Doge

From Freepedia

The Doge (plural Dogi) (from Latin dux, originally meaning leader, especially military; in feudal times rendering the nobiliary, often princely, title Duke, which derives from it) was the elected chief of state in a few Italian 'crowned republics'. The two best known rivaled each-other and the other regional great powers by building their historical city-states into maritime, commercial and to a lesser extent territorial mini-empires: Venice and Genoa (Genova, still capital of Liguria; formal style Serenissimo Duce e governatore).

See Doges of Venice, Doges of Genoa

• Virtually insignificant, but still styled 'most serene republic', was the minute Senarica, named after its 'capital' west of Teramo (in Abruzzo) on Central Italy's Adriatic coast, which also elected dogi (annual?) from 1343 till its annexation to the Neapolitan kingdom of Sicily in 1797.