These men are common at a period when life is racing rapidly through the veins of a vivid city like Florence.

The general intensity of the life lifts them to a height they would never reach in a dull and sleepy age.

The life they have is not their own, but the life of the whole town.

And this keen perception of life outside of them persuades them that they can do all that men of real power can do.

In reality, they can do nothing and make nothing worth a people's honour.