Immediately after the disbanding of the senate, and by common consent, Brindisi went back to a kind of Feudal government, similar in arrangement to before the first days of the Empire. Some of the senators were able to call on the old titles of Barone or Signore, however many of the most influential of the senate had no titles and were therefore ruling by force of will over the local people and with the assistance of the Cavaliere Ereditario loyal to them. As a result of this return to rule by the nobility, the 'nobility' that were without titles started to look for some, to lend an air of authority to their claim, unfortunately such titles are normally granted by a King or Emperor and none of the heads of state wanted to surrender power, however small, to any individual so soon.
Inspiration came from neighboring Genua, the nearby country formed around the once city state and an ally to Brindisi of no small bearing. Since the leaders of the country held their rule by force of arms, they were in effect warlords. Genua had a name for such leaders, Duc, a simple corruption of the word into the Brindisi tongue gave the title of Duca or, in the feminie, Duchessa. The title of Duca was immediately taken on by the former Barones who were still in positions of power, and originally there was a Duca in each of the Major cities around Brindisi. However, petty arguments and a natural tendancy to grasp power soon lead to a series of minor wars in which Ducdoms were merged and lost, and soon only five large households remained at the top of the pecking order. To the defeated, those willing to be vassals to the Ducas, the title of Marchese (Marchesa) were granted, along with the lesser titles of titles of Conte (Contessa) and Visconte (Viscontessa).
These five houses took control, roughly, of the old four provinces of Finisterrae, Chicochulo, Costa Nuestra and Siciliana. However in Siciliana there were two of the largest families, this resolved itself after an eighty year war with the formation of Puertobobo as a sperate Kingdom, the Duca di Bobo having taking all the land south of the Tallo river and declaring himself King.
In 1903 UC this series of civil war, marked by alliances forged and broken and uneasy periods of peace, finally came to an end with the signing of the Quattro Formaggio treaty which set out for the first time ever our laws and system of government, unchanged to this day and considered by those in Brindisi as possibly the best form of government on the disc.