Farinata degli Uberti

He led the Ghibellines from 1239, but after the death of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, in 1250, the Guelphs were able to reassert power in Florence, securing his exile from the city, along with his supporters.

The leading Guelph families were banished and the government of Florence was radically restructured to ensure Ghibelline dominance.

Following the example of Roman ruthlessness towards its enemy Carthage, they voted to raze Florence utterly to the ground.

The Ghibellines thereupon took the lesser course of destroying the city's defences and the homes of the leading Guelphs, knocking down 103 palaces, 580 houses, and 85 towers.

According to Boccaccio, in his commentary on Dante, the Inquisition discovered, among other things, that Farinata denied life after death: He was of the opinion of Epicurus, that the soul dies with the body, and maintained that human happiness consisted in temporal pleasures; but he did not follow these in the way that Epicurus did, that is by making long fasts to have afterwards pleasure in eating dry bread; but was fond of good and delicate viands, and ate them without waiting to be hungry; and for this sin he is damned as a Heretic in this place.Therefore, Farinata appears with several other atheists and heretics in Canto X of Dante's Inferno.