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As the Roman Empire fell, a few isolated cities within the former territory of the Empire formed Republics, effectively only in Italy. Venice, San Marino, and Amalfi are some of the more prominent of the early Republics. More of Italy would follw their lead as the centuries progressed. It should be noted that, while they evolved into more solidly Republican forms as time went on, and the early leaders often blurred the lines between hereditary feudal lords and elected magistrates, these evolving statelets seem to have adhered to the general idea that the urban populace, in some fashion, had the authority to elect their leader.

There are, of course, a variety of reasons why Italy was home to these early Republics:
- Historical legacy of the Roman (and pre-Roman) tendency to allow cities to govern themselves, as well as the legacy of the Roman Republic itself.
- Italy was one of the more urbanized areas of the Empire.
- Access to the major trade routes of the Mediterranean
- Defensible locations along the coast allowed for easily defended trading centers, whereas, in many other areas, historical urban centers and defensible locations did not overlap so much. Venice was the premier example of this combination of defense and trade.

So, with all this in mind, how might we see (and where might we see) more Republics emerge in the wake of the Roman Empire? Preferably, these states would consider themselves roughly as Roman as the early Italian Republics did (insofar as they would speak the Vulgar Latin that would evolve into whatever local Romance language their region would develop).

Possibilities (stars next to exceptionally defensible locations):
- Syracuse
- Palermo
- Corsica/Sardinia/Balearics (not united, just listing the islands together)
- Barcelona
- Cadiz*
- Cartagena
- Valencia
- Gibraltar/Algeciras*
- Marseille
- Carthage/Tunis
- Ceuta*
- Tangier

There are certainly others; I left out areas more directly under the control of the Byzantines (though, given how tenuous control could be at times, the Crimea could be a very good site) and those not on the Mediterranean, just for ease. I should note that I'm not restricting myself to Republics that would be totally sovereign; Venice was often subject to the Byzantines will still being relatively autonomous and Republican in nature, after all.

Okay, have at it!
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