyalty continued well into the modern era: its people âproved how faithful they were to their sovereign even at the end of the 18th century, when they refused to obey the laws of the ephemeral Roman Republic. They bravely resisted for fourteen days while under siege by a large band of armed soldiers. They opened the doors to the town only after a honorable defeatâ (G.B. Rampoldi, âCorografia dellâItaliaâ, Fontana, Milan 1834, vol. III).