Sordello: Valley of Rulers, Purgatorio 6   Like Virgil, Sordello is a poet from Mantua (a city in northern Italy) but he is from the Middle Ages (13th century, a generation or two before Dante) not the period of the Roman empire. Following a series of scandals (e.g., the alleged abduction of a nobleman's wife), Sordello left Italy and passed through various courts in Spain, France, and Provence. In 1241 he found stable residence at the court of Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence. Here Sordello worked in various administrative capacities until, having attained knighthood, he returned to Italy, where he died sometime around 1269. Sordello wrote poems in Provençal, including one on courtly virtue and another contrasting the good qualities of a dead nobleman with the deficiencies of contemporary European rulers.   Virgil and Dante see Sordello seated off by himself, like a lion at rest attentively eyeing the travelers as they approach. He is proud and dignified but very affectionate with Virgil when he learns they are from the same city. The love shown between Sordello and Virgil because of their common homeland triggers a long authorial diatribe against the violence, corruption, and lack of effective leadership up and down the Italian peninsular in Dante's time (6.76-151). Sordello accompanies Dante and Virgil to the Valley of Rulers in the Ante-Purgatory.