The following is a list of all 120 of the Doges of Venice ordered by the dates of their reigns which are put in parentheses. For more than 1,000 years, the chief magistrate and leader of the city of Venice and later of the Most Serene Republic of Venice was styled the Doge, a rare but not unique Italian title derived from the Latin Dux. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was one of the shrewdest elders in the city. The Venetian combination of elaborate monarchic pomp and a republican (though "aristocratic") constitution with intricate checks and balances makes "La serenissima" (Venice) a textbook example of a crowned republic.