The medieval Republic of Amalfi was ruled, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, by a series of dukes (Latin: duces), sometimes called dogi (singular doge) in analogy to the Republic of Venice, a maritime rival of the time. Before the dukeship was officially created in 957, there was a series of patricians. The Amalfitan duchy was one of the earliest maritime republics renowned throughout the Mediterranean, a trading city rivalling the cities of the north.