San Marino, the oldest surviving republic

Tradition says a stonecutter named Marinus founded a community on Mount Titano in 301. Its citizens ran it as a self-governing commune, electing two captains regent for six months at a time from 1243, as they still do, and wrote their laws into statutes in 1600. The small state kept its independence through Napoleon and Italian unification, and in 1944 sheltered about 100,000 refugees, many in its railway tunnels.