and other cities were also ruled by these officials. The Republic of Genoa elected its first Podestà in 1191, a Brescian citizen, to quell the internal unrest that ravaged the capital of the Republic. There were, moreover, podests in some of the cities of the adjoining Provence in southeastern France. An anonymous writer composed a short guide for the would-be podestà (although it would be unseemly to appear openly to run for the office), Oculus pastoralis, of about 1222; in six simple and brief chapters it guides the novice through the requirements of the office, the salary, the address of welcome given by the retiring podestà to the new one, the choice of counsellors, the handling of money accounts. The fifth chapter offers some model speeches on public occasions, such as the death of prominent citizens. A final chapter touches upon making war (in a paragraph), and the training of urban officials. In the thirteenth century in Florence, in Orvieto (1251) and some other cities a capitano del popolo (literally, "captain of the people") was chosen to look after the interests of the lower classes. (To this day, the heads of government of the little independent republic of San Marino are still called "capitani".) In other ways the power of the podests was reduced—they were confined more and more to judicial functions until they disappeared early in the sixteenth century. The officials sent by the Italian republics to administer the affairs of dependent cities were also sometimes called podests. Into the 20th century the cities of Trento and Trieste gave the name of podest to their chief magistrate. Fascist era The Fascist regime created its own version of the podestà figure. In February 1926, Mussolini's Senate issued a decree which abolished the autonomous powers and functions of comunes (municipalities), including elected town councils and mayors. Instead, all comunes except for Rome were to be headed by a "podestà", an authoritarian mayor with full executive and legislative powers. He was appointed by royal charter (in practice, by the National Fascist Party) for a renewable five-year term (which could be revoked at any time with immediate effect). In Rome, a governor was appointed to head the local government. In larger communes, the podestà was assisted by one or two vice-podestà nominated by the Ministry of Interior, in addition to a board of advisors (consulta municipale) nominated either by the local prefect or,