DOGE, dbj (Lat. dux, "a leader or duke)), formerly the title of the first magistrates in the Italian republics of Venice and Genoa. The first doge of Venice elected for life was Paolo Anafesto, in 697. The doge was first elected by the people, but afterward by the great coun cil under a complicated and almost incompre hensible scheme of voting which maintained the fiction of popular election. He held his dignity for life. His power was at first almost absolute. He could convoke legislative assemblies, de clare war, conclude treaties, take command of the army, appoint military officers and judges, invest bishops and award ecclesiastical penalties. But this absolute authority was by degrees en tirely taken from him, and for centuries before the abolition of the dignity he had become merely a gilded figurehead, "the outward and visible symbol of the impersonal oligarchy.'
The dignity was abolished with the overthrow of the republic in 1797. In rank he was con sidered only equal to a duke, though the republic of Venice was in dignity equal to a kingdom. In Genoa the office of doge was established in 1339. Here also the doge was at first elected by the people, but the dignity afterward ex perienced numerous changes both in this and other respects. After the liberation of Genoa from theyoke of France by Andrea Doria the power belonging to this office was more sys tematically defined. A great and small council were created, and the duration of the office was limited to two years. After the overthrow of Genoa by the French in 1797 the dignity became extinct, although it was revived for a short time between 1802 and 1805. See GENQA ; VENICE.