THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA r IRVINE Ex Professor R. F. Treharne : . . .- X &K ; ma B. H. I'l.ACKWEI.I Bookseller, 50 & 51. Hro.ul St.. 'Kf,,nl. WUX>M VENICE AN HISTORICAL SKETCH THE REPUBLIC BY THE SAME AUTHOR Second Edition, revised. With Illustrations. Crown %vo. ds. LIFE ON THE LAGOONS CONTENTS. The Lagoons: their Nature and their History The Gondola The Traghetti A Gondolier's Bank Floods in the City The Casa degli Spiriti Sant' Elena Osele Sails and Sailmaking A Vision of La Sensa Processions San Nicolo del Lido The Doves of St. Mark The Ducal Palace All Souls' Day The Madonna della Salute Home Life Popular Beliefs Popular Poetry A Regatta and its Sequel 'Mi Chiama il Mare.' "No writer since Mr. Ruskin has so thoroughly entered into the charm of Venice as Mr. Horatio Brown, and to this he adds an intimate knowledge of her history. In the new edition of Life on the Lagoons he has rewritten the chapter on the structure of the Venetian Estuary, and added a brief but not insufficient history of the city. In its new and illustrated form it will even better than before serve as an excellent guide-book to those who are happy enough to be in Venice, and a constant recall to those who would fain be there again." Guardian. " For the present edition of his fascinating monograph Mr. Brown has rewritten the chapter upon the structure of the Venetian Estuary, and has also added a brief historical account of those who were the first to make it their home. The charm of this reprint is further heightened by a number of illustrations which, as a rule, reflect the dreamy beauty and picturesque interest of Life on the Lagoons" Speaker. "A delightful, gossipy, yet learned history and account of the famous Venetian Lagoons Over twenty admirable illustrations accompany the work." Whitehall Review. " It is written in a very pleasing style, and is well illustrated." Field. LONDON: RIVINGTON, PERCIVAL & CO. VENICE AN HISTORICAL SKETCH THE REPUBLIC HORATIO F. BJIOWN AUTHOR OP "LIFE ON THE LAGOONS" SECOND EDITION, REVISED RIVINGTON, PERCIVAL & CO. KING STREET, CO VENT GARDEN LONDON OMNIBUS CENZIANIS QUORUM HAUD MINIMA PARS T. W. A, H, R B. AMICUS AMICIS D. D. THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC demonstrate the action of external forces in urging the State to commit errors, for which she paid the penalty with her life. My, endeavour has been to state facts, and then to suggest causes and consequences. I am aware that such a method is exposed to a serious danger; it may induce the writer to strain facts in order to suit a theory, may lead him to construct what Ferrari styled Storia idcale, of which his own book is a luminous specimen. I have done my best, however, to avoid this patent danger by clinging close to facts, and I present my reading of causes and consequences as nothing more than suggestions, which I state strongly because they are the best I am able to offer. A closer acquaintance with facts, an acuter perception of cause, may lead my readers to different conclusions. Without the continual assistance of Eomanin's Storia docutnentata di Venezia, an invaluable mine of information, I could not have written this book. I have made use of many other authorities, however, and their names will be found in a short bibliography, which I trust may prove of service to those who desire to pursue the study of Venice further than I have been able to conduct them. My sincerest thanks are due to Mr. J. A. Symonds, who, in the course of reading the proofs, which he most kindly undertook to do, made many and various suggestions of the highest value for the construction of the work. HOEATIO F. BROWN. ' TORRESELLA, VENICE, December, 1892. NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION IN preparing this new edition for the press I have preserved the general structure of the book, as I found that without a considerable increase in the size of the volume it would be impossible to carry out the expansion which some of iny critics suggested as desirable. I have availed myself of corrections indicated by my reviewers and by private friends ; I have made a few additions to the Bibliography, and some slight alterations in the maps, which I hope will add to the value of both. HOEATIO F. BKOWK CA' TORRESELLA, VENICE, May, 1895. A 2 CONTENTS PAGE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . . . xii LIST OF THE DOGES . . . ... xiii LIST OF BOOKS ON THE HISTORY OF VENICE . . . xvi CHAPTER I. The lagoons of Venice Their geography Early settlements Rivalry between lagoon townships First Doge . ... 1 CHAPTER II. Growth of the Republic between Eastern Empire, Italian Kingdom, and Roman Church Concentration at Rialto . 20 CHAPTER III. Expansion of the Republic by wars with Saracens and with Sclav pirates Development of constitution Hereditary tendency in the Dukedom . . . . ... 40 CHAPTER IV. Pietro Orseolo II. The new Venice Commerce Development of the Dukedom ,. . . . ... 63 CHAPTER V. Venice as a State Independent No feudal system Commerce Constitution . . . . ... 79 CHAPTER VI. The Crusades The Xormaus The Lombard League Finance . . 84 CONTENTS CHAPTEK VII. PAGE Finance Congress of Venice Fourth Crusade . ... 106 CHAPTER VIII. Results of Fourth Crusade Frederick II. War of Ferrara Inquisition Genoa and Venice 131 CHAPTER IX. The new aristocracy Food supply Development of the constitution The oligarchy Closing of the Great Council . . .149 CHAPTER X. Comparison between Venice and other Italian States War of Ferrara First step on mainland Tiepoline conspiracy Council of Ten Venetian constitution . . . . . 165 CHAPTER XL Expansion of Venice Trade Industries Population Scala Carrara The Turks Plague Genoa and Venice . . . 184 CHAPTER XII. Hungarian War Finance Revolt of Candia War with Carrara Genoa and Venice War of Chioggia . ... 206 CHAPTER XIII. The Carraresi Venice becomes a mainland power . . . 235 CHAPTER XIV. Venice in the fourteenth century . . ... 250 CHAPTER XV. A new departure Considerations on the result of Venetian expansion on mainland Sigismund Mohammed the Conqueror Tommaso Mocenigo The Visconti Florentine alliance . . . 260 xii THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC CHAPTER XVI. PAGE Francesco Foscari Venice on the mainland Fall of Constantinople New order of things . . ... 280 CHAPTER XVII. Results of Foscari's Dogeship Venice alone against the Turks Finance Cyprus Discovery of the Cape route Advent of ultramontane powers, Charles VIII., Maximilian, Louis XII. Combination against Venice at Cambray . . ... 307 CHAPTER XVIII. League of Cambray Results for Venice . ... 338 CHAPTER XIX. The weakness of Venice Turkish wars . ... 357 CHAPTER XX. Venice and the Church Fra Paolo Sarpi . ... 380 CHAPTER XXI. The development of the Council of Ten The Inquisitors of State The invasion of French ideas . . ... 398 CHAPTER XXII. Conclusion Revival of Venetian art Fall of the Republic . . 417 INDEX . 425 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE LAGOON OF VENICE, 500-800 A.D. . . . To face page 2 SKETCH "MAP OF THE WAR OF CHIOGGIA . . 230 VENETIAN POSSESSIONS IN ITALY AND DALMATIA . . 299 VENETIAN POSSESSIONS IN THE LEVANT, 1204-1500 . 322 LIST OF THE DOGES BATE OB 1 NAME. ELECTION. 1. Paolo Lucio Anafesto . . . . 697 2. Marcello Tegaliano . . ... 717 3. Orso Ipato . . ... 726 4. Deodato . . . . 742 5. Galla Gaulo . . ... 755 6. Domenico Monegario . . ... 756 7. Maurizio Galbaio , . ... 764 8. Giovanni Galbaio . . ... 787 9". Obelerio Antenorio . . ... 804 10. Agnello Particiaco . . . 811 11. Giustiniano Particiaco . . , 827 12. Giovanni Particiaco I. . . ... 829 13. Pietro Tradonico . . ... 836 14. Orso Particiaco I. . . ... 864 15. Giovanni Particiaco II. . . ... 881 16. Pietro Candiano I. . . ... 887 17. Pietro Tribune . . ... 888 18. Orso Particiaco II. . . ... 912 19. Pietro Candiano II. . ... 932 20. Pietro Particiaco . . ... 939 21. Pietro Candiano III. . . ... 942 22. Pietro Candiano IV. . ... 959 23. Pietro Orseolo I. . . ... 976 24. Vitale Candiano . . ... 978 25. Tribuno Memo . . ... 979 26. Pietro Orseolo II. . . ... 991 27. Otto Orseolo . . ... 1008 28. Pietro Centranico . . ... 1026 29. Domenico Flabianico . . ... 1032 30. Domenico Contarini . . . . 1043 31. Domenico Selvo . . ... 1071 32. Vitale Falier . . . . 1085 33. Vitale Michiel I. . . ... 1096 31. Ordelafo Falier 1102 xiv THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC DATE OF NAME. ELECTION. 35. Doiuunico Michiel . . . . 1118 36. Pietro Polani . ... 1130 37. Domenico Morosini . . . . 1148 38. Vitale Michiel II. . . . 1156 39. Sebastian Ziani . . . . . 1172 40. Orio Malipiero . ; . ' . .1178 41. Enrico Dandolo . . . . 1193 42. Pietro Ziani . . . . 1205 43. Jacopo Tiepolo . . . ': 1229 44 Marino Morosini . , . . . . 1249 45. RenierZeno . . ... 1253 46. Lorenzo Tiepolo . . ... 1268 47. Jacopo Contarini . . . . 1275 48. Giovanni Dandolo . . ... 1280 49. Pietro Gradenigo . . ... 1289 50. Marin Zorzi . . . . 1311 51. Giovanni Soranzo . . . . 1312 52. Francesco Dandolo . . ... 1329 53. Bartolomeo Gradenigo . . ... 1339 54. Andrea Dandolo . . . . 1343 55. Marin Falier . . ... 1354 56. Giovanni Gradenigo . . ... 1355 57. Giovanni Dolfin . . ... 1356 58. Lorenzo Celsi . . ... 1361 59. Marco Corner . . ... 1365 60. Andrea Contarini . . ... 1368 61. Michele Morosini . . . . . 1382 62. Antonio Venier . . ... 1382 63. Michele Steno . . . . 1400 64. Tommaso Mocenigo . . ... 1414 65. Francesco Foscari . . ... 1423 66. Pasquale Malipiero . . ... 1457 67. Cristoforo Moro . . ... 1462 68. Nicol6 Tron . . . . . 1471 69. Nicol6 Marcello . . . . 1472 70. Pietro Mocenigo . . ... 1474 71. Andrea Vendramin . . ... 1476 72. Giovanni Mocenigo . . ... 1478 73. Marco Barbarigo . . . . . 1485 74. Agostino Barbarigo . . ... 1486 75. Leonardo Loredan . . ... 1501 76. Antonio Grimani . . . . 1521 77. Andrea Gritti 1523 LIST OF THE DOGES DATE OF NAME. ELECTION. 78. Pietro Lando . 1539 79. Francesco Donate . 1545 80. Antonio Trevisan . 1553 81. Francesco Venier . 1554 82. Lorenzo Priuli . 1556 83. Girolamo Priuli . 1559 84. Pietro Loredano . 1567 85. Alvise Mocenigo 86. Sebastiano Venier . 1570 . 1577 87. Nicolo da Ponte . 1578 88. Pasquale Cicogna 89. Marin Grimani . 1585 . 1595 90. Leonardo Donato . 1606 91. Marc' Antonio Memmo . 1612 92. Giovanni Bembo : ... 1615 93. Nicol6 Donato . 1618 94. Antonio Priuli . 1618 95. Francesco Contarini . 1623 96. Giovanni Cornaro . 1624 97. Nicol6 Contarini . 1630 98. Francesco Erizzo . 1631 99. Francesco Molin . 1646 100. Carlo Contarini . 1655 101. Francesco Cornaro . 1656 102. Bertucci Valier . 1656 103. Giovanni Pesaro . 1658 104. Domenico Contarini . 1659 105. Nicolo Sagredo 106. Alvise Contarini . 1675 . 1676 107. Marc' Antonio Giustinian . 1684 108. Francesco Morosini . 1688 109. Silvestro Valier . 1694 110. Alvise Mocenigo 111. Giovanni Corner . 1700 . 1709 112. Alvise Mocenigo 113. Carlo Ruzzini ... 1722 . 1732 114. Alvise Pisani . 1735 115. Pietro Grimani . 1741 116. Francesco Loredano . 1752 117. Marco Foscarini . 1762 118. Alvise Mocenigo 119. Paolo Renier . 1763 . 1779 120. Lodovico Manin . 1789 LIST OF BOOKS ON THE HISTORY OF VENICE BIBLIOGRAPHY VOLS. Cicogna, Bibliografia Veneziana Venezia, 1847 1 Soranzo, Bibliografia Veneziana Venezia, 1885 1 GENERAL HISTORIES Romanin, Storia Documentata di Venezia Venezia, 1853 10 Romanin, Lezioni di Storia Veneta Firenze, 1875 2 Daru, Storia delta Republica di Venezia, trad. d. Francese Capolago,* 1837 11 Hazlitt. History of the Venetian Republic London, 1860 4 Diedo, Storia della Republica di Venezia Venezia, 1792 15 Laugier, Histoire de la Re'publique de Venise Paris, 1759 12 Husatti, Storia d'lin Lembo di Terra Padova, 1886 1 Capelletti, Storia della Republica di Venezia Venezia, 1850 13 Filiasi, Memorie Storiche de' Veneti primi e secondi Venezia, 1796 9 Galliccioli, Memorie Venete Venezia, 1795 8 Mutinelli, Annali Urbani di Venezia Venezia, 1841 1 Venezia e k sue Lagune Venezia, 1847 2 Cicogna, Iscrizioni Veneziane Venezia, 1824 6 Tentori, Storia della Republica di Venezia Venezia, 1785 12 Michiel, Origine dellefeste Veneziane Rovigno, 1859 1 Sketches from Venetian History London, 1846 2 Oliphant, Makers of Venice London, 1893 1 Wiel, Venice (in " Story of the Nations " Series) London, 1894 1 CHRONICLES Cronache Veneziane Antichissime (1) Cronica de Singulis Patriarchis nove Aquileie, (2) Chronicon Gradense, (3) Giovanni Diacono (Sagornino) Cronaca, edit. Monticolo Roma, 1890 1 * I recommend this edition because of the notes, and Ranke's " Essay on the Spanish Conspiracy." LIST OF BOOKS CHRONICLES VOLS. Chronicon Venetum quod Altinate nuncupatur, ap. Mon. Germ. Hist. Scrip., torn. xiv. ; also Arch. Stor. Ital., torn. viii. 1 Martino da Canale, La Gronaca dei Veneziani, Arch. Stor. Ital., torn. viii. Firenze, 1845 1 Lorenzo de Monacis, Chronicon Venetiis, 1758 1 Andrese Danduli, Chronicon Venetum, ap. Muratori, Rer. Ital. Scrip., torn. xii. Cortussii Historia, ap. Muratori, Rer. Ital. Scrip., torn. xii. Gattari, Istoria Padovana, ap. Muratori, Rer. Ital. Scrip., torn. xvii. Sanudo, Vitce Ducum, ap. Muratori, Rer. Ital. Scrip., torn. xxii. Chronicon Venetum (Priuli), 1494-1500, ap. Muratori, Rer. Ital. Scrip., torn. xxiv. Sanudo, Diarii, 1496-1523, Venezia, in course of publication Malipiero, Annali Veneti, 1457-1500, Arch. Stor. Ital., torn. vii. 2 Chinazzi, Gronaca della Guerra di Chioggia Milano, 1865 1 Villehardouin, La Conquete de Constantinople Paris, 1872 1 OFFICIAL HISTORIES Sabellico, Rerum Venetarum, libri xxxiii. Venetiis, 1487 1 Bembo, Histories Venetce, ifbri xii. Venetiis, 1551 1 Paruta, Historia Vinitiana Vinetia, 1605 1 Morosini, Historia Veneta Venetiis, 1623 1 Nani, Historia della Republica Veneta Bologna, 1680 2 Giustiniani, De Origine Urbis Venetiarum Venetiis, 1534 1 Archivio Veneto In course of publication R. Deputazione Veneta sopra gli Studi di Storia Patria, Publicazioni Boerio, Dizionario Veneziano Venezia, 1867 1 Mutinelli, Lessico Veneto Venezia, 1851 1 SPECIAL HISTORIES. POLITICAL Gfrorer, Geschichte Venedigs bis zum Jahre, 1084 Graz, 1872 1 Pears, The Fall of Constantinople London, 1885 1 Baer, Die Beziehungen Venedigs zum Kaiserreiche in der Staufischen Zeit Innsbruck, 1888 1 Squitinio della libertd Veneta Mirandola, 1612 1 Verci, Storia della Marca Trevigiana Venezia, 1786 20 Kohlschutter, Venedig unter dem Herzog Peter II. Orseolo Gottingen, 1888 4 Spangenberg, Can grande I. della Scala Berlin, 1892 1 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC POLITICAL VOLS. Tentori, II vero caratere politico di Bajamonte Tiepolo Venezia, 1798 1 Cittadella, Storia detta Dominazione Carrarese in Padova Padova, 1842 2 Hopf, Der Bath des Zehn 1 Macchi, Storia del Consiglio dei Died Torino, 1848 2 Lamansky, Secrets d'Etat de Venise Saint Petersbourg, 1884 1 Freeman, Subject aiid Neighbour Lands of Venice London, 1881 1 Armignaud, Venise et le Bos- Empire Paris, 1886 1 Battistella, II Conte Carmagnola Geneva, 1889 1 Cibrario, Opuscoli Storici Milano, 1835 1 Rubieri, Francesco Primo Sforza Firenze, 1879 1 Dandolo, La Caduta della Republica di Venezia Venezia, 1855 1 Tentori, Raccolta di Documenti sulla Rivoluzione della Republica di Venezia Augusta, 1799 2 CONSTITUTIONAL Baschet, Histoire de la Chancellerie Secrete Paris, 1870 1 Giannotti, Libro della Reppublica de 1 Viniziani n. Opere Firenze, 1850 2 Contarini, Della Republica et Magistrati di Venetia Venetia, 1591 1 Crasso, De Forma Reipublicce Venetce (Thes. Ant. Ital., v.) Lug., 1722 1 De la Houssaye, Histoire du Gouvernement de Venise Paris, 1677 2 Alletz, Discours sur la Puissance et la Ruine de la Republique de Venise Paris, 1842 1 San Didier, La Ville et la Republique de Venise Paris, 1680 I Stella, II Servizio di Cassa nell' Antica Republica Veneta Venezia, 1890 1 Cecchetti, II Doge di Venezia Venezia, 1864 1 COMMERCIAL Marin, Storia Civile e Politica del Commercio de' Veneziani Vinegia, 1798 8 Heyd, Le Colonnie Commerciali degli Italiani in Oriente, tr. Venezia, 1866 2 Heyd, Geschichte des Levantehandels im Mittelalter Stuttgart, 1879 2 Siraonsfeld, Der Fondaco dei Tedeschi Stuttgart, 1887 2 Mutinelli, Del Commercio de' Veneziani Venezia, 1835 1 Formaleoni, Storia della Navigazione nel Mar Nero Venezia, 1788 2 Thomas, Capitular des Deutschen Hauses in Venedig Berlin, 1874 1 LIST OF BOOKS ARTISTIC AND LITERARY VOLS. Foscarini, Delia Letteratura Veneziana Padua, 1752 1 Simonsfeld, Andreas Dandolo und seine Geschichtswerke Miinchen, 1876 1 Simonsfeld, Venetianische Studien Miinchen, 1878 1 Yriarte, Venise Paris, 1878 1 Ruskin, Stones of Venice London, 1873 3 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Tiziano, la sua Vita e i suoi Tempi Firenze, 1872 2 Berenson, Venetian Painters of the Renaissance London, 1894 1 Berenson, Lorenzo Lotto London, 1895 1 Paoletti, L'Architettura e la Scultura del Rinascimento in Venezia Venezia, 1893 2 Cattaneo, L'Architettura in Italia Venezia, 1889 1 Ongania (Editor), La Basilica di San Marco Venezia, 1877 3 Ongania (Editor), L'Arte della Startipa Venezia, 1895 1 Didot, Aide Manuce Paris, 1875 1 Castellani, La Stampa in Venezia alia Morte di Aldo Manuzio Seniore Venezia, 1889 1 Symonds, Renaissance in Italy The Fine Arts London, 1877 1 Brown, The Venetian Printing Press London, 1891 1 Rivoli, Bibliografie des limes a figures Venetiens Paris, 1892 SOCIAL San Didier, La Ville et la Republique de Venise Paris, 1680 1 Yriarte, La Vie d'un Patricien de Venise Paris, 1 Molmenti, La Storia di Venezia nella Vita Privata Torino, 1880 1 Molmenti, La Dogaressa Torino, 1884 1 Molmenti, Studi e Ricerche Torino, 1892 1 Orford, Leggi e Memorie Venete sulla Prostituzione Venezia, 1870 1 Cecchetti, La Vita de' Veneziani nel 300 Venezia, 1886 1 Piozzi, Glimpses of Italian Society in the Eighteenth Century (edit. Martinengo Cesaresco) London, 1892 1 Morpurgo, Marco Foscarini e Venezia nel Secolo XVIII. Firenze, 1880 1 Ammazzamento di Lorenzino de' Medici Milaho, 1886 1 Bourne t, Venise Paris, 1882 1 Cenni Storici e le Leggi circa il Libertinaggio in Venezia Venezia, 1886 1 De Brosses, Lettres Paris, 1858 2 Bernoni, Canti, Fiabe, Leggende credenze popolari Venezia, 1872-1874 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC ECCLESIASTICAL VOLS. Sarpi, Opere Helmstat (Verona), 1761 8 Cecchetti, La Republica di Venezia e La Corte di Roma Venezia, 1874 2 Cornaro, Ecclesiw Veneta et Torcellance Venetiis, 1749 18 Bianchi Giovini, Biografia di Fra Paolo Sarpi Zurigo, 1836 2 Cappelletti, J Gesuiti e la Republica di Venezia Venezia, 1873 1 Robertson, Fra Paolo Sarpi London, 1894 1 TOPOGRAPHICAL Pliny, Historia Naturalis, lib. iii. Strabo, Geographica, lib. v. Constantino, De Administrando Imperio, ap. Corp. Scrip. Hist. Byzant. Bonn, 1828, et sgq. Sansovino, Venezia, Cittd Nobilissima e Singolare Venetia, 1663 1 Temanza, Antica Pianta dell' Inclita Cittd di Venezia Venezia, 1781 1 Coronelli, Isole di Venezia, in Vol. i. of Coronelli's Isolario 1 Sabadino, Maps of Venetia in the Collezione di Carte Geografiche del Sec. XVI. Marcian Library 1 Tassini, Alcuni Palazzi Venezia, 1879 1 Tassini, Curiosita Veneziane Venezia, 1863 1 CHAPTEE I Physical features of the Venetian lagoon The twelve lagoon townships The lagoon population The official date of the foundation of Venice The Paduan Consuls The invasion of Attila The election of Tribunes Cause of this election Nature of Tribunes' power The advent of the East Belisarius in Italy His siege of Ravenna Narses in Italy The Paduans appeal to him The Lombard invasion Induces the main- landers to settle finally in the lagoon Legends of the flight from the mainland : their meaning Condition of the earliest lagoon population Early churches, San Jacopo di Rialto, S. Theodore, S. Geminiano The ruined mainland cities furnish material Houses Cassiodorus's letter to the Tribunes The growth of population produces a revision of the con- stitution Longinus in Italy The Venetians assert their independence The first Imperial diploma Relations with the Lombards ; and with the Eastern Empire The dangers to which Venice was exposed Internal jealousy Election of a doge, Paolo Lucio Anafesto. IT is unlikely that the physical aspects of the Venetian estuary have changed very much between the unknown period at which it received its first fisher population and the present day. The lagoons of Venice are a large sheet of salt water, in form like a bent bow, the curve of the bow follow- ing the line of the mainland, while the string is represented by a number of long, low, narrow islands, called Lidi, partly mud and partly sand, which are the most important char- acteristic of their formation. The Lidi serve as a barrier which prevents the sea from sweeping over the lagoons, and make it possible for man to build upon the island mud- banks ; but they do not separate the basin thus created entirely from the sea, they do not convert the lagoons into a lake ; for the Lidi are pierced at several points by open- ings, which admit the tide from the Adriatic, and give egress and ingress to the inhabitants. At certain points inside the B THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC lagoon, where the muddy bottom is more solid, small islands, formed partly by nature and partly by man, rise above the water-level. At first these islands were nothing more than barren banks of clay or mud ; yet upon such dubious foundations the hardy fishermen of the estuary were destined to raise one of the most powerful and most beautiful cities that the world has ever seen. Though it is unlikely that the lagoons have altered very much within the period of their known history, it is probable that their surface was at one time of greater extent, that more of the mainland was under water than at present. For the twelve island-townships, enumerated in the chronicle of John the Deacon (Sagornino), one of the oldest Venetian chronicles which we possess, can all be identified to this day, though some of them are no longer, strictly speaking, cities of the lagoon. These twelve town- ships play such an important part in the early history of Venice, and we shall have to refer so frequently to most of them, that it will be as well here to give their names; they are Grado, Bibiones, Capruke (Oaorle), Heraclea, Jesolo (Cavallino), Torcello, Murano, Eialto, Metamaucus (Malamocco), Pupillia (Poveglia), Clugies Minor, destroyed in the Genoese war, and Clugies Major (Chioggia). The Chronicler adds that there are besides these quamphirimce insulce habitabilcs, very many more habitable islands. The account of the Venetian district generally, which we can gather from Livy and Strabo, shows physical conditions and habits of life similar to those which exist to-day. "The whole region," says Strabo, speaking of the country between the Julian Alps and the Adriatic, " abounds in swamps and rivers, and is partially covered by the sea. That is the only portion which is affected by tides like the ocean, and there the larger part of the plain is transformed into a salt-water marsh. As in lower Egypt, the water is directed hither and thither by ditches and dykes. Some of the island- cities are completely surrounded by water, others are washed on certain sides only." " All commerce is carried on by boats ; and these boats are built with flat bottoms to enable them to pass over the shoals." , Lostanciacus So erasmi in Boccolama o ^S.Nicolai Pupil liaO &tamaucus / liMalamocco) >V//7or rundulus Torre del/Bebe Capru/a Eauili Portus Cortu/ati! THE LAGOON OF VENICE 500 to 800 A. D. Sca/e o^ fflff ^///es IS 20 face Page Z THE PEOPLING OF THE LAGOON 3 It is clear from these passages that the shores of the estuary were already inhabited at the beginning of the Christian era. Upon this point Martial's famous lines in praise of the villas at Venetian Altino, comparing them with the villas of Neapolitan Baiae, leave no doubt. Whether the lagoon-islands were also peopled is not so certain, but there is reasonable presumption that they were. The direct route between corn-growing Pannonia and Rome, lay through Aquileia to Eavenna by the waters of Venice ; and those intricate channels must have required pilots who could only have been lagoon-dwellers, intimately acquainted with the region in which they were born and bred. But though the islands of the estuary were probably in- habited, it is not to be supposed that their population was large, or in any sense independent. The lagoons were under the jurisdiction of the great Roman cities on the mainland, Aquileia, Opitergium (Oderzo), and Padua. It is not till we reach the period of barbarian invasion that we can begin to reckon the separate history of Venice. Those repeated incursions of the hungry hordes from beyond the Alps exerted a double action on the development of the lagoons: first, they drove the mainlanders for refuge to the islands; and, secondly, they gradually weakened, and then destroyed, the great mainland cities, and thereby left the island population virtually independent, though still bearing the impress of the Roman civilisation which characterised the cities from which it drew its origin. But this process of disintegration on the mainland and of regerrnination in the lagoons, was a slow one. The various peoples drawn from the cities of the continent, who, under stress of danger, were to be eventually fused into the state which we call Venice, did not emigrate to the lagoon- islands suddenly. As each wave of barbarian invasion passed over North-eastern Italy and rolled away southward, or was repulsed beyond the Alps, the refugees from the mainland returned to their homes from their temporary asylum in the lagoon. Neither the invasion of the Mar- comanni and Quadi in 170, nor that of the Goths in 378, nor that of Alaric in 400, was sufficient to convince the fugitives B2 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC that their only sure dwelling was upon the impenetrable waters of the Venetian estuary. Some deposit of popula- tion, some residue of each of those emigrations, no doubt remained behind in the lagoon-islands, and helped to prepare the way for the final acceptance of their water- home by the mainlanders ; but the majority, with that persistent love of the hearthstone, continued to rebuild their shattered houses and temples after each incursion, living in the incorrigible hope that the last attack would really be the last. Two more terrible invasions, the invasion of the Huns and the invasion of the Lombards, were required before the lesson was completely learned, and the refugees settled down finally on those barren mud- banks which they were destined to make so famous in history. The Venetian official account always assigned the 25th of March 421 as the day on which Venice was born. Such precision is both misleading and futile. But it is based upon a document well known to Venetian historians, the famous commission of the three Consuls who were sent from Padua to superintend the building of a city at Eialto, where they might concentrate the population and the commerce of the lagoons. " On the 25th of March, about mid-day, was the foundation-stone laid." There is little doubt that the document, as we have it, is a forgery ; though it is highly probable that its sub- stance is true to fact; and if it cannot be taken as estab- lishing the date of the foundation of Venice, it is instructive for various reasons. It shows us that the lagoon-islands were inhabited, and that one of them, Eialto, lay 011 the course of the river Brenta through the estuary, and really commanded the sea-trade of Padua. It further shows that the Paduans wished to establish a commercial centre at Kialto, partly for safety, partly for convenience of traffic; and, finally, it proves that the lagoons around Eialto, the lagoons through which the Brenta passed, were at that time under the control of Padua; a fact which the people of Venice strenously denied when they became stronger than the Paduans. THE BEGINNINGS OF A CONSTITUTION 5 It is the year 452, however, which has generally been accepted as the birth-date of Venice. That is the 4x2. year of Attila's invasion, in which Aquileia fell, and the North Italian cities, Altino, Concordia, Opiter- gium, Padua, were sacked by the Huns. Although the year 452 has no more claim than the year 421 to be reckoned as the precise date for the foundation of Venice, yet it undoubtedly marks the first great point in the development of the lagoon population into a separate state. For the Hunnish invasion, with its ruthless barbarity and its merciless destruction of the mainland cities, did more than any of its predecessors to people the islands of the estuary, and also had a stronger effect than any other barbarian incursion in convincing the mainlanders that they would be wise to remain in the lagoons. The result of Attila's invasion was demonstrated four- teen years later, in 466, when the island-townships took the , , first step indicative" of their independence, and laid the foundation of Venetian constitutional history by calling an assembly at Grado, and electing officers, with the title of Tribunes, to govern the affairs of each island. The important aspect of this election is, that here, for the first time, the lagoon communities act independently. There is no question of their receiving magistrates from Padua, from Oderzo, or from Aquileia; the lagoon population proceeds to elect its own magistrates. And so, if any precise date is to be indicated as the commencement of Venetian history, none would have a better claim than this of 466, the year in which the inhabitants of the lagoon chose their first officers for themselves. But this election of Tribunes at Grado is not merely a proof that the domination of the mainland over the estuary was declining, that the population of the islands was increasing in numbers and in power; it is also a sign of internal activity on the part of the lagoon- dwellers and the beginning of a movement whose course we shall have to trace till it leads us to the next great step in Venetian history, the creation of the first Doge. For with the in- crease of population came rivalries and jealousies among THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the neighbouring townships. Whatever hatred and enmity had existed between the great cities of the main- land, was intensified now that their fugitive popu- lations were confined, side by side, in the narrow circum- ference of the lagoons. Municipal rivalry on the mainland led to brawling and violence among the refugees of the estuary ; and the meeting at Grado, which elected the Tribunes, was rendered necessary chiefly by the desire which the people had to put an official restraint upon their political passions. This political antagonism between the com- ponent parts of the lagoon population, is the most im- portant factor in the early development of the Venetian state. It had to be absorbed and eliminated before Venice could be considered as a political unit. The creation of the Tribunes was the first step towards such a solution. The paucity and meagreness of the authorities for this obscure period of Venetian history, render it difficult to define the nature and powers of the Tribunate. In all probability it was an office borrowed from the Eoman Municipal Government of the mainland cities ; that is to say, in its first intention it was a military office, but sub- sequently, as sometimes happened, implying civil functions as well. Whatever may have been, the precise powers of the Tribunes in the lagoon, or Tribuni marittimi, as they were called, it is certain that, from the date of their creation, they were the chief magistrates among the island popula- tion; and we shall presently find the Pretorian prefect, Cassiodorus, applying to the maritime Tribunes when he wished to secure the assistance of Venetians for the trans- port of oil and wine from Istria. The horrors of the Hunnish invasion, however, were not sufficient to induce the inainlanders to remain permanently in the lagoons after the storm was over. It was difficult for the refugees, who were largely agriculturists, to adapt themselves to the new conditions of life on the waters, where fishing was the principal source of livelihood, and where they, doubtless, missed the luxury of their mainland towns. They returned in large numbers to their ruined cities. SIEGE OF RA VENN A : RELA TIONS TO EMPIRE 7 The fall of Rome, in 476, had little effect on the Venetian provinces ; and the Venetians, under the excellent rule of Theodoric, enjoyed a tranquillity which enabled those refugees who had remained in the lagoon to become acquainted with their new home, and in- dulged those refugees who had returned to the mainland, in the belief that they would not be disturbed again. The death of Theodoric and the regency of Amalasunta tempted the Eastern Emperor to contemplate the conquest of the Italian peninsula. Justinian, with that object in view, sent Belisarius to Italy in 535. The war C-2C. ' J spread over the whole of the northern provinces, and was carried on with great barbarity. The result was that the lagoon-islands became once more an asylum from the horrors of the mainland. Belisarius moved northward, and eventually arrived before Eavenna, to which he laid siege. And here, for the first time, we find the Venetians of the lagoons recognised as an important body, and called upon to take a part in the general movement of history. For Belisarius, while engaged in this siege, sent Vitalius to secure the assistance of the maritime Venetians, whose ports would serve to harbour any Greek ships which might come from Constantinople with reinforcements for his army; and also to beg the Venetians to support him with their light boats in completing the blockade of Eavenna, and in conveying provisions to his troops. Eavenna fell, and with it the Gothic kingdom in Italy came to an end. The Eastern Emperors remained masters of the peninsula. The siege and capture of Eavenna is of moment in the history of Venice. It not only proves that the lagoon- dwellers were growing in power and importance; that their fleet of light boats was worth the attention of the imperial general; that their harbours might, under certain condi- tions, prove of great value to the belligerent who held them; but more than all this, the establishment of the Eastern Empire in Italy, which resulted from this siege, was an event of the highest moment in the internal history of the lagoon, and had a decided bearing upon the evolution of the THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Venetian State. For, as we shall soon have occasion to note, the question presently arose as to the exact relation of Venice to Constantinople ; were the lagoons to be considered a part of the Eastern Empire, or were they inde- pendent? In short, one of the claimants to supremacy, whose aggression Venice was compelled to withstand if she were ever to achieve independence, had now appeared on the scene. The other claimant did not emerge till thirty years later, when Alboin and his Lombards poured down upon Italy. After the fall of Eavenna, Belisarius was recalled by the jealousy of the Emperor. But before long, his services were again required to suppress a rising of the Goths under Totila. Belisarius came. to Italy insufficiently supplied with men and money. His campaign proved a failure.. He was disgraced and superseded by Narses, the eunuch. Narses massed his troops at Salona, near Spalato, on the Dalmatian coast. He wished to reach Eavenna; but he was deficient in transport ships; he accordingly abandoned the sea route. The interior mainland route was blocked by the Franks, a collision with whom he desired to avoid. Parses, therefore, determined to follow the coast route, which had been left open in the b'elief that it was imprac- ticable for an army. This choice led the Imperial general to the shore of the lagoons, at Grado, where he and his troops embarked on board Venetian transports, and were conveyed to Brondolo, at the south-western corner of the estuary, and thence to Eavenna. Narses was eventually victorious, and assumed the government of Italy, with the title of Duke. His conduct awakened suspicion at Constanti- nople. He was threatened with recall, and was presently superseded by Longinus, but not before he had invited the Lombards, many of whom had served under him, to bring their whole race sweeping down on Italy, thereby avenging what he held to be his unjust treatment by the Imperial Court. The importance of Narses's campaign in the history of Venice lies in this, that the general passed through the lagoons, and, as he himself reported to his successor THE LOMBARD INVASION Longinus, was amazed at the vigour and prosperity of their inhabitants. Proof of this power is to be found not ? -5 Q only in the fact that the Venetians were equal to the task of transporting Narses's army across their waters, but it is even more strikingly illustrated by an appeal which the Paduans made to the Imperial general. The ambassadors of the mainland city complained that the Venetians of the lagoon ha.d not only absorbed all the navigation on the rivers Brenta and Bacchiglione, but had made themselves masters of the mouths of the two streams, and had fortified them with a view to preventing any but Venetians from using those waters. The Paduans implored Narses to reinstate them in their ancient rights. The Venetian reply shows their determination to be free. It is based upon the right of the creator to his creation. It was they who had made the lagoon-islands inhabitable, the lagoon-canals navigable, the place an asylum for the mainlanders in time of trouble. The islands belonged to those who had always lived on them, the waters to those who knew how to defend them. That Narses did not give judgment in the case, but contented himself with urging both parties to reconciliation, shows his conviction that the lagoon-dwellers had the power, and the will, to keep what they had acquired, in spite of any decision on his part. The year 568 is the second great landmark in the early history of the lagoons; in that year Alboin and his Lombards invaded Italy from Pannonia. The mainland north of Venice was put to fire and sword. Once again the inhabitants of the ruined city sought refuge in the estuary. This time they resolved to remain there. Partly, they were at last convinced that the mainland was no longer safe for them ; partly, too, the lagoon-islands presented a less forbidding aspect than on the many previous occasions when they had offered an asylum to the fugitives. The population had increased, houses had been built, some semblance of a settled govern- ment now existed. There were fewer reasons why the refugees should return to their ancient homes. What 10 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Attila began, Alboin completed. Venetian history is the history of the people who, under stress of repeated invasion between the years 452 and 568, were thus gathered together in the lagoons. The chronicles relate at length the legend of this last flight from the mainland, and chiefly how the people of Altino came to settle at Torcello. The Lombards, " those cruellest of pagans," were sweeping down upon Friuli, and the people of Altino resolved to fly. Some went to Eavenna, some to Istria, some to the Pentapolis ; some, however, remained behind, in sore doubt whither they should turn to seek a home. These people made a three days' fast and prayer to God that He would shew them where they might find a dwelling-place. Then a voice was heard, as though in thunder, saying to them, " Climb ye up to the tower and look at the stars. Then the Bishop Paul climbed the tower, and looking up to the heavens, he saw the stars arranged as it were like islands in the lagoon. Thus guided, the people of Altino moved to Torcello, leaving their home to be burned by the Lombards when they found it empty. The fugitives called their new abode Torcello, in memory of many-towered Altino, which they had left behind. Their first care was to build a church to the honour of Mary, the Virgin. It was beautiful in form, and very fair; its pavement was made in circles of precious marbles. Then to Mauro, the priest, who was also from Altino, were shown by miracle the places where other churches should be built. " First," he says, " Saint Eras- mus and Saint Hermes showed me the plan of a church to be raised to them. Then, as I was walking along another lido, I saw a wonderful sight: a large white cloud, and out of it issued two rays of the sun, of a glorious clarity, which fell upon me ; and a liquid voice said to me, ' I am the Saviour and Lord of all the earth. The ground whereon thou standest I give to thee, thereon to build a church in My name.' Then came another most delicious voice which said, ' I am Mary, mother of the Lord Jesus Christ ; I bid you build another church to me.' Then I came to a third lido, and I saw the whole place filled with a diverse THE BUILDING OF TORCELLO 11 multitude of people, and many bulls and cows, with calves. And when I drew near, lo ! an old man sitting on the ground, and he spoke to me, while nigh unto him stood a younger man. The old man said unto me, ' I am Peter, prince and apostle, the pastor of the flock. I charge you honour me, and build me a church that there, on my nativity, all the people of Torcello may gather together.' Then the younger said unto me, ' I am the servant of God, Antolinus. I suffered for the name of Christ; I bid you build a little church for me, hard by the Master's church. Be instant day and night in memory of me ; and whatso- ever you ask of me shall be given unto you.' Then I came to a fourth little lido, and I saw that it was all full of heavy-clustered vineyards ; and the vines bore the whitest grapes. Then came upon me the desire to eat, but I did not; and as I walked by the sea a white cloud appeared unto me ; in the middle thereof was seated a little maid, fair of form, who spoke to me thus, ' I am Giustina, who suffered in Padua city for Christ's sake ; I beg you, priest of God, build me a little church in my honour.' In the fifth place I came to, I met a girl of tender years. A great and splendid cloud, as though it were the sun, illumined her, and it drew nigh unto me. Then I looked within and saw a glorious man of noble mien, standing above the sphere of the sun, and he said unto me, ' I am John the Baptist, the forerunner of our Lord ; I beg thee in this place build me the church I now show thee.' Then he showed me all the outside of the church, and gave me the blessing of God on my bishopric of Torcello, and encircled me with the ring, which he placed upon my finger. Then I awoke from the great sleep. The writing was found in my hand, the ring upon my finger." Under the quaint imagery of this apocalyptic vision vouchsafed to Mauro, priest of Torcello, we can discover two great facts which were the outcome of the Lombard invasion. The people of the lagoons, newcomers as well as old, turn their attention to building, and thereby prove their determination to take up their abode in the lagoons. Their first care and greatest efforts were bestowed upon 12 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC their churches, which sprang up not only on Torcello, but upon many other islands of the estuary, some of which, as for example the island of vineyards le vignole and St. Erasnio, can be distinguished in the vision of priest Mauro. The second point is that the Lombard invasion gave the lagoon-dwellers a free and independent priesthood of their own. The church moved along with the people from the mainland to the lagoons. The Bishop of Altino led his flock to Torcello ; the Bishop of Padua moved to Malamocco ; the Bishop of Oderzo to Heraclea ; the Bishop of Concordia to Caorle. And just as the refugees resolved to remain in the lagoons, so the bishops declined to return to their sees, which were now in the hands of Arian Lombards. At the period about which we are writing, the resignation of the church to exile in the lagoons was hardly less important than the resolution of the refugees to remain in their asylum. As the Lombard invasion was the cause of the last great influx of fugitives from the mainland, and as the original population out of which Venice subsequently grew may be considered as completed at this epoch, it will not be inopportune to pause here a moment, and to endeavour, as far as our scanty material will allow us, to realise the physical and social conditions at which the Venetians had arrived. The peopling of the lagoons produced, as we have already indicated, a great activity in church-building. As early as 421, the date of the reputed appointment of consuls from Padua, we hear that the first church of the lagoon, San Jacopo di Eialto, was built after a great fire had destroyed many of the wooden houses which covered that island. The church occupied the site of a shipbuilder's yard, where the fire broke out. Later still, about the year 552, Narses, while on his way through the lagoons, vowed to build two churches, one to S. Theodore and one to S. Geminiano, if victorious against the Goths. He was victorious, and he kept his vow. He built the Church of S. Theodore, on part of the site now occupied by S. Mark's, and the Church of S. Geminiano, which no longer exists. This CASSIODORUS'S DESCRIPTION OF VENICE 13 he adorned with columns and precious stones ; the cupola he caused to be decorated with inscriptions in honour of himself and of the Bishop of Olivolo, in whose time the church was founded. The columns of marble and the precious stones which figure so largely in the accounts of these earliest Venetian churches, came, no doubt, from the older buildings of the mainland, which, when deserted by their inhabitants, served as quarries for the growing cities of the lagoon. The houses of these early lagoon- dwellers appear to have been, for the most part, of one story only. On the ground-floor was an open courtyard and staircase mounting to the first floor, where were the dwelling and sleeping rooms. On the roof was an open loggia, used for drying clothes, called liago (from keliacon, solarium). The ground upon which these houses were built was made solid, and protected against the corrosion of the water, by posts driven into the nwid at intervals, and bound together by wattle- work. Between the houses and the water ran a narrow strip of land, a sort of footway, called then as now a fondamenta. Cassiodorus, secretary to Theodoric the Great, in his famous letter to the maritime Tribunes, becomes so enthusiastic upon the subject of Venice as he knew it, that he forgets the immediate subject of his communication, and bursts into a description of Venice to the Venetians. " There lie your houses," he says, " built like sea-birds' nests, half on sea and half on land, or, as it were, like the Cyclades spread over the surface of the water ; made not by Nature but created by the industry of man. For the solidity of the earth is secured only by wattle- work ; and yet you fear not to place so frail a barrier between yourselves and the sea. Your inhabitants have fish in abundance. There is no distinction between rich and poor; the same food for all; the houses all alike; and so envy, that vice which rules the world, is absent there. All your activity is devoted to the salt-works, whence comes your wealth. Upon your industry all other productions depend; for there may be those who seek not gold, but there never yet lived the man who desires not salt. From your gains you repair your boats which, like horses, 14 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC you keep tied up at your house doors." So an able and observant contemporary describes the condition of the early Venetians. Fishing was the means of livelihood, salt the industry, democratic equality the social note, of these primitive lagoon-dwellers. Other demonstrations of the growth of Venice are to be found in the internal history of the lagoons, where the pro- cess of political condensation was steadily advancing. The democratic government by Tribunes elected from among the inhabitants of each island, was established in 466 ; but the increase of population caused by the Lombard invasion, and by the resolve of the refugees to remain in the lagoons, in- duced the Venetians to extend the nature of their Tribunitian constitution. A revision of the existing government took place. "The island people, seeing that the islands grew more and more populous every day, resolved to create a second Tribune for each of the twelve communities, in addition to the one already in existence." These new Tribunes were superior to the older Tribunes, and were called Tribuni Majores. When they addressed letters, they used this style, " We, the Tribunes of the maritime islands, appointed by the whole body of them." This episode seems to indicate the creation of a sort of central committee ; the original Tribune elected by each island for itself, was left to the administration of that island's affairs ; but the whole body of lagoon-dwellers now elected twelve other Tribunes, one from each island, to manage the common concerns of the entire lagoon. It is only after the changes produced by the Lombard invasion that we meet with the Venetians as a formed and completed people, ready now to run their race through the centuries. Down to the year 568 the history of Venice had been the history of the various stages by which the lagoons acquired their population, and received that distinct group of people whom we call Venetians. After 568 the Venetians were made. They became conscious of themselves as a unit, and soon gave proof of their consciousness. Longinus, as we have seen, was sent as Exarch, to super- sede Narses, the eunuch. He found himself opposed to the LONGINUS IN VENICE 15 new barbarian invasion of the Lombards. He endeavoured to treat diplomatically with Alboin, urging him to make a formal submission to the Eastern Emperor, but without success. Before quitting Italy for Constantinople, Longinus desired to secure the allegiance and co-operation of the Venetians, whose growing power rendered then) valuable allies against the barbarian floods on the main- land. He went to Venice, and was received with great acclaim by the people, to " the sound of bells, and flutes, and cytherns, and other instruments, so that you could not have heard the thunder of heaven," says the chronicler. Longinus begged the Venetians to convey him to Con- stantinople, which they promised to do. But their answer to his demand that they should declare themselves subjects of the Eastern Empire, shows that the inhabitants of the lagoons possessed a very clear conception of their practical independence, and a vigorous resolve to. maintain it. They affirm to Longinus, as they had already affirmed to Narses, that they themselves had made the lagoon-islands; that they had withstood the incursions of Attila, the Heruli, the Goths, and the Lombards, " And God, who is our help and protection, has saved us in order that we may dwell upon these watery marshes. This second Venice, which we have raised in the lagoons, is a mighty habitation for us. No power of Emperor or Prince can reach us save by the sea alone, and of them we have no fear." The note which runs through the whole speech bears the conviction of the intimate relation between the people and the place, the islands which they had made, and the waters which rendered them impreg- nable. Longinus, in his rejoinder, practically admits their claim. " Truly," he says, "as I heard from others, so I found ye ; a great people with a mighty habitation. Dwelling in this security, you have to fear no Emperor, nor no Prince. But I say unto you that, if ye will obey the Emperor, I will beg him to grant any petition you may make unto him." And further to facilitate a formal act of submission, Longinus declared that he would not exact it on oath. Thereupon the Venetians consented. An embassy from Venice accom- panied Longinus to the Imperial Court, where it was well 16 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC received, and secured the first diploma granted to the Venetian people as a separate body. But it was not possible that Venice should remain in diplomatic relations with the East alone. She found her- self inevitably brought into contact with the power which possessed the mainland of Italy. As the Lombards gradually consolidated their sway, the Venetians were obliged to enter into relations with them also, for the purposes of commerce. And so we find the new-born state of Venice, eager for her own liberty, determined to achieve complete independence, placed in a middle position between the Eastern Empire and the kingdom of Italy, both of which claimed a suzerainty, and to both of which Venice made formal acknowledgment of such superiority. It is the difficulties and dangers of this position which animate and govern the history of Venice during the next two hundred and thirty years ; forcing her to struggle for her very life, and thereby training her to a knowledge of her own strength. The superiority of the East or of the West was never at any time a superiority de facto ; the lagoons was never held by Eastern Emperor or Western King ; but the claim of each was ever present as a standing threat to Venetian liberty. What the Venetians desired was commercial privileges and protection from both East and West; what they dreaded was absorption into the empire or the kingdom. The famous question of the original independence of Venice may, we think, be resolved thus : the lagoons and their inhabitants were first of all dependent on the cities of the mainland. Those bonds became loosened, and finally disappeared under the ruin wrought by barbarian invasions. The lagoon-dwellers then elected their own magistrates and were virtually independent. Their commercial enterprise and their geographical position, however, brought them into prominence again, and they were forced to seek a protect- orate from the East and from the West, with the result that the question of suzerainty was raised once more, and grew in importance as Venice became more and more powerful. Fortunately for the Venetians, it was only at rare intervals 'hat they were prominent enough to attract the serious DANGERS BY LAND AND SEA 17 attention of the Imperial Court. For the most part, in the great mass of the Roman Empire, that little corner of the lagoons escaped entirely unobserved; and this happy insignificance allowed the Venetians slowly to become a nation apart. No sooner had Venice acquired the amount of coherence and force which we have endeavoured to represent as arising from the various barbarian invasions, than she was instantly compelled to struggle for her very existence. She was exposed to two kinds of danger, one internal, the other external. The people of Venice had hitherto encountered a hard fight with Nature in the course of their endeavour to O convert their compulsory asylum into a habitable dwelling. They were now to affront still graver difficulties in their effort to exist as a State. Venice overcame both obstacles ; and in the process she acquired that vigour which kept her alive for so many centuries. Externally the Venetians had to contend with two serious foes, one by sea, the other by land. The Sclav popu- lation along the banks of the Danube and the Save, obeying one of those migratory impulses which were then so common, descended upon the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic. The broken nature of that shore, its many islands, its gulfs and difficult navigation, seemed almost to suggest to the newcomers the line of life they ought to pursue. They became pirates, as most inhabitants of that coast had been before them, and pirates they remained, a constant source of trouble to Venice for centuries. On the mainland, too, the Lombard Dukes of Friuli were continually harassing the lagoon-dwellers, attacking and pillaging cities like Grado, on the borders of the lagoon, though they never succeeded in penetrating the lagoon itself. These attacks, by sea and by land, compelled the Venetians to fortify the mouths of their ports, and to build towers of refuge at various points along the lagoon shore. But more than this, they trained the Venetians to the use of arms. The growing State soon ceased to be content with merely defending itself ; it began to make reprisals, by incursions on the mainland, and by skirmishes at sea with the Dalmatian pirates; and thus c 18 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the people became more and more intimate with the waters on which they lived, and laid the foundation of that naval supremacy which they afterwards acquired. Inside the lagoons the tribunitian constitution, estab- lished in 466, and revised about 584, continued to exist. But the rapid growth and the great activity of the youthful State, tended to emphasise those rivalries and jealousies between island and island which were their ancient heritage from the mainland cities whence they had drawn their population. The development of this internal struggle is not recorded ; but the crisis was reached when Christopher, Patriarch of Grado, found it necessary to call a general assembly of the lagoon people at Heraclea. He pointed out to them that these internal jealousies were imperilling their very life and liberty, by rendering the community weak in the face of enemies. He proposed as a remedy that the Venetians should choose one man as head of the State, instead of twelve as heretofore. This advice was accepted, and, in 697, the Venetians elected Paolo Lucio Anafesto as their first Doge. The example of Eome, Genoa, and Naples, at that time governed by Dukes, no doubt influenced the Venetians in the choice of the title which they bestowed upon the new chief of the State. The objects for which the Dukedom was created, the defence of the lagoons against external foes, and the appeasement of internal jealousies, were so obvious to the people at the time of election, that it did not occur to them to define precisely the position, the powers, the digni- ties, which should belong to the supreme magistrate. It was only in the course of years and by the slow process of evolution that the ducal position became fixed. In its origin the Dukedom was a democratic, or at least a constitutional magistracy. But its real character altered with the qualities of the individual who occupied the ducal chair. If a man of strong personality, the Doge endeavoured to render himself absolute, and his office dynastic; if weak, he remained the slave of faction. A large part of early Venetian history is concerned with the problem of the Doge, with the endeavour to curb and circumscribe his power. THE FIRST DOGE 19 Some attributes of the ducal position, however, would seem to have been denned at the outset. The Tribunes were preserved, but only as subordinate magistrates, appointed by the Doge, who could punish or remove them. The Doge had the right of summoning the Concio, or General Assembly; he also dealt with foreign powers. The conclusion of peace or the declaration of war required the sanction of the General Assembly, whose voice was necessary also for the ratification of a treaty and for the election of a Doge. To the Doge belonged considerable authority in ecclesiastical matters, especially in the election and investiture of bishops ; he possessed a quasi-religious character, for on solemn occasions it was part of his duty to bless the people whom he ruled. The election of Anafesto closes the first period of Venetian history, a period which falls into three main divisions. The first covers the years down to the invasion of Attila in 452, during which the lagoons were inhabited by a few fishermen, and were dependent on the cities of the mainland. The second extends to the Lombard in- vasion, when the double process was going on which freed the lagoons from their servitude to the mainland, and at the same time gave them a population. The third includes the years from the Lombard invasion to the election of the first Doge, when the people thus gathered together began to develop themselves internally, and to take their place externally as a separate State. c 2 CHAPTER II The problem for Venice : To achieve external independence and internal unity Factors in the problem : Byzantine Empire, Kingdom of Italy, the Church Aristocratic and democratic elements in lagoon population Treaty with Liudprand Defines Venetian territory on mainland shore Quarrels between Heraclea and Jesolo Battle of the pine-wood Mala- mocco supports Jesolo Death of Anafesto Marcello Tegaliano, Doge Church history The See of Grado Elias of Grado, Metropolitan of lagoons and Istria Aquileia Arian ; Grado Orthodox Sereno of Aquileia attacks Grado The Lateran Council declares the separation of the Sees Orso Ipato, Doge Leo the iconoclast Venice drawn into the quarrel The Pope appeals to Liudprand He seizes the Exarchate The Exarch, Paul, takes refuge in Venice Venice restores the Exarch, and obtains com- mercial privileges Civil war in Venice ; the Doge killed The Dukedom abolished in favour of the Magister Miles Civil war Dukedom restored Deodato, Doge A modification in favour of Malamocco The advent of the Franks The Pope, hostile to the Emperor, and to the Lombard King, appeals to Pepin Pepin in Italy His donation to the Pope The attitude of Venice Her commercial activity Civil wars The Obelerii and Barbaromani Galla Gaulo, Doge Domenico Monegario, Doge Supremacy of Malamocco Appointment of two ducal assessors Maurizio Galbaio, Doge Charlemagne in Italy He orders the Pope to expel the Venetians from Ravenna The See of Olivolo Giovanni Galbaio, Doge Consort His policy Maurizio Galbaio II., Doge Consort The Galbaii attack the Patriarch of Grado, an adherent of the Franks, and kill him Fortunatus, Patriarch of Grado ; his Prankish policy The Galbaii expelled Obelerio, Doge Treaty between Charlemagne and Nicephorus Destruction of Heraclea and Jesolo Their absorption in Malamocco The Obelerii visit Charlemagne Pepin's attack and defeat Blalto capital of the lagoons. BY the year 697 the lagoon communities were so far con- structed as a State that they had created a constitution and elected a chief ; while, in their foreign relations, they had secured a virtual independence, though forming, nominally, a part of the Eastern Empire, and paying tribute THE PROBLEM FOR VENICE 21 for commercial privileges to the Lombard Kings on the main- land. But much had yet to be done before the community could be considered as fully developed. Externally, the virtual independence had to be assured, and internally the fusion of the discordant elements which com- posed the lagoon population was not yet complete. Both these objects demanded achievement before Venice could assume her place as a full-grown State ; and both were achieved contemporaneously. The external factors in the formation of Venice were the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Church. The internal factors were two strongly marked and antagonistic political tendencies, which characterise and divide the lagoon townships. It is not easy to indicate the original source of this division, but it probably took its rise from ancient claims of superiority, advanced by some of the mainland municipalities over their neighbours. The one element, or political current, was represented by Heraclea, and this we will call aristocratic, because its strongest features were a leaning towards the Eastern Empire and a tendency towards dynastic sovereignty; the other was led by Jesolo and Malamocco, and this we may call the democratic element, because it more or less represented the general aspiration of the Venetian lagoon community for that political liberty and independence which it subsequently accomplished. The resolution of both problems was achieved when the islands of Eialto the islands on which Venice now stands were chosen as the capital of the lagoons ; and the history of the emergence of Kialto is the subject of this chapter. Paolo Lucio Anafesto, the first Doge of Venice, was a native of Heraclea, a city which, for some reason not quite clear perhaps because it was nearer the mainland, sheltered more mainland refugees, and numbered fewer of the original fisher population had become the abode of the aristocratic families among the fugitives. And this election is a proof that Heraclea was the leading township of the lagoons at that time. Anafesto was at once brought into conflict with the double problem of early Venetian history how to maintain and increase the national independence between the Eastern Empire and the Lombard Kingdom, THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC and how to complete the amalgamation of the State's component parts. A revolution in Ravenna compelled the Emperor Justinus II. to send the Imperial fleet into the Adriatic ; and the presence of the Patrician Theodorus no doubt served to remind the Venetians that their nominal dependence on the Emperor of the East still existed. On the Italian mainland the Lombards were governed by a powerful and able prince, Liudprand. The Venetians who were engaged in traffic on the mainland, and those who owned pastures along the shores of the lagoon, could not remain isolated from their neighbours. They were inevitably brought into contact. The most important event of Anafesto's reign was the commercial treaty which he concluded with Liudprand. By the terms of this treaty the earliest Venetian treaty of which we have detailed information the boundaries of Heraclean territory were defined and marked off by dykes and ditches ; security of pasturage was guaranteed ; the right to trade on the continent and the right to cut wood in the forests of Tessera, Campalto, and Bottenigo were acquired. In return for these concessions the Venetians agreed to pay an annual tribute. On the other hand, the internal difficulties of the lagoon population were by no means accommodated. The first Doge had been elected with a view to appeasing the jealousy between rival townships and their Tribunes. But such a consummation could not be reached at one step. The fact that Heraclea had taken the lead in the person of the Doge Anafesto, aroused the jealousy of her neighbour Jesolo, supported by Malamocco. Through the obscurity of the chronicles we see the traces of a fierce battle, fought in the pine forests (Pineto), which at that time covered the Lidi. Heraclea was victorious, though most of the combatants on both sides perished. This fratricidal war was considered so abominable by the rest of the lagoon population, that they resolved not to remove the traces of the battle, but to leave, as a mark of their indignation, the corpses to be devoured by birds and beasts. The inhabitants of the Pineto refused to occupy any longer so accursed a spot. They and the THE SEE OF GRADO 23 inhabitants of Jesolo moved farther towards the mainland, and there they built a new town. To people it 9 they offered free entry to all those who opposed Heraclea. In this action they were supported by the people of Malamocco, who encouraged the inhabitants of the new Jesolo to set up a separate tribunitian court, independent of the Doge, and in opposition to his will. The Doge Anafesto and his native town Heraclea had been victorious in the battle of the pine- wood; but their victory produced a schism, and massed against them the rest of the lagoon townships, who were resolved that no one of their number should become supreme. Against this combination the Doge was powerless, and the independent jurisdiction assumed by the new townships threatened the whole community with a disastrous rupture. One of the chronicles, the Allinate, represents Jesolo and Malamocco as attacking Heraclea in revenge for the battle of the pine-wood, and records that in this attack the Doge and all his family, except one cleric, fell in battle. It is more probable that Anafesto died peacefully in 717, leaving to his successor the difficult task of conducting Venice through her many complications. We have already stated that Venetian independence was worked out between three factors, the Eastern *7 T *7 Empire, the Lombard Kingdom, and the Church. The reign of Tegaliano, who succeeded Anafesto, is chiefly remarkable for the development of Church history. Venetian relations with both the Empire and the Lombard Kingdom were quiet ; but round the See of Grado a vigorous conflict began to rage. And the position of Grado is of such im- portance in the history of Venice that we must follow the steps of this struggle, out of which that episcopate emerged victorious, the patriarchal See of the lagoon population. When Aquileia was destroyed by Attila and his Huns, the Patriarch, followed by his people, sought an 'asylum at Grado. After the return to Aquileia, a bishop was left in the lagoon city, whose flock was continually increased, partly by the schism of the Three Chapters which divided the mainland Church,and partly by the refugees from the repeated barbarian THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC invasions. Elias, Bishop of Grado in 579, obtained from Pope Pelagius II. a decree which erected his See into the Metropolitan Church of the lagoons and of '' Istria. After the Lombard invasion the mainland bishoprics, under Lombard protection, became Arian and heretical. Then the Bishop of Grado claimed that his See, which remained orthodox, was the real patriarchal See of the lagoons, in opposition to Aquileia, which had followed the course of the other mainland Bishoprics. But the erection of Grado into the patriarchal See of the lagoons and Istria, was tolerated rather than confirmed by Rome ; and the Patriarch of Aquileia still had grounds for disputing the pretensions of his neigh- bour. As the population of the lagoons grew in wealth and importance, so the See of Grado grew ; and this prosperity fed the hatred which inspired the Patriarchs of Aquileia. At last, in the reign of the Doge Tegaliano, Sereno, Patriarch of Aquileia, with the help of the Lombards, who were always ready to extend their territory, besieged, captured, and sacked the city of Grado. The Bishop naturally sought protection from the Doge, the civil chief of the lagoons, and an orthodox Christian, not an Arian. But though the claim for aid was a legitimate one, questions of self-interest prevented the Doge and the Venetians from moving 011 behalf of the captured township. They were afraid that if they came into collision with the Lombards, who were supporting Sereno, they would forfeit the commercial privileges which they had acquired under Anafesto. The Doge contented himself with appealing to Pope Gregory II. on behalf of Grado. It was certain that the papal authority would support the Orthodox Patriarch Donate, not the Arian Patriarch Sereno ; and Pope Gregory did in fact write to Sereno in vigorous terms, forbidding him to enter his neighbour's territory. But it was equally certain that if the Doge refused to take overt steps, the Pope possessed no physical force by which he could compel obedience to his orders. The quarrel continued to rage till, in 732, the Lateran Council formally declared the separation of the two jurisdictions, assigning to Aquileia the mainland from the Mincio eastward to the Alps, to Grado the Venetian lagoons and Istria. The result of this long struggle, of THE EXARCH OF RAVENNA nearly two hundred years, was that Venice made a further step towards her completion as a State. She acquired for herself a patriarchal See, whose independence was recognised at Eome, though it was not till 1445 that the seat of the Patriarch, as well as his title, was changed from Grado to the capital. On the death of the Doge Tegaliano in 726, the people, assembled still at Heraclea as the head township of che lagoons, elected their third Doge, Orso, whose reign brings us to a crisis in the history of the lagoon cities. The Venetians were called upon to take a very active part between the Empire, the Lombard Kingdom, and the Pope. For the first time they became the principal actors in a war on the mainland ; while internally a great step was made towards the ultimate fusion of the discordant elements in the lagoon population. The election of Orso was exactly synchronous with the famous edict by which Leo, the Isaurian Emperor, began his attack upon the worship of images. The conse- quences of this crusade were soon felt in Italy, and had an important bearing on Venetian history. Leo wrote to Gregory II. urging him to condemn images, and to the Exarch Paul in Eavenna ordering him to destroy them in that city. The Pope endeavoured to dissuade Leo from his imperious atti- tude towards Italy, but without success ; and when he found that his own life was threatened in Rome itself, he turned to seek support and protection from Liudprand, the Lombard King, who gladly united himself with the Pope against the Emperor, not from any love of the Church, but because he saw his opportunity to extend his own kingdom. This he very soon accomplished by seizing the whole of the Exarchate, and by driving Paul to seek refuge in that one secure asylum for all Italy the Venetian lagoon. In spite of Leo's overbearing conduct the Empire was unable to support its own officer; and Paul was compelled to appeal for help to the Venetians, among whom he found himself an exile. He urged upon them that the advance of the Lombards in the Exarchate would certainly be followed by an attack on the lagoons; whereas, if the 26 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Venetians would expel the invaders, he promised them large commercial privileges in Ravenna and the whole 726 Pentapolis. Under these circumstances the Venetians followed the policy which was inevitable for a race that was aiming at complete independence, the policy of attack- ing the stronger and supporting the weaker of two enemies. They were not iconoclasts, and they had much to lose by an open rupture with Luidprand ; they had nothing to fear from Leo if they remained neutral. But Leo was far away, and so obviously weak that he could not send a single ship in support of his Exarch, Paul; while Luidprand was hard by, powerful and steadily advancing. The question, now posed for the first time, " Which will you Venetians choose, East or West ?" met with the answer which it continued to receive, on each new demand, during the next eighty-four years. The Venetians decided to support the weaker of the two competitors ; they agreed to restore the Exarch Paul. The Doge appears to have been the prime instigator of this decision ; and he found support from an unexpected quarter. The .Pope, who no less than the Venetians, dreaded the aggrandisement of Luidprand, was alarmed at the fall of the Exarchate and the Pentapolis, and found himself forced against his will to make common cause with the Venetians in favour of his enemy, the iconoclastic Emperor. A letter from Gregory gave weight to the Doge's advice. The Venetians armed a fleet, attacked Eavenna, captured it, slew the commander Paradeo, Duke of Vicenza, and made prisoner Liudprand's nephew, Hildebrand. Paul the Exarch was restored, but he was unable to maintain himself in the midst of the tumults roused by his attempt to enforce the edict against images. He was killed the same year. The part which Venice took in the restoration of the Exarch to his government was most honourable to the growing State. In the case of Narses, one hundred and twenty-five years earlier, the lagoon-dwellers had assisted the Imperial forces in a desultory and guerrilla fashion. But now the Venetians single-handed, with an armament all their own, THE "M ASTRO MILES" 27 under their own leaders, appear as the sole combatants in support of the mighty Roman Empire, attacked in the person of one of its highest officials. And the assistance rendered to the Empire procured for Venice substantial advantages. The Venetians obtained special com- mercial rights in the city of Eavenna, and the Doge was honoured by the Byzantine title of Hypatos or Consul. We should have expected that the Venetians would have been satisfied with their achievement, and contented with their Doge. Yet the very reverse was the case. The Doge had hardly returned from Ravenna when civil war broke out in the lagoons. The ancient jealousy between Heraclea and Jesolo flamed up again at the fresh glory acquired by the Heraclean Doge. The pretext lay ready to hand. The Doge was accused of wishing to lead the State into complete sub- jection to Constantinople, in order that he might receive the sovereignty of it from the Emperor. The proof of the accusa- tion was the title which the Doge accepted from the Imperial Court. Blood flowed on both sides, and in the tumults the Doge was slain. The Venetian people were will- ing that their Doge should support the Empire which was weak, and attack the Lombards who were strong; that he should draw all the profit that he could for Venice out of such seeming loyalty. But they were fully resolved that he should neither lead them under Byzantine yoke, nor make himself supreme. The full meaning of this popular outburst was explained immediately after the murder of the Doge. The Tribunes summoned the people to the election of a new Doge. But tradition reports that the people refused to elect. " We desire not," they said, " to choose a lord, as the Doges have shown that they wish to be. Why did our ancestors seek these islands except to live in freedom ? Had they wished to be slaves, there were many better dwell- ing-places where they might have settled." The people were dissatisfied with their first experiment in elective monarchy. They thought that an appointment for life led the chief of the State to impose his own views too violently, in the fear that time would fail him for their ultimate accomplish- ment. They resolved to try whether the substitution 28 of an annual magistracy for the Dukedom would meet the case. The new chief of the State was called the 7^7 Mastro Miles, the Master Soldier, and he held his office for one year only. This experimental constitution did not last more than six years. There were signs that the murder of Orso and the expulsion of his family had not really put a check upon the Eastern policy which that Doge was accused of exagger- ating. For we find that Deodato, the fourth master of soldiery, was a son of the murdered Orso ; that the fifth received the title of Hypatos, which had given so much offence, and that the sixth, and last, was a native of Heraclea, the very township whose citizens had proved so distasteful, as Doges, to the rest of the community. This last election caused the civil war to break out once more. After a fierce battle between the people of Jesolo and Heraclea, the master of the soldiery, Giovanni Fabriaco, was captured and, in accordance with the barbarous Greek custom, which became common in Venice, his eyes were put out by being exposed over a brazier of live coal. The population grew weary of these disastrous civil wars, which the new constitution, no less than the old, seemed powerless to curb. A general assembly was sum- moned, not at Heraclea but at Malamocco, and Deodato, son of the last Doge, was chosen the fourth Doge of Venice. The election of Deodato closes an important period in the early history of the lagoon communities. The position of Venice in relation to other powers, had been greatly improved by the expedition to Ravenna. Internally the advance was even more striking. The growing State had made trial of a constitutional elective monarchy under the first Doges ; had discovered the dangers inherent in such a system; had abolished the Dukedom, and tried a yearly presidency under the Master Soldiers ; had found this magistracy inadequate, and had returned again to the government by Doges, but with a difference. The Doge is a Heraclean, it is true ; he is elected, however, no longer at Heraclea but at Malamocco, and reigns there. A step has ADVENT OF THE FRANKS 29 been taken in the direction of consolidating and fusing the various hostile elements which composed the lagoon 742. population. The Venetians had completed their first series of experiments in state-making; but the problem of unification was far from solved. The tendency displayed by the summons to meet at Malamocco, not at Heraclea, is continued throughout the ensuing years, till Malamocco emerges as the chief township of the lagoons, and the Malamocchini take the lead among the lagoon population, thereby suppressing the powerful Heraclea, and paving the way for the final amalgamation at Eialto. The course of general history was about to produce, in the reign of the Doge Deodato, an event of the highest moment in the history of Venice, the advent of the Franks. The hostility between the Papacy and Leo the Isaurian still continued. The Lateran Council of 732 excommunicated iconoclasts. The Pope and the Emperor were completely estranged. On the other hand, the Pope was embroiled with the Lombard Kingdom, on account of the protection he had extended to the rebellious Duke of Spoleto. The attitude of the Lombards was menacing. The King had already seized several towns in Roman territory. The Pope was obliged to cast about for some defence against the threatened storm. At this moment the victory of Charles Martel over the Saracens at Tours drew the attention of the whole world to the Franks. It was to the Franks that the Pope turned for support in his isolation. Zacharia upheld Pepin in his rape of the crown from the Merovingians. Stephen, his successor, went in person to France, where he solicited Pepin's aid in Italy, and crowned the usurper in Paris. Pepin descended on Italy, compelled the Lombards to restore the cities they had seized in the Ducato Romano and in the Pentapolis. On his return to France he made a gift of these new acquisitions to his ally the Pope, retaining a feudal superiority over the Penta- polis and Ravenna. Thus the cities which were serious rivals to Venice in the trade of the 'Adriatic passed from the Greek Empire, nominally into the hands of the Franks, really under the dominion of the Pope. 30 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC The policy of the Venetians at this point is not easily explained. On previous occasions when Eavenna had been wrested from Greek control, the Venetians took an active part in helping to restore it to the Empire. Now they showed themselves hostile to Constantinople. Their merchants in the Levant learned that the Emperor intended to recover Eavenna and the Pentapolis. Instantly the news was conveyed to the Archbishop of Eavenna, and thence to the Pope. The attitude of Venice may perhaps be accounted for on two grounds. The Venetians were unwilling to see the Lombards in possession of Eavenna ; their presence in that city was a constant menace to the lagoons. But there was no such objection to the presence of a Pope, without an army and without a fleet. Secondly, the party inside the lagoons which was represented by Malamocco, had now come to power ; it was distinctly an anti-imperial party, in opposition to the strong imperial tendencies of Heraclea, and, by consequence, was favourable to the Pope, the enemy of the Emperor. The blow inflicted on the Lombards by the Frankish invasion, had so reduced the power of their kingdom that Deodato was able to renew the commercial treaty which the Venetians had enjoyed under Liudprand, and to restore those friendly relations which had been disturbed at the time when the lagoon population supported the Exarch Paul. Under these favourable conditions Venetian commerce grew apace. We find Venetians trading as far east as Constantinople, the Black Sea, and Syria ; while on the mainland they were to be found in the markets of Pavia, and even of Eome. Their commercial activity took the form which it ever after retained. The Venetians became great importers and distributors ; they were not then, nor ever, an industrial people, to any great extent. This de- velopment of the carrying trade led naturally to a rapid increase in shipbuilding, which now took its place as one of the chief resources of the population. But, as happened before, in the reign of Orso, this prosperity only served to rekindle the latent fires of jealousy between rival communities. A prominent family in the THE RISE OF MALAMOCCO 31 rising township of Malamocco, the Obelerii, came to open rupture with the Barbaromani, a leading family in the declining township of Heraclea. The Doge, though elected and reigning at Malamocco, was still a Heraclean, and lent, or was accused of lending, his support to those of his native town. While he was engaged in forti- fying Brondolo, at the mouth of the Brenta, near Chioggia, he was treacherously seized by Galla Gaulo, a native of Jesolo, the implacable foe of Heraclea, and instantly blinded in the usual barbarous fashion. Without giving the people time to assemble, Galla proceeded straight to Malamocco, as the centre of lagoon political life, made himself master of it, and proclaimed himself Doge. This act was a coup de main, and decidedly unconstitutional. The people resolved to resist it. Galla was besieged in Malamocco, captured and blinded after a reign of one year. The Venetians then elected Domenico Monegario, a native of Malamocco, as their sixth Doge. The election of Monegario produced another change in the constitution, a further experiment in state- making. Malamocco, as we have seen, was the rising township in the lagoon. It had become the seat of the Govern- ment ; but it had not hitherto succeeded in creating one of its own citizens Doge of Venice. Now, however, in the person of Monegario, Malamocco assumes the absolute supremacy. And the democratic nature of this election is shown by the anxiety of the Malamocchini to preserve the Dukedom from any tendency to become despotic; an anxiety which they displayed in the appointment of two Tribunes, elected annually, who were to act as controllers of the Doge. The early chronicles which deal with this alteration in the constitution, assign two various causes. Sagornino, in high aristocratic vein, declares the change to be due to the instability of the popular mind, which is always trying new experiments. Lorenzo de Monacis affirms that the Tribunes were elected owing to the intolerable haughtiness of the previous Doges. The remedy proved worse than the evil. The Doge found that his assessors attempted to overrule him, and to usurp his authority. He showed 32 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC himself less and less willing to accept the annual election of the Tribunes. His opposition cost him his throne, his eyesight, and his life. He was killed in 764. We do not gather from our authorities whether the people of Heraclea had any part in the deposition and the murder of Monegario. But it is not improbable that they took their share in that event. For in the person of the next Doge, Maurizio Galbaio, we find a revival of Heraclean influence in the lagoons. The new Doge was a native of Heraclea, but he continued to reign in democratic Malamocco. The reigns of Maurizio and his son and successor Gio- vanni, bring us to the most important period of Venetian history that we have traversed as yet. The lagoon community was exposed to the greatest dangers it had hitherto faced; and the pressure which was then brought to bear upon it, achieved its unification, and caused it to emerge as a full-grown independent State. Desiderio, the last King of the Lombards, threatened to attack Eavenna. The Archbishop Leo, who held it for the Pope, appealed for assistance to Koine, and Eome, following a policy which had now become traditional, begged the Franks to descend once more to its aid. Charles the Great complied willingly. In 773 he crossed the Alps, and by the following year he had destroyed the Lombard Kingdom, and established the Franks in its place. The difference between Frank and Lombard, as far as Venice was concerned, did not make itself immediately apparent. One barbarian lord of the mainland had taken the place of another; that was all. Venetian commerce on the continent continued, we know, and " to the fair at Pavia came the Venetians, bringing with them from over seas all the riches of the Orient." But Charles was a very different neighbour from Liudprand, Desiderio, or Astolf. He was fully aware that the Venetians, face to face with the masters of the mainland, had always declared themselves and shown themselves faithful allies of Constantinople. He had no intention that such a hostile GROWTH OF A FRANK IS H PARTY. 33 element should remain undisturbed on the very borders of his new kingdom. The opportunity for carrying out his design was not far to seek. On his arrival in Italy, Charles had confirmed the donation of Pepin, his father, to the Pope; this donation included Eavenna and the Pentapolis, in which the Venetians had large commercial interests. Charles gave orders to the Pope and such the Pope admitted them to be that all the Venetians should be expelled from Eavenna and the five cities. It is possible that a pretext for this summary action may be found in the royal edict against slavery, a traffic which the Venetians then exercised. However that may be, the Pope, in writing to Charles, announced that he had given orders to the Archbishop of Eavenna to carry out his ally's wishes, and the Venetians were thus forewarned as to the attitude which the Prankish sovereign would adopt towards them. Inside the lagoons, under the wise rule of Maurizio Galbaio, the State continued to increase in population. We find a proof of this growth in the creation of the new See of Olivolo, the modern Castello. Hitherto the one Bishopric of Malamocco had been sufficient for the spiritual needs of the island townships. A synod of the whole Patriarchate of Grado was summoned in 774, at which were present the Patriarch, the bishops of the province, the clergy, the Doge, the nobles, and the people; and Obelerio of Malamocco was elected first Bishop of the new See, invested by the Doge and consecrated by the Patriarch. The Venetians were well satisfied with the able rule of Galbaio; but in the course of his long reign the cares of State began to weigh too heavily upon him. With the permission of the people, he took his son, Giovanni, as his colleague. This innovation was likely to prove dangerous in a growing State, where the position of the chief was not yet rigidly defined, nor his powers circumscribed. It left a door open towards the conversion of the Dukedom into an hereditary monarchy, a conversion which more than one subsequent Doge endeavoured to carry out. But before this policy had had time to rouse the suspicion of the D 34 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Venetians, Maurizio, the elder Doge, died and left his son Giovanni sole Duke. Under the rule of this younger and more im- petuous Galbaio, the policy of the lagoon-dwellers became denned. The Doge himself was a native of Hera- clea; he inherited the Eastern proclivities of his township and his family, and if any scheme for making the Dukedom hereditary was present to his mind, this also would have tended to confirm him in supporting the weak and distant Emperor against the near and powerful Frank. On the other hand, a party favourable to the Franks had grown up inside Venice a party which urged that hostility to the new master of the mainland meant loss of commercial privileges, destruction to trade, and the possible annihilation of Venetian independence. The close alliance between the Franks and the Church made the Patriarch of Grado the natural head of this new faction in the lagoons; though, strictly speaking, the party can hardly be called a new one. It was in reality the party of opposition to the Empire, the old democratic faction, whose centre had been Jesolo and now was Malamocco. Only we must note this difference, that the advent of a churchman as leader made it not impossible for this party to act some day disloyally to the independ- ence of the lagoon communities, in obedience to that larger allegiance which churchmen have always owned to a power outside and above their native country. This Frankish party naturally gathered to itself the enemies of the Doge, and all those who dreaded the attack on lagoon freedom implied in the passage of the Dukedom from father to son an innovation which Giovanni showed a desire to make customary, by associating his own son Maurizio with himself in the Dogeship. A pretext for the explosion of this pent-up hostility was soon offered, when the new See of Olivolo fell vacant. 797- The Doge Giovanni appointed a Greek, named Christopher, to the Bishopric ; but the party opposed to the Galbaii induced the Patriarch to refuse consecration. The Doge, however, resolved to be master. He resorted to violence. He manned a fleet, and sent his son and colleague Maurizio to FALL OF THE GALBAII 35 Grado. The chronicler Dandolo says : " Maurizio attacked the city with fury ; in the onslaught the Patriarch was captured by the Venetians, and then hurled from the highest tower of his palace and killed." This act of sacrilegious violence only served to accentuate party hatreds, and raised an impassable barrier between the two factions in the lagoons. The murder of the Patriarch Giovanni did not alter the policy of the See of Grado. His nephew and successor, Fortunatus, a man of restless energy, of great ability, and indomitable determination, soon proved himself as strong a partisan as ever his uncle had been. In concert with certain families of Malamocco, among w r hom the Obelerii took the lead, he matured a plot against the Doges. This plot was discovered before it could be put into execution. Fortunatus and his fellow-conspirators were obliged to fly from Venice. The fugitive Patriarch sought refuge at the Court of Charles, where he did all that in him lay to influence the mind of the Emperor against the Venetians, by dwelling on the murder of his predecessor, slain because he was a friend to the Franks, and by pointing out to Charles that the Venetians, who formed a part of what ought to be his kingdom of Italy, were entirely devoted to the Eastern Empire. Obelerio and the other refugees remained at Treviso, a city of the Frankish kingdom, only twelve miles distant from the shores of the estuary. They kept up relations with members of their own party in Malamocco ; and, after some slight delay, a successful rising against the Doges was the result. Giovanni and Maurizio, in their turn, were expelled from the lagoons. Obelerio returned to Malamocco, and was elected Doge. Five years previous to this event Charles had been crowned Eoman Emperor by the Pope, and had entered into 3 ' negotiations of marriage with Irene, Empress of the East. If this marriage had been carried out Venetian inde- pendence would have been crushed, if not for ever, at least for many years to come. But the proclamation of Charles as Emperor, and his proposal to wed Irene, produced such indignation in Constantinople that the Empress was deposed, r> 2 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC and Nicephorus took her place. When Charles's ambassadors arrived they were well received, and Nicephorus showed a disposition to treat amicably with the new Roman Emperor. The result of these negotiations was a contract between Charles and Nicephorus, concluded at Salz. The treaty determined the respective dominions of the two Empires, where they were conterminous. What position was assigned to Venice in this compact is not abso- lutely clear. The Venetian chronicler Dandolo says : " In this treaty it was expressly stated that the Venetian cities and the maritime cities of Dalmatia which had remained unshaken in their allegiance to the Empire, should in no way be molested, invaded, or minished ; and that the Venetians should enjoy in peace the possessions, liberties, and immunities which they had been accustomed to hold in the kingdom of Italy." Eginhard says that Charles took " Istria, Liburnia, and Dalmatia, except the maritime cities." The statement of Eginhard, who is a contemporary, is less definite than that of Dandolo. But we may take it that Venice of the lagoons was really declared by this treaty to form a part of the Eastern Empire. The reign of the two Galbaii had been marked by a strong tendency towards Constantinople, and by an equally strong anti-Frank policy. The inevitable reaction had placed Obelerio on the throne. But the triumph of the Frankish democratic Church party had been achieved with so much difficulty, that Obelerio did not dare to display too openly his own political proclivities. This hesitation is shown by the fact that although the revolution designed by Fortunatus had been successful, he was not invited to return and to fill his See of Grado. The Doge felt that the presence of so pronounced a Frankophil would endanger his own authority. The attitude of the Venetian population, face to face with the Franks on the mainland, was one of highly nervous excitement. They seem to have felt that the crisis in their history was approaching, and that upon the turn which events now took, depended their success or their failure to secure the liberty they desired, and to make themselves a State. FORTUNATUS OF GRADO 37 The triumph of Malamocco in the person of Obelerio did not fail to produce its wonted result upon Heraclea. The inhabitants of that township, under the com- mand of one of the Barbaromani, attacked their neighbour Jesolo, and worsted its citizens. These fled to Malamocco, and implored the aid of the Doge against Heraclea. Obelerio departed in person for the scene of the contest. He summoned a meeting of the Tribunes and people of the lagoons on the shores of the Pineto ; and there by common accord it was resolved that the inhabitants of the two hostile townships should be removed to Malamocco, in whose popu- lation it was hoped that they would be absorbed, and so forget their ancient enmity. Thus the penultimate step towards a complete fusion of the lagoon population was brought about. Fortunatus, the banished Patriarch, and with him Christopher, the Bishop of Olivolo, though refused admission to the lagoons, still continued to haunt their borders; plotting to maintain the Frankish party in activity, and endeavouring to recover their respective Sees. The Bishopric of Olivolo had during this time been illegally occupied by a certain John the Deacon. One day Fortunatus captured the Deacon, and locked him up in Mestre ; " but," says the chronicle, " while Fortunatus was considering what to do with him, the Deacon escaped by night, and went straight to the Doge" to demand redress. This accident compelled Fortunatus to retire from Venice once more. He went to Istria, where, by the favour of Charles, he was made Bishop of Pola. But his exile did not last long. We presently find him relieved from his outlawry, and restored to his patriarchal See. This return of Fortunatus marks the crowning point of the Frankish faction in the lagoons. The result was >0 ^' soon shown in the visit which Obelerio and his brother Beato paid to Charles, from whom they submissively received orders as to the government of the State. It is not surprising that the Doge was accused of a distinct plot to hand over the lagoons to Charles, with a view to their being absorbed in the Italian kingdom. The party hostile to the Frankophil Doge at once informed Nicephorus of what was 38 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC going forward ; and in a short time the Imperial fleet, under Nicetas, appeared in the Adriatic. His presence com- pelled the Doge to simulate submission to Constanti- nople; and Fortunatus, who was too deeply dyed in Frankish colours, fled once more. Nicetas concluded a truce with Pepin, son of Charles, and returned to Constantinople, taking with him hostages for the good behaviour of the Venetians. The conclusion of this long struggle for unity and freedom, which had been carried on through so many years, was not far off now. Pepin, King of Italy, resolved to make his kingdom a fact, not merely a name. One of the first quarters to which he turned his attention was that little corner of North Italy which had shown itself so indepen- dent, the lagoon of Venice. He collected his armament at Ravenna, and prepared his attack. The assault from the sea side was not difficult. Pepin soon made himself master of Cavarzere, Brondolo, Chioggia. From Chioggia to Malamocco the operations were more complicated, owing to the various sea openings which divided the Lido, along which Pepin had to pass before he could strike at Malamocco, the seat of the Government. Near one of these ports, Albiola, now Porto Secco, the Venetians made a stand. But Mala- mocco was so seriously menaced that the women, children, and goods of the inhabitants were removed to the midmost island of the lagoons, Eialto, the 'present city of Venice. For many months the resistance continued. The lagoon channels were impassable for Pepin's heavy vessels. The light boats of the Venetians never ceased to harass the Franks. At last in despair, Pepin, so tradition represents, cried to the stubborn islanders, " Own yourselves my sub- jects, for you come from lands that are mine"; to which came the answer, " We are resolved to be the Roman Emperor's men, not yours." The great heats came on : the feverish shores of the Lidi proved fatal to the Frankish chivalry: rumours, too, of the advent of a Greek fleet all warned Pepin that he had failed. He withdrew from the lagoons, after promising to recognise every Venetian right and privilege on the main land, and to restore the islands he had captured ; in return for which the lagoon population RIALTO THE CAPITAL 39 consented to a tribute such as they had formerly paid to the Lombard Kings. The repulse of Pepin is by far the most important event in early Venetian history. It is not surprising that Venetian pride and patriotism should have gathered round this central point a large accumulation of legend, under which the plain facts have become obscured. This triumph over the Franks meant that, externally, the Venetians had demonstrated their right to exist. They had known how to preserve their freedom and to repel a foe. Internally, it signified that the long period of amalgamation was at an end ; that the hostile elements in the original lagoon population were now fused and made one under stress of foreign invasion. Eialto, the new capital of the lagoons, rose into pre-eminence upon the ruins of Heraclea and of Malamocco, and stood there as an outward and visible sign of reconciliation effected in face of a common danger. But the choice of Eialto as capital was not merely a monu- ment to political compromise; it was also the result of a long process of natural selection. The invasions of Huns, Goths, and Lombards had demonstrated the perils of the mainland as a place of habitation. The attack of Pepin proved the insecurity of the seaboard. After much suffering and many disasters, the Venetians chose that middle group of islands, half-way between seaboard and mainland, then known as Eialto, which political no less than geographical necessity indicated as the true home of that city State whose history we have now to follow. CHAPTER III The hereditary tendency in the Dukedom The growth of Venetian commerce Agnello Particiaco, Doge The growth and embellishment of Rialto Venice excluded from the Frankish Empire Plot against the Doge Relations with the East The Saracens Giovanni Particiaco, Doge Consort Quarrel in the Doge's family Giustinia.no Particiaco, Doge War with the Saracens Aquileia and Grado The translation of S. Mark's body Giovanni Particiaco, Doge Last efforts of the Prankish party The Dogeship almost hereditary The Particiachi expelled Pietro Tradonico, Doge The Sclav pirates and the Saracens The expedi- tion to Taranto a failure Saracens threaten the lagoons The pirates threaten the lagoons Defences of the lagoon entrances Treaty with Lothair, oldest diplomatic document Feuds between noble families Murder of the Doge Orso Particiaco I., Doge Aquileia and Grado The quarrel between the Doge and Patriarch of Grado about presentation to Torcello Erastian attitude of Venice Quarrel with Aquileia Giovanni Particiaco II., Doge War of Comacchio Orso Particiaco, Doge Consort Pietro Candiano I., Doge War with Dalmatian pirates Pietro Tribuno, Doge The diploma of the Emperor Guy Hungarian invasion Fortification of Venice Orso Particiaco, Doge The diploma of the Emperor Rudolph Venetian right to coin money Pietro Candiano II. , Doge Alliance with Istria against pirates Quarrel with Wintker Pietro Particiaco, Doge Pietro Candiano III., Doge Lupo, Patriarch of Aquileia, reduced Pietro Candiano IV., Doge Meaning of his election Relations with Otho II., and with Zimices Ambition of Candiano His death Pietro Orseolo I.,. Doge Taxation of Venice to pay Hwalderada's dowry Rebuilding of the Palace and S. Mark's Flight of the Doge Vitale Candiano, Doge Tribuno Memo, Doge Family feuds Caloprini and Morosini Death of Otho The Doge deposed. THE period we are now about to enter is marked by two broad characteristics, which we shall find displaying themselves in the course of this narration. First, there is a tendency to render the Dukedom hereditary in some one powerful family a tendency which was always checked by the instinct of the people, who, as they had already declared GRO WTH OF RIAL TO 41 did not come to the lagoons "to live under a lord." The ~ constant efforts of . a few great families to secure the Dogeship for themselves, and the equally con- stant opposition on the part of the people, produced frequent riots in the city; but during this process the ducal position gradually assumed the shape it was to retain throughout Venetian history. Secondly, the Eepublic achieved a large extension of her commerce, partly by diplomacy, partly by arms. Venice went to school, as it were, and learned the use of those weapons by which she was to acquire her singular position in European history. At the same time she trained herself in that egotistical policy which is usually charac- teristic of a commercial race ; her conduct was guided, and inevitably guided, by a consideration of her own sole interests. Frank, Saracen, or Greek, believer or infidel, were alike indifferent to her, except in so far as they affected for the moment her own prospects of aggrandisement. After the repulse of Pepin, and the defeat of the Frankish party in the lagoons, the people assembled and elected as their first Doge in the township of Eialto, Agnello Particiaco, 1 a noble of Heraclean descent, whose family had given Tribunes to that group of islands. Agnello's first care was directed to the erection of Eialto into a city worthy to be the capital of the whole lagoon community. The Venetians had always been forced to fight, not merely against men for their existence as a State, but also against Nature for the very ground on which they stood. And fighting had to be done now, before Eialto could be made large enough and sufficiently secure to receive its rapidly growing population. The Doge appointed a commission of three to superintend the necessary works. Pietro Tradonico was charged with the direction of all new structures, Lorenzo with the excavation of canals and the formation of building sites, while to Nicolo Ardisonio was entrusted the conservation of the Lidi against the perpetual corrosion of the sea. A dwelling for the Government was also required; and 1 I follow Sagoronino in the spelling of this name. 42 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Agnello began to build a ducal palace, " close by the church of S. Theodore," that is, on part of the site occupied by the present ducal palace, though time and fires have left us no traces of this earliest home of the Venetian Doges. Agnello was fortunate in his foreign relations ; he reaped the benefit of Pepin's repulse. Charles the Great, when re- newing his treaties with the Eastern Empire, reaffirmed the agreement between himself and Mcephorus, by distinctly excluding Venice from the bounds of his own dominions ; though he allowed the Venetians to retain all their possess- ions within the West. But the party of the Frankophils, under their able though restless leader, Fortunatus, was not yet completely crushed. Fortunatus incurred suspicion of having taken a chief part in a serious conspiracy against the life of the Doge. The plot was discovered, and two of its leaders were executed ; a third fled to Lothair, then King of Italy. Fortunatus was expelled from his See, and compelled to seek an asylum in France. But peace and quiet were not in his nature. His passion for plotting remained un- cooled. He became involved in other conspiracies, was denounced at Rome, summoned to the eternal city by the Pope, and died on his way there. The banishment and death of Fortunatus were a great relief to the Doge, and a fatal blow to the Frankish party, which, as we shall see, made only one more effort to disturb the State of Venice before disappearing for ever from the scene. Agnello's relations with the Eastern Empire were more cordial. He was a Heraclean by descent, and therefore he entertained a natural leaning towards the East. He sent his son, Giustiniano, to congratulate Leo on his accession to the throne; and his grandson, Angelo, to fulfil a similar mission in the case of Michel the Stammerer. The former received the honorary title of Hypatos, and from Con- stantinople came the present of many precious relics of saints. But there were other and more urgent reasons which drew Venice and the East together. The decay of the Frankish authority on the mainland produced such confusion, that it was almost impossible for the Venetians THE SARACENS 43 to enter into practical political relations with their im- mediate neighbours. Compared with the Kingdom of Italy, the Empire of the East was a firm and stable institution. On the other hand, a naval power had begun to make itself felt in the Mediterranean. The Saracens were arousing the serious alarm of the Greeks. It was of the highest importance that friendly relations between Constantinople and Venice should be maintained; for even at this early date, Venice was the only State which could man a fleet capable of coping with the new power. We shall have frequent occasion throughout this chapter to observe how extremely weighty in the development of Venice this advent of the Saracens proved ; for it compelled the young Eepublic to try its weapons, and tempted it to bolder adventures than any it had dared as yet. Early in his reign Agnello begged and obtained leave to renew the pernicious custom of creating the Doge's son, Doge Consort. His elder son, Giustiniano, was then in Constantinople, and Giovanni, the younger, assumed the ducal dignity. When Giustiniano returned home he complained loudly of the honour done to his younger brother, who had deserved nothing of the State. He refused to live with his father in the palace, and retired, accompanied by his wife, to a house near the church of San Servero. Agnello, wishing to pacify his elder son, deposed Giovanni, and raised Giustiniano to the coveted post. Giovanni became so troublesome that he was expelled to Zara; thence he escaped to Bergamo, and appealed to the Emperor Lewis. On learning this, his father and brother begged the Emperor to hand over the fugitive to them ; the Emperor consented, and Giovanni was dismissed to Constantinople, where he remained quiet. This family quarrel in the Doge's household forms a fitting prelude to the many more serious complica- tions which were produced by the system of the Doge Consort. Agnello died and left his son Giustiniano, the Doge Consort, in sole authority. The Emperor of the East, Michel, was, at that time, engaged in endeavouring to save Sicily from the Saracens. On two occasions the Imperial 44 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC fleet received reinforcements from Venice. On neither occasion did the Venetians distinguish themselves, and the whole expedition proved a failure, ending with the fall of Messina in 831. But the event is important as being the first occasion on which the Venetians faced the Saracens, whose more intimate acquaintance they were presently to make. Giustiniano's short reign of two years was marked by V V two events of interest. The first was the attack made by Maxentius, Patriarch of Aquileia, on the Patriarch of Grado. Maxentius found support from the Prankish sovereign, Lothair; and, in a Council held at Mantua, he obtained a decree which declared that the See of Aquileia was Metro- politan of Istria. This was clearly in direct opposition to the decree of the Lateran Council of 732, which had estab- lished the separation of the two jurisdictions. The death of the Pope, however, to whom Venerius, Patriarch of Grado, had appealed, left the question undecided, though Venice was again reminded that her interest lay in maintaining the See of Grado against Aquileia, which, as a mainland city, was liable to be influenced by the masters of the Italian kingdom. The second and more picturesque event of Giustiniano's reign was the translation of the body of S. Mark, the aureus lucifer, as Dandolo calls him, from Alex- andria to Venice. Whatever the historical authenticity of this episode may be, it signifies, in a way, coining as it did so soon after the concentration at Eialto, the religious dedi- cation of the new State. S. Mark became the patron and protector of the new Venice at Eialto. And Venice felt a peculiar interest in the Apostle of the Lion; he is said to have preached in Aquileia to have been, as it were, the founder of that see ; the Bishopric of Grado was derived in direct descent from the See of Aquileia; some of the apostle's glory, therefore, environed the Patriarchate of the lagoons, and gave the Venetians a certain right to consider their patriarchal See as not so very inferior to that of Rome itself ; for S. Mark, the Evangelist and Apostle, was at least as honourable as S. Peter the denier. And this conception, though one of fancy, was not without its influence on the THE TRANSLATION OF S. MARK 45 attitude which the Republic of Venice habitually adopted towards Rome in matters ecclesiastical. The fact of the translation of a body from Alex- andria to Venice is tolerably certain. The details are, no doubt, mythical. But the account given by Martin da Canal, the most vivid and picturesque of early Venetian chroniclers, will serve as well as any other. " Truth it is," says he, " that in those days there was a ship of Venice in the port of Alexandria, and in that city was the precious body of Monsignore S. Mark, whom the infidels had slain. Now on board the ship of Venice were three brave men, Rustico of Torcello, Buono of Malamocco, and Stauraco. In these three men so strong was the hope and so great their desire to carry Monsignore S. Mark to Venice, that they went cunningly about him who was guardian of the body, and became friends to him. Then it came ta pass that they said unto him, ' Sir, an you will with us to Venice, we may carry away the body of S. Mark, and we shall make you very rich.' But when the good man Theodore he was called heard this he said, ' Silence, sirs, speak not such words. This thing can never be. For the pagans hold him above all price; and, should they suspect your desire, not all the riches of the world would save you from being cut to bits. So I beg you say not such words.' Then said one of them, 'Well, we will wait till the Evangelist himself shall bid you come with us ! ' And so they said no more that time. But presently it came to pass, that into the heart of that good man came the desire to take the body of S. Mark from thence, and to go with him to Venice; and he said to those brave men, ' Sirs, how shall we lift the holy body, and no one be the wiser ? ' And one replied, ' We will do it right cunningly.' Then they went to the tomb with all speed, and lifted the body of S. Mark from where it lay, and put it in a basket, and covered it with cabbages and pork. And they took another body and dressed it in the vesture they had stripped from the body of S. Mark, and laid it in the tomb, and sealed the tomb as it was sealed before. Then those brave men took S. Mark and carried him in the basket aboard their ship, and they placed the body 46 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC between two quarters of pork, and hung them to the mast. Now at the very moment when they were opening the tomb, an odour spread through the city, so sweet that had all the spice shops of the world been in Alexandria it would not have been enough to scent it so. Then the pagans said, 'Mark is moving'; for once each year they were wont to smell this odour. All the same they went to the tomb, and opened it, and saw the body wrapped in the vesture of S. Mark, and were content. But some of the pagans came to the ship, and searched her through ; for they thought that the Venetians were carrying off S. Mark. But when they saw the pork hanging from the mast they began to cry, 'hanzir, hanzir,' 1 and fled from the vessel. The wind was fresh and fair. They set their canvas to the wind and passed out into the open sea. On the third day they came to Koumania. It was night. They were under full sail, and all asleep, so that they bore right down upon an island. But the precious Evangelist roused the master and said, 'Lower your sails, or we go on shore.' Then the master roused the crew and lowered the sail; and so that ship came into Venice." The body of S. Mark was received with every honour. The Doge assigned a piece of land near the chapel of S. Theodore, on which he began to build a church in honour of the Evangelist, who from that time forward usurped the place of S. Theodore as patron of the lagoon city. The Doge Giustiniano died and was succeeded by his brother Giovanni, whom he had ousted from the posi- tion of Doge Consort in the reign of their father, Agnello. Giovanni had hardly ascended the throne when the Frankish party made its final effort to recover its position in the lagoons. Obelerio, the exiled Doge, returned to the borders of the estuary, and opened negotiations with the people of his native township, Malarnocco. The Doge, Giovanni, summoned the militia, and proceeded to attack the town on the mainland where Obelerio had taken up his abode. But the Mala- moccan portion of his troops rebelled and declared themselves for Obelerio. The Doge acted with great promptitude and severity. He abandoned, for the moment, his attack on 1 Khanzir, Arabic for "Pig." FALL OF THE PARTICIACHI 47 Obelerio, and went straight to Malamocco. He put the town to fire and sword. Then returning to Obelerio's stronghold, he captured it and the ex- Doge. Obelerio was decapitated, and his head sent to Malamocco first, as a warning, and then back again to the mainland, where it was planted on a stake as a defiance to the Frankish power. With the death of Obelerio the hopes of the Frankophils died away, and that element of disturbance was erased from lagoon history. But the Doge's action throughout had been too high- handed to satisfy the Venetian population, which was still suspicious of its ruler's conduct. A further ground for alarm was offered by the fact that the ducal dignity had now become all but hereditary in the family of Particiaco. A certain Pietro Caroso, a man of ambitious rather than of patriotic temperament, found little difficulty in forming a party so strong that the Doge was compelled to seek safety in flight. Caroso was elected to fill the vacant throne, but only by his own followers ; nor had he the power to maintain his position for more than six months. At the end of that period the faction of the Particiachi succeeded in causing a revolution against him, in the course of which he was seized and blinded, while the exiled Doge was restored to the throne. But the movement set on foot by Caroso was too powerful and too deeply rooted in the popular instinct to be easily snuffed out. Though the Venetians resented the usurpation by Caroso, they had not forgiven the sack of Malamocco, nor forgotten that Giovanni was the third Particiaco who had held the ducal chair in succession. On S. Peter's Day, as the Doge was returning from the church of that saint at Castello, he was violently seized in the street; his beard was shaved, his crown tonsured, and he was compelled to retire to a monastery in Grado, where he presently died. The strength of the popular movement against the dynastic tendency of the Particiaco family made 3 ' itself plainly visible at the next election, when the people chose Pietro Tradonico, not merely no relation to the Particiachi, but a man whose ancestors came from 48 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Jesolo, the ancient rival of Heraclea, the original home of the last Doge's family. No sooner was Tradonico seated on the throne, however, and had won the confidence of the people, than he induced them to forget one of the chief reasons which had led to his own election. At his request they gave him leave to raise his son to the position of Doge Consort. Such persistence in the habit of creating a Doge Consort would almost lead us to suppose that there existed a party in the State which considered such an office to be constitutionally a necessity. The reign of Tradonico is of high importance in the history of Venice. During this stormy quarter of a century the Republic was exposed to two great external dangers, one from the Sclav pirates of the Dalmatian coast, the other from the Saracens ; her commercial position on the mainland of Italy was greatly strengthened by her friendly relations with Lothair, while internally, she suffered from the violence of those family feuds which tore the State asunder. The broken coast-line of Dalmatia, with its numerous islands lying parallel to the shore, with its deep gulfs, its narrow channels, rapid currents and sunken rocks, had long offered a fitting shelter for the hordes of Sclavs who, settling upon those shores, took to piracy as a profession. These nests of freebooters were a perpetual menace to Venetian trade, and as early as the last reign, the Dalmatian pirates had begun to seize Venetian merchantmen while beating their way up the Adriatic, and making for Venice. One of the first acts of Tradonico was to attack the corsairs on two occasions. The earlier expedition proved successful. But a lawless race, such as the Dalmatian pirates, was not to be bound by treaties of peace, and the Doge had no sooner turned his back than depredations began again. The second expedition was unsuccessful, and Venetian trade remained exposed to the dangers of freebooters till the glorious expedition of Pietro Orseolo II. curbed the audacity of the Dalmatians for a time. A still more formidable foe was about to claim the atten- tion of the young Republic. The Emperor Theophilus sent to request the help of the Venetian fleet against the Saracens, SARACENS AND PIRATES 49 who, in 831, had made themselves masters of Messina. The Venetians, after some hesitation caused by the dread of provoking an enemy so able to injure their trade, resolved to throw themselves vigorously into the war. The size of the fleet which they sent towards Taranto proves how powerful the Eepublic had become. It consisted of sixty vessels, manned by two hundred men apiece. The expedition failed utterly. The Saracens were victorious and sailed up the Adriatic, devastating Bari and Ancona. They reached the port of Adria, at no great distance from Bron- dolo and the lagoons. Venice lay defenceless, as far as her fleet was concerned. But when the Saracens saw prospect of but little booty, and great difficulty in obtaining that, they withdrew. On the open sea and all down the Adriatic they were masters. But the intricate waters of the lagoon again defied invasion, and the singular nature of their home once more saved the Venetians from certain ruin. The Saracens were masters of the Adriatic, and the Venetians were compelled, in self-defence, to try yet again the fortune of war against their enemy, this time in the Quarnero, and again they suffered defeat. The disastrous effects of these reverses were soon dis- played in the descent which the Sclavonian pirates made upon the borders of the lagoon. They took and sacked Caorle. The Sclavs of Dalmatia were bold and skil- ful navigators, not likely to shrink, as the Saracens had done, from attempting to penetrate the lagoon. So pressing was the danger, and so enfeebled were the Venetians at sea, that the Eepublic was compelled to turn its attention to the immediate defences of the channels which led into the home waters. The Doge constructed two guardships, of a size at that time unprecedented, and these were stationed along the shore to protect the breaks in. the line of the Lidi. In the midst of these misfortunes the Doge devoted his energies to consolidating Venetian relations with the main- land. The Saracens and the Sclav pirates were foes against whom all were ready to join. The Doge, therefore, found no difficulty in obtaining a very advantageous treaty from the Emperor Lothair. The document still exists, and is E 50 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the oldest monument of Venetian diplomacy which has been preserved to us in the original. The terms of the treaty provide that (1) all molestation of Venetians on the continent is to cease ; (2) fugitives from Venice shall not receive asylum; (3) subjects of the Empire are for- bidden to buy or to trade in Venetian subjects as slaves; (4) murderers are to be extradited by both parties; (5) ambassadors shall enjoy immunity ; (6) the confines con- tinue to be those designed by the treaty with Liudprand ; (7) Italians are pledged to remain neutral in any attack on Venice, and to take the offensive against pirates ; (8) the Venetians shall enjoy freedom of trade on land, and the subjects of the Empire the like by sea. The friendly spirit which animates this accord between Venice and the Western Empire continued for many years ; and a seal was set to it, as it were, by the visit which the Emperor Lewis II., Lothair's successor, paid to the lagoons in the year 856. During the reign of Tradonico, as far as external rela- tions were concerned, the Venetians had been brought into collision with two powerful enemies, the Sclav pirates and the Saracens. They had been put to a severe trial, and had emerged from it unsuccessful on the whole. But they had acquired a knowledge of themselves. They had proved their ability to make and to man a large fleet; they had been forced to fortify the lagoon entrances, which they now knew to be a weak point in their natural defences. On the other hand, in the face of common dangers, their relations with East and West had been strengthened, and they found themselves sought for as allies by both Empires. Inside Venice the city was rent by the quarrels of many noble families, who seem to have gathered round them the unappeased malignity of more ancient feuds. In these internecine struggles the Giustiniani, the Baseggi, and the Polani on the one hand, the Istolii, Silvi, and Barbolani on the other, stood out as champions. It was impossible for the Doge and the Government to remain indifferent specta- tors of the bloody brawls and savage vendettas which tore the city into two hostile camps. They took vigorous steps ; FAMILY FEUDS 51 and the families who attached themselves to the Istolii were expelled. The exiles went at once to the Emperor Lewis, and by his intercession they were restored, but under obligation to live on the island of the Giudecca, where it was hoped that the wide stretch of water between them and the neighbouring islands would help to keep them at peace. No sooner had they returned to Venice, however, than they began to plot against the chief of the State, and successfully. As the Doge was leaving the church of San Zaccaria, he was assaulted and murdered. His body lay on the threshold of the church till night came down, when the nuns gave it decent sepulture in the courtyard of their con- vent. The city fell a prey to civil war for many days after the Doge's assassination. His partisans withdrew into the ducal palace, fortified it, and refused to give it up. A com- mission was at last appointed to compose matters. The Doge's murderers were tried, and some banished. The palace was then surrendered by Tradonico's followers, and the election of a new Doge restored quiet for a time. With the election of Orso Particiaco the ducal dignity , was once more conferred on the family which had held it after the seat of Government had been removed to Eialto. The reign of Tradonico was merely an episode, though a long and important episode, in the history of the Particiaco dynasty. The chief events of Orso's reign centre round the two patriarchal Sees of Grado and Aquileia ; with both of them Particiaco came into collision. The Doges of Venice claimed, among their other rights, the nomination and the investiture of bishops. Orso named to the See of Torcello a certain Domenico Caloprini, member of one of the most powerful families in the city. The Patriarch of Grado, however, refused to accept the nomination, on the ground that Domenico had rendered himself incompetent in canon law. The quarrel continued for many years. The Patriarch retired to Istria, and thence to Kome. The Pope endea- voured to interfere, and summoned the bishops of the lagoon Sees to his presence. They ignored the summons. He sent his legate, who held a Council in Ptavenna, at which E 2 52 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC no Venetian bishops presented themselves. Finally, the Doge and the Patriarch arrived at a compromise by them- selves. Caloprini was to reside at Torcello and to enjoy the revenues of the See, but was not to be consecrated as long as the Patriarch was alive. The Patriarch died, and the Doge extracted from his successor a promise that he would consecrate whomsoever should be presented to the vacant See of Torcello. The Doge at once presented Calo- prini, and so won his point. The importance of the episode lies in this, that here we find the Doge asserting and main- taining that Erastian attitude towards the Church which always characterised Venetian ecclesiastical policy. The Doge ignores the interference of Rome, and exacts obedience from the clergy of the State, as from any other subject. The victory, in fact, remained with Venice, though the Church of Eome would not allow a practical defeat to constitute an establishment of rights. The brush with the Patriarch of Aquileia was of a different nature, though it was hardly less important. That Patriarch was in no sense a subject of the Doge, but he had been and was a declared enemy of the lagoon Patriarchate, which the Doge considered himself bound to protect, while exacting obedience. Walpert, the Patriarch of Aquileia, had shown his hostility by incursions into the territory of Grado, and by annoying the Venetian traders in their markets and factories on the mainland. In order to reduce the Patriarch to terms the Doge employed, not arms as heretofore, but another weapon, used now for the first time, though frequently adopted in later years. He closed the ports at the mouths of the rivers which flow through the territory of Aquileia, and forbade all exports to that city. So important had the lagoons become as a depot of supplies for the mainland, that the Patriarch almost immediately found himself compelled to yield to the blockade, and to implore for peace. Orso, after reigning for seventeen years, was succeeded by his son Giovanni, who had already been associ- ated with him as Doge Consort. Venetian commerce had been steadily growing, in spite of Saracens and Sclavs, FIRST COMMERCIAL WAR 53 as the successful blockade of Aquileia demonstrated. The ,, Venetian war-fleet had been increasing in power, thanks to the ever-present danger from these same Saracens and Sclavs. It was impossible that Venetian commercial interests should remain untainted by jealousy of their neighbours. It was equally impossible that the Venetians should not use their fleet to crush their rivals. The first war inspired by the desire for commercial aggrandisement was that which the Doge Giovanni undertook against Comacchio, a port in the lagoons of Ravenna, under the immediate tutelage of the Marquises of Este and the more remote protection of the Emperor. On an excuse of no validity, the Doge sailed to Comacchio, took and sacked it, returning home laden with booty. The protectors of Com- acchio were either unwilling or unable to resent this high- handed act. Charles the Fat, King of Italy, even renewed the usual pact with the Venetians. The most noticeable addition to the treaty was a clause against the murder of the Doge ; though the penalty of banishment and a fine of one hundred pounds of gold, does not seem to be a very powerful bridle for such violent political passions as at that time swayed the Venetians. Giovanni, the Doge, fell ill and abdicated in favour of his younger brother Pietro, who, however, died almost at once. Giovanni then returned to power with Orso II., his brother, as Doge Consort. But neither endured the strain of office for long. Both insisted on abdicating, and the people elected Pietro Candiano as their new chief. Pietro was presented to Giovanni at the ducal palace, and received from his hands the sceptre, sword, and ducal chair. Candiano, a man of vigorous and warlike character, de- termined to signalise his reign by the suppression of the Dalmatian pirates, who were still the pest of the Adriatic. He seems to have treated the task too lightly. His first expedition was a failure. He then manned twelve vessels, and sailed, in command himself, towards Zara. On the first assault the Sclavs fled; but when hard pressed, they made a stand, and in the conflict Pietro Candiano was slain, after holding the ducal chair for five months. His 54 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC body was recovered from the enemy and buried in Grado, where they still show his tomb. The Venetians were divided' upon the question of the new Doge. In order to avoid a civil war, they invited Giovanni Particiaco to leave his home once more, and to assume the supreme office until a successor could be peace- fully and legally elected. Giovanni consented ; and shortly afterwards the votes of the Venetians were concentrated on Pietro Tribuno. Two events of importance mark the reign of Pietro Tribuno. One of his first acts was to secure the renewal of the Imperial diplomas from the Emperor Guy. The growing importance, influence, and power of Venice may be very clearly traced in the steady expansion of the rights and privileges which are demanded, and usually conceded, on the renewal of these diplomas. In the present instance we meet for the first time a most notable enlargement in the capitulations. It is declared in Guy's diploma that " in all parts of our kingdom any Venetian shall remain under the jurisdiction of the Doge." As we have already noticed, extradition was provided for by the diploma of Lothair, and so such a provision as this in the diploma of Guy was possible; and the knowledge that contracts would be upheld and civil suits adjudged according to Venetian practice, must have offered a strong inducement to Venetian merchants to embark their capital and their energies in mainland traffic, and to open shops and factories in Italian cities. The second notable occurrence of Tribune's reign was the invasion of the Hungarians, which exposed Venice to extreme danger. Thanks to her natural position, she emerged stronger, more self-confident, firmer than before. The Hungarians, after defeating Berenger, King of Italy, on the Brenta, were masters of the whole Venetian plain. The dread of their presence compelled the Venetians to look to their fortifications. The mainland shores of the lagoons had already been protected by walled fortresses or towers at Cavarzere, Bebbe, Brondolo, and Grado, built at various periods of danger. But the capital, THE HUNGARIANS 55 Venice itself, was quite unprotected. Tribune now directed his attention to remedying this defect. A strong castle was built at Olivolo, the eastern extremity, near the arsenal, and gave its name to the quarter of Castello. From Castello to the Piazza a wall ran along the line of the present Eiva degli Schiavorii. The Piazza itself was surrounded by a wall. A great chain was stretched across the mouth of the Grand Canal. Prepara- tions were made for removing the posts which marked out the deep channels from the shoal waters. Large vessels, filled with stones, were sunk in the deeper waters to block them against any hostile fleet. Then the Venetians awaited the attack, in some trepidation, but still confident in the singular strength of their lagoon home. The Hungarians arrived at the south-west corner of the lagoon, and, following the same line as that selected by Pepin for his attack, they seized Brondolo and Chioggia. They pushed on as far as Albiola, the point reached by Pepin in 810. There, on the feast of S. Peter and S. Paul, the Venetians gave battle to the enemy, and defeated them so thoroughly that they ceased to be a danger to the Kepublic. Thus, for the third time, an attack on the lagoons demonstrated to the Venetians the impregnable nature of their sea-girt city, which neither Frank, nor Saracen, nor Hungarian had been able to violate. Pietro Tribune died, and was buried in S. Zaccaria. The popular choice fell once more on a member of the Particiaco family, Orso II. After the dread of the Hungarian invasion had rolled away, Venice enjoyed a period of greater peace than she had known for many years. It is worth recording that Orso was nicknamed Paureta, the timid. Whether it was owing to the Doge's timidity that Venice enjoyed this quiet, or whether the unwonted quiet led the people to believe that their Doge was timid, is uncertain. But they had no cause to regret such a fruitful growing- time. Venetian commerce steadily extended upon the mainland. The Imperial diploma was renewed by liudolph, and it contains one highly interesting testimony to the spread of this commerce in the clause which conceded to 56 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Venice the right to coin money. No doubt the Venetians had possessed a mint in much earlier periods of their history; in the reign of Charles, we hear that the State bound itself to pay a tribute in Venetian currency ; and the diploma of Eudolph itself speaks of the ancient right by which the Doges struck their own coins. What the clause in this diploma really did, was to give legal currency to Venetian money in the markets of Italy. The Doge, Orso II., after a peaceful reign of twenty years, followed the example set by his relatives and prede- cessors, Giovanni and Orso ; he abdicated and retired into a monastery. His successor was Pietro Candiano II., Q32. son of the Pietro Candiano who was slain while fighting the pirates near Zara. The people of Istria desired to enter on an alliance with the Venetians against their common enemy, the Dalmatian pirates. Their ambassadors arrived in Venice, to conclude a treaty; and as petitioners for a favour, they virtually admitted, in return, Venetian supremacy over the coast cities of Istria, by promising to pay a yearly tribute of one hundred amphorae of their excellent Istrian wine. These beginnings of Venetian lordship in Istria alarmed and irritated the Marquis Wintker, representative of the King of Italy in those parts. He confiscated all Venetian goods seized all Venetian shipping, and forbade the Istrians to trade with the Eepublic. This would have entailed a serious war had the Doge not learned from his predecessors that Venetian commerce was so essential to all her neigh- bours, as to place at the disposal of the Kepublic a weapon, less costly and more efficient than an army or a fleet. The Doge retaliated on Wintker by declaring the isolation of the Istrian ports, and so rapid was the action of the blockade that Wintker was instantly obliged to beg the Patriarch of Grado to mediate between himself and the Doge. The Marquis was compelled to sign a treaty by which he gave the fullest satisfaction to Venice, and secured her in all her demands as regards Istria, where the Kepublic now became a factor of prime importance, and thus took her first step towards the establishment of her supremacy in the Adriatic. PIETRO CANDIANO IV. 57 Two reigns of no great moment covered the years from the death of Pietro Candiano in 939 to 959. Pietro, the last Doge of the Particiaco family, was succeeded in 942 by Pietro Candiano III., who was able, for the third time, to prove the efficacy of a blockade, when he reduced Lupo, Patriarch of Aquileia, to own himself "a wicked man," and to swear that he would never more molest his neighbour of 944 ' Grado. The close of Pietro Candiano's reign was embittered by the conduct of his son Pietro, whom he had associated with himself in the Dukedom. Pietro broke into open rebellion, the mob seized him, and his life was only spared at the intercession of his aged father. Pietro was banished ; and the whole Venetian population bound themselves by a solemn oath never at any time to elect him as Doge. But no sooner had Pietro III. died than we find the outlawed son elected in his place, and recalled to govern the State he had been doing his utmost to ruin by piracy on the Adriatic. There is some difficulty in under- standing the meaning of the whole of this episode of Pietro's rebellion, expulsion, and sudden return to favour. It is possible, however, that Pietro IV. was the people's candidate ; that in his recall, upon which they insisted, and in his election, which was their work, we see an effort on the part of the Venetian populace to assert itself in the choice of their chief magistrate. No doubt the populace of Venice had been growing in numbers and in power; and the people was beginning to perceive that unless it insisted upon its rights, political power 'in the State would become stereotyped in the hands of a few leading families. And the recall and election of Pietro were the first indications of that struggle between the people and the aristocracy, which was inevitable before Venice could assume the rigidly oligarchical form which characterises her constitution. Pietro Candiano's foreign policy with West and East was fortunate in the one case and prudent in the other. Otho II. was maturing his plans for the reduc- tion of all Italy to his own crown. He desired the 58 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC assistance of Venice for this purpose, and, in order to render the Venetians friendly, he renewed the , Imperial diploma, and made it perpetual. On the other hand, Candiano came into relations with a powerful ruler in Constantinople. It is instructive to note the result of this upon the history of Venice. Venice had only existed as an independent State, thanks to the weak- ness of the Eastern Empire, under the nominal protection of which she was enabled to develop upon her own lines. But the moment a powerful Emperor occupied the throne, the inherent weakness of the young State became apparent to itself. Venice was following the career of a purely commercial State, and therefore was indifferent to any considerations other than those of interest. Her instinct was to trade with peoples, not to fight with them. Accord- ingly she willingly entered into commercial rather than hostile relations with the Saracens. But the Emperor of the East, John Zimiskes, who had recently restored the Imperial prestige by his defeat of the Bulgars, was contem- plating an attack upon the Saracens. He was a powerful man ; a soldier with an army, and intended to be obeyed. His ambassador at Venice complained of the 97 ! traffic which the Kepublic maintained with the enemies of Christendom, to whom they supplied arms and even ships. He ordered that this trade should cease, and threatened, if disobeyed, to burn every Venetian ship he captured, cargo, crew and all. The Eepublic recognised that it was prudent to yield, and bound itself by oath to abandon its trade with the Paynim. The end of Pietro's life was a stormy one: he began his career by rebellion against his father : he ended by wrecking his life through his own ambition. His con- duct led the Venetians to believe that he was aiming at absolute sovereignty in the State. He repudiated his wife in order to make a wealthier and more conspicuous marriage with Hwalderada, sister of the Marquis of Tuscany, who brought him a large dower of lands in Friuli, the Trevisan marches, and the Ferrarese. He undertook wars, employing the forces of the State, in order to protect these REVOLT AGAINST THE CANDIANI 59 private acquisitions. He filled the ducal palace with hired foreigners as guards. The accumulation of popular suspicion broke out at last. The palace was sur- rounded, but the besiegers were unable to force an entrance, owing to the resistance of the foreign garrison. Then some one in the crowd suggested that the wooden houses near the palace should be filled with pitch and set on fire. This was done. The flames soon spread to the palace. The Doge, unable to resist the heat and the smoke, endeavoured to escape by the door which led into S. Mark's Church. But he found the exit guarded by some Venetian nobles, his own relations; to them he cried, "And ye too, my brothers, are ye too united against me for my destruction ? " But they rushed on him, felled him with axes, and " the soul of the Duke, leaving this prison-house of the body, sought the threshold of the realms above." The Doge's child was slain in his nurse's arms. The bodies of father and son were thrown into a boat, and taken to the common slaughter-house, to be given to the dogs, had not one of the Gradenigo family rescued the remains and secured for them decent burial in the monastery of Sant' Ilario, near Fusina. The violent outburst which ended in the death of Pietro Candiano led to a quiet reign under his successor, Pietro Orseolo I. Hwalderada, widow of the murdered Doge, had sought the protection of the Emperor, Otho II. He supported her claim for the restitution of her dowry, and Orseolo thought it wise to comply. But the sum was a large one ; and in order to meet this outlay the Doge summoned an assembly, which imposed a tax of one-tenth upon all incomes an event worthy of note as the earliest recorded instance in Venetian history of a direct tax levied upon every citizen, implying an assessment of all property in the State, which, unfortu- nately, has not come down to us. But the revolution which overthrew Pietro Candiano involved the Republic in expenses other than those entailed by the settlement of Hwalderada's claims. The fire which burned out Candiano and his guards, destroyed not only the ducal palace and S. Mark's Church, but also three 60 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC hundred houses which stood between the Piazza and S. Maria Zobenigo. The Doge turned his attention to the restoration of these buildings. He brought workmen from Constantinople to carry out his designs. He devoted most of his private fortune to the new Basilica, for the protection and maintenance of which he created the first Procurators of S. Mark, an office which eventually became the most honourable in the State after the Dukedom itself. The faction of the Candiani was not content, however, to see the Dogeship remain out of its possession. Plots menaced the Doge's life, and there grew daily in him a desire to withdraw into monastic life. This desire was fostered, and came to a climax when a certain Fra Guarino arrived from Aquitaine. The Doge resolved to quit the world, but he dreaded the opposition of his people. He resolved to escape secretly. On the night of 1st September, 976, he left his palace, passed the lagoon to Fusina, found horses at Sant' Ilario, rode rapidly through North Italy, and reached the monastery of S. Michele di Cusano in the Pyrenees, where twenty-nine years of pious life and religious exercises procured him the honours of canonisation. The faction of the Candiani triumphed in the election of Vitale, brother of the murdered Pietro. But upon him too, as upon so many wearers of the ducal bonnet, there fell the disgust of life. After only fourteen months' reign Vitale retired to the monastery of Sant' Ilario, where he shortly died. In the reign of his successor, Tribune Memo, we reach a crisis in Venetian internal history, and close a period of her natural growth. It was in Memo's reign that family feuds burned up to their fiercest, and ended in an explosion which cleared the air and left the city comparatively free for the future. The rivalry of the Candiani and the Orseoli, a family which was desirous of making itself dynastic, as the Particiachi and the Candiani had all but done, divided at least the wealthier and nobler families in Venice. Marriage con- nections bound the Doge to the Candiani, whose faction CALOPR1NI AND MOROSINI 61 was championed by the family of Caloprini, while the opposite party was led by the family of Morosini. The Caloprini resolved on the destruction of the whole Morosini clan. They arranged their murderous design for a certain day. They armed their relations, servants, dependants. But the Morosini were warned in time, and saved themselves by flight, all but one, Domenico Morosini, who was met by Stefano Caloprini in the square of S. Pietro di Castello, and stabbed so cruelly, that he almost instantly died of his wounds. Thus the blood feud began, and it was not extinguished till the close of Tribune Memo's reign. The murder of Domenico Morosini rendered Venice an insecure dwelling for all of the Caloprini faction; the Morosini were sworn to vendetta. Stefano Caloprini, the author of the crime, and his more powerful followers, betook themselves to the Court of Otho II., who was then in no friendly mood towards Venice, on account of the assistance which the Eepublic had given to the Greeks in South Italy, thereby retarding his schemes for making his Italian kingdom actual and complete. Stefano was favourably received. He proposed that the Emperor should restore him and his party to Venice, and should make him Doge; in return for which Stefano promised to bring the Republic into feudal submission to the Empire. Otho listened willingly to the proposal, which coincided with his own schemes in Italy. By his orders Venice was isolated from the mainland ; communications were stopped. Stefano Caloprini and his traitorous companions undertook, from Padua, Mestre, the Adige, and Ravenna, to make the blockade effectual. The friends of the Calo- prini, still in Venice, were incited to revolt; and Cavarzere did submit to the Emperor. The Bishop of Belluno invaded the territory of Grado and Caorle. Otho him- self prepared a fleet to assault the lagoons, or at least to complete the blockade by sea. The danger was extreme. Neither the invasion of Pepin nor of the Hungarians had threatened so seriously the existence of Venice. For among her enemies now were some of her own children men who knew the secrets of the lagoons, and whose influence 62 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC inside the city might, at any moment, create a treacherous rising against the Government. Under the exas- peration of this danger the Venetians attacked and razed to the ground the houses of the Caloprini, and held the women and children as hostages. It is needless to conjecture what would have been the issue of the attack. It never took place. Otho died at Eome in December 983. The Caloprini suddenly saw themselves deprived of their sole support. They lost heart, and abandoned the attempt to return to Venice by force. They presented themselves before the Empress Adelaide at Pavia, and implored her intercession on their behalf. Adelaide consented to recommend the Caloprini to the Doge's clemency. She sent an embassy to Venice for this purpose, and the Doge, though unwilling and doubtful of the result, allowed the Caloprini to return to the lagoons. His suspicions were justified. The sight of the Caloprini recalled to the minds of all the Morosini clan the unavenged murder of Domenico. It was inevitable that more blood should be shed. One day, as three of the Caloprini were leaving the ducal palace and were about to enter their boat in order to go home, they were attacked and killed by some of the Morosini. Their bodies were recovered by a faithful servant, and sent, as a bloody cry for vengeance, to their various families. It seemed as though a war of extermination between the two families must immediately break out. But the Venetians were weary of this private quarrel, which had proved so perilous and so exhausting to the community. Rightly or wrongly, they held the Doge to be responsible. They deposed him, and compelled him to take the monk's cowl in the monastery of S. Zaccaria. A great man, Pietro Orseolo II., was called on to assume the guidance of the State. Under his rule a broader tract of Venetian history opens to our view, and the murmur of these small but deadly private feuds is lost in the noise of a larger political conflict. CHAPTER IV Expansion of Venice under Pietro Orseolo II., Doge Chrysobol of the Emperor Basil Venetian fleet Commercial relations with Italy ; with the Saracens Aquileia and Grado The claims of the Bishops of Belluno and Treviso Venice opens factories along the Sile and Piave Com- mercial policy of Orseolo War with Dalmatian pirates Duke of Dalmatia The importance of Venetian supremacy in Dalmatia The Commemorative ceremony of the Sposalizio del Mar Otho III. visits Venice Venice assists the Greeks beseiged in Bari Orseolo's son marries a niece of the Emperor Basil The Plague in Venice Death of Orseolo Otho Orseolo, Doge Opposition to the dynastic tendency of the Orseoli Orso Orseolo of Grado and Poppo of Aquileia Flight of the Doge and his brother Orso Loss of Grado The Doge recalled ; recovers Grado ; deposed Pietro Centranico, Doge, Faction feuds Dalmatia renounces allegiance Poppo of Aquileia The Doge deposed Domenico Flabianico, Doge The end of the dynastic tendency in the Dogeship The Orseoli ostracised Limitations to the power of the Doge The Consiglieri Ducali The beginnings of the Pregadi or Senate Domenico Contarini, Doge His quiet reign The Patriarch of Grado removes to Venice Domenico Selvo, Doge Ceremony of election Venice and the Normans Siege of Durazzo Growth of luxury Decoration of S. Mark's Vitale Falier, Doge Naval resources of Venice Death of Robert of Normandy Privileges from the Emperor Alexius Ascendency in Con- stantinople Rediscovery of S. Mark's tomb. DANGEK and confusion characterise the period from which Venice had just emerged. Three times the lagoons were threatened by invasion once by the Saracens, once by the Hungarians, and once by the treacherous Calo- prini, supported by the Emperor Otho. This season of attack from outside was also the epoch of burning family feuds at home. But now both dangers were safely overcome ; and the confidence and vigour acquired in the struggle made themselves felt in the great expansion of the Republic, which took place in the reign of Pietro Orseolo II. 64 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC The Doge's attention was at once drawn to questions of commercial policy. The inherent commercial instinct of the Venetians asserted itself the moment it was free to choose it own course. The Chrysobol, or Golden Bull, granted by the Emperor Basil, contained privileges for Venetian merchants far in excess of any they had hitherto enjoyed in the East. By the terms of the Bull, Venetian traders were admitted to a customs tariff more favourable than that imposed upon other merchants; it was stipulated, however, that they were not to carry as Venetian goods the property of Lombards, Amalfitans, or Jews ; their cargoes were to be bond fide Venetian cargoes. Subjects of the Doge were placed directly under the jurisdic- tion of the logothetes or Secretary of Finance, and were thus freed from the vexatious delays and annoyances of the inferior local courts, and brought into direct relations with the Emperor himself ; for, from the days of Leo the Isaurian, the Emperors had virtually been their own finance ministers, and the logothetes, under whose supervision the Venetians were now placed, was one of the most prominent officers of the Imperial household. In return for these privileges the Venetian fleet was to be held at the disposition of the Emperor for the transport of troops. It was the power and excellence of her fleet which gave to Venice that com- manding position which she was rapidly acquiring, and enabled her to secure commercial advantages to which no other maritime state could pretend. On the Italian mainland commercial policy presented a somewhat different problem for the Doge. The power of an Emperor who was nob only a foreigner but continually absent, could never be very great. At this moment, moreover, the Emperor, Otho III., was a minor. For all practical pur- poses Orseolo found himself obliged to deal directly with the small semi-independent princes, feudatories of the Empire. This he did. He concluded separate treaties with each of these, though he did not omit to secure from the Emperor he ratification of the treaties by a diploma, which was signed at Miilhausen in 992. Nor did the commercial activity of the Doge cease with AQUILEIA AND GRADO 65 these operations in the East and West. The trading instinct of the people he governed overrode considerations of religion, and the requirements of Imperial policy in either East or West. The foes of the two Empires were not necessarily the foes of the Venetians. They had learned by experience that a possible Saracenic invasion of the lagoons was not a very serious danger ; whereas the Saracens, if enemies on the open sea, were able materially to injure Venetian commerce ; more could be gained by trading with them than by fighting them. The menace from the Paynim, great to the Eastern Empire and to Italy, was of small moment to Venice ; while friendly commercial relations with the Saracens opened up an immense field for trade in Egypt, on the coast of Africa, in Spain, and in Sicily. Accordingly the Doge put the coping-stone to his commercial policy by concluding a treaty with the Moslem foes of East and West. It seemed as though Venice was now about to enter on a period of undisturbed prosperity. That, however, was not to be. She soon found herself called upon to face new difficulties and complications ; though out of these she succeeded in drawing aliment for her major impulse, the development of herself as an independent and purely commercial State. Ecclesiastical jealousy of the new Patriarchate of Grado was always ready to burst out at any moment, when the mainland suffragans of the older See of Aquileia found support from an Emperor or his representatives. During the period of Otho II.'s hostility to Venice, the Bishops of Belluno and Treviso had seized certain territories on the mainland, over which the Venetians claimed superiority. The Bishops refused to withdraw. The Doge appealed to Otho III., who sent a commissioner to settle the dispute. He did so in favour of the Kepublic. The Ecclesiastics ignored his decision. The Doge then summoned a general assembly, and decreed the commercial isolation of the whole See of Belluno. This meant that the Bellunese were no longer able to draw their supplies from the seaport nearest to their home, and that they were deprived of the best market for their meat, their butter, and their wood. Meantime Otho himself had entered Italy. He at once showed his strong sympathy with Venice ; F 66 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC and the Bishops of Belluno and Treviso, confronted by this combination of a ruinous blockade with Imperial disfavour, submitted. But the Doge exacted not merely the restitution of the stolen territory ; he demanded, and obtained through the Imperial support, the right to erect Venetian warehouses for goods, and to open Venetian markets on the continent, upon the banks of the rivers Sile and Piave, whose waters gave easy access to Venetian vessels. Continuing this policy of extending Venetian influence on the Italian mainland, and laying, though perhaps unconsciously, the foundations of the Venetian land empire, by means of Venetian factories and marts, the Doge rented from the Bishop of Ceneda a castle on the river Livenza, and thereby brought the Venetian merchants into immediate connection with the German traders who came down into Italy by the Ampezzo route. Somewhat later, in the year 1001, a further extension of privileges was obtained from the Bishop of Ceneda. The Venetians opened another factory in that See; they were exempt from all dues upon imports passing through the diocese, and they were relieved from all taxation on salt. In the same year the Doge undertook to farm a third of the revenues which belonged to the Bishopric of Treviso. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of Orseolo's commercial policy. In him the spirit of Venice speaks out. We seem to see the young State, now for the first time in its life, giving signs of a conscious purpose and tendency of its own. And concessions of such moment, wrung from hostile neighbours, are a proof that Venice had the power, no less than the will, to achieve her aim, and to make her object of desire an accomplished fact. Free com- mercial intercourse with Venice was rapidly becoming an absolute necessity for the mainlanders. She was at once the emporium and the market of all the neighbouring cities, and therefore held them virtually at discretion. She steadily extended her commercial influences in Italy, absorbing the trade of the continent, and planting her merchants first where her arms were presently to follow. These bloodless triumphs were not the sole glory of THE DALMATIAN WAR 67 Orseolo's reign. The Dalmatian pirates continued to be a 6 source of unmitigated annoyance to Venetian com- merce. Venice had never succeeded in subduing, nor even in curbing, their licence. She had, in fact, attempted to buy them off by paying blackmail in the form of a yearly tribute. Orseolo, however, believed himself strong enough now to face the evil. He suspended the annual tribute. The pirates renewed their molestations. An expedition was sent to the Dalmatian coast, which took and destroyed the town of Lissa, but left the head quarters of the pirates, the mouth of the Narenta, uninjured. When the Venetian squadron withdrew, the Narentines vented their fury on the defenceless population of the Dalmatian shore. These, in despair of obtaining any help from their superior, the Eastern Emperor, turned to seek the protection of the only neighbour powerful enough to afford it. The Doge summoned his council ; that is to say, in all probability, not the Concio, or general assembly of the whole population, but those more prominent citizens whom, as we shall presently see, the Chief of the State was in the habit of inviting to assist him in important deliberations. The result was that the Doge resolved to undertake the absolute suppression of the Narentines. And Venice prepared for the first great war on which she embarked as an independent State on her own account. Every care was taken to make the expedition a powerful one, and to ensure success. When all was ready, on 6th May, Ascension Day, 1000, 1 the Doge and his officers went to hear mass in the church of San Pietro di Castello. The Bishop of Olivolo presented to the Duke a consecrated standard ; and the same day, with a fair west wind, the whole fleet set sail, and passing out by the Lido port, came that evening to Grado. The Patriarch, in solemn procession, surrounded by his clergy, moved down to meet the Doge, who was then conducted into the cathedral, where he received a second standard from the Metropolitan. Leav- ing Grado the fleet sailed to Istria, touching at Parenzo, and thence passed down the coast to Zara. At Zara negotiations with the Narentines were commenced. Certain terms, among 1 Chronache Antichissime, edit. Monticolo, p. 156, n. 1. F 2 68 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC them the cessation of the annual tribute and a pledge not to infest the Adriatic, were accepted by the enemy ; the object of the expedition seemed to be accom- plished. But the Doge had no sooner set his course towards Venice, than the pirates took up arms again. Then Orseolo resolved to strike a decisive blow. Leaving his moorings at Zara Vecchia, he made himself master of Curzola, and advanced towards the great stronghold of Lagosta, which was thought to be impregnable. The Narentines seemed inclined to yield ; but when they learned that the Venetians, if victorious, intended to raze the city to the ground, they prepared for resistance to the death. The assault was given. The Venetians and friendly Dalmatians swarmed up the precipitous rocks on which the city walls were built. Many were hurled back. Some succeeded in reaching and mastering a tower by breaching its base. Through the opening thus caused in the defences, the Venetians poured into the city ; the inhabitants were put to the sword, and in a short time the pirates' most formidable stronghold was levelled to the ground. The Doge's return home was a triumphal progress. The Dalmatian coast towns recognised him as Duke of Dalmatia. He left their civic constitutions undisturbed, exacting merely a nominal tribute in token of Venetian supremancy. Venice received Orseolo with every demonstration of joy. In a general assembly of his people, the Doge explained his conduct, gave an account of his operations, and received a popular confirmation of his new title, " Duke of Dalmatia." Apart from the suppression of piracy, the Dalmatian war of Pietro Orseolo II. was an event of prime importance in the history of Venice. Though Dalmatia did not at once become a part of Venetian territory, yet its towns now acknow- ledged Venetian lordship; and a most important step had been taken towards the supremacy of the Republic in the Adriatic. More than this, Venetian merchants were now able to open warehouses in the Dalmatian seaports, such as Zara, where they could store all the merchandise that came from the interior, the valleys of the Save and the Drave. The danger that the city of Venice might be starved into a sur- render was considerably reduced. The seaboard of Dalmatia THE SPOSALIZIO DEL MAR 69 could always supply food material which was lacking in the lagoons ; all that Venice had to do was to keep open the sea-route between the lagoons and the Dalmatian coast. Finally, the possession of Curzola, so richly wooded, freed the Venetians from dependence on the forests of the mainland for their house- and ship-building timber. It is not surprising that the Venetians should have resolved to commemorate the day on which Orseolo sailed upon this glorious expedition. The form which this commemoration took was that of a solemn procession from Venice out into the open sea by the Lido port. The ceremony was one of supplication and placation ; the formula in earliest use consisted in the prayer, " Grant, Lord, that for us, and for all who sail thereon, the sea may be calm and quiet ; this is our prayer. Lord, hear us." After which the Doge and his suite were aspersed, and the rest of the water was poured into the sea, while the priests chanted the words, " Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." Such was the ceremony in its primitive form. In later years it developed into the magnificent function, so famous and so well known as the Sposalizio del Mar. In all probability there was a double meaning in the observance. The Venetians desired to assert solemnly the result of their past experience, that they and the sea on which they lived were inseparably one ; and secondly, by a purification of themselves and the rejection of their sins, symbolised by the aspersion and by the reversion of the water into the sea, they desired to render that element propitious. The successes of the Dalmatian expedition were soon followed by another proof of Venetian growth. The Emperor, Otho III., desired to make the acquaintance of the man who had read such a lesson to the Narentine pirates. For this purpose he seized the occasion when he found himself at the great abbey of Pomposa, near Comacchio, to plead an excuse, and to reach Venice almost incognito. He met the Doge at San Servolo, and passed thence into the city. He was lodged in the eastern tower of the ducal palace. He visited the monuments of Venice, and acted as godfather to one of the Doge's children. But this mysterious visit of 70 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the Emperor was not a visit of mere curiosity. There is little doubt that he desired to enlist the sympathy of the 1001. Republic for his ambitious designs in Italy, and his presence in the lagoon city must be taken as a tribute to the position which Venice had now acquired. From the East, too, came other demonstrations of the same high reputation. The Doge was invited to assist the Greek Governor, who was confined by the Saracens in the city of Bari. He manned a fleet and sailed to the relief of the besieged city. In a very short time he succeeded in raising the blockade of the port, and introduced a copious supply of provisions. The Doge then organised a sortie. The battle lasted for three days; but during the night of the third day the Saracens silently struck camp and withdrew, leaving the city of Bari, whose gratitude to Orseolo knew no bounds, uncaptured and free. Nor was the joy at Constantinople inferior. The Doge was invited to send his son, Giovanni, to the capital. There he was received with almost royal honours. He was created Patrician, and wedded to the niece of the Emperor Basil. On his return to Venice, Giovanni and his bride were again the object of popular demonstrations, which were renewed on the birth of a son. Fortune seemed to smile on the family of Orseolo. But the rapidly growing traffic with the East brought in its train one of the curses which the East has never failed to send westward. The plague appeared in Venice. It wrought the greatest havoc, carry- ing off the Doge's son, his daughter-in-law, and grandson, besides a vast number of the people. Nor was this all. Famine followed the plague. Yet so attached were the Venetians to their Doge, so mindful of the glory and the prosperity which he had secured, that, far from laying the blame for their misfortunes at his door, as they certainly would have done had he been unpopular, they endeavoured to console him by electing another son as Doge Consort. But the Doge was inconsolable ; the loss of his son and his grandson dealt too severe a blow. Though quite a young man, only forty-eight years old, he was already broken by the activities, the campaigns, the diplomatic THE ORSEOLI 71 burdens, the losses of his reign. No doubt he had a tinge of that religious spirit which drove his predecessor and relation, Pietro Orseolo I., to seek the shelter of a monastery in distant Aquitaine ; he took less and less part in the direction of affairs ; he prepared his will ; he separated himself from his wife and led a claustral existence within the ducal palace. But not for long. He died in 1008, after eighteen and a half years of the most splendid and successful Dogeship that Venice had yet seen. Pietro Orseolo II. was succeeded by his son Otho, who was married to a daughter of the King of Hungary, and was godson of the Emperor Otho. The family of the Orseoli now held by far the most prominent position in the Eepublic. The Doge, the Patriarch of Grado, the Bishop of Torcello, all belonged to the same race. This preponder- ance of one house aroused the old dread of dynastic policy on the part of the Doge, and led to the downfall of the Orseoli, and a modification in the ducal position. The crisis was brought about by no imprudence of the Doge himself. He, indeed, maintained the prestige of Venice, which his father had done so much to create. He reduced the Bishop of Adria when that prelate endeavoured to usurp the territories of Loreo and Fossone, and compelled him to sue in person for peace. He was successful against the Croats, whom he was obliged to attack in fulfil- ment of his duties as protector of Dalmatia. But no successes could check the inevitable course of popular feeling against the Orseolo family. The opposition grew daily in strength and in audacity. That a change was imminent the Doge himself was well aware. It was only a question how the blow would fall. Orso Orseolo, brother of the Doge, was Patriarch of Grado. His neighbour of Aquileia was a German, Poppo, a man of warlike instincts, more a soldier than a priest. Poppo determined to reopen the question of the rights of Aquileia over the See of Grado. It is probable that he was supported by the anti-Orseolo faction in Venice. However that may be, both the Doge and his brother the Patriarch saw such serious cause for alarm that they left Venice and 72 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC fled to Istria. Poppo, under pretence of protecting the vacant See, begged leave to enter Grado with his troops, promising that the occupation should be peaceful. But he was no sooner in possession of the town than he surrendered it to the violence of his soldiers. He seized the treasure and the more precious relics, and returned with them to Aquileia, after placing a garrison in the half-ruined city. The loss of Grado was a blow which Venice could not patiently endure. From the ecclesiastical point of view it was absolutely necessary for the Republic that she should have a Patriarch of her own, independent of the rulers of the mainland. The submission of Grado to Aquileia violated the strongest instinct of the lagoon population, their deter- mination to be independent. The party of the Orseoli pointed to the fall of Grado as the result of hostility to the Doge. The fugitive Duke was recalled from Istria, entered Venice, and immediately placed himself at the head of an expedition which recovered and refortified Grado. But the episode of Grado did not check the general current of feeling in Venice, that still ran counter to the dynastic tendency which the Orseoli were supposed to represent. The attitude of the Venetians was still the same as it had always been. They would not brook foreign interference, nor would they endure domestic sovereignty. A fresh pretext was soon offered, when Doge Otho insisted on nominating to the See of Olivolo, a young lad, a Grad- enigo, still in his teens. The Doge was seized, his beard shaved, and himself banished to Constantinople. The reign of Otho Orseolo had been a long one, and not inglorious ; but the party opposed to his family and to its dynastic tendency, had gained the upper hand. On the expulsion of the Orseoli, Pietro Ceutranico became Doge. The Orseoli, however, still had friends in the city, and the Republic was soon made to feel that the recent successes of the State had been due, in a very large degree, to the ability and personal prestige of the race it had expelled. Faction feuds inside the city broke out once more, and weakened the power of Venice. The Dalmatian cities renounced their ANTI-DYNASTIC POLICY 73 allegiance, which was of service only so long as Venice remained strong. The Western Emperor, Conrad the Salic, refused to confirm the Imperial diploma. The Eastern Emperor was a relation of the Orseoli, and therefore hostile. Poppo of Aquileia obtained from the Pope a declaration that the See of Grado was subject to his Patriarchate. Such a series of disasters alienated the sympathy of the whole population. A violent, though brief, reaction in favour of the Orseoli took place. Centranico was desposed, shaved, and sent to Constantinople as a pledge of sincerity, along with the embassy which the Republic com- missioned to invite Otho Orseolo to return. But Otho was dead. Orso, his brother, held the regency for fourteen months, at the close of which period the popular choice fell upon Domenico Flabianico. With the elevation of Flabianico to the ducal throne came the final triumph of the anti-dynastic principle in the development of the Dogeship. Like every important stage in the growth of the Venetian constitution, the result was reached only after a long series of experi- ments, entailing, as we have seen, constant revolutions inside the State. From the foundation of the Dukedom down to the year 1032, family after family had endeavoured to establish an hereditary claim to the thro'he. This tendency is visible even before the capital of the lagoons was removed to Rialto. It is apparent in the family of Galbaio, for example. But after Pepin's repulse and the concentration at Rialto, the tendency becomes more and more obvious, and forms one of the chief threads in Venetian history. We find the Particiachi, the Candiani, the Orseoli, all attempting to create a dynasty in their own families; and all of them defeated by that passion- ate instinct in the Venetian people which found expression in the phrase, " We did not come here to live under a lord." In the general survey of this struggle to construct a dynastic Dogeship, one point is worthy of special notice. It is a point which distinguishes Venetian history from that of most other Italian cities. Why, it may be asked, did no one of these ambitious families succeed in establishing itself on the throne by the help of some extraneous power? The attempt 74 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC was, in fact, made twice in Venetian history. Once when Obelerio admitted the suzerainty of Charles the Great, and received his orders as to the government of the lagoons; and again, when the Caloprini, in exile, offered, as the price of their restoration, to hold Venice for the Emperor Otho. But there was one insuperable difficulty in the way; the lagoons were impregnable. The Venetian people were resolved to be free: and before an army favourable to a dynastic pretender could have reached the heart of the lagoons they would have risen and deposed or slain the Doge who should have dared to violate the tacit agreement that Venice was never to be made subject to any lord ; the foreigner, on his arrival, if he ever could have arrived, would have found no one to support. In short, the lagoons saved Venice from domination by any foreign master ; and they also materially assisted to prevent any Venetian from making himself supreme through foreign aid ; while the instinct of the Venetians precluded him from founding a dynasty in any other way. The reign of Domenico Flabianico is important chiefly from the constitutional side. His election marked the climax of reaction against the Orseoli and the dynastic tendency. The whole of that family was ostracised, debarred in perpetuity from holding any office in the State. The democratic move- ment, which was represented by the new Doge, proceeded still farther. Two laws, tending to limit the powers of the Doge, and to define his position, were proposed and adopted. The first rendered the election of a Doge Consort illegal. But the Doge, single-handed, was unable to cope with all the affairs of the growing State. And this consideration led to the second proposal, in which we find the germ of two most important departments in the machinery of the Venetian constitution. Two Cotisiglieri Ducali, or privy councillors, were now appointed to assist the supreme magis- trate in the discharge of his duties; and the Doge was obliged, not merely recommended, to invite (pregare) the more prominent citizens to lend him their aid in discussing momentous affairs of State, thereby laying the foundations of that branch of the legislature which was subsequently known as the Pregadi, or Senate. THE ELECTION OF DOGE SELVO 75 Flabianico was succeeded by Domenico Contarini, whose long reign of twenty-eight years has left no im- portant trace upon Venetian history. Perhaps the State was settling down and enjoying its repose after the exciting and stormy period of the Orseoli. At all events, the Venetians took no part in the affairs of Italy nor of the East. The Doge was compelled once to assert Venetian supremacy over Dalmatia; but for the rest, even such a stirring event as the Norman invasion left Venice undis- turbed. The point of most moment for the Republic was the fact that the perpetual incursions and ravages of the restless Patriarch Poppo had so destroyed the city of Grado that, in spite of Pope Benedict's confirmation of its independence, the Patriarch could no longer live there. He removed his palace, though not his title, from Grado to Venice. A contemporary account of the election of Domenico Selvo, who followed Contarini on the throne, shows that the ceremony was a popular one, that the choice of the chief magistrate was still the work of the whole Venetian people. The entire population of Venice assembled in their boats near the church of S. Pietro di Castello. The Bishop of Olivolo, surrounded by his clergy, offered up prayers for the safety of the State, and for guidance in the choice of a ruler. Then the people began to shout the name of their favourite, " It is Domenico Selvo we desire and approve." The choice in this case seems to have been unanimous, and the new Doge was seized and carried on the shoulders of the crowd down to the boats. Selvo at once took off his stockings, in sign of humility, and was rowed to the Piazza, while the Te Deum was chanted by the clergy. He entered the church of S. Mark, barefooted, and, prostrat- ing himself on the ground, he returned thanks. He then received the baton of office, and passed into the courtyard of the ducal palace, where the people tendered to him the oath of allegiance. During the reign of Selvo the Republic once more took a part in the general current of history. The Venetians became involved in the struggles between the Normans and 76 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the Eastern Empire. Robert Guiscard had passed over from Italy to the eastern shores of the Adriatic, and had laid siege to Durazzo. Alexius, the Emperor, in alarm, turned at once to Venice. He begged the Republic to send a fleet to the succour of Durazzo ; he made offers of abundant recompense in case of success ; and in any event, he guaranteed to the Venetians the cost of the expedition. The Republic accepted the terms. The Doge himself conducted a large and powerful armament to Durazzo, which under the guidance of George Paleologus, was making a stout resistance. When the Venetians appeared on the scene, Robert Guiscard endeavoured to induce them to abandon Alexius. But the Republic held firm by its ancient alliance and to its tradi- tional policy of supporting the Eastern Emperor, distant and weak. The battle in the harbour proved favourable to the Venetians, thanks to their able tactics and skilled seaman- ship ; thanks also to the device of great weights, rove up to the yardarms and then let go suddenly as the enemy's ships closed in, a weapon which sent many of the Norman vessels to the bottom. Durazzo was relieved on the sea side and provisioned. The land side was still held by the enemy. But the imprudence of Alexius cancelled the advantage gained by the Doge. The Emperor arrived with an army, and, in spite of warning, insisted on offering battle. A ruinous defeat was the result. The Venetians and the Greeks suffered alike. The Normans closed round the city once more, and it presently fell into their hands. The alliance with Alexius proved still more disastrous to the Republic. A second attempt to master the Normans led to a crushing defeat at Casopo. The Doge found his policy repudiated by Venice, and he was deposed. But though Selvo left behind him no reputation for success, his reign made an indelible impression upon the manners of the Venetians. Selvo had married a Greek wife, whose luxury, if we are to believe the chroniclers, gave great offence to the hardy, and probably uncivilised, people among whom her lot was cast : artificiosa voluptate se mulcebat, they say of her; they tell of her scents and VENICE AND THE NORMANS 77 perfumes, her baths of dew, her odoriferous gloves and dresses ; they charge her with using a fork at meals ; 1071. they like to ascribe her loathsome death to her inordinate effeminacy. No doubt there is great exagger- ation in the whole narrative. But it certainly indicates the first appearance of Eastern refinements and luxury among a people who had hitherto retained the primitive habits of their fisher ancestry. The same sumptuous tendency mani- fested itself in Selvo's great operations upon the church of S. Mark. "He began," says a chronicler, "to work in mosaic. He sent to all parts to seek out marbles and precious stones, and to find master-masons to carry out his large and marvellous designs in masonry." Every ship that returned from the East was ordered to bring its share of the material required to make the Basilica of S. Mark worthy of the saint and the Kepublic he protected. Domenico Selvo was succeeded by Vitale Falier, while Venice was still smarting under the defeat inflicted upon her by Eobert of Normandy. The new Doge turned his attention to retrieving this disgrace. It is a proof of the vast naval resources of the Kepublic that, within so short a time of such a crushing disaster, she was able to equip as powerful a fleet as .that which Falier commanded, when he sailed to meet the Normans. In this campaign the Venetians were not acting without the consent and approval of Alexius. Indeed, it would seem that the terms of remuneration, in case of victory, had been settled before the Venetians put to sea. They met Kobert in the waters of Corfu, and obtained a victory, though not a decisive one. But they were saved from further encounters with the Normans by the death of the King in the year 1085. Whatever may have been the precise value of their victory, Alexius acknow- ledged his obligation to pay the stipulated price. His Golden Bull bestowed upon the Doge the title of Proto- sebastos ; the Venetians were to enjoy free access to all harbours of the Empire, were to be exempt from customs, and, most important of all, they acquired certain lands, factories, and warehouses in Constantinople itself, round 78 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC which they formed a Venetian quarter and a Venetian colony. The Emperor imposed upon all the Amal- fitani who traded in the Imperial city, a tribute to be paid towards the building of S. Mark's. This provision of the Golden Bull is noteworthy, for it shows that the Venetians were beginning to take the place of one great maritime town of Italy, Amalfi, which might have proved a serious rival in Eastern commerce. But precisely at the moment when this competitor received so palpable a check, the rumour of sanguinary battles between Pisa and Genoa presaged that more formidable rivalry, that crueller and more costly struggle, which was to accomplish the ruin of two among the great Italian maritime republics. Falier's reign was closed by an event which gave sincere satisfaction to the Venetians. The sepulchre of their patron, S. Mark, whose body had been brought to Venice in the reign of Agnello Particiaco, was no longer known. The great fire in the reign of Candiano IV., and the continual alteration of the Basilica, had completely obliterated all traces of the saint's resting-place. The Doge ordered a solemn triduan fast and prayer. Then, as all the people knelt in silence, S. Mark made known his tomb by. thrusting forth his arm from a pillar in whose shaft he had been hid, and by filling the church with a most delicious odour. The sacred body was deposited afresh in the crypt of the Basilica. The religious sentiment of the Venetians was satisfied, while their pockets felt the benefit from the vast numbers of visitors who flocked from the mainland in pilgrimage to the miraculous sepulchre. The Doge died in 1096, and was buried in S. Mark, where his sarcophagus may still be seen. CHAPTEE V. The development of Venice as a State Independence secured by the lagoons No feudal system Results of this Commerce Few industries Exchange mart Carrying trade Shipbuilding Navy Constitution, democratic Judicial system. WE have reached the period at which Venice was about to , be drawn into the great current of history -by the part she was called on to play in crusades. The previous course of events had been surely prepar- ing this role for her. The display of her naval resources, which the Norman wars had evoked, called the attention of the Pope, of both Emperors, of all Europe, to that corner of the Adriatic, to that small city of the lagoons, which was able to put upon the sea two such fleets as the one which was crushed at Casopo, and the one which was victorious at Corfu. It is convenient at this moment to consider how Venice was equipped to take part in those events which were to launch her on her career as a great maritime and com- mercial power. Thanks to the advantages of her geographical position, to the impregnability of the lagoons, to the hardy valour of the Venetian people, and to the weakness of both Eastern and Western Empire, Venice succeeded in remaining a virgin city. She had never fallen into the hands of any master. As far as external interruptions were concerned, Venice was, therefore, permitted to pursue her own course independently. The Venetians were able, by experiment, to discover the line of development which was marked out for them by their own inherent qualities. Their evolution, as 80 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC a State, was never crossed by the compulsion of a foreign master, pursuing his own ends regardless of the desires and aims of those subjected to him. On the other hand, internally, this impregnability of the lagoons saved Venice from the violence done to the cities of the mainland. No feudal system, with its arbitrary division of classes, breaking the city up into sections which were generically different, was ever imposed upon Venice. She did not suffer the misfortune of finding her population more bitterly divided against itself than unitedly hostile to external foes. In spite of all internal ferment, Venice remained homogeneous. Patriotism was possible. The course of her development naturally produced struggles between the component parts of the community; but these were always family quarrels, the growing pains of the youthful State. The result was accepted by all. No - Venetian ceased to be a Venetian because his party suffered defeat. Except in the case of the Caloprini, Venice was not exposed to the danger, so common in other Italian States, of seeing a mass of exiled citizens, hanging round her borders, ready to return and to tear down a hated government. It is this fact which enabled the Eepublic to achieve a stable constitu- tion, while the rest of Italy was in the throes of continual revolution. Thanks to this happy disposition, Venetian history, from the opening of the fourteenth century onwards, presents that singular immunity from internal rebellion which made her constitution the wonder and the envy of every Italian Eepublic. Moreover, this radical difference renders any attempt at comparison, any deduction from analogy, between Venice and other Italian States difficult and even misleading. Venice, in short, was not Italian, she was unique. As a result of this life-giving independence, Venice steadily developed her commercial importance, her naval power, and her domestic constitution. Her commercial growth already showed the lines upon which it was destined to continue. Industries were small and unimportant, consisting chiefly in the making of salt, the salting of fish, the manufacture of wooden cups, ladles, spoons, saucers, such as may be met with any day in the VENETIAN COMMERCE 81 streets of modern Venice, where they are now brought from the Alps beyond Belluno. Her main branches of noo. ...... commercial activity were already, as always alter- wards, her exchange mart and her carrying trade. Venice had become the great emporium, where the produce of many lands was stored, and whence it was redistributed throughout the continent. Wine and grain came from Apulia; wood from Dalmatia ; gems and drugs from Asia ; metal- work, silk, and cloth of gold from Constantinople and Greece. We hear of Venetian merchants carrying this varied merchandise, this de transmarinis partibus orientalium divitiae, to the fairs at Pavia, and to the markets of Eavenna and of Rome. We have already noted the wide sweep of Venetian commerce ; how upon the mainland the merchants opened factories and ware- houses along the rivers which come down from the Alps, and by the -side of the great roads which led into Germany ; how they spread down the coast of Dalmatia, with stores at Zara, and Venetian officers to protect Venetian interests ; how they obtained from the Emperor Alexius a quarter, with shops and market-place, in Constantinople itself. To feed this great emporium a large fleet of merchant- men was constantly employed. These ships freighted, not merely for Venetians ; they carried cargoes for Jews, Lombards, Amalfitani. And with the spread of the carrying trade came the need for a strong navy to guard the merchant vessels from piracy, though no doubt the merchant crews and ships were themselves capable of fighting when required. The Dalmatian and Apulian expeditions of Orseolo, the Norman wars of Domenico Selvo and Vitale Falier, not only gave the Venetians experience in the rapid armament of a fleet, but, as in the case of the battle of Durazzo, trained them in naval tactics, and inspired them with confidence in their resources. The constitution also had been slowly growing and taking shape ; though much still remained to be done before it assumed that rigid form which characterises it after the year 1296. It was still essentially a democratic constitution. Upon the invitation of the Doge the people assembled, either in the open air or in S. Mark's, to approve G 82 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC a law, to confirm a nomination, to decide on peace or war. The popular voice was essential to the choice of a I I OO. Doge, and long and tenaciously did the people claim their right. Not till after many struggles were they finally excluded from all participation in the election of the chief magistrate. Besides the General Assembly we find the rudiments of two important members of the Venetian constitution already displayed the Consiglieri Ducali or Privy Council, and the Pregadi or Senate, which had its origin in the invitation sent by the Doge to the more prominent citizens requesting their advice in important matters. The position and powers of the Doge were also in process of formation. The Venetians learned that the two great dangers inherent in the Dukedom were the possibility that it might be converted into a tyranny, and the risk of its becoming hereditary. They took summary measures to prevent the former danger by deposing, blinding, or killing many of their earlier rulers. The latter danger was met by a direct law, forbidding the creation of a Doge Consort. In no department of the constitution was the native, independence of the State more clearly demonstrated than in the judicial system. While the mainland of Italy was subjected to the legal codes imposed by various foreign conquerors, Venice still retained the Eoman law under which her refugee founders had always lived, as the basis of her jurisprudence. The courts consisted of the Giudici del Comun, who in public, before the Doge and the people, heard and decided cases, usually in the open air; and the Doge's representatives went on circuit for the administration of justice among the islands of the lagoon. Subsequently we find the institution of a Court of Appeal, called the Magistrate del Proprio ; before this court came cases of intestacy, wardship, wills, probate, and all matters referring to the disposition of estates. A document of the year 934 gives us a genuine and curious picture of the administration of justice at that time. It begins by setting out a case of disputed boundary between the Abbot Marino and the Bishop of Altino, that is, VENETIAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM 83 of Torcello. The Abbot presented himself before the court, which was assembled in the public palace. There 1 100. were present the Doge, surrounded by the leading men of the city, and many of the people. Marino stated his case, and complained of injury ; the bystanders confirmed his statement. A warrant was then issued summoning the Bishop to appear. When both parties were before the court, each put in his proofs his deeds, maps, etc. These were examined, and judgment given in favour of the Abbot. This, so far as our scanty material permits us to under- stand it, was the condition of Venice at the close of the eleventh century. We find a people displaying all the marks of a free State; making wars on its own account; coining its own money ; legislating for itself ; young and vigorous in the midst of decrepitude; free in the midst of slavery ; ready to take its place among the great forces of Europe which the Crusades were presently to call forth in action. o 2 CHAPTEE VI Vitale Michiel, Doge The Crusades Venice chosen as the port of embarkation The Doge recommends the Crusade to the Venetians The resentment of the Eastern Emperor He stirs the Pisans to attack the Venetians at Rhodes Siege of Haifa The body of S. Nicolo stolen and brought to Venice A Venetian colony in Ferrara Ordelafo Falier, Doge The Venetians in Sidon The need to keep the seas open brings Venice into collision with pirates Line of communications weak Attack by King of Hungary on Dalmatia Defeat of Venice Loss of Dalmatia Domenico Michiel, Doge Baldwin implores help from Venice : granted The Venetian fleet begins to plunder Corfu, Chios, Lesbos, Rhodes Defeat of the Saracens off Jaffa Venetians in Acre The terms they demanded for attacking Tyre Siege of Tyre Fall of Tyre The Michiel bezants The Venetian colony in Tyre : how governed Brilliant results of this expedition Pietro Polani, Doge The Venetians protect Fano And fight Padua for altering the course of the Brenta First use of mercenaries Domenico Morosini, Doge The Normans Battle of Maleo Siege of Corfu Venetians and Greeks quarrel Treaty with the Normans Frederick Barbarossa The spirit of municipal freedom in North Italy Frederick in Italy Vitale Michiel II., Doge Diet of Roncaglia Schism in the Church Alexander III. Venice compelled to join the Lombard League The neighbours of Venice attack her Venice seeks support from the Emperor Manuel His seizure of all Venetian goods in Constantinople Venice declares war The exhaustion of the Venetian treasury Taxation by sestieri Issue of government stock Disastrous expedition against Manuel The Doge killed Con- stitutional reforms The Maggior Consiglio The Pregadi Consiglieri Ducali. THE movement of the Crusades brings Venice to the very forefront of European history. Her previous develop- ment had been slowly preparing the way for her emergence. The Council held at Clermont in 1095, re- solved that the armament should leave Europe early in the following year. The Pope and the leaders of the Crusades were obliged to turn their attention to the question of 85 transport for the vast and amorphous mob, which, without discipline, with no distinction of ranks, with no discrimination between soldier and monk, between merchant and peasant, between master and man, was now bent on reaching the Holy Land, almost as eager to die there as to achieve the object of their mission, the recovery of the Sepulchre. The three maritime states of Italy Genoa, Pisa, and Venice were each ready to offer their services. Each was jealous of the other, and each determined to prevent the other from reaping any signal commercial advantage from the religious enthusiasm of Europe. Venice was not only the most powerful, but also the most eastern, of the three com- petitors. It was natural that the choice should fall on her. When the Pope's invitation to assist in the Crusade reached the city, however, it seems that the Government did not at once embrace the cause officially in the name of the whole Republic. There was, at first, a tendency to leave the business of transport to private enterprise. But on receipt of the news that Jerusalem had fallen, the Venetian Government began to take active steps in the matter. The Doge summoned the General Assembly, and laid the situation before the people. He recommended the official acceptance of the Crusade upon the grounds of religion and of com- mercial utility; he pointed out that Pisa and Genoa were already well established in the East, and that Venice could not afford to sit quietly by and see her rivals increasing their importance in the Levant. The Crusade was accepted with enthusiasm. The whole city engaged in preparing a fleet which should be worthy of the Republic. Then, after a solemn mass in S. Mark's, at which the standard of the Cross and the standard of the Republic were presented to the leaders, the soldiers of the Cross embarked on the fleet, which numbered two hundred ships, and set sail down the Adriatic, making for Rhodes, where they were to winter. At Rhodes two incidents of great significance in Venetian history took place. The Eastern Emperors had never viewed with favour the incursions of the Crusaders. The creation of 86 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the kingdom of Jerusalem was really a usurpation of Imperial territory. Alexius I. now endeavoured to persuade the Venetians to withdraw from the enterprise. In this he failed ; Venice remained true to the Cross, and to her commercial interests. It is at this point that we find the beginnings of that divergence between Constantinople and the Republic, which eventually declared itself in open hostility, and led up to the sack of Constantinople in the fourth Crusade. Alexius, finding that the Venetians were not inclined to obey him, resolved to punish them. An instrument was ready to his hand. The Pisans saw with disfavour the advent of their commercial rivals in Eastern waters. They were willing to hoist the Imperial standard as opposed to the crusading Cross, and to sail down upon the Venetians at Rhodes. They were defeated. The Venetians released all the prisoners except thirty of the more prominent among them, who were detained as hostages. The first fruits of the Crusade, as far as Venice was concerned, were the creation of two powerful enemies, the Emperor and the Pisans. The Venetians reached Jaffa in spring ; and the siege of the fortified city of Haifa, at the foot of Mount Carmel, was assigned to them. They attacked the city with large catapults, from which they hurled stones ; they built a lofty tower whose summit was on a level with the top of the city walls, so that the men on the tower and the men on the walls were able to fight hand to hand. Tancred attacked the city from the other side, and in short time Haifa fell. The Venetians returned home. They seem to have been satisfied with the result of their expedition, perhaps because they were able to show to their fellow-citizens the body of San Nicolo, which they had stolen on their way to Jaffa. But as a matter of fact the Venetians' share in the first Crusade was neither glorious nor profitable; and their satisfaction at having obtained the body of San Nicolo has merely a symbolical significance. Patron of sailors, the possession of his body seemed to promise the Republic a sure superiority over her rivals on the sea. This sentiment found expression in the exclamation of delight with which the relics were welcomed " happy people of Venice ! Ye who EFFECT OF THE CRUSADES 87 have the lion of Mark, the Evangelist, to give you victory in battle, and who now possess the high-priest of sailors, the Saint who lays the raging of the sea." The movement of expansion in the East, which was prompted by the Crusade, found a counterpart on the main- land of Italy, where the influence of the growing Eepublic took its first step forwards. Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, with the help of Venice and Eavenna, succeeded in recover- ing Ferrara for the Church. In return for this aid the Eepublic was allowed to establish a consulate in that city ; and gradually a colony of Venetian merchants, whose houses and shops clustered round the church of S. Mark, sprang up and absorbed the commerce of the Ferrarese, as Venetians were apt to do wherever they went. But this movement of expansion brought with it its own difficulties and drawbacks. The reign of the I IO2. next Doge, Ordelafo Falier, revealed one of the serious dangers to which the Eepublic exposed itself by taking part in the Crusades. Two years after the accession of Falier, the Venetians, on the invitation of Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, sent a fleet of one hundred ships to his assistance. The city of Sidon fell, and the Venetians received as a recompense for their aid, a church, a street, a market-place, the right to use their own weights and measures, as well as jurisdiction over their own subjects in Sidon; in fact, the nucleus of a colony of merchants living under special treaty capitulations. And this concession of Baldwin served as a type of the many privileges which the Venetians subsequently acquired in the Levant. The establishment of this and other colonies, entailed upon the Venetians the necessity of keeping open their connections between the mother city and its offshoots. This imposed on them the task of clearing the pirates from the sea an operation as useful to them- selves as it was to the Crusaders. But the claims of the colony and of distant service in the Holy Land laid bare the weak point in the line of communication between Venice and the Levant. During the nine years from 1096 to 1105, Venice had placed upon the sea three hundred ships of war. This could not be done without 88 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC exhausting her resources ; and there was an enemy ready at hand to take advantage of her weakness. The sea- shore cities of Dalmatia had always been an object of desire to the kings of Hungary. At the same time the pos- session of them was absolutely essential to the Republic, not merely as sources of food, of wood, and of tribute, but also as a guarantee for the free passage of the Adriatic. Caloman, King of Hungary, saw his opportunity now, and determined to profit by the weakened condition of Venice. In violation of previous treaties he made a descent on the Dalmatian coast, and became master of many of its towns. At the moment the Venetians were powerless to retaliate; their fleet was absent; and even if it could have been recalled, that would have left an open field for the Pisans and the Genoese to pursue their commercial advancement in the Levant. Operations for the reduction of Dalmatia were postponed till 1116, when the Doge succeeded in recovering the allegiance of Zara, Trau, Sebenico. But the success was merely temporary ; no sooner had he returned to Venice than the Hungarians again descended upon the coast- line. The Doge was obliged to set out once more. He gave battle to the Hungarians at Zara, and, in spite of his personal valour, he was defeated and killed. The rout of the Venetians was complete. The defeat of Falier at Zara was so crushing that the new Doge, Domenico Michiel, abandoned all thought of reprisals. He concluded a truce of five years with King Stephen II. of Hungary. No doubt one reason for this conduct is to be found in the affairs of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Baldwin II., in his straits, had sent both to the Pope and to the Republic, imploring aid. The Pope urged Venice to grant Baldwin's request. The General Assembly was convoked in S. Mark's ; the Doge, the Patriarch, the Bishops, clergy, and the whole population, were present at the solemn mass which opened the proceedings. After mass the Patriarch read aloud the Pope's letter. The Doge then warmly advocated the cause of the Crusade. Under the guise of a religious enthusiasm he did not fail to indicate the material advantages which would be derived from the THE VENETIANS IN THE LEVANT 89 expedition. There was an opposition, however, in the assembly. A strong party insisted that the Venetians should not forget the lesson taught them by the loss of Dalmatia, which was entirely due to the strain on the resources of the Eepublic, caused by the despatch of such large armaments to the East, and by the defenceless condition in which Venice and the Adriatic were thereby left. As an additional argument against the expedition, they pointed to the hostility of the new Emperor, John Comnene, who had already declined to renew the ancient trading con- cessions. The Doge's proposal was carried, however, and the fleet prepared. It consisted of seventy-two sail, and a contemporary describes the splendid spectacle which it pre- sented : the beaked vessels of great size, larger than galleys, rowed by a hundred oarsmen each ; they, and all the fleet, painted in brilliant colours that caught the sunlight splendore ameno prospectantes. As on former occasions, so now, the expedition began by plundering. The Venetians were aware of the hostility of the Imperial Court ; they knew that at Constantinople they were hated. They determined to treat all Greek possessions as fair prey. At Corfu, where they wintered, the city was dealt with as though it belonged to a foe. They sailed in spring for Chios, Lesbos, and Rhodes, sacking the towns at which they touched. They moved on to Jaffa, and there had news that the Saracen fleet was putting out to sea from Egypt. The Doge determined to give battle. He had full confidence in the strength of his armament and in the courage of his men. He adopted a ruse. The fleet was divided into two portions ; the larger remained out of sight, upon the open sea, the smaller pushed forward to feel for the enemy. The Saracens were discovered ; and the Venetians, feigning terror, drew off, gradually luring the foe out into the open. All through the night the inanoauvre w r as continued, the Saracens pursuing, the Venetians yielding ground, till suddenly, at dawn, the pagans found themselves face to face with the whole mass of the Venetian fleet. The Doge himself gave the attack at once, and with such violence that he all but sank the enemy's flag-ship. The Venetian victory could 90 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC not have been more complete ; many of the Saracens' ships were burned, and, laden with booty, the Venetians sailed into Acre, where the Doge presently received the congratulations of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and whence, in company with many barons of the Christian host, he went to Jerusalem to discharge a vow made before leaving Venice. The Crusaders referred the question of subsequent military operations to a council of war. Opinions were divided. The people of Damascus and Jerusalem desired to attack Ascalon ; those of the seaboard urged the reduction of Tyre. The dispute became heated, and was only resolved by an appeal to chance. In an urn, placed upon an altar, lay two slips of paper, one bearing the name of Tyre, the other the word Ascalon. A child put his hand into the urn and drew out the paper with the name of Tyre. The attack was to be made on that city. But nothing could be done with- out the assistance of the Venetian fleet. The Venetians were absolute masters of the situation ; they knew it, and proceeded to turn the circumstances to their own j j 2 7. account. In Acre, in the church of the Holy Cross, the Patriarch and the barons of Jerusalem took a solemn oath that throughout their kingdom the Venetians should enjoy a free quarter, a market, a bath, and a bakery ; that the Doge's subjects should be exempt from taxation, and should use their own weights and measures; that they should be under the jurisdiction of their own magistrates ; that the property of a Venetian dying intestate should be committed to the tutelage of Venetians. The King of Jerusalem and the barons pledged themselves to pay a yearly tribute of three hundred bezants ; they confirmed the concessions granted to the Doge Falier; and, finally, they promised that, if Tyre and Ascalon fell into the hands of the Franks, the Venetians should receive a third part of each of those cities. These capitulations implied a most important gain for the commerce of Venice ; but their value depended entirely upon the stability of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and that kingdom was doomed to extinction after a brief and precarious existence. The nature of the concessions, however, shows the THE SIEGE OF TYRE 91 power of Venice, and displays her real object in undertaking the Crusades: that was the extension of her com- 112"?. mercial relations in the Levant. When these terms had been concluded the siege of Tyre began at once. The Venetians blockaded the port; the Crusaders drew lines round the city on the land side. The assailing towers were built to the level of the wall-top ; the catapults and engines' placed in position. But the siege proved a long operation. The people of Ascalon had time to prepare, and to attempt, a diversion in favour of Tyre by making a sudden assault on Jerusalem, which had been left almost ungarrisoned ; the movement was not successful. Meantime in the besiegers' camp signs of discord were not wanting. The Venetians, partly owing to their growing importance, partly on account of their undisguised policy of commercial aggrandisement, roused the suspicion and dislike of their allies. It was rumoured in the camp that the Doge would withdraw if the siege were protracted. Michiel realised the danger of allowing such a belief to take root ; the prizes awaiting him in Tyre and Ascalon were too valu- able to be jeopardised by tolerating such a misconception. He took a striking and picturesque method of silencing the slanderers. By his orders the sails, masts, and rudders of the Venetian ships were carried to the French camp, and solemnly deposited there, as proof positive that the Venetians did not intend to abandon their allies. Tyre was unable to hold out against the long blockade. It surrendered on honourable terms. The flags of Jeru- salem, Tripoli, and S. Mark were hoisted on the walls, and the division of the city according to agreement took place. The Venetians at once proceeded to settle their newly acquired possessions, They built three churches, dedicated to S. Mark, to S. James, and to S. Nicolas. The safety of the quarter was entrusted to a viscount, the administra- tion of justice to a bailie (bailo). The officials of the kingdom of Jerusalem were bound by oath to assist the viscount and the bailie ; and the inhabitants of the Venetian quarter took an oath of allegiance to the Doge. One remarkable episode of the siege of Tyre, though 92 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC related by many Venetian chroniclers, is not to be found in the most accredited ; probably, however, the legend condenses a fact. It is said that the Doge, finding his money running short, caused bits of leather to be issued, promising that they should be cashed for coin on the return of the expedition to Venice. In memory of this event the Michiel family to this day bear bezants on their shield. The event was, indeed, one of the highest moment in the history of the Republic, because here, at the siege and capture of Tyre, we reach the beginning of that greater Venice, that large commercial empire which was destined to spring from the first small gathering of fishermen's huts, huddled together upon the inhospitable mud-banks of the lagoon. For the Venetian quarter in Tyre was an integral part of Venice, as no other Venetian settlement had hitherto been. At Constantinople the Venetians possessed a district of their own in the city ; but they were under Imperial jurisdiction, and there could be no pretence of absolute independence in the very capital of the Empire. At Tyre, however, the Venetian quarter was independent of the kingdom of Jerusalem, which in its turn owed no allegiance to the Empire, and this was a fact which the Emperors of the East did not forget in their subsequent dealings with the Republic. But though Venice had gained enormously by this expedition to the East, the warning of those who, in the basilica of S. Mark, had opposed the Doge's policy was now to be verified. Stephen II. of Hungary, in the absence of the Doge, had seized the coast towns of Dalmatia, and the Greek Emperor continued to harass the Venetians in Constantinople. Michiel with his victorious fleet sailed as soon as possible for the Adriatic. He recovered the Dalmatian towns, and then, by way of reprisals against John Comnene, he laid siege to Cephalonia. This brought the Emperor to terms, and a lame treaty of peace was con- cluded, by which the Venetians, nominally at least, reac- quired all their privileges in the East. The Doge returned in triumph to Venice, bringing with him for all Venetians a sense of the power and importance VENETIAN POWER IN THE ADRIATIC 93 of the Eepublic, such as they had never before known, a wealth of oriental spoils, and of no less valuable 112"?. sacred relics, such as had never yet been unladen along the Eiva degli Schiavoni. By the operations in the Levant, the growing Eepublic achieved a second movement of expansion, no less important than that which signalised the reign of Pietro Orseolo II. The civilizing results of this prosperity are shown in the ameliorated conditions of life in the city; the Doge closed the eleven brilliant years of his reign by a pious and a useful provision. At all the street corners little tabernacles, such as exist to-day, were placed against the walls. During the day the saint pro- tected the passers-by, and received their offerings in a little wooden box ; at night the lamp, which was lighted in his honour, served as a safeguard against robbery and murder. These shrines, which in the history of Venice must ever be associated with the siege and capture of Tyre, were entrusted to the care of the capi contrada, the heads of the various quarters a body of men elected by the inhabitants, recog- nised by the Government, and held responsible for the good order of their respective districts. Domenico Michiel retired to the convent of S. Giorgio Maggiore, and was succeeded by Pietro Polani. Venice found herself exhausted by the long wars in the East and in Dalmatla. She had made a show of naval resources and power such as no other State at that time could have displayed. These efforts had been richly productive. She had added to her sphere of commercial operations a whole region in the Levant. She had planted colonies, though they were still young and required nursing. The State was in need of a breathing space to recruit lier powers and to absorb her gains. Pietro Polani's long Dogeship of eighteen years was favourable for this purpose. Venice enjoyed a period of repose, for which she was indebted to the many dangers which were menacing all those powers which might have proved hostile to her. The affairs of Italy were in confusion between Lothair of Saxony and Conrad of Hohenstaufen, between Innocent II. and Anacletus I. The country was torn by civil wars. The misery of all the 94 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC mainland cities must have made every Venetian feel a deep debt of gratitude to the lagoons which kept his island home free, quiet, and prosperous, and entirely separated from the destructive turmoil of the continent. The Eastern Emperor, on the other hand, though he had not forgiven the Venetians for their violation of his dominion, was compelled, in face of the growing power of Eoger, King of Sicily, to treat the Republic with respect, as it was highly probable that he would require Venetian aid against the Normans. Two events, slight in themselves but symptomatic in the history of the Eepublic, marked the reign of Pietro Polani. The first demonstrates the reputation which Venice had acquired at the siege of Tyre, and illustrates the way in which she turned every circumstance to her own profit, and to the establishment of herself as arbiter of the Adriatic. The people of Fano were molested by their neighbours of Ravenna, Pesaro, and Sinigallia. They ap- pealed to the Doge for assistance. The Venetians exacted terms which were embodied in the first treaty which the Republic made with an Italian city. The Venetians were to enjoy absolute freedom in Fano, to be considered as citizens of that city ; suits by a Venetian against a Fanese were to be heard before the representative of Venice. Fano promised a tribute, which was dedicated to the illumi- nation of S. Mark's, and bound itself to assist Venice if she were at war in the Adriatic. The Fanesi, further, declared themselves subject allies of the Republic in every- thing which did not traverse their feudal obligations to the Empire. In return Venice granted reciprocal rights of trading in .their city, and pledged herself to protect Fano if attacked. The second point of interest in the reign of Polani was another little war, not on sea but on the mainland against the Paduans, who had cut the banks of the Brenta, and thereby sent down a dangerous discharge of soil into the lagoons at Fusina. The Venetians were fully alive to the fact that their very existence depended upon the integrity of the lagoons ; their own history had demonstrated this to them THE NORMANS 95 over and over again; they were prepared, and rightly, to make any tampering with the water system of the estuary a casus belli. But the Venetians were a sea folk ; they had never before been called upon to undertake a land war. One of their own historians has summed up the situation in these words : " This was the first land war which Venice undertook ; and as the Venetians were not accustomed to this mode of campaign they were compelled to make use of foreign captains. What was imposed by necessity at first was continued through policy, for a military leader is naturally surrounded by a brilliant staff and a large suite; and this would have induced a citizen-general to exceed those limits which, for the conservation of liberty, must be preserved in a republic." Whether Venice was as self-conscious as Paolo Morosini depicts her may be doubted. She was driven on this occasion to make use of mercenaries, because they were the lesser of two evils. But we shall have occasion to show that they were usually a source of weakness, and often a cause of alarm, to the Eepublic. The Paduan war was of short duration. One battle sufficed to compel the main- landers to come to terms, and to remedy the damage they had done. Other events were in preparation which were destined to draw Venice once more into the circle of Eastern politics, and to embark her anew upon a great naval campaign. The growing power of the Normans under Eoger II. was a constant threat to the Emperor Manuel. The jealousy which Venice naturally felt for so powerful a naval rival, threw the Republic and the Emperor again together, though the alliance was not cordial. Manuel agreed to confirm and enlarge the ancient privileges of the Venetians in Constantinople, while the Eepublic in return placed a large fleet upon the sea and joined the Greek squadron against the Normans. A battle was fought at Maleo, where, in spite of desertion by their Greek allies, the Venetians defeated Eoger's fleet and captured forty ships. They then took part in the siege of Corfu, though the Venetian feeling against the Greeks ran so high that it was found necessary 96 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC to place the two forces in separate cantonments. But the precaution was useless ; the men could not meet without fighting, and matters reached such a pitch that the armies eventually engaged in open battle. Axouchos, the commander of the Greeks, was obliged to charge the Venetians, and drove them to take refuge in their ships. They at once set sail to attack a detachment of Greek ships lying between Cephalonia and Ithaca. They captured the Imperial galley, dressed a negro slave in the Imperial ensigns, placed him under a canopy, and paraded him before the Greek camp at Corfu, making mock obeisance to him in scorn and insult. Corfu fell at last ; but the Doge took the first opportunity for retiring. He made terms with the Normans, by which all Venetian territory north of Eagusa was guaranteed immunity from Norman incursions, thereby securing still further the position of Venice in the Adriatic. The episode of the Norman war ended here for the present. But the Emperor Manuel did not forget the insult he had received in the person of the negro slave, nor did he lay aside his hostility. He was presently enabled to satisfy his desire for revenge, and thereby brought Venice for the first time into an open and declared rupture with the Eastern Empire. Such an issue had become inevitable, from the moment when the Venetians allied themselves with the western races in the Crusades. That alliance implied a policy which was hostile to the Eastern Empire, for it was animated by a spirit of commercial aggrandisement at the expense of the decaying Empire, from whose disintegration Venice thought to draw profit. But, in the meantime, the important events which were taking place on the mainland of Italy, now called the attention of every Italian State to the danger which threatened their liberties 'from the ambitious policy of the new Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa. Even Venice, separated and isolated as she was, could not escape being drawn into the current of Italian politics for a time, though her action proves once again how much more vital was her connection with the Eastern Empire than with Italy. When Frederick Barbarossa came to the throne and FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 97 turned his attention to the affairs of his Italian Kingdom, he found a strong spirit of municipal independence hostile to the Empire swaying the northern towns of the peninsula. The slow break-up of the old Eonian Empire released the desire for individual freedom in each commune, which the new Empire, founded by Charles the Great, had never been strong enough to crush. We have seen this spirit manifesting itself in the formation of Venice; but there, thanks to the isolation of the lagoons, it was com- paratively unhampered. The Eepublic was able to pursue her own course undisturbed by extraneous pressure, and therefore she succeeded in developing a constitution which, being in its final form the expression of the whole national will, was not liable to attack from inside. The mainland cities were not so fortunate. They were inspired by the same desire for freedom as animated Venice, but they were constantly subject to the oppressive interruption of the stranger. They suffered under the yoke of foreign codes and of the feudal system, with its arbitrary cleavage of the State into castes. But in spite of all Imperial efforts to mould them, the Korth Italian towns retained their individu- ality and their resolution to be virtually free. During the long struggle about the question of investitures, when the Empire was especially weak, this spirit had been carefully encouraged by the Church as a valuable weapon against the Emperor. It was this spirit of independence which Frederick Barbarossa resolved to crush. The quarrels of Milan, the most powerful champion of liberty, with its neighbours of Lodi, Como, and other cities, gave the Emperor his oppor tunity. He came into Italy on purpose to chastise the Milanese. He summoned the North Italians to meet him at Eoncaglia, near Piacenza, and Venice sent her representative with a view to obtaining the renewal of the diplomas she had been in the habit of receiving from the masters of Italy. The Emperor found that he had under- rated the strength of the Lombard communities. He i ice. proceeded to Kome for his coronation, and then re- tired into Germany to raise a fresh and more powerful army. A new Doge, Vitale Michiel II., was called upon to guide H 98 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the Republic through the dangers which were closing round the young and growing State. In the year 1158 Frederick was again in Italy, and Milan was obliged to make submission. The Emperor thought to settle the affairs of North Italy by a diet at Eoncaglia. When it was found, however, that the cities would no longer be allowed to elect their own consuls, every one of them instantly became hostile to Frederick once more. An opportunity for dis- playing this hostility soon offered itself. In the year 1159 the papal throne fell vacant. The Imperialists elected Pope Victor IV. ; the Guelf party, the party of the Church and the communes as against the Empire, elected Alexander III. Victor was certainly an antipope; moreover, he was the nominee of Frederick, who was menacing Italian liberty. There could be no doubt which side the cities of North Italy would take. They all declared for Alexander. Venice found that she could not stand aloof. She was alarmed at the masterful designs of the Emperor, and threw in her lot with the other cities of Lombardy. Frederick instantly retaliated. He knew where he could strike the Eepublic with effect. Padua, Verona, and Ferrara were too glad of an opportunity to injure their powerful and haughty neighbour of the lagoons, whose position had been so greatly strengthened by the siege and fall of Tyre. The Emperor could count on their support. So serious was the attack that one lagoon township, Cavarzere, was actually seized and held in the Emperor's name. Again, to the north-east the Patriarch of Aquileia served as another weapon by which Frederick could wound the Republic. The Patriarch Ulric, encour- aged by the Emperor, attacked Grado, and expelled the Patriarch Dandolo. But Venice, in the interests of her own independent development, could not allow the lagoon Patriarchate to be crushed by its mainland neighbour. The Doge manned a fleet, and in his turn attacked, defeated, and captured the Patriarch of Aquileia, who was brought a prisoner to Venice ; nor did he recover his liberty until he had pledged himself and his successors to send a yearly tribute of twelve pigs, in scornful allusion to the number of his cathedral chapter, as a sign of submission to the Doge. THE EMPEROR MANUEL 99 But, this success notwithstanding, Venice was still threatened by the open hostility of Frederick. There was no doubt that he would attack her on the first opportunity. The reappearance of a powerful Emperor on the mainland of Italy, a sight which had not disturbed the Venetians for many years, produced a return to the ancient policy of the Republic in similar circum- stances. The Venetians endeavoured to take advantage of their theoretical and nominal dependence on the Eastern Empire ; they appealed to Manuel for assistance, and attempted, in addition, to form a defensive alliance with the Normans of Sicily, both of whom viewed the progress of Frederick with jealousy. But the Emperor of Constantinople was so much occupied with his campaigns on his northern frontier as to be almost powerless in the West ; and, more- over, he was still hostile to Venice, while the Normans were never friendly towards their maritime rivals in the Adriatic. The Republic therefore, by the force of circumstances, was obliged in self-defence to enter into league with the towns of North Italy. Venice had already been a member of other combinations hostile to Frederick ; but now, on 1st December 1167, she joined the great confederation which included almost all the Lombard cities. Being unable to contribute a land force, she pledged herself to put her fleet at the disposal of the league; she also bound herself to share any subsidies which she might receive from Constantinople ; to engage in no war on her own account ; to conclude no peace without the consent of her allies. But just at this moment, when Venice was becoming absorbed in the politics of North Italy, her attention was suddenly claimed by the action of Manuel, the Emperor of the East. Manuel had never forgotten the insult offered by the Venetian sailors at Corfu, nor the subsequent refusal of the Republic to assist him against the Normans, with whom the Venetians had formed an alliance very distaste- ful to the Greeks. The Venetians were thoroughly unpopular in Constantinople, it is said on account of their haughtiness, more probably because they were gradually absorbing all the wealth and commerce of the city. Their H 2 100 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC numbers were very great ; as many as 200,000 are said to have lived in the Venetian quarter. They owned land outside the city, and they frequently married into the great Greek families. They proved quarrelsome neighbours, however, and we constantly hear of faction fights between the Venetian and the Lombard residents. It was not difficult for Manuel to make their turbulence an excuse, when he wished to annoy them. His whole attitude had been hostile to Venice. He paid no attention to Venetian appeals for aid against Frederick ; and the Venetians of Constantinople were not without their suspicions that the Emperor medi- tated some treachery. Two of their number sought an audience and said to Manuel, "We have heard, though we do not believe it, that you intend much ill to the Venetians." Manuel reassured them, and even published an edict ordering any one who insulted a Venetian to be hanged. But he continued to mass troops in the city, till suddenly, on the 7th March, 1171, all Venetians in the Empire were arrested, and their property seized and confis- cated. When the news reached Venice the popular fury broke out in cries of " War ! war ! " It was impossible to stem the tide of indignation, and the Government was forced to prepare for a great naval campaign against the Eastern Empire, their ancient suzerain. All considerations of their duty to the Lombard League, of their solemn oath not to embark on any other war, were thrown to the winds in their rage at seeing their commercial possessions in the East jeopardised by the hostility and treachery of Manuel. The armament required was a large one, and the strain upon the resources of the Republic, which had lately manned so many fleets, brought to light the fact that the treasury was exhausted. Signs of financial embarrassment had not been wanting. As far back as 1164 the Government had found itself compelled to borrow money from some of its wealthier citizens. It amortised the debt by surrendering the revenues of the market at Eialto for sixteen years. But now, in view of the war with Manuel, the Republic was obliged to exact a forced loan from all her inhabitants. For this purpose the city was divided, for the first time, into six WAR WITH THE EASTERN EMPIRE 101 districts, or sestieri, which still exist Castello, San Marco, Cannaregio, Santa Croce, San Polo, Dorsoduro. The population was taxed at the rate of one per cent on the net income. To assess this tax commissioners were appointed to examine the incomes of all Venetians. This inquisition, always odious, was especially unpopular with the merchant class. But the city had cried " War ! war ! " and they were obliged to submit. The money raised by this forced loan bore interest at the rate of four per cent per annum, payable half-yearly ; and in order to carry out the operation with regularity, a chamber of loans was instituted. The bonds were issued by the chamber ; the security was the whole revenue of the Eepublic. The bonds could be bequeathed, mortgaged, or sold ; and so we find in this forced loan the earliest instance of government stock, cer- tainly in the history of Venice, perhaps in the history of Europe. Besides raising money, the Government was also com- pelled to face the difficulty of finding men for the fleet. All Venetians were recalled from abroad. They were expected though not compelled to serve. The Eepublic drew her sailors from three sources, and apparently at this time all were volunteers, though later on the oarsmen in the great galleys were partly supplied by condemned criminals. The ordinary source was the population of Venice itself; the subsidiary source was the allied or tributary lands; the extraordinary source was the foreign ports where Venetians traded, and where they could raise mercenaries by the promise of large pay and the prospect of unlimited booty. Thanks to these vigorous measures, the Doge was able, in 100 days, to man a fleet of 120 sail. In September of 1171, with the usual ceremony of the blessing of the banner, Vitale Michiel sailed away southward to attack the Empire of the East. At Chalcis, in Euboea, ambassadors from Manuel arrived ; they declared that the Emperor had no desire for war; rather he invited the Venetians to send their representatives to Constantinople where they might treat of peace. The Venetians fell into the trap. Ambassadors, 102 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC among them Enrico Dandolo, were despatched ; they wasted their time fruitlessly in the capital, while the fleet retired to winter quarters in Chios. There, in idleness, discipline became relaxed ; the crowded ships grew filthy and unhealthy ; plague broke out, more probably the result of dirt than of poison ; thousands died. At length the Venetians could endure no more. The crews mutinied, and set sail for Venice. So complete was the collapse of the Venetian armament, so sweeping the mortality, that, as legend declares, the whole Giustiniani family, with one exception, perished; it was only restored by the efforts of the sole survivor, a young monk, Nicol Giustinian, whom the Pope absolved from his vows. He married the Doge's daughter, renewed his race, and retired once more to his convent on the Lido. The disaster was complete. The shattered remnants of this splendid Venetian armament, created by generous sacrifices and bearing the hopes of the Eepublic, returned to the Lido in the spring of 1172. Instead of booty, it brought the plague ; in place of victory, death. The Doge, with magnificent courage, summoned the General Assembly, and sought to exculpate himself. But the rage and mortification of the people rendered them deaf ; they only saw before them the man responsible for this crushing defeat ; the Doge divined that he was lost ; he endeavoured to fly, was overtaken, struck down, and killed near the church of San Zaccaria. The position of Venice was now very grave. Enemies surrounded her ; she had no allies. In Italy she was openly at war with the Emperor Frederick, and she still remained a member of the Lombard League. In the East she had just been thrown back, not by the arms but by the diplomacy of her bitter enemy, Manuel. At home she was a prey to anarchy and revolution, which had ended in the murder of the Doge. Alarm at this situation caused the Venetians to examine the working of their constitution. Eightly or wrongly, they seemed to have considered that the fault lay there. And so the defeat of Vitale Michiel led up to the most serious constitutional reforms that we have met with CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS 103 as yet in the course of Venetian history. These reforms indicate the lines upon which the constitution of the 1171.. Eepublic was about to stereotype itself ; and in them we find the germ of that particular construction which the Venetian oligarchy eventually displayed. Hitherto the political machinery of the Eepublic had consisted of a Doge, elected in the General Assembly of all Venetian people, with two councillors to assist him, and with power to invite assistance from other prominent citizens if he saw fit. With the Doge lay the right to convoke this General Assembly, whose voice was necessary, however, in such important matters as the election of the supreme magistrate, the declaration of war, and the conclusion of peace. It appeared now to the Venetians, in considering their constitution, that reforms were necessary for two reasons : first, because the position of the Doge was too independent, thanks to his discretionary powers in summoning the General Assembly, and in inviting the advice of prominent citizens, and also because the two ducal councillors had never succeeded in acquiring any real weight in the management of affairs ; secondly, the constitution required revision, because the people were too free and unruly when they met in the General Assembly. Owing to the rapid growth of the population and the consequent enlargement of that body, it was impossible to say what rash resolu- tion might not be adopted. This danger had just been demonstrated by the recklessness which hurried the Eepublic into a war with the Emperor of the East. It seemed, therefore, that some middle term was desirable, and that reform must proceed upon the following lines: the construction of a deliberative assembly, which entailed as a corollary, the determination of the exact place in the con- stitution to be occupied by the mass of the people ; and the definition and limitation of the Doge's authority. The evolution of these two ideas forms the problem of Venetian constitutional history for the next 124 years, till the solution arrived at became stereotyped by the closing of the Great Council in the year 1296. An interregnum of six months between the murder of 104 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Vitale Michiel and the election of his successor Ziani produced the following reforms : (1) With a view to creating an efficient de- liberative assembly, each sestiere was ordered to elect two representatives ; these six groups of deputies each nomi- nated forty members, from among the more prominent inhabitants of their respective sestiere; thus an assembly of 480 members was created. They held office for one year ; at the end of that period the assembly itself named the two new electors for each sestiere. The functions of this assembly were to appoint the officials of the Eepublic, which was done by vote, and to prepare all matter which had to be submitted to the General Assembly of the whole population. Here then we find the germ of the Maggior Consiglio, the Great Council, the basis of the Venetian oligarchical constitution. It had its original in the necessity for limiting the electorate in a rapidly growing State. Its prime function of appointing to office was given to it from the very first. In its source it was a democratic body ; it was the result of an election by the whole population as represented by their twelve deputies, and may be said, therefore, to have expressed the will of the people. But it already contained the element of a close oligarchy in the provision whereby the assembly itself named all subsequent twelve electors. (2) The next step was to strengthen the Pregadi, the invited, who hitherto had assisted the Doge when he chose to request their advice, though nothing was done to make this body permanent till the reforms under Tiepolo between the years 1229 and 1249. (3) The most important step taken, at present, in the direction of curbing the Doge's authority, was the creation of four more ducal councillors, raising the whole number to six. Their duty was to check the Doge in any attempt at personal aggrandisement; above all they were to see that he did not introduce into treaties with foreign powers any clause which secured special commercial advantages for himself or his family. (4) The compensations offered to the Doge for these CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS 105 restrictions, indicate, even thus early, the lines which the Venetians intended to follow in their treatment of the Dukedom. The ceremony surrounding the Doge was increased; a guard of honour accompanied him when he went out; at his election he was carried in a chair of state round the Piazza. In fact, these reforms of the year 1172 breathe the very spirit of the Venetian constitution. It was intended to extrude the people from their ancient rights; to render the Council a close body, an oligarchy; to reduce the Doge to a mere figure-head in the State. The intention is clearly marked ; and Venetian Constitutional history turns upon the way in which that programme was carried out. But the people were not disfranchised at a single blow. We have seen that part of the duties of the new Council of 480 was to prepare matter for submission to the General Assembly, and one of the popular rights was a voice in the election of the Doge. When the Eepublic proceeded to the choice of a chief magistrate in the place of the murdered Doge Michiel, an attempt was at once made to deprive the people of this right. The Council appointed eleven electors to nominate the new Doge and to present him to the people, not for election but for confirmation. When the eleven ap- peared before the General Assembly, however, they were met by outcries against the tyrants who were usurping the people's rights. The eleven were in serious danger of their lives, and quiet was only restored by the adoption of a formula " This is your Doge, an it please you," which seemed to preserve to the people their voice in the election. Thus the young oligarchy took its first step towards one of its objects, the extrusion of the people. The right of election was really lost, though the ghost of it still remained to trouble the State for more than a hundred years. CHAPTEE VII Sebastian Ziani, Doge Financial distress Venice suspends payment Ambassadors sent to Manuel Enrico Dandolo, liis blindness Affairs of the Lombard League Meeting between Frederick and Alexander pro- posed Venice suggested The Congress of Venice Venice makes special terms The Sposalizio del Mar Aquileia and Grado settled Venetian gain from the Congress Growth of the city Loggia of the Palace Columns of the Piazzetta Ponte di Rialto Ziani's political testament Orio Malipiero, Doge Venetian relations with Constantinople Death of Manuel Usurpation and atrocities of Andronicus Isaac Comneue, Emperor His friendly relations with Venice Betrothal of Henry of Hohenstaufen to Constance of Sicily Consequences for Venice Treaty between Isaac and Venice Siege of Zara Third Crusade unprofitable for Venice The Quarantia, supreme court of Venice Magistrate del Proprio Del Forestier Avogadori di Gomun Enrico Dandolo, Doge His character and views Genoa and Pisa The fourth Crusade Venice contracts for the transport of Crusaders Ambassadors from the Crusaders in Venice Assembly in S. Mark's Innocent confirms the contract The destination of the Crusade Venice fulfils her contract The Crusaders not ready to sail The Doge proposes to attack Zara Arrival of Pietro Capuano The Venetians take the Cross The sailing of the fleet Siege of Zara : it falls Second diversion of the fourth Crusade Causes of this diversion The agreement of Philip, Boniface, and Dandolo The Venetian terms in the Convention of Zara The fleet sails to Con- stantinople Siege of the city Dandolo's bravery The flag of S. Mark on the walls Panic of Alexius the elder Isaac replaced on the throne The Crusaders demand fulfilment of the Zara convention The revolution of Ducas An attack on Constantinople designed Partition Treaty Capture and sack of the city Division of the spoil The result to Venice. THE choice of the eleven electors fell upon Sebastian Ziani. The new Doge's attention was almost immediately called to the question of finance. The expense of the armament which had met with such disastrous fortunes, and the large subsidies paid towards the funds of EMBASSY TO MANUEL 107 the Lombard League, had so exhausted the exchequer that money was not forthcoming to meet the interest due to the State bonds. In these circumstances the Doge, by the advice of the Pregadi, proposed and carried the suspension of payment on the national debt until the State should be in a sounder financial condition. The State was virtually bankrupt; but as all its creditors were Venetians, the appeal made to their patriotism was not made in vain. These financial difficulties, however, obliged the State to abandon all thought of further war with Manuel, and compelled Venice to sue humbly for terms of peace, and an indemnity, if possible, for loss suffered by expulsion from Constantinople. The first ambassadors, Enrico Dandolo and Filipo Greco, had already left Venice before Ziani was elected. They experienced anything but a kindly reception from Manuel, and one widely-accepted story says that Dandolo was blinded, or partially blinded, by order of the Emperor. Another account represents Dandolo as escaping in time to save his eyes. On the whole, it would not appear that Dandolo was stone blind, but rather defective of vision, as his descendant, Andrea Dandolo, describes him visu aliqualiter obtenebratus. Such a theory comports better with his conduct during the siege of Constantinople, his leaping from his ship and his scaling the walls, than does the supposition of his total blindness. However that may be, Dandolo's mission failed. But he brought back with him from the East two things which proved of great moment subsequently a knowledge of Constantinople, and a deep hatred for its rulers. Later missions likewise came to nothing, and Venice was com- pelled to seek alliances elsewhere. In the year 1175 she concluded a treaty with William of Sicily, whereby Venetian supremacy in the Adriatic north of Eagusa was recognised. But while matters were in this unsatisfactory position in the East, the affairs of Italy and the conduct of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa again claimed all the attention of the Eepublic. We have seen that Venice was drawn away from co-operation with the Lombard League by her struggle with Manuel in the East. She took no share in 108 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the battle of Legnano (19th May), which forced the Emperor to abandon his schemes for subduing the Lombard communes, and compelled him to come to terms both with the League and with the Pope. For this purpose a meet- ing between the Emperor and Pope was desired; it was difficult, however, to find any place quite suitable for this object. Both Emperor and Pope were too suspicious of each other to risk themselves in any city which they believed to be decidedly a partisan of either. The accidental neutrality of Venice during this war, and the fact that she was essentially different from other Italian cities, being in many respects not an Italian town at all, indicated the capital of the lagoons as the city best suited for the meeting of the spiritual and temporal sovereigns. On the part of the Emperor there had been a rapproche- ment towards Venice, after the Republic in its fury against Manuel had assisted Archbishop Christian of Mainz, Frederick's chancellor, to attack Ancona ; while, on the other hand, the important part played by Venice in the formation of the Verona League, out of which the Lombard League emerged, and the prompt recognition of Alexander III. as opposed to Victor IV., made the Republic acceptable to the Pope. The Leaguers, however, resenting the defection of Venice, her assistance given to Frederick against Ancona, and her absence from the battle of Legnano, insisted on considering her as a city of Imperial leanings, and refused to accept her as the place of congress. Bologna was suggested, but declined by the Emperor. Finally 'after much discussion, and after the Pope had openly declared in favour of the lagoon city, Venice was chosen as the scene of the meeting, but not until the Doge had bound himself by oath to refuse the Emperor admittance within Venetian territory except by the Pope's consent. On the 9th of May 1177 the Pope left Ferrara, and reached San Nicolo del Lido on the 10th. Thence he was conducted with great pomp to S. Mark's. The ambassadors of the Lombard League were for the most part already assembled. The Emperor was represented by his chancellor, Christian of Mainz. There seemed to be small prospect of settling the questions in dispute between the Emperor and the Lombards. And while negotiations were THE PEACE OF VENICE 109 in progress, Frederick reached Chioggia on 13th July. The Lombard representatives took alarm and withdrew 1177. to Treviso. The Pope and his cardinals were in terror, until assured by the Sicilian ambassador that the four Sicilian galleys were at their disposal. Whatever intentions the Emperor may have had, he saw at once that nothing could be gained now by a coup de main. He accordingly informed the cardinals that he was ready to swear the peace, and charged Heinrich von Dietz to take the preliminary oath on his behalf. The cardinals and the Lombard ambassadors returned to Venice ; and on the 22nd July, Heinrich von Dietz, in the presence of the Pope, the cardinals, the Lombard and Italian ambassadors, swore that the Emperor would conclude a truce of six years with the Lombards, and of fifteen with the King of Sicily. The Pope then gave formal permission to the Doge to invite Frederick to Venice. The Doge sent his son to Chioggia with six galleys. They brought Frederick and his suite to San Nicolo del Lido on the 23rd July. That was on Sunday evening. On Monday morning early, the Pope, surrounded by the whole clergy, the ambassadors of Sicily, and the rectors of the Lombard League, went to the church of S. Mark, before whose main portal a splendid throne had been erected. Meantime representatives of the Pope had been sent to the Emperor at San Nicolo. To these the Emperor declared that he abjured the schism; his suite did the same. The bishops of Ostia, Porto, and Palestrina then absolved the Imperial party, and received them once more into the bosom of the Church. On learning the conclusion of this ceremony, the Pope requested the Doge and the Patriarch, the bishops and nobles, to conduct the Emperor to his presence. Frederick took his place in the ducal gondola, between the Doge and the Patriarch of Grado ; and, in procession, he was conducted across the lagoon to the Molo of S. Mark. There he landed, and passed up the Piazzetta till he came in front of the basilica, where the Pope was waiting him, seated on his throne. At the sight of Alexander, Frederick removed his cloak, humbly approached the Pope, and, bending down, kissed his foot. Alexander raised the Emperor, and bestowed 110 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC on him the kiss of peace. Then to the sound of the Te Deum Frederick and the Doge led the Pope to the 1 1 77 high altar. There the Emperor placed his offerings, received once more the papal benediction, and retired with his suite to the ducal palace. The following day, the feast of S. James, the Pope himself celebrated mass, while Frederick served as his acolyte. After the Gospel, Alexander preached a sermon to the Emperor; but perceiving from his countenance that he did not thoroughly grasp the drift of the discourse, the Pope ordered the Patriarch of Aquileia to translate his remarks into German. At the close of this trying ceremony the Emperor and his nobles bent the knee once more to Alexander, kissed his foot, and conducted him to the door of the church. There Frederick held the stirrup of the papal mule while Alexander mounted, and was about to lead him towards the Molo; but the Pope, satiated no doubt with his triumph, dispensed the Emperor from this further humiliation, and dismissed him with his blessing. On the 1st August the official ratification of the fifteen years' peace with Sicily, and the six years' truce with the Lombard League, took place in the Patriarch's palace ; and the Congress of Venice was formally closed upon the 14th of the same month. The Emperor and Pope continued their sojourn in the city for some time longer. The Venetians employed the occasion to conclude special treaties with both. From the Emperor they obtained confirmation of all previous diplomas granted by Emperors of the West. The Venetians were to enjoy free passage and safe conduct throughout the empire ; the subjects of the Empire were to enjoy similar privileges " as far as Venice and no farther " words which Venetian historians are disposed to interpret as .recognising Venetian supremacy in the Adriatic. From the Pope they secured such advantages as he was able to bestow indulgences in various churches. A sacramental complexion was given to the ancient ceremony of Ascension Day. Instead of a placatory or expiatory function, it became nuptial. Henceforth the Doge every year dropped a GROWTH OF THE CITY 111 consecrated ring into the sea, and with the words Desponsamus te, mare, declared that Venice and the sea were indissolubly one. The most important advantage which the Eepublic derived from the Congress of Venice was the final settlement of the interminable disputes between the patriarchal Sees of Grado and Aquileia. The Patriarch of Grado abandoned all claim on the relics, treasures, etc., stolen by Patriarch Poppo in 1016. On the other hand, the Patriarch of Aquileia consented to a delimitation of his jurisdiction, which excluded the lagoons, Istria, and Dalmatia; and thus a ganging plea of many centuries was finally adjudicated. The Emperor left Venice on the 18th September, and the Pope on the 16th October. The gain which Venice had derived from the recent Congress had been chiefly a gain of parade. The eyes of Western Europe were directed to the city of the lagoons as the meeting-place of the two great powers, spiritual and temporal; the Doge of Venice appeared as the friend and host of both Pope and Emperor ; he had borne himself well in that exalted company. The Venetians saw every reason to be satisfied. The presence of the Congress in their city had caused a great influx of strangers a circumstance which Venice, for obvious considerations, has always extremely enjoyed. Their national vanity had been flattered, and they had not let their guests depart without leaving some- thing behind them. It was a lucky accident rather than deliberate policy which placed Venice in this felicitous position. The attack upon her factories in Constantinople had diverted her whole attention from her duties to the Lombard League, and gave her conduct an appearance of sufficient neutrality to satisfy the Emperor ; while her share in creating the Verona League, which was the basis of municipal resistance to Frederick, had assured the Pope and the Lombards that she was not at heart an Imperial city. She understood how to utilise her advantage. She arranged her own affairs with Pope and Emperor while they were still with her, still satisfied with the result of the Congress to which Venice had materially assisted. The subsequent proceedings of all parties had no further interest for the 112 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Republic, and she was not even represented at the peace of Constance in 1183. Venice had passed with success through a period of great difficulty. Her constitution had become more solid ; her importance in general history had been enormously in- creased. The outward appearance of the city itself reflected this advance. To Ziani is attributed that beautiful loggia of larch beams, once open, which is now encased behind the upper colonnade on the west side of the ducal palace. To him, too, is due the first pavement of the Piazza, and the erection of those two immortal columns with which the pictorial aspect of the city is for ever associated. They were raised into position by one Nicolo Barattiere, from the place where they had lain ever since they were brought from the East, in the time of Michiel II. Barattiere de- manded as his recompense permission to keep gambling- tables between their shafts. This was granted; but the benefit and the evil were quickly neutralised by the choice of that very spot for the execution of criminals. The same Nicolo is also credited with the construction of the first Ponte di Rialto, a wooden bridge, probably not unlike that which is represented in Carpaccio's picture of the healing of a lunatic in the Academy. The Doge was seventy-six years old. He had guided Venice through a dangerous but brilliant period. He desired to withdraw from public life, and obtained leave to do so. But before retiring he indited a most interesting and valuable political testament. He himself was the first Doge elected under a new regime. He had enjoyed the opportunity of watching the young constitution at work. It was impossible that this constitution should not display its inherent quality in the slow division of classes in the State. The creation of a council inevitably marked off those who were inside from those who were not. The State of Venice was already face to face with the oligarchy and the people as its two great factors. That Ziani should have realised the situation so soon is a testimony to his political acumen. His advice was summed up thus, " Leave a career of honour and office open to the more powerful citizens": that is virtually a plea for ZIANI'S ADVICE 113 extension, for elasticity in the young oligarchy, a hint that the time had not yet come for making the oligarchy rigid ; and, secondly, "Take care that the people never suffer famine " : a warning that contented masses were the only medium in which the State could achieve its oligarchic tendency, without the danger of an open rupture. He also suggested a modification in the method of electing the Doge. It appeared to him that eleven electors formed too small a body to represent fairly the mass of the Council, which was now virtually the constituency. He therefore proposed that the Council should elect four members, who in their turn should appoint forty, each one of whom required three out of the four votes. These forty should then proceed to elect the new Doge by a majority. The new process resulted in the choice of Orio Malipiero, whose reign was chiefly occupied with oriental affairs. Towards the close of the pre- vious reign there had been a rapprochement between Venice and Constantinople, brought about by Manuel's dislike of seeing Venice and the Normans in such close alliance. In order to weaken this combination Manuel had reinstated the Venetians in all their privileges at Constan- tinople, and had restored the property confiscated in 1171 ; moreover, as an indemnity for damage suffered, he promised 1500 pounds weight of gold. Manuel died in 1180 and was succeeded by his young son Alexius II., who was quickly deposed by his relation Andronicus. In the process of seizing Constantinople Andronicus's Paphlagonian troops committed atrocities upon the Latin population. They fled to the various courts of Europe seeking vengeance on the tyrant. A favourable reception awaited them from William of Sicily, who manned a fleet and sailed with his allies the Venetians to attack Andronicus. Durazzo and Salonica fell, and the Normans were pushing on towards Constantinople when a revolution in that city drove Andronicus from the throne. Isaac Comnene took his place. The Normans, however, still pressed forward. No doubt they were only half pleased at a revolution which had deprived them of any plausible excuse for sacking I 114 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the richest city in the world. They were defeated and retired. _ Immediately afterwards we find the Venetians concluding a most friendly treaty with the new Emperor. The causes for this sudden warmth are not far to seek. The betrothal of Henry, heir of the Hohenstaufens, to Con- stance, heiress of Sicily, was absolutely opposed to Venetian interests. The union of the kingdom of Sicily and the Empire in one and the same hands would have constituted a serious danger for the Republic. Hitherto the Emperor had been homeless in Italy, the mere personification of an idea, disembodied and powerless, except in so far as he was able to create combinations favourable to his purposes. Thanks to the feudal system of military service, his foreign troops could not be maintained for long in the peninsula, and Italians cared nothing for his aims unless they were able to use his power against a hated neighbour. But if the Emperor once became not merely the nominal overlord of Italy, but actually a reigning prince in Italy, the case would wear quite another aspect. The menace of a powerful Western Emperor repro- duced in Venice the policy which had become traditional. The Eepublic drew towards the Empire of the East, and the result was seen in the treaty concluded with Isaac in 1187. Venice bound herself to furnish from 40 to 100 galleys when called on. The Emperor would supply the money ; Venice the officers ; the men were to be raised at the rate of three men out of every four from among the Venetian population of the Eastern dominions. As each galley required 140 rowers, this would imply that the male Venetian population of the Empire serviceable for war exceeded 18,000 men. The Venetians were to receive in return a quarter in every city conquered by the fleet. The Emperor bound himself to protect Venetian property wherever attacked, and swore to accept no peace from which Venice was excluded. The good accord with Isaac left Venice free to turn her attention to the reduction of Zara, which was in its normal state of rebellion. But the exchequer was exhausted. A new loan was raised, redeemable in twelve years, secured JUDICIAL REFORMS 115 upon the salt monopoly, and under a guarantee that no 8 further debt would be incurred for two years to come. The Government, following, it would seem, the advice given by Ziani never to allow the people to suffer hunger, preferred to raise loans from wealthy inhabitants rather than to replenish the exchequer by direct taxation. That was a system which might be pursued as long as the revenue was steadily growing, as it must have been at this period of Venetian history. But Zara was not to be subdued this time. The siege proved tedious. The Venetians grew tired of it, and seized the pretext of the papal appeal for a new Crusade to retire altogether. The Venetians took part in the disastrous third Crusade with little glory and less profit to themselves. The Doge signalised his reign rather by a reform of the judicial system than by feats of arms. It is under Malipiero that we find the establishment of that Council of Forty which eventually became the high court of the Venetian forum. The Senate, or Pregadi, as we know, had not yet been erected into a permanent body ; and the Council of Forty was intended, originally, to supply the place of a consultative assembly, subsequently occupied by the Senate. When the Senate was permanently established the Forty still' remained, but entirely as a judicial body. The court of the Magistrate del Proprio was relieved of some of its duties by the creation of a new court called del Forestier, whose formation is a proof of the rapid develop- ment of population, resident and temporary, in the lagoon city ; for the new court was especially designed to try cases between foreigners, whereas litigation between Venetian citizens was left to the more ancient magistracy. Originally the Doge had appointed the judges of the Magistrate del Proprio; now appointments to both benches were made in the Great Council. Causes in which the revenue was concerned, were heard before the Avogadori di Comun, or Procurators of the Republic a bench of the highest importance, which eventually performed, among other functions, that of Heralds' College. The reign of Malipiero's successor, Enrico Dandolo, is i 2 116 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the most memorable that we have reached as yet in the course of this history. Venice was once more called on to play a part, and that the most prominent part, in European history. She committed a great crime, and thereby sowed the seeds of a lifelong punishment. Throughout the story of the fourth Crusade the Republic displays herself in her true colours able, self-reliant, astute, single-minded, selfish, practical, and, as sometimes happens in the history of a nation, she was led by a man who was completely identified with the spirit of his race. Venice expressed herself in Enrico Dandolo ; the Doge was the personification of the community which he ruled. When he came to the throne Dandolo was already an old man, and partially blind. He had served the State as ambassador to Constantinople, where he acquired his hatred of the Greeks, and lost his sight. His whole career shows him to have been a man of most determined will, and of great personal courage "de Men gran coeur," says Ville- hardouin. His country had suffered at the hands of Manuel ; his own person had suffered. Venetian commercial supremacy in the East was threatened by the hostility of the Imperial Court. Public and private reasons combined to fill him with a desire for revenge, and a determination to restore his nation to her former superiority. The history of the fourth Crusade is very largely the history of the way in which Dandolo pursued and accomplished his end. Venetian commerce in the East was threatened by two great rivals Pisa and Genoa. Down to the middle of the twelfth century Venice had succeeded in preserving what was virtually a monopoly of Levantine trade. The Arnal- fitani had been crushed in 1126. But with the accession of Manuel in 1143, a change of policy took place. The Emperor, partly from a desire to benefit his dominions, partly in order to check the excessive commercial development of the Venetians, partly too in resentment against Venice for the share she was taking in the Crusades and their spoils, began to favour the two other trading States, Pisa and Genoa. From this time forward there was a continual struggle between Venetians, Pisans, and Genoese to gain the THE FOURTH CRUSADE 117 upper hand in Constantinople. The desire to secure such a superiority for Venice was one of the main elements of Dandolo's conduct throughout the fourth Crusade. Other causes of friction between the maritime com- munities were not wanting. Dandolo attempted to recover Zara, which was still in a state of rebellion. The people of Zara appealed to the Pisans for help. A Pisan fleet sailed up the Adriatic and captured Pola, which was soon after recovered. Again, in 1201 news reached Venice that the usurper Alexius III. was in treaty with Genoa for the concession of ampler trading rights. Everything, therefore, conspired to prepare the Eepublic, and the man who ruled it, for an attack on the capital of the Eastern Empire. While matters were at this point, circumstances placed within the reach of Venice a weapon for the accomplish- ment of her purpose. The preaching of the fourth Crusade began in 1197. When Pope Innocent III. ascended the throne in the following year he devoted his great energy to carrying on the work. The Crusade became his chief delight. He found his preacher in Fulk of Neuilly. By the year 1200, matters were so far advanced that it was time to charter a fleet for transport of the host and to select a place of departure. A meeting held at Soissons resolved to send six messengers to Venice in order to conclude a bargain with the great maritime Eepublic. Probably no other State could have furnished the necessary ships ; and the Crusaders had no choice but to select Venice. That choice, however, proved disastrous to the Crusade, and also to Europe. The six ambassadors, among whom was Geoffrey de Villehardouin, Marshal of Champagne and historian I 2OI of the Crusade, arrived in Venice in February, 1201. Four days later they had an audience of the Doge in Council, at the ducal palace, which they describe as " right rich and fair." They presented their credentials, and announced that they had been sent by the noble Barons of France, who had taken the Cross, to beg Venice to have pity on the " Land of Outremer," and to provide ships of war and transport. 118 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC The Doge demanded time to consider the request. At the end of a week the ambassadors were summoned to the palace, and the Doge said, " Sirs, we will give you transports for 4,500 horses, 9,000 esquires, 4,500 knights, and 20,000 foot, together with provisions for one year from the day of sailing on the service of God and of Christendom, in whatsoever place it may be. For this you shall pay us 85,000 marks of silver, Cologne weight. Further, for the honour of God, we will send 50 galleys, on condition that, of all conquests by sea and land, half shall be ours and half yours." The ambassadors replied the following day, signifying their readiness to conclude the bargain. The Doge said that he must first consult his Council of Forty, and would then submit the proposal to a general assembly. Mass was cele- brated in S. Mark's, and Villehardouin, in the name of the Barons of France, formally asked the Venetian people to assist in the enterprise for the Holy Land. The answer came back in a great shout of " We agree." A formal contract was drawn up and signed early in April. The date on which the ships were to be ready was fixed for the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul ; the amount and quality of provisions were determined. The Crusaders bound themselves to pay the 85,000 marks in rates 15,000 on the 1st August; 10,000 on All Saints; 10,000 on the Purification, and the remainder by the end of April 1202. Innocent confirmed the contract, but with distrust. He knew the temper of the Venetians. He would have preferred a treaty with Genoa and Pisa. But that was impossible. He did his best to guard the Crusade from the danger he already suspected, by stipulating that there should be no attack made on a Christian power, and that a Legate should accompany the fleet. But in judging the subsequent conduct of Venice we must bear in mind that she had made her bargain with the Crusaders, not with the Pope; that the papal conditions were not in the bond which she had signed; that, from a purely commercial point of view the only view recognised by Venice as yet she was in no way fettered by the wishes of the Pope. She THE FOURTH CRUSADE 119 had made a strictly business contract; religious sentiment held no place in it. She had not pledged herself to I2OI. become a Crusader; she merely promised so much for so much. As long as she fulfilled her side of the bargain she could not be in the wrong, and the French Barons, at least, neither asked nor expected more. It has been said that from the very first there was a secret understanding between the leaders of the Crusade that Egypt should be their destination, though the decision was kept secret from the army, which was told that it was to go to the Land Outremer. Such an agreement may have existed. Alexandria offered a good base of operations ; previous Crusades had shown how a great army might be wasted away in the long march through Asia Minor; sea communications were more easily maintained than those on land, especially with the Venetian navy as an ally; Egypt, moreover, was a particularly easy prey at this moment, owing to a famine caused by five years of a low Nile. But there is no proof that the Venetians had any cognisance of such a secret resolve. As yet, they were hardly concerned in the destination of the fleet ; they had merely bound themselves to supply ships; the Doge had used the phrase " for the service of God, in whatsoever place it may be." Their contingent of fifty galleys was not about to sail for love of the Cross, but in the buccaneering spirit of seizing half of any conquests that might be made by the host. It is necessary to say this, because the fact that the fleet never reached Egypt at all has been laid at the door of Dandolo, who is accused of having, from the very first, resolved that the Crusaders should not touch Alexandria; the reason assigned for this resolve being that he had already concluded an advantageous treaty with the Sultan of Egypt, Malek-Adel (July, 1202). But Venice was free to make a treaty with the Sultan if she chose. The Crusaders publicly said they were going to the Hold Land; the Venetians contracted to take them there. This contract could not be a bar to any commercial treaties which Venice was able to secure. The Pope was right in thinking that the Venetians were not fit persons to carry 120 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the Crusaders. But they cannot be accused of treachery unless they broke their contract, which they did J J 1202. not. But here, in this question of the diversion of the fourth Crusade, we are in the presence of one of those historical problems the solution of which is still under discussion. In the following account we shall avoid controversy as far as possible, and confine ourselves to a narrative of events. The facts about the first diversion of the Crusade to Zara are plain enough. They are these : The Venetians fulfilled their part of the bargain to the letter. By the appointed day the appointed number of ships with their provisions were ready and waiting for their passengers. But the Crusaders were not equally prompt to fulfil their obligations. When, in June, 1202, the General Assembly of the Crusaders was reviewed on the Lido of San Mcolo, where they had been lodged, it was found that not nearly the whole number of passengers had reached Venice. Out of the 4500 knights only 1000 were prepared to sail. Meanwhile, the Venetian ships lay there, all ready ; never was a finer fleet seen upon those waters ; but the men to fill it were wanting. The strangers who had reached Venice, moreover, had been relieved of most of their money during their long journey across Lombardy. When the Doge came to ask for pay- ment, as agreed on, it was found that the utmost exertion of the Crusaders still left a deficit of 34,000 marks. The Venetians, who had always looked upon their part of the business as a commercial transaction, declined to set sail. According to one account the Doge is reported to have said to the signatories of the contract, " If you do not pay you shall not move from the Lido." That remark expresses the Venetian view of the case. The French Barons and their men were virtually prisoners to the Republic, which intended to lead them and use them as best suited its own purposes. Villehardouin lays the blame for this situation upon those Crusaders who had failed to come to Venice as commanded, and who had taken ship in other ports. When it became quite clear that no more money was THE FOURTH CRUSADE 121 forthcoming, Dandolo suggested a compromise. The great object of the crusading chiefs was to set sail. The Doge offered to postpone the receipt of the 34,000 marks until their first success should place the Crusaders in funds, and promised to sail at once, on condition that the armament stopped on its way to reduce Zara. A division of opinion immediately made itself felt. Those who were tired of the expedition, and they were not a few, declared it an impiety to turn the Crusade against a Christian city, in possession of a king who had himself taken the Cross. The leaders and the majority accepted the proposal as the only way out of the difficulty. The most that can be urged against Venice in her conduct of the whole affair, so far, is that she stood hard by her bargain, and when the other party failed, she made the most she could out of the situation. In July, Peter Capuano, Cardinal and Papal Legate, arrived with orders to oppose the diversion of the fleet to Zara. He cleared out the idlers, the sick, and the loose women from the crusading camp on the Lido. The Venetians gave the Cardinal to understand that they did not consider them- selves bound by the wishes of the Pope, who was no party to their contract; if the Legate chose to accompany the Crusade as a preacher, well and good; if he proposed to take any^ part in the direction of affairs, he had better stay at home. In the face of this determined and cynical attitude, Peter Capuano was also driven to give his consent to the attack on Zara. He made one condition, that the Venetians should not merely transport the army, but should themselves join the Crusaders. The Government consented, and on the 25th August, at mass in S. Mark's, Dandolo publicly asked his people whether they were content that he should take the Cross. The reply was a strong affirmative. The Doge was led to the high altar, and the holy symbol was affixed to his bonnet. This is a most important episode ; for it proves that the Venetians, up to this point, were not Crusaders, were under none of the obligations implied in the Crusaders' vow, and in no way to blame for their strictly business-like behaviour. 122 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC But, further, the assumption of the Cross was, from the Venetian point of view, a serious error ; it entirely altered their position. After that, the Eepublic could no longer act as a free agent ; she placed herself under obliga- tions and duties which clashed with her proposed objects. She sacrificed her obligations to her desires. In taking the Crusaders' vow Venice was insincere. That deed was intended by the Venetians to facilitate the sailing of the fleet, to over- come the Legatine objections, to hasten the desired reduction of Zara. The policy is typical of Venice. It displays her supreme egotism, her single-eyed consideration of her own interests. But the act was a fraud. The genuine Crusaders, the Pope and the Pope's Legate, all indulged in a hope that, by inducing Venice to assume the Cross, they could cajole her out of the steady pursuit of her own ends ; could nullify the unholy effect of their contract with her about Zara. They persuaded themselves that the vow would bind Venice as it bound them. Venice never intended that it should. But the way was now opened for the sailing of the fleet. The Crusaders, who had been imprisoned for so many months on the feverish Lido, were overjoyed at the prospect. The Venetians were impatient to attack Zara. By October everything was ready. The fleet presented a most imposing spectacle. Tower- ing above the rest rode the three great galleys, the Eagle, the Pilgrim, and the Paradise, surrounded by more than three hundred other ships. The display of heraldry, with all the brilliant hues that distinguish armorial bearings, must have been superb. The Venetian galleys bore the golden lion of S. Mark upon a crimson ground. Each noble Baron unfurled his ensign to the breeze. The Doge's own galley was painted vermilion ; the others were all bedecked with shields, placed in rows along the bulwarks. So to the sound of trumpets and the chant of the Veni Creator, the fourth Crusade set sail. The Doge made a triumphal entry into Trieste. Thence he passed on down the Dalmatian coast, till he arrived off Zara and laid siege to it. The city was panic-stricken, and ready to yield. It sent ambassadors into the Crusaders' THE FOURTH CRUSADE 123 camp to negotiate. But here the purely crusading party, the religious devotees, made themselves felt. In I 2O2. spite of their distinct understanding with Venice that they would assist in reducing Zara, they told the embassy that if the Zarentines chose to resist, the city need fear no attack from the French portion of the armament. This was a flagrant breach of faith. It proved most disastrous to the people of Zara. In spite of letters from the Pope excommunicating all and any who should attack the town ; in spite of Simon de Montf ort's resistance ; in spite of the opposition raised by the Abbot of Vaux, who sprang to his feet in the Doge's tent, and cried, " I forbid you to attack this city. It is a city of Christian men, and ye are Crusaders " ; Dandolo proceeded to assault the town. It fell in five days. Zara was entered and plundered by both Venetians and Crusaders ; and the season being far advanced the fleet resolved to winter there. As yet, the destination of the armament was still the Land Outremer, the land, of the infidel. But events now occurred which produced the second diversion of the fourth Crusade from its proper object. In the year 1195, Isaac Comnene had been driven from the throne by his kinsman Alexius. Isaac was blinded, and along with his son, Alexius the young, was confined in prison. In the spring of 1201, the lad Alexius escaped from Con- stantinople on board a Pisan ship. His object was to secure assistance and to recover the throne for his father. The person to whom he turned first was Philip of Swabia, his brother-in-law, who had married a daughter of Isaac. Young Alexius found Philip at Warzburg, and stayed there till the end of the year. At the Court he met Boniface of Montferrat, the destined leader of the fourth Crusade. It is said that Philip promised Alexius to restore him to his country, and contemplated using the Crusade for this purpose. Two reasons urged Philip to favour Alexius. By diverting the Crusade from the Holy Land he would ruin Innocent's dearest object in life. This Philip was anxious to do, because the Pope was supporting his rival Otto of Brunswick, 124 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC and had placed Philip himself under excommunication. And secondly, Philip had dreams of uniting in his own person the Empires of West and East, to which he constructed a fanciful claim through his wife. Philip, then, was prepared to divert the Crusade. He found its leader. Boniface, willing to help him. Boniface had private reasons for desiring to go to Constantinople. Through his brother, Conrad, he claimed the kingdom of Salonica, and thought he might endeavour to recover his crown by the help of the Cross. Accordingly Philip and Boniface agreed that, if possible, the fourth Crusade should be diverted from the Holy Land to the capital of the East. Foreseeing that Innocent would raise violent objections to such a proceeding, Philip sent young Alexius to Eome in the hope of obtaining the Pope's consent, by holding out the prospect of a union between the Churches of East and West. But the Pope refused to fall into the trap. He expressly forbade the Crusaders to attack the Roman Empire. The Crusaders were still before Zara when messengers arrived from Philip to recommend Alexius and his cause. In the young man's name, Philip promised that if the Crusaders restored Alexius to his father's throne, the lad, when Emperor, would unite the Churches under Eome ; would supply 200,000 marks of silver ; would send 10,000 men with them into the Holy Land ; and would, for the rest of his life, maintain a guard of 500 knights in Jerusalem. For reasons already explained, Philip and Boniface found in Dandolo a willing adherent to their plan for attacking Constantinople. The Venetians offered no objections. But to make assurance doubly sure, the proposals of Alexius contained special clauses in favour of Venice. The hire of the fleet was to be continued for another year, and the Eepublic was to receive 100,000 marks. The most vigorous opposition to these proposals was offered by the genuine Crusaders. But the influence of Dandolo and Boniface prevailed. The terms were accepted. The fleet left Zara, after demolishing its walls, and reached Corfu. Here it was joined by young Alexius. He solemnly THE FOURTH CRUSADE 125 ratified the Convention of Zara, concluded in his name. The genuine Crusaders made a last attempt to prevent the iniquity of a consecrated army being turned away from the sacred Sepulchre to attack the capital of Christendom ; but the tears of Dandolo and Boniface, which represented 100,000 marks and a year's pay in the one case, and 100,000 marks and the crown of Salonica in the other, overcame the devotees. The whole armament sailed from Corfu, and made a sort of imperial progress with young Alexius as their centre, receiving homage as h6 went. On the 23rd June they cast anchor twelve miles from Constanti- nople, near the abbey of San Stefano. From San Stefano the fleet moved across the Sea of Marmora to Chalcedon, and thence to Scutari, on the Asiatic shore, just opposite the walls, the palaces, the towers of the Imperial city. Alexius the elper, alarmed at this demonstra- tion, sent to enquire what were the objects of the Crusaders, and to offer assistance if they would leave his territory. The answer was that the territory belonged to young Alexius, for whom they demanded a surrender of the city. The leaders of the Crusade then placed Alexius on board a galley, and accompanied by the whole fleet they crossed the Bosphorus, until they were right under the city walls, which were thronged by a curious crowd. They proclaimed Alexius as the rightful heir; but those on the ramparts merely laughed in scorn, " Who is he ? we do not know him." An attack on the city was designed. The undertaking seemed desperate. Constantinople enjoyed the reputation of being impregnable ; and it had frequently proved its claim to be so considered. But nothing could daunt the confidence and self-reliance of Dandolo, the master spirit of the siege. The mouth of the Golden Horn was guarded by a great chain, one end of which was in the city itself, the other protected by a tower in Galata. Dandolo at once determined to assault the tower which commanded the Galata end of the chain. He was successful. The Greek garrison of the tower made a sortie, was repulsed, and the Crusaders entered the tower with those who were trying to regain its 126 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC shelter. The chain was slipped from its Galata end, sank, and the Venetian fleet sailed into the Golden Horn. They instantly charged the Imperial galleys, captured some, rammed others, and at one blow had gained a position opposite the weakest walls of the city, those which lined the shores that look towards Pera. The Crusaders resolved to follow up their first success by a general assault. This was to be given by the Venetians from the sea ; by the Crusaders from land. The land army passed on from Galata round the top of the Golden Horn, by the Sweet Waters, which were undefended, and took up their position opposite the palace of Blachernae. On the 17th July all was ready. The Crusaders de- livered their attack in four divisions, under the command of Baldwin. Their scaling apparatus was placed against the walls, and for a moment the Flemings gained and held a footing. But the Danish and English guard, together with the Pisans, steadily drove the Flemings back ; and the first attack on the land side failed. The assault by sea was more successful. The galleys were covered with raw skins to resist the terrible Greek fire. Gangways of poles and hides were placed on the tops, and from these the soldiery passed on to the walls, or fought their defenders hand to hand. With indomitable energy Dandolo, standing under the banner of S. Mark, directed the operations and inspired the courage of his men. He ordered the crew of his own ship to draw closer in. He seized the banner of the patron saint, and, under a rain of bolts and stones, he sprang ashore, on the narrow strip between the sea and the walls. The Venetians followed their Doge. A battering-ram was brought into play. The assault from the gangways was redoubled. Then suddenly the standard of the lion was seen flying from a tower. The defenders fled, and, in a few minutes, twenty-five towers were in the possession of the invader. A dangerous rally of Imperial troops was effectually checked by the Doge's followers, who set fire to the houses inside the walls and drove the enemy back. But the Venetians were not able to maintain their position. News of the failure on the land THE FOURTH CRUSADE 127 side called Dandolo away to the support of the Crusaders. The Emperor Alexius made a sortie in force, but lacked the courage to attack. After some ineffectual manoeuvrings, which were watched by the ladies from the city walls, he withdrew into Constantinople. The attack had virtually failed. But events occurred inside the city which altered the whole aspect of affairs. Alexius the elder, after his feeble sortie, seems to have been panic-stricken. He fled. Isaac, the blind deposed Emperor, was led from his prison and placed once more on the throne. This was a turn of events little pleasing to Boniface and Dandolo, whose objects were by no means fulfilled through the restoration of Isaac. Yet this restoration left the Crusaders little excuse for continuing the siege. The rightful owner, the deposed Emperor, was once more on the throne. The satisfaction of his claims seemed to include all that Alexius, his heir, had a right to demand. There was one excuse, however, which might still serve to keep the army before Constantinople, and to assist Boni- face and Dandolo in achieving their respective aims. The Zara Convention, accepted by Alexius, had to be ratified by Isaac, and its terms fulfilled. Dandolo and Boniface both wanted their money. Isaac complained that the terms were excessively onerous. But he was grateful for the services which had placed him on his throne once more, and agreed to recognise his son's obligations as his own. Young Alexius entered Constantinople, and was crowned as Emperor along with his father. The exhaustion of the Imperial treasury, however, did not permit Alexius to jeopardise his throne by excessive taxation in order to satisfy the greedy horde outside the walls. As a matter of fact he did pay a large part of the sum stipulated, as much as 100,000 marks, of which half went to the Venetians, besides the 34,000 marks due to them for the remainder of their first year's hire. But the whole amount was not forthcoming, and the Crusaders refused to take less. Then followed a long period of delays. The city was in a continual state of brawling between Latins and Greeks ; fires 128 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC were frequent. The Crusaders pressed for payment, even venturing to insult the Emperor in his palace. Isaac was old and blind and feeble : Alexius had taken to toping with his faired-haired protectors : he let them snatch his Imperial bonnet from his head and replace it with their own rough caps ; he lost all hold over the respect and allegiance of the Greeks. Popular feeling rose steadily higher and higher. It was guided by Alexius Ducas, and took final shape in January 1204. In his alarm at an expected revolu- tion Alexius invited Boniface to garrison the palace. This act of treason to the Greeks precipitated matters. Alexius Ducas struck his blow. He seized Alexius the young, imprisoned, and probably poisoned him. Isaac died of grief, and Ducas became Emperor. The revolution in the city came opportunely for Boniface and Dandolo. They had, at last, a good excuse for attacking Constantinople. Negotiations between Dandolo and Alexius Ducas failed, as they were doubtless intended to fail. The besiegers resolved to assault the city; they made a prospective division of the prey. It was agreed that six Venetians and six Crusaders should meet and choose an Emperor; that the Patriarch should be elected from the nation which had not secured the throne. The whole spoils were to be quartered. One quarter was to become the property of the Emperor, the other three quarters were to be divided between the Franks and the Venetians, who would thus be lords of a quarter and half a quarter of the new Rome a title the Doges subsequently bore for many years. A joint committee was appointed to divide the Empire into fiefs, and to determine the nature of their tenure. The assault was given on 8th April, this time from the sea only. It failed, probably because the line of attack was too extended. The second assault, with a more concentrated attack, was delivered on the 12th. The operation proved successful. For the first time in its history Constantinople succumbed to a besieger. The city was given over to the Crusaders, whose atrocities may be explained, though not palliated, by their THE FOURTH CRUSADE 129 prolonged abstinence. The army of the Cross became a scourge more terrible than any pagan host had ever been. "Instead of defending the tomb of Christ, you have outraged His faithful. You have used Christians worse than even the Arabs did," so said an eye-witness in his indignation. On the other hand, another eye-witness, the Marshal of Champagne, remarks with satisfaction, "Never since the creation of the world was there so much booty gained in one city." One was the robbed, the other the robber. On the fall of Constantinople the victorious leaders pro- ceeded to elect an Emperor. The electors, as agreed, were six Venetians and six Crusaders. The candidates were three Boniface the leader, Dandolo the hero, and Baldwin the noble. The Doge, however, gave it to be understood that he would not accept election. He knew Venice well enough to be convinced that the Eepublic would never tolerate such a step. But by this renunciation Dandolo became the most important factor in the choice of an Emperor. The Doge had virtually to weigh the claims of Boniface and of Baldwin. He knew Boniface well. He had been associated with the Marquis in the intricate direction of the Crusade ; his daughter is even said to have been wife of the Lord of Montferrat. But he also knew that Boniface was ambitious, was an Italian prince, was a close ally of the Emperor Philip. His election would be dangerous for Venice. Baldwin was younger, less experienced, less energetic, and his domains more distant. The Doge declared for Baldwin. He was elected, and was crowned on 16th May, 1204. Thus ended the fourth Crusade, which had set forth to free the Sepulchre of Christ, and ended by overthrowing the Eastern Empire, and sacking the virgin city of Constan- tinople. Throughout the Crusade the Venetians, in the person of their Doge, played the leading role. The result to them may be summed up as follows. They had made a great display of independence and strength. They had successfully defied the Pope, and ignored his ecclesiastical weapons. Innocent, while deploring the sack of Con- stantinople, forgave the other Crusaders ; the Venetians he K 130 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC could not pardon. He threw the whole blame on them " It is you who have led the army of the Lord into a i ^ 4-v," I2 4- wicked path. On the other hand, the Eepublic had reaped a great reward in material aggrandisement. She was now absolute mistress of the Mediterranean. She acquired a vast increase in actual wealth from her share of the spoils. The Venetians bought Boniface's rights over Crete and Salonica, and obtained leave from the new Emperor for private individuals to occupy, as fiefs of the Empire, any of the ^Egean islands not already held by the Eepublic, thereby securing to themselves the trade and commerce of the whole Levant. But nevertheless the attack on Constantinople was a crime. It helped to bring its own punishment years after- wards. Through the blow now dealt at the Eastern Empire the way was prepared for the occupation of that city by the Turks. Their establishment in Constantinople, facilitated by the present action of the Kepublic, left Venice sub- sequently exposed to a long series of wars, which she heroically sustained, it is true, but which broke her power, exhausted her strength, and materially contributed to her ultimate ruin. CHAPTER VIII The Republic grants fiefs in the Levant Pietro Ziani, Doge The Con- sequences of the destruction of the Greek Empire Question of communications with the Levant Genoese pirates Colonisation of Crete The Venetians of Coustantinopel Threatened split Suggested abandonment of Venice Jacopo Tiepolo, Doge Curtailment of ducal authority Promissionc Ducale -Frederick II. Venetian Podestas in Italian towns Eccelino da Romano ; his attack on Venice League of Gregory IX., Genoa, Pisa, and Venice War of Ferrara The Statute of Tiepolo Marino Morosini, Doge Form of Election to the Doge- ship The Inquisition in Venice : its position The Inquisitor's exequatur The Savii all' hercsia Renier Zeno, Doge Further exclusion of the people from a voice in the election of a Doge Crusade against Eccelino : his death at Vimercate Rivalry of Genoa in the East Question of S. Saba in Acre Lorenzo Tiepolo's victory The porphyry drum and the two square pillars War again Venetian victory Alexander IV. insists on a peace Baldwin in difficulties Michel Paleologus restores the Greek Empire Paleologus favours Genoa Struggle between Genoa and Venice Venice victorious Result at Constantinople Result in Venice Embellishment of the city Public ceremonies Death of the Doge. THE fall of Constantinople and the partition of the Empire left Venice a large inheritance in the Eastern Medi- terranean. Her share included the Cyclades and Sporades, the islands on the east coast of Dalmatia, the maritime cities of Thessaly ; and she bought Crete from the Marquis of Montferrat. She thus acquired an unbroken line of ports from Constantinople to the capital, and laid the foundation of her commercial supremacy in the Levant. But the partition required to be made actual, and the Republic was unable to face, at once, the conquest and the defence of all these scattered possessions ; she therefore adopted a device, borrowed from feudalism, and granted fiefs K 2 132 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC of the islands to those of her greater citizens who would undertake the task of subduing them : thus Andros went to the Dandolo ; the Querini took Lampsacus ; Barozzi, Santoriu ; the Sanudo became Dukes of the Archi- pelago. The Venetians, however, were very soon to learn the full significance of the sack of Constantinople, and what was implied by the destruction of the Byzantine Empire. The death of Enrico Dandolo took place in 1205. He was buried with great pomp in S. Sophia in Constantinople, and at Venice his successor, Pietro Ziani, was elected by the new method of forty electors. The difficulties to which Venice was exposed by the destruction of the Greek Empire became abundantly manifest in the reign of Ziani. The Venetians had hardly realized that the security of their Eastern possessions depended to a very large extent upon the strength and stability of the Eastern Empire. They had assisted the Crusaders to destroy a government which, if not invariably powerful, was well established and enjoyed a great prestige. They had been instrumental in replacing that government by one of the weakest and most vacillating empires the world has ever seen. They forgot that the extension of their dominions, while it raised them to the rank of a European power, roused the jealousy of their maritime rivals in Italy. They did not perceive that, as theirs were the largest interests in the East, the rest of Europe would leave them to defend those interests single-handed. In short, by the sack of Constantinople Venice had created an Eastern Question, the difficulty and insolubility of which were to haunt her throughout the rest of her career. With the extension of Venetian possessions and Venetian commerce in the Levant, the question of the communications between the mother-city and her colonies acquired a growing importance. The jealousy which this expansion inspired pointed out to Genoa this weak spot in her rival's position. The seas between Corfu and Crete became infested with Genoese pirates, and one of the earliest operations of the new Doge was to sweep the corsairs SETTLEMENT OF CANDIA 133 from those waters. The Venetian admirals were successful s'en aloient parmi la mer prenant lor enemis com vont li faucons prenant les oisaus, as the picturesque chronicler, Martin da Canal, puts it. These operations in the Levant, whose object was to establish free com- munications between Venice and her new possessions, led to the settlement of Candia and the appointment of the first Governor, or Duke, of Crete. The island was colonised by Venetian noble families, whose relation to the mother- country eventually proved the cause of serious trouble to the Eepublic. But at first, the obligations of the colonists were to defend the island, to furnish a contingent to the Venetian armament in time of war, to assist Venetian com- merce, to pray for the Doge on Christmas, Easter, the Feast of S. Mark, and the Feast of S. Titus. A more serious question even than that of communica- tions between mother-city and colonies was raised by the fall of Constantinople. Enrico Dandolo before his death had made arrangements for the proper government of the Venetians in the Imperial city. At the head of the administration was a Podesta, assisted by five judges, three councillors, a treasurer, procurators, a constable as the chief of the militia, and a captain-general sent from Venice. On the death of Dandolo the first signs of a diffi- culty appeared. The Venetians of Constantinople, without waiting for permission from Venice, proceeded to elect Marin Zeno their Podesta, with the title of lord of the fourth and a half of a fourth of the Eoman Empire; he also adopted the red and the white stockings. Both the title and the dress were attributes of the Doge of Venice, and their assumption by the Venetian Podesta of Con- stantinople seems to indicate a tendency to break away from the mother-city in the lagoons. The Venetians of Venice were alarmed. They sent to inform their brothers in Constantinople that, for this time only, the election of the Podesta would be recognised, but that for the future he must always be chosen in Venice. It was not at Constan- tinople alone, however, that the idea of change had taken 134 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC root. The growth of Venetian possessions in the East, the weakness of the new Empire, the distance of Venice from her colonies, all tended to encourage the belief that it would be not merely possible but even expedient to abandon Venice and to remove the seat of the govern- ment to the Imperial city. One of Ziani's first acts was to send an envoy to treat with the Podesta Zeno, almost as with an equal or a rival, for the maintenance of the loyal relations between the Venetians of Constantinople and those of the lagoon. But the growing weakness of the Latin Empire became so serious that, as tradition reports, the Doge himself formally made the proposal to remove from Venice to the Eastern capital. Though the speeches which preceded the famous Vote of Providence, whereby the pro- posal was rejected on a majority of one, are in all likeli- hood apocryphal, yet it is not uninteresting to recount their substance as showing what was the feeling of the Venetians upon this momentous question. On the one hand it was urged that Venetian interests were now entirely Eastern ; that the centre of government was too far away from its possessions ; that the city of Venice was exposed to constant danger from earthquake and flood ; on the other hand, the patriotic sentiment of the Venetians was summoned to reject the proposed desertion of those kind islands in the lagoon, which had sheltered their fore- fathers, and which even now rendered Venice secure from all attack; the patriots pointed out that Constantinople would not be easy to hold, and that if it were lost the Venetian race was lost ; whereas if they remained in the lagoons, they were unassailable. The motion is said to have found 320 supporters and 321 in opposition, and hence the episode has received the name of the Voto delta Providenza from those who wished to mark their sense of the danger they had escaped. No doubt there had been a momentary danger that Venice might be abandoned. But it was nothing more than a passing thought. The Venetians were already a distinct nationality, a race apart, with interests which, though largely, were not entirely Eastern. Venice retained THE 'PROMISSIONE DUG ALE' 135 her semi- Western position. The next reign, that of Jacopo 8 Tiepolo, is hardly concerned with Eastern affairs at all. Pietro Ziani abdicated, and was succeeded by Jacopo Tiepolo. At his election the forty votes had been equally divided between Tiepolo and Marino Dandolo, I 22Q. thereby indicating a flaw in the constitution. The issue was reached by lot. Three points of special significance distinguish the reign of Tiepolo a further curtailment of the ducal authority; the action of Venice in connection with the Lombard League; and the codification of the Venetian laws; all three of them possessing important bearings on the develop- ment of Venetian history. We have seen that one of the problems in the constitu- tional history of the Kepublic, one of the main objects of the growing aristocracy which had now received a great accession of wealth and influence from the spoils of the fourth Crusade, and, as a consequence, had begun to emerge in prominence above the level of the whole com- munity was the reduction of the Dukedom to a merely ornamental position in the State. A principal means by which this end could be attained was the gradual exten- sion of the restrictive clauses in the Promissione or coronation oath, which each Doge at his accession was called upon to swear. The Promissione was prepared by three officials during the interval between the death of one Doge and the election of another, and the new Doge had no voice in the construction of its terms, which he was bound to accept. Moreover, other constitutional machinery was devised to assist the aristocracy in reducing the power of the Doge. Tiepolo's reign saw the addition of two important magistracies to the public offices of the State the Correttori della Promissione ducale and the Inquisitori sopra il Doge defunto. The Correttori were five nobles appointed to discuss, to amend, and to add to the Promis- sione ducale; the alterations were made on the report of the Inquisitori, whose duty it was to examine the life and actions of the deceased Doge, and to note carefully any 136 ' THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC signs of independent or autocratic conduct, so that such might be rendered impossible for the future. The Promissione of Jacopo Tiepolo not only served as a basis for all future coronation oaths, but it contained the most important modifications of the ducal authority that we have met with as yet. Apart from the ordinary clauses as to the administration of justice and the observation of the laws, the Doge swore to renounce any claim whatsoever upon the revenues of the Republic beyond his own salary and his share in the apples from Lombardy, and the crayfish and cherries from Treviso. He was bound to contribute his quota to public loans ; he was forbidden to correspond with the Pope or the Emperor or any other prince, unless he had obtained the consent of his councillors ; nor might he open letters from foreign powers except in the presence of his Council. His income from the revenue was established at 2800 lire a year, payable every three months, and this sum was considerably augmented by his share in the tribute offered by Veglia, Cherso, and other Istrian or Dalmatian townships. His household was to consist of twenty servants, including the cooks. The imperative tone of these various clauses show that the Venetian aristocracy fully understood the value of the Promissione as an instrument for curbing their Doge ; they continued to make an ever-extending use of that engine, until they succeeded in achieving the object which they had in view. Though ruin was threatening the Latin Empire in the East, the affairs of Constantinople, as we have already remarked, did not greatly occupy the attention of the Venetians during the reign of Jacopo Tiepolo. The move- ment of events on the Italian mainland plays a larger part in Venetian history. The Emperor Frederick II. was still pursuing the Imperial policy of attempting to destroy the independence, and to break the spirit, of the Lombard cities which had so successfully withstood his father Barbarossa. Internal jealousy and family feuds, the private ambition of the great houses in each mainland city, made it dangerous for the burghers to entrust the defence of their commune to VENETIAN PODESTAS 137 any one of their own citizens ; and hence arose the custom of calling to the direction of municipal affairs, as Podesta, a citizen of some neighbouring town, a man who had no personal stake in the township he was invited to govern. The prestige which Venice had acquired from the fourth Crusade, and the fact that her interests were, as yet, so little involved on the Italian mainland, led to the result that her citizens were in great request as Podestas. We find a Tiepolo at Treviso, and later at Milan, a Badoer at Padua, a Morosini at Faenza. This fact eventually pro- duced an open rupture between the Eepublic and the Emperor. Venice was not professedly a member of the existing Lombard League, but the progress of Frederick and his lieutenant, Eccelino da Eomano, caused her sym- pathies to be strongly engaged on the side of the Lom- bard cities. She acted as banker for a part of the funds of the League, and her citizens, as Podestas, defended with valour Treviso and Padua against the Imperial arms ; Pietro Tiepolo, the Doge's son, was taken prisoner along with many soldiers of the League at the disastrous battle of Cortenuovo. Eccelino, in the interests of the Emperor, was determined to read the Eepublic a lesson. He pushed his troops to the border of the lagoons at Mestre ; he took the convent of Sant' Ilario, near Fusina, and slew Giovanni Tiepolo, a member of the Doge's family. Venice found herself forced into open war with the Emperor, but this she was unable to undertake single-handed. The successes of the Imperial party, however, supplied her with an ally. The Pope, Gregory IX., could not fail to be alarmed at the threatened destruction of the Lombard cities. He formed an alliance between himself, the Genoese, the Pisans, and Venice. A diversion was to be created by a naval demonstration against the Imperial dominions in Sicily. In return for their assistance Venice was promised the city of Bari, and the right to establish consulates in Sicily, in Apulia, and in Calabria. Among the other operations of this war the Pope was endeavouring to recover Ferrara, which was then held by Salinguerra for the Emperor. Venetian commercial interests in Ferrara were great ; and the Eepublic, 138 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC being now in open hostility with the Emperor, desired nothing better than to see'Ferrara in the hands of her ally the Pope. She accordingly consented to join in the siege of the city, which she was mainly instrumental in recovering. Salinguerra was conveyed to Venice, where he presently died, and was buried at S. Nicolo del Lido. Venice recovered all her ancient privileges in the mainland city, privileges and interests which were destined eventually to entangle her in the complications of mainland politics, and to induce her to take that first step towards a land empire which proved so disastrous to her career. But the real glory of Tiepolo's reign, and a striking proof of the rapid strides which Venice was making towards her completion as a full-grown State, is the great digest of Venetian law compiled by the Doge's order. This was not the earliest digest of the Venetian code ; we have traces of a similar compilation published in 1195 by Enrico Dandolo ; but the Tiepoline Statuto is by far the most com- plete, reasoned, and extensive which had existed hitherto. Tiepolo appointed a commission of four, to whom the digest was entrusted. The Commissioners were Pantaleone Giustinian, Tomaso Centranico, Giovanni Michiel, and Stefano Badoer. The work of these men begins with two prefaces, in which are laid down the principles of law : the written law holds the first place ; where that fails, cases are to be judged by parallel cases, by equity, and common sense. After the prefaces come the statutes, divided into five books. The first book deals with ecclesiastical questions, church property, and monasteries. This is followed by an excursus on procedure, the method of pursuit and defence, the nature of evidence, the sentence and its execution ; the book closes with the laws relating to dowries and jointures. The second book deals with wards and minors; the third with con- tracts; the fourth with wills, probate, and succession in the case of intestacy, succession was in favour of the male ; the fifth and last book treats of succession outside Venice. The criminal law was codified in the work known as the Promissione de Maleficio. It is interesting to note that the first law is one in defence of shipwrecked mariners' THE 'STATUTO' OF TIEPOLO 13& property ; chapter xxix., the last of the code, provides that all crimes not already contemplated shall be tried and sentenced at the discretion of the judges. Even more interesting than the civil and criminal codes are the voluminous regulations for the mercantile marine. They display a singularly advanced conception of the importance of the merchant service, and the need to pro- tect and encourage it by legislation. Besides regulations for the proper construction of ships, for the quantity and the proper lading of the cargo in the hold and on deck, for the due equipment of anchors, cables, etc., the statutes provided that every ship of 200,000 pounds burthen should carry a crew of twenty men, and the crew was to be increased by one for every additional 10,000 pounds capacity. Every ship of 200,000 pounds burthen and upwards was obliged to carry two supercargoes. In case of shipwreck the crew was bound to remain on the spot for fifteen days to effect the salvage, for which the men were recompensed at the rate of three per cent. Every ship possessed its own music, two trumpets, and the bigger ones a drum and two kettle-drums as well. The crew took their own mattresses and chest for their kit, a keg of wine, and a small cask of water. Officers were appointed to measure the capacity of each ship, and to see that the vessel did not leave port overladen, thus anticipating by many centuries Mr. Plimsoll's beneficent legislation. Jacopo Tiepolo's long reign of twenty years was fruitful of much that proved of prime importance in the internal development of Venice. The Eepublic made great strides towards that completeness which was to be achieved by the close of the century. Tiepolo abdicated, and was succeeded by Marin Morosini. In Morosini's elec- tion we find the method of choosing a Doge gradually taking shape and acquiring that form which it finally assumed. The case of Tiepolo's election had shown that the forty electors might be equally divided ; to avoid that difficulty their number was now raised to forty-one. A further innovation was made by the opportunity offered to any one who chose for attacking the character or conduct of 140 f THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC each candidate as his name was taken out of the urn, and the permission granted to his friends and relations to reply in his defence. Morosini's brief reign of three years was marked by one event of importance, the introduction of the Inquisition into Venice. It is necessary to dwell at some length upon this point for two reasons : first, the action of Venice in the matter allows us to see clearly the independent attitude which the Republic adopted towards the Church of Rome from the very first ; and, in the second place, the terms now concluded between the Church and the Republic, and the form now given to the Inquisition, have important bearings upon the issue of many subsequent difficulties and quarrels with Rome. This was the epoch of the Albigensian and Paterinian heresies. Everywhere the Pope was endeavouring to estab- lish " the dogs of God," the Dominican Inquisition, for the extirpation of the new creeds. Venice had hitherto resisted the papal claims; but now the Doge Morosini found it expedient to admit the Inquisition in a modified form. The Government undertook the search for heretics, whom they handed over to the Church for examination and declaration of fact only ; the Church was restricted to the simple state- ment whether such and such a prisoner was or was not a heretic. The secular power reserved to itself the right of punishment, which consisted in one form only, death by fire. This concession did not satisfy the Court of Rome, which desired the establishment of the full Inquisition. The question remained open till 1289, when, on the 4th August, the Holy Office, though still in a modified form, was finally admitted into the machinery of the Venetian State. The Inquisitor was named by the Pope, but he required the exequatur of the Doge before he could act. A board of three Venetian nobles, called the Savii all' heresia, was appointed to sit as assessors to the Holy Office. Their duty was to protect the rights of Venetian citizens against any ecclesiastical usurpations, and without their presence and assent no act of the sacred tribunal was valid in Venice. This constitution of the Holy Office continued ECCELINO DA ROMANO 141 down to the year 1551, when the friction between the Republic and the Curia reached a burning point. Doge Morosini died in 1253, and the election of his successor, Renier Zeno, gave an opportunity to the growing aristocracy to pursue another branch of its political programme. This time it was not the ducal prerogatives which were curtailed, it was the popular rights which suffered diminution from the progress of the oligarchical principle. It was now provided that, before the publication of the new Doge's name by the forty-one electors, the whole population should swear to accept the man whom the electors announced to have been chosen in conformity with the existing regulations. The people consented. They seem to have been unaware that they were abdicating their constitutional liberties, were being slowly but surely extruded from all share in the government, which was deliberately being concentrated in the hands of the nascent aristocracy ; they did not perceive in this new provision a preparation for the final act of disfranchisement. When Renier Zeno came to the throne the North of Italy was in a state of confusion and of terrible suffering. Frederick II. had closed in gloom, at Florentine, the last days of his brilliant career. But his lieutenant, Eccelino, still survived to ravage, burn, and torture; to accumu- late round his person those terrible legends which still render his name a terror to the superstitious contadini of the Bassanese. The Pope, moved by the dreadful sufferings of the North Italian provinces, launched a crusade against the Ghibelline leader. Two Venetians, Marco Querini and Marco Badoer, took a prominent part in the struggle which ended in the defeat of the tyrant at the bridge of Cassano, and his death, from his wounds, at Vimercate in 1259. In the midst of all this turmoil, though her individual citizens were taking an active part in it, Venice herself remained undisturbed in her lagoons. But not for long. A double source of trouble was preparing in the Levant. Venice was about to be brought into violent collision with her formidable rival Genoa; and the final collapse of the Latin Empire was destined to raise once more 142 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the question of the Venetian people's attitude towards Constantinople. I 2 ^ T, It was inevitable that the Genoese and the Venetians, both occupying neighbouring quarters in the Levantine cities, each there in order to obtain a monopoly of Eastern commerce, should come to open quarrels, especially when the local authority was as weak as it had become under the rulers of the Latin Empire. The scene of the struggle was the Levant. At Acre the Venetians and Genoese came to blows over the possession of the church and quarter of S. Saba. This was but the pretext for the opening of a long and deadly struggle for commercial supremacy, a struggle whose various phases we shall have to follow from time to time, till it reaches its climax in the war of Chioggia in 1380. In the question of S. Saba the Venetians conceived that they had been insulted. Their Bailo reported to the Doge, who sent an embassy to Genoa to demand satisfaction. This was refused. Venice prepared for war. Lorenzo Tiepolo sailed for Acre, and arrived just in time to save the Bailo Giustinian from being driven out of the city. Tiepolo forced his way into the port, breaking the chain which protected its entrance. He burned the Genoese shipping, landed his men, and sacked the Genoese quarter. This was enough for the Genoese, who demanded a truce for two months. Tiepolo returned to Venice in triumph, and is said to have brought with him as trophies of his victory, the drum of a porphyry column, which now stands at the south- west corner of S. Mark's, and the two square pillars near the Porta della Carta of the ducal palace. But such a truce could only be temporary. It was inevitable that Genoa would endeavour to wipe out the stain, and to recover her position in Acre. Very soon news reached Venice that a large fleet, under the command of Rosso dalla Turca, had sailed from Genoa for the Levant. Instantly thirty ships were despatched from Venice to join the fleet under Tiepolo. This reinforcement brought the Venetian squadron up to thirty-nine ships of war. An en- gagement was imminent. It was forced on by the Genoese GENOA AND VENICE 143 commander. On the 24th August, 1258, the hostile fleets were in sight of each other. Both leaders knew 1 2 ^8 the importance of the coming struggle. Tiepolo addressed his captains, recommending strict discipline and coolness in the conflict ; he reminded them that the fortunes of Venice were in their hands. He was answered by a shout of "Long live S. Mark, patron of the Venetian dominions." The battle proved stern and bloody, but victory declared for the Venetians. Twenty-five Genoese galleys were taken, and the Genoese quarter in Acre was sacked and utterly destroyed. The Pope, however, Alexander IV., viewed with disfavour this internecine war. He made use of all his authority to compel the Genoese, the Pisans, and the Venetians to come to his presence. Terms of a truce were drawn up and accepted. But its duration was brief. Another event of the highest importance called for Venetian attention in the East, and brought them once more into collision with Genoa. Baldwin, the Latin Emperor, was desperately endeavouring to maintain himself upon the throne of Constantine. His funds were failing him. He had sold his paternal fief of Courtnay; he had pawned the crown of thorns it had been used once before as security for a loan of 7000 ducats borrowed from the Morosini family ; he had given his own son as a guarantee for money raised from the Capello of Venice. An able and unscrupulous man, Michel Paleologus, conceived the idea of restoring the Greek Empire in Constantinople. He was guardian to the young Greek Emperor, John, the nephew of the Emperor Vatace. Popular favour soon raised Michel to share the throne of his ward, and the Greeks resolved to recapture the Imperial city. Instantly Venice was brought face to face with the difficulty which she herself had been so largely instrumental in raising, by her action in the fourth Crusade. Her commercial interests rendered it impossible for her to be indifferent to this Eastern Question which she had created; to her it was of vital importance that she should be on good terms with the ruler of Constan- tinople. But now Michel Paleologus, a Greek, imbued with all the Greek hatred for the Latins, and above all for the 144 Venetians, was threatening to expel the enfeebled Baldwin and to become master of the capital. The Venetians hardly dared to abandon Baldwin, and yet they knew quite well that Europe would leave them to support him single-handed, as being the European power most vitally interested in his preservation. The Kepublic supplied ships and money to the Emperor, but not in sufficient quantities. It soon became obvious that nothing could save the Latin throne. In the beginning of the year 1261, while the Venetian fleet was absent on an expedition against Daphnusia, a city on the Black Sea, Michel's general, Strate- gopoulos, under cover of night approached the Imperial city. The Golden Gate was seized, the guards slain, and to the cry of "Long live the Emperors John and Michel," the Greek troops poured into the town. The Latin quarters were destroyed ; the Emperor Baldwin, the Venetian Bailo, and the Venetian Patriarch, barely escaped with their lives on board a boat which took them out to sea. The fleet of Venice, meanwhile, was returning from its ineffectual attempt on Daphnusia ; as the Venetians entered the Bosphorus they saw the flames of the ruined city staining the air. On approaching they found the shores thronged with their fellow-countrymen, who implored them for the shelter of the fleet. As many as could be safely received were taken on board, and the galleys sailed for Venice, leaving Michel Paleologus com- plete master of Constantinople, and the Latin Empire destroyed for ever. The Genoese had not failed to make use of this check to Venetian commerce in the Levant. Even before the fall of Constantinople they had come to terms with Paleologus, to whom, as the foe of Venice, they were favourably inclined. When Paleologus became master of Constantinople, though he did not weigh very heavily on the Venetians who chose to remain behind, yet he naturally encouraged and supported his allies the Genoese. He gave them the palace of the Venetian Bailo, and generally placed them in a commanding position in face of their rivals. The blow to their commerce and the success of their foes was a bitter morsel to the Venetians. They resolved, GENOA AND VENICE 145 if possible, to retrieve their position. They appealed to fi Europe for help, urging that the recovery of Con- stantinople and the restoration of the Latin Empire was a sacred obligation upon those who had created it ; that was their pretext, but their real reason was the desire to expel the Genoese by the help of European arms. Europe understood the situation and refused assistance. Venice was thus left alone to continue her struggle for supremacy in the Levant, single-handed against the Genoese supported by the Greeks. Europe looked on indifferent ; Paleologus leaned towards Genoa, but in reality he was merely waiting to see what turn events would take. Though the two years' campaign, 1262 to 1264, did not decide the issue of the struggle between the rival republics, yet it might have done so at any moment. Both Genoa and Venice proved that they were aware of the situation by the great efforts they made to place large armaments on the sea. Martino da Canal, a contemporary, has left us a picturesque account of one of the many engagements which took place off the coast of Nauplia. " Messer Giberto Dandolo," he says, " set sail from Venice with the fleet I have described, and urged his course with sail and oar, till he reached Romania, where he went searching for the Genoese, here and there. He put into an island called the Seven Wells to ask for news of them. While lying in this port, a pinnace hove in sight : he thought it was a friendly boat from Venice or from the Prince of the Morea, or from Messer Lorenzo Tiepolo. But suddenly the pinnace put about and fled, and when Messer Giberto saw that he sent out two galleys to spy what was going on at sea. They followed the pinnace till suddenly they came in sight of thirty-nine Genoese galleys and ten pinnaces, towards the island of Porcaria ; and you must know that they had had news of Messer Giberto, but he had had no news of them. The Venetian galleys signalled to their commander; and when he saw the signal Messer Giberto, the noble captain of Venice, made no long delay. He sailed out with but thirty-one galleys, nor when he saw the might of the Genoese ships did he quail at all; but like a lion, proud 146 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC and secure, he cleared his decks for action, and gave orders that no captain was to bear down upon the enemy before himself. The Genoese came on in close order ; each squadron of ten ships had its admiral. Ah, sirs, had ye been there, ye would have seen the Venetians on flame, full of great prowess and daring. When Messer Giberto saw the moment come he cried, ' Now God be with us, and S. Mark of Venice. Up with the anchors and at them.' He charged down on the Genoese and his fleet followed him. Many Venetians leaped on board the Genoese admiral and cut down his flag-staff. One Genoese admiral was slain, and one fled in a boat, after the Venetians had boarded and taken his ship and cut down his flag-staff. Both flag-staffs you must know were firmly chained to their ships. When the other Genoese admirals saw the standards fall they fled. And so the Venetians right well avenged the ruin of their men in Constantinople." A series of such engagements, with varying fortune, led up to a great battle at Trapani, off the coast of Sicily, in which Venice was victorious. That engagement decided the issue of the campaign. The result of the victory was seen at once in Con- stantinople. Paleologus had been slowly discovering that the Genoese whom he protected in the Imperial city were troublesome inhabitants. Their insolence led to their being removed from Stamboul, the city, to Galata, the suburb. When the news of the battle of Trapani reached the Emperor he resolved to abandon the Genoese, and to endeavour to enter into treaty with Venice. But at Venice the question did not present itself quite simply. Genoa, for the moment, was no longer formidable. It seemed to one party of Venetian statesman that the proper course for the Eepublic was a return to its old policy, initiated after the fourth Crusade, of endeavouring to recover Constanti- nople and to restore the Latin Empire; they urged that Venetian honour required this step. On the other hand, the opposite party pertinently asked who was to hold Constantinople when it was taken ; Venice could not single- handed, and Europe would not help her. DUCAL PROCESSIONS 147 The debate resulted in the despatch of ambassadors to the eastern capital, who, after lengthy negotiations, con- cluded a truce for five years between the Eepublic and the Emperor. By the terms of this treaty Venice virtually reacquired her old position in the Imperial city, and became once more the chief commercial power in the Greek Empire. This episode brought to a close the long and brilliant reign of Eenier Zeno. The prosperity of Venice was re- flected in the amplification of her buildings : the Piazza was surrounded by the Procuratie ; the faQade of the Basilica had already been adorned with mosaics, relating the story of the translation of S. Mark's body from Alexandria to Venice ; the great church of the Frari was begun. Not only the buildings but also the ceremonies of the Eepublic bore witness to her growing magnificence. The State processions of the Doge more or less resembled one another; and the following description, taken from the chronicle of that picturesque eye-witness, Martino da Canal, may serve as a specimen : " So long have I lived," he says, " in beautiful Venice, that I have seen the processions which Monsignor the Doge makes upon high festivals, and which he would not, for all the world, omit to make each year. On Easter Day, then, the Doge descends from his palace ; before him go eight men bearing eight silken banners blazoned with the image of S. Mark, and on each staff are the eagles of the Empire. After the standards come two lads who carry, one the faldstool the other the cushion of the Doge ; then six trumpeters who blow through silver trumpets, followed by two with cymbals, also of silver. Comes next a clerk who holds a great cross all beautiful with gold, silver, and precious stones ; a second clerk carries the Gospels, and a third a silver censer, and all three are dressed in damask of gold. Then follow the twenty-two canons of S. Mark in their robes, chaunting. Behind the canons walks Monsignor the Doge, under the umbrella which Monsignor the Apostle (the Pope) gave him ; the umbrella is of cloth of gold, and a lad bears it in his hands. By the Doge's side is the Primiciero of S. Mark's, who wears a bishop's mitre ; on his L 2 148 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC other side, the priest who shall chaunt the mass. Monsignor the Doge wears a crown of gold and precious stones, and is draped in cloth of gold. Hard by the Doge walks a gentleman who bears a sword of exquisite workman- ship ; then follow the gentlemen of Venice. In such order Monsignor the Doge comes into the Piazza of S. Mark, which is a stone's-throw long ; he walks as far as the church of San Gimignano, and returns thence in the same order. The Doge bears a white wax candle in his hands. They halt in the middle of the Piazza, and three of the ducal chaplains advance before the Doge and chaunt to him the beautiful versicles and responses. Then all enter the church of S. Mark ; three chaplains move forward to the altar rails, and say in loud voice, ' Let Christ be victorious, let Christ rule, let Christ reign ; to our Lord Kenier Zeno, by the grace of God illustrious Doge of Venice, Dalmatia, and Croatia, conqueror of a fourth part and of half a fourth part of all the Eoman Empire, salvation, honour, life and victory, let Christ be victorious, let Christ rule, let Christ reign.' Then the three chaplains say, ' Holy Mary,' and all respond, ' Help thou him.' The Primiciero removes his mitre and begins the mass. Then the Doge shows himself to the people from the loggia and afterwards enters his palace, where he finds the table spread ; he dines there, and with him all the chaplains of S. Mark." The Doge Zeno died on 7th July, 1268, and was buried with great splendour in the church of SS. Giovanni and Paolo, where a part of his tomb is still preserved. CHAPTER IX Reform in method of electing the Doge Rise of wealthy families, result of Levant trade Method of election Lorenzo Tiepolo, Doge Famine Venice cannot feed herself Jealousy of her neighbours Venice claims to tax mainland goods in her port War with Bologna Lewis IX. : his Crusade ; his contract with Venice Size, crew, and cost of Venetian ships Jacopo Contarini, Doge Reduction of the ducal authority Jail-delivery Venetian claim to be mistress of the Adriatic War with Ancona Venice worsted Giovanni Dandolo, Doge Further proposals to restore the Latin Empire Sicilian Vespers Interdict Period of misfortunes for Venice Death and funeral of Doge The people claim to have a voice in election of his successor The new aristocracy : its views Pietro Gradenigo, Doge : his character Genoa and Venice Affairs of the Latin Empire Fall of Tripoli, and of St. Jean d'Acre Venice makes terms with the Mussulman power Genoa tries to exclude Venice from the Black Sea Preparations for war Battle of Ayas Defeat of Venice -Result in Constantinople Venetians in the city attacked and pillaged Great preparations in Venice Andrea Dandolo in command Battle of Curzola Defeat of Venice Matteo Visconti mediates Constitutional reforms Creation of the oligarchy Closing of the Great Council. IN the preceding chapter we have seen Venetian history following two main lines. First, the development of the State internally by the codification of its laws, the amplification of the city, the initiation of that taste for sumptuous display which remained so marked a characteristic of the Republic ; above all, by a steady pursuit of its constitu- tional evolution through the curtailment of ducal authority and the abridgment of popular rights. Secondly, Venice was occupied with the solution of the Eastern problem created by the fourth Crusade, which involved her in a struggle with Genoa. This chapter will show how the Republic brought to a close the question of her strictly constitutional growth, and how the form of government became stereotyped as that 150 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC rigid oligarchy which remained the admiration and the despair of less fortunate Italian states. The solution of the second problem, the Eastern question, and the commercial position of the Republic, is not reached till more than a century later. The first of the changes in the constitution which char- acterise this period, was that by which the method of election to the Dukedom received its final form. The various modi- fications in that method have been noted from time to time. But now, upon the death of the Doge Zeno, the question was taken into consideration once more. The reason which led the Venetians to adopt this reform seems to have been this. The great influx of wealth, produced by the opening up of Levantine commerce, had caused certain families to emerge above the level of their compeers. This gave rise to jealousies and rivalries between these distinguished houses ; and the partisanship of the citizens for a Tiepolo or a Dandolo became so keen, that in order to avoid civic brawl- ing the Great Council passed a law forbidding any Venetian, parvus ml magnus, to display upon his house or person, the arms or badge of a Venetian family, and those which then existed were to be erased within fifteen days. There was imminent danger that this spirit of rivalry would spread to the candidature for the Dukedom, and breed corruption. Accordingly, on the death of Zeno, that extraordinarily complicated system of election was introduced which subsisted down to the fall of the Republic. This system will be most easily grasped in a tabulated form, thus : The Great Council by lot choose 30 The 30 reduced by lot to . 9 _, . . ( with at least The 9 vote for . . . 40 { ? voteg The 40 reduced by lot to . 12 m , ,. OK f with at The 12 vote for . . 25 j 9 votes The 25 reduced by lot to . 9 . ... ( with at The 9 vote for . . | 7ToteB The 45 reduced by lot to . 11 THE FORM FOR 'ELECTING A DOGE 151 The 11 vote for . 41 { with at least I 9 votes each. The 41 elect, by a minimum of twenty-five votes, The Doge. When the day for the election of a Doge arrived, it was g the duty of the youngest councillor to enter S. Mark's and there to pray fervently; on rising from his knees, he was bound to take the first lad he met, and to conduct him into the ducal palace. The lad was called the ballotino, or ballot-boy, and it was his function to take round the ballot- box, and to draw out the slips of paper from the urn when an election by lot, or by ballot, was in progress. The final stage in the election of a Doge was as follows. When the forty-one electors had been chosen, they went in a body to hear mass; they then took an oath that they would act to the best of their ability. A president and two secretaries were appointed, and then each elector, as his name was called out, approached the urn and placed in it a slip of paper with the name of the man he wished to create Doge. The secretaries opened the slips, and drew up a list of all the names which appeared on them ; the slips were replaced in another urn, and one was drawn ; if the man whose name appeared upon it was present he was bound to retire, and the electors proceeded to discuss his merits and demerits ; he was allowed to reply, and then he was balloted for. If he obtained twenty-five ballots in his favour he was declared Doge ; if not, a second name was drawn from the urn and the process was resumed. When the new Doge had been finally elected he was solemnly conducted into the ducal palace, and thence into S. Mark's, where he mounted the large porphyry pulpit and was shown to the people. He then heard mass and swore his coronation oath, after which he received the standard of S. Mark and the ducal mantle from the Primiciero. He was then carried round the Piazza in a chair called the Pozzetto, or little well; and finally, on his return to the palace, at the head of the Giant's Stairs the senior coun- cillor placed the ducal bonnet, or corno, on his head, and the ceremony of his election was complete. The evening closed with a banquet to the forty-one electors. 152 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC The first Doge chosen by this elaborate process was Lorenzo Tiepolo, sou of the Doge Jacopo. The begin- ning of Tiepolo's reign was disturbed by a serious famine, which brought to light two noteworthy points in the position of Venice: first, her inability to feed herself, her dependence upon the importation of grain; and secondly, the deadly jealousy of her neighbours on the Italian mainland ; both of them points to be borne in mind when we come to discuss the wisdom or the necessity of that policy which led Venice to create a dominion on the continent. The Eepublie in her straits appealed to the cities of the Padovano and of the Trevisan marches for corn. She reminded them of the assistance they had received from her during the bloody times of Eccelino. But past favours could not annihilate living jealousy. Venice met with a general refusal to her request for grain. Her reprisals were prompt and showed that she was conscious where her power lay; she imposed heavy dues on all goods consigned to mainland merchants, which arrived in the port of Venice. She endeavoured to renew an ancient provision that all ships carrying such goods should unlade at Venice only, and she appointed officers at the ports along the Adriatic to carry out that order. Such claims were excessive and beyond the power of Venice, at that time, to enforce. She became embroiled in a war with Bologna, in which she was worsted. Peace was concluded. Venice was forced to admit the right of the Bolognese to import corn through Ancona and the cities of the Eomagna, though she succeeded in im- posing a limit upon the amount vehich might pass through those ports each year, and established superintendents there to see that the amount was not exceeded. At this time Lewis IX. of France was preparing for his disastrous Crusade. In the year 1268 he opened negotiations with Venice for the conveyance of his army to Africa. Though the bargain was never concluded, the Eepublie tabulated a contract which is valuable as showing us the transport power of the Venetian fleet, and the price which they asked for their services. The crews of the Venetian warships at this period were THE NAVY OF VENICE 153 free citizens ; Venice did not use condemned criminals till much later. Two reasons may account for this fact. First, the city was not large, nor was it as yet corrupted by wealth and by idle classes ; it therefore could not furnish many galley slaves to serve at the oar. But secondly, even had there been a sufficient number of criminals to man the fleet, it is doubtful whether the Venetians would have employed them at that time. As long as the tactics of naval warfare included boarding operations as a most im- portant feature, it is obvious that condemned criminals could not be employed, for it would be dangerous to entrust them with arms. Later on, when, to some extent, ramming took the place of boarding, the galley slave, chained to his bench, which he was not required to leave, could be employed precisely as we employ machinery. When crews were required for a naval expedition orders were given to the head of each district to enrol all males between twenty and sixty years of age, in groups of twelve each. One man was chosen by lot out of each group of twelve, and was obliged to serve in the first draft ; if more men were called for, a fresh lot was cast, and so on. The man on service received five lire a month from the State, and one lire a month from each of the remaining members of his group of twelve who did not go on service. This pay amounted to about two francs a day of our current money ; besides this he was supplied with food. Exemptions were permitted on payment of six lire a month in addition to the quota which fell to each man's share as member of a group of twelve. On this occasion the fleet contracted for was to consist of 1. The Santa Maria, 108 feet long and 38 feet wide, deck measurement ; and 70 feet long and 9 feet wide, keel measurement : depth of hold 15^ feet. The hire of the ship with its crew of 110 men and all her fittings complete was to cost 1400 silver marks, or 70,000 francs. 2. The Roccaforte, 110 feet long and 40 feet wide, deck measure- ment ; and 70 feet long and 9 feet wide, keel measurement ; depth of hold 21 feet. The hire of the ship with its crew of 110 men and all fittings complete was to cost 1400 silver marks, or 70,000 francs. 154 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC 3. The San Nicola, 100 feet long and 25 feet wide, deck measure- ment ; and 75 feet long and 9 feet wide, keel measurement ; depth of hold 23 feet. The hire of the ship with a crew of 1268. 86 was to cost 1100 marks, or 55,000 francs. 4. Seven new ships, each of them 80 feet long and 38 feet wide, deck measurement ; and 58 feet long and 8 feet wide, keel measure- ment ; depth of hold 18 J feet. The hire of each ship with its crew of 50 complete to cost 700 marks or 35,000 francs ; a total of 245,000 francs. 5. Five old ships, belonging to Venetian merchants, of the same build and price as the preceding seven, 175,000 francs. 6. The King wished to know how much space each knight, with two servants, one horse, and one groom, would occupy. The agents of the Doge inquire how much bread, wine, meat, cheese, and provender the King intends to allow for each knight and his equipage ; how long the passage will last, and what allowance of water each will have ; how much oats and hay he intends to put on board for each horse, and how much water the horse will consume per diem. 7. The reply is that each man will require a quart of corn in bread and flour, a quart and a half of wine, and the same of water, and salt meat, cheese, oil, and vegetables. 8. Each horse will require 4 quarts of corn ; a bundle of hay, 5 feet by 9 ; and 15 quarts of water per diem. The contract was for a year. The troops to be con- veyed were 4000 horses and 10,000 men. Besides the ships above mentioned the Venetians would supply a transport, on board of which the following fares were to be charged : For a knight, his two servants, his groom, and his horse, 8^ marks. For a knight alone for a place abaft the main-mast, 2j marks. For a squire, a place on deck, 7 ounces of silver. For a grodm and horse, 4j marks. For any pilgrim, including food, f of a mark. The Doge engaged to supply firewood for cooking. The fleet was to be ready in June. Supposing Eomanin to be correct in his estimate of the mark as worth 50 francs, we find that the Venetians asked 24,600 pounds sterling for the use of fifteen ships and one transport for a year; and that these vessels between them carried an average of 252 horses and 625 men, besides the crews. When we consider the amount of provisions for men and horses which must have been required, it remains THE OF CONTARINI 155 an insoluble problem how ships of the burthen described above, could have been equal to the task. Lewis, however, declined the terms demanded by Venice, It was a Genoese fleet which conveyed him and the chivalry of France to their death on the African coast. The Dose, Lorenzo Tiepolo. died in 1275, and was succeeded by Jacopo Contarini. The corona- tion oath of the new Doge proves once more how determined the aristocracy were to use this instrument for the reduction of the ducal power. Contarini was called upon to swear that neither he nor his sons nor his nephews would accept fiefs from foreign princes, nor raise loans for their private use, nor marry a foreigner, without the consent of the Council. He pledged himself to pay all his debts within eight days. Every two months the memory of his duties was to be refreshed by reading his coronation oath. His sons were debarred from holding the post of governor, but they might command a ship, and might serve as ambassadors. The coronation oath, however, was not concerned entirely with the personal position of the Doge and his family: it contained from time to time excellent provisions for the better government of the State. In the present instance we find perhaps the earliest instance of a jail-delivery rendered obligatory by law; the Doge swore that he would "cause every prisoner who is detained in our prisons to be examined by our officers within a month of his arrest. We will, further, send our notary once a month to draw up a list of all prisoners, both in the upper and in the lower prisons, and will cause our judges to discharge their cases, absolving or condemning according to the nature of the offence." It was inevitable that the growing importance of the Eepublic, her commanding position in the Adriatic, should rouse the jealousy of other seaboard towns. Already, at the Council of Lyons, the people of Ancona had made complaints against the absolute authority which Venice claimed in the Gulf. Venice defended her position on three grounds ancient usage, infeudation by Pope Alexander III., and ser- vices rendered in suppressing piracy and keeping the Saracens out of those waters. The truth seems to be that Venice had 156 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC no right de jure to supremacy over the Adriatic, but de facto she was the greatest power in that sea ; and that posi- tion she endeavoured to maintain by force of arms. War broke out between Venice and Ancona; it proved disastrous to the Republic. Her first fleet was wrecked, and reinforcements, despatched before news of the mis- fortune could reach Venice, ran right into the arms of the enemy. The situation was still further complicated by the fact that the Emperor Rudolph had recently made a donation of the Romagna, including Ancona, to Pope Nicolas III., and the Republic thus became not . ... , 1278. merely engaged in an unprosperous war with her rival but embroiled with the Pope as well. The difficulties which surrounded the Venetians gave an opportunity to the townships of Istria and to the islanders of Crete to rise in revolt, and these accumulated misfortunes led to the en- forced abdication of the Doge, grown now too old to govern the State with vigour. His successor, Giovanni Dandolo, brought the war with Ancona to a conclusion ; but it is noticeable that in the treaty of peace not a word is said about the supremacy of the Gulf, which was thus left an open question to be the fruitful source of annoyance to the Republic. Western Europe, though it had shown itself indifferent as long as it saw Venice bearing all the burden of an attempt to recover Constantinople and to restore the Latin Empire, was not, when Venice ceased her efforts, content to leave the Greeks in undisputed possession of the Imperial city. Charles of Anjou and Philip of France continually urged the Republic to join them in an expedition against Paleologus. Venice was willing, for she believed that the restitution of the Latin Empire through her means would secure for her a leading position in the Levant. Accord- ingly, in 1281, the terms of a treaty were agreed upon. The Venetian fleet and the French army were to meet at Brindisi in 1283. But the whole design was frustrated by the explosion which followed the Sicilian Vespers. Charles of Anjou had lost his importance; Venice had neither will nor power to attack Constantinople alone; and, in 1285, PIETRO GRADENIGO 157 she signed a new truce with Andronicus Paleologiis, and forbade the clergy of Venice, the Patriarch of Grado, and the Bishop of Castello, to preach the Crusade against her new ally. This action brought down upon the Eepublic the wrath of the Church, and she was placed under an interdict. The period was one of humiliation and of suffering for the State. Her small wars were unsuccessful ; the interdict weighed upon her conscience ; an earth- quake and inundation ruined many buildings. So great was the distress that the Government found itself obliged to undertake the sale of grain at a loss, and to order a forced subsidy to the monasteries, which at that time acted as relieving officers for the poor. But this period of depression was soon to be succeeded by one of extraordinary interest and activity. The reign of the next Doge, Pietro Gradenigo, will display to us the Eepublic of Venice, internally arriving at the full maturity of her constitutional growth ; while, on the other hand, externally she suffered a disastrous and almost a fatal defeat at the hands of Genoa, her great rival in the Levant. At the funeral ceremony of the Doge Dandolo the people endeavoured, almost for the last time, to make their voice heard in the choice of his successor. The name which found favour with the crowd was that of Jacopo Tiepolo, son of the Doge Lorenzo, and grandson of the great Doge Jacopo. It is not improbable that this preference indicated a desire to protest against the growing power of the younger commercial aristocracy, represented by such families as those of Dandolo and Gradenigo the aristocracy which was called into existence by the increase of commercial prosperity consequent upon the fall of Constantinople, the work, to a large extent, of Enrico Dan- dolo, a member of the rising faction. It was this aristocracy whose political views were becoming dominant in the State ; whose oligarchical bias was effectuating itself through the slow suppression of the Doge and the steady extrusion of the people from all share in the machinery of the Government. The people were at length aware, though now too late, that 158 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC they had allowed their rights to be stolen from them little by little; and so their cry was for a Tiepolo, a member of a family not only privately hostile to the Dandolos, but representing a different current in Venetian politics. They were not to have their way, however. There was an objection to Tiepolo too obvious for his enemies to miss ; he was the son and the grandson of a Doge ; to elect him would be a dangerous return to that dynastic tendency which it had been one of the chief endeavours of Venetian domestic policy to eradicate. Pressure was brought to bear upon Tiepolo. He was informed that if he persisted in his candidature he risked plunging the State into civil war. Tiepolo's patriotism forbade him to run that risk; he yielded, and retired to his country villa beyond Mestre. Pietro Gradenigo, a member of the new aristocracy, and married to Morosina Morosini, was elected. The people received the announcement in sullen silence. Their previous clamour and their present gloom presaged the storm which was to burst in the conspiracy of Bajamonte Tiepolo. Gradenigo at the time of his election was a young man, only thirty-eight years old. He was already unpopular, as his nickname of Pierazzo (hulking Peter) shows. But he possessed great ability and experience, and was endowed with courage and an iron will. His reign afforded him ample opportunity for the display of these qualities. The news of his election to the Dukedom reached him in Capo d'Istria, whence he was brought with an escort of ten galleys to Venice. Gradenigo found himself face to face with two great questions in Venetian history her struggle with Genoa, and her constitutional development ; and these two lines we shall follow separately. After the defeat of Genoa at the battle of Trapani in 1264, and the treaty with Michel Paleologus in 1268, renewed with his successor, Andronicus, in 1285, Venice had to a certain extent recovered her position in Constan- tinople, which had been so seriously shaken by the expul- sion of Baldwin and the fall of the Latin Empire. But the blow had been too severe to be remedied with rapidity. Venice no longer enjoyed that preponderating influence, as GENOA AND VENICE 159 against the Genoese, which she once possessed and still desired. The unhappy Latin Empire, established by the Crusades after such toil and so much pains, lay now in its death agony. Constantinople had fallen ; but the remains of the Christian dominion still lingered in Tripoli and Palestine. No exhortation of Pope or Emperor or King, however, could raise Europe once again to arm in defence of the Cross. Venice, who had most at stake in the East, made some spasmodic efforts to save Tripoli, in Syria, but the city fell to the Mussulmans in April, 1289 ; and this disaster was followed by the final blow to the Christians in the East, when St. Jean d'Acre capitulated in 1291. Venice was not long in deciding on her course of action. She came to terms with the new power, though infidel. In 1299 the Republic signed a treaty with the Sultan Nasser Mohammed, by which she acquired extensive commercial privileges in Palestine, with liberty to visit the holy sepulchre under safe conduct, thereby combining business and religion in a way which the Crusades had never achieved. The Venetians rapidly began to develop their advantages, and we find them trading in "goods forbidden to the Christians" that is to say, in slaves, in arms, and wood for shipbuilding, merchandise which the Popes had strictly prohibited Christians from furnishing to pagans. But the Genoese, who were strong in the Black Sea and the Bosphorus, did not intend to allow the Venetians an Tindisturbed enjoyment of their advantages. The fall of the Christian dominion in the East really left the traffic of the Levant open to the strongest arm. Genoa and Venice were about to come into collision over the prize. The Genoese began by attempting to exclude the Venetians from the Black Sea. The Eepublic considered this a casus belli. Great preparations for war were made in Venice. Not only were the citizens enrolled by the method of groups of twelve, but a committee was appointed to draw up a list of the more wealthy nobles, and to impose upon them the duty of arming one, two, or three galleys, in proportion to their wealth. The fleet sailed in October, 1294, and came up with 160 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the Genoese at Ayas, in the Gulf of Iskenderun, the extreme corner of the Mediterranean towards Asia Minor. The Genoese commander won a decided victory by superior tactics. Seeing that he was defective in numbers, he adopted the device of binding all his vessels together and bridging with planks from one to another. The Venetians, confident of success, would not listen to the wiser counsel which urged them to break up this strong formation by means of fire-ships, before attacking. They had a fair wind, and bore down on the Genoese, only to find their front impregnable. The sailors of the Genoese fleet thanks to the bridges between their ships were able to concentrate at any point which was especially menaced. The Venetians were utterly defeated, with a loss of twenty- five galleys. The result of this defeat soon made itself felt at Con- stantinople, where the Emperor Paleologus bestowed all his favour and support upon the Genoese, encouraging them in their constant acts of hostility to the Venetians. These brawls ended in a set attack upon the Venetian quarter; many were slain, their ships destroyed, and the Emperor even imprisoned the Venetian Bailo, Marco Bembo. These misfortunes set Venice in a blaze. The whole city lent itself to the preparation of a fleet which was placed under the command of Euggiero Morosini. He sailed through the Dardanelles, seized and burned the shipping which he found, pushed on to the walls of Constantinople, and cast anchor opposite the Imperial palace. He demanded satisfaction; it was refused. He brought his Greek prisoners upon deck, and in sight of their townsmen and their Emperor he caused them to be scourged. Finally, Andronicus was forced to purchase the departure of Morosini at an exorbitant price, with which the victor returned to Venice. But the Venetian triumph was short-lived. In 1298, on 8th September, the Admiral of the Kepublic, Andrea Dandolo, cruising in the Adriatic with a fleetof ninety- five sail, met the Genoese commander, Lamba Doria, in the waters of Curzola. Doria's tactics were superior. He detached a squadron of fifteen galleys with instructions to remain out of THE BATTLE OF CURZOLA 161 sight, but to sail down upon the enemy when the battle was half over. The conflict began early in the morning, and Doria succeeded in placing the rising sun at his back ; he bore down upon the Venetians, who had not merely the morning breeze against them, but the sun in their eyes. In spite of these disadvantages, however, and thanks chiefly to the splendid fighting of the Chioggiotti, the Venetians were winning, when the fifteen galleys in ambush suddenly appeared upon the scene of conflict, and altered the whole aspect of the fight. The Venetians, taken in the flank, fell into confusion ; the Genoese recovered their spirit ; the battle ended in the utter defeat of Venice. Andrea Dandolo refused to survive his disgrace ; in the night he dashed his brains out against the side of his galley. Among the many prisoners captured and taken to Genoa was Marco Polo, the traveller. To his loss of liberty at Curzola we doubtless owe the posses- sion of his incomparable book of travels, which he dictated in his Genoese prison, to wile away the time. Victorious though Genoa had been at Curzola, it was not a cheap victory ; her losses were little if at all inferior to those of Venice. The long struggle had told severely on both Eepublics ; although Venice immediately took steps to fit out a new fleet. Finally, in 1299, Matteo Visconti, the lord of Milan, succeeded in acting as mediator. A peace was stipulated. The terms were honourable to both parties, and show no traces of the fact that Venice was concluding it after a defeat. The peace was to be perpetual. If Venice attacked the Greek Empire and Genoa defended it, that was not to constitute a breach of treaty. If Genoa went to war with Pisa, Venice was not to interfere. The captains of Genoese and Venetian vessels were to respect each other's flag. In fact the treaty constituted an obligation upon both Republics to abstain from any molestation or inter- ference one with the other, and closed, though only for a short time, one period of this long struggle between Genoa and Venice. To turn now to the second group of events which distin- guished the reign of Pietro Gradenigo, the final stages in the constitutional growth of Venice. We have seen from time to M 162 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC time how the aristocracy, which was emerging, thanks to its commercial wealth, had been steadily pursuing its _ two objects of reducing the Doge and extruding the people from all share in the Government ; but it had not yet succeeded in becoming an oligarchy strictly speaking, a close caste in the State. From the date of the creation of the first Great Council in 1172, the tendency had undoubtedly been in that direction. The Great Council was still nomi- nally chosen from among the wealthier as well as from the poorer citizens ; but by a natural process we find certain families gradually gaining a preponderance for example, in the year 1293 there were eighteen Contarini, eleven Morosini, and ten Foscari in the Council. By the famous measure, known as the Serrata del Maggior Consiglio, or closing of the Great Council, this tendency was on the point of being confirmed. The oligarchy, which had been slowly forming itself during the last century and a quarter, was about to become suddenly rigid, and Venice to acquire, at one stroke, that peculiar constitution which distinguished her through- out the rest of her career. But the closing of the Great Council was in no sense a coup d'&at ; it was rather the last and the inevitable step in a long process. As far back as 1286, in the reign of Giovanni Dandolo, a motion had been introduced to provide that only those whose paternal ancestors had sat in the Great Council should be eligible to that Council for the future. "We have no record of the debate upon this momen- tous proposal ; but here for the first time we find a pro- gramme, a declaration, that there was a party in the State desirous of rendering the basis of the Venetian constitution a close oligarchy. The measure was thrown out by 82 votes against 48, with 10 neutrals. Ten years later, on 6th March, 1296, the Doge Gradenigo, a strong partisan of the rising aristocracy and its policy, reopened the question, but his proposals were rejected. Then, with that determination and strength of will for which he was remarkable, Gradenigo set himself to over- ride opposition, and to carry to a conclusion the political aspirations of the party to which he belonged. He made Wends with a member of Pierre's conspiracy, a certain Moncassin, who endeavoured to persuade him to take part in the plot. Juven pretended to agree. He revealed everything, however, to the Doge ; and Moncassin, seeing his own danger, turned informer in full. The matter, was of course, entrusted to the Ten, who, after convincing themselves of the truth of the denunciation, arrested Eegnault and the Brothers Bouleaux. These three were strangled and hung by one leg to the gibbets between the columns. Pierre and a certain Eossetti, who were with the fleet, were executed by the Admiral, and Langlade, who had escaped to Dalmatia, was pursued, but we do not know whether he was caught or not. The serious extent of the conspiracy, the number of bravi and vagabonds who had been induced to join Pierre, was proved by the sudden way in which the inns and lodging-houses were emptied at the sight of the three bodies hanging between the columns of the Piazzetta. The Spanish conspiracy came to nothing. But that Spanish gold was corrupting the impoverished Venetian aris- tocracy became evident soon afterwards (1620) in the case of Giambattista Bragadin. He had secured his election to the Senate, along with many others, by a fraudulent use of ballot balls. He turned his position as senator to account by selling to the Spanish ambassador, Bedmar's successor, information of what took place in the Council Chamber. His method was to use a particular faldstool for his devotions at the Frari. In a crack in this faldstool he left his informa- tions in writing. A secretary from the embassy used the same place of worship, and withdrew the informations as he found them. The treason was discovered by a monk of the order, whose curiosity was aroused by such frequent and fervent devotions. In the interval between the departure of one worshipper and the punctual arrival of the next, he abstracted the treacherous correspondence, and consigned it to the Doge. Bragadin was hung between the cwo columns of the Piazzetta, and the Spanish ambassador found it expedient to retire from Venice. 406 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC There can be no doubt that treason was rife in Venice, that the danger from Spain was real and pressing, and that all the vigilance of the Ten barely sufficed to counteract the vicious tendency and the danger. But within this obscure region of bribes, of plots, of treachery, of sudden executions, a case was about to arise which was destined to deal a severe blow at the reputation of the Ten, and to give a ground for attack to its growing number of enemies inside the State. Antonio Foscarini, after serving in various posts of trusts, received the appointment of ambassador to the Court of S. James in 1609. When he had been at his post for a short time, it was discovered that the contents of his despatches were being communicated to the repre- sentatives of other powers in England. Suspicion fell on Foscarini's secretary, Scaramelli, who was dismissed, and his place supplied by Giulio Muscorno. At first Muscorno and his chief were on satisfactory terms, but after a while serious disagreements arose. Muscorno was a young man of pleasant manners and various accomplishments ; he became very popular with the Queen and her ladies ; he spoke soft Venetian, which they liked ; he could play the guitar ; and he could mimic his master. His head was soon turned, and he began to neglect his duties. He applied to Foscarini for a letter of recommendation to some person of importance, which the ambassador refused. Muscorno vowed that he would be revenged, and said so openly. Foscarini's own conduct was not above reproach on the score of extravagance in outward show, of freedom of conversation, and of ostenta- tious indifference to religion. His angry secretary published a volume entitled Sayings and doings of the Ambassador Foscarini. Muscorno was implicated with the Archbishop of Canterbury and a Sir Smith, who had advanced him money. The scandal became vociferous. Muscorno asked leave to return to Venice ; and when he arrived there he denounced Foscarini as having himself sold the copies of his own despatches, and as being an unworthy representative of the Eepublic ; given over to irreligion and loose living ; one who allowed himself to speak of the Queen as " a woman of the town." It was all mere calumny ; but the idea that State MARCO FOSCARINI 407 secrets might have been sold was enough to put the Venetian Government in a tremor. Foscarini was recalled, and both he and his accuser were tried before the Inqui- sitors. After a long period of uncertainty, and the most careful collection of evidence from London and other Courts, Foscarini was acquitted, in 1618, and Muscorno condemned to two years' imprisonment in the fortress of Palma. So far the ends of justice seem to have been met, except that Muscorno's punishment was inadequate. But the suspicion of treason, once created, could not be allayed, Foscarini, though acquitted, remained under observation, and his own conduct led to his ultimate ruin. In England he had made the acquaintance of a Lady Arundel. That lady was now resident in Venice for the education, she said, of her children, con modi e costumi italiani. Foscarini renewed his intimacy, and at Lady Arundel's house he met the Tuscan minister, and the secretaries of the Imperial and the Spanish ambassadors. This fact was sufficient to furnish the grounds for a second attack on the un- fortunate diplomatist. Whether Muscorno was at the bottom of this renewed persecution or not is uncertain. The information against Foscarini was laid by a professional spy, Girolamo Vano. Foscarini found himself arrested and accused of selling State secrets. His trial was entrusted to the Three Inquisitors. On the 20th April, 1622, the Inquisitors reported to the Ten, who condemned the accused, as a traitor, to be strangled in prison that same night, and to be hung by one leg in the Piazzetta the following morning. Foscarini met his death with fortitude, after calmly dictating his will to the chief jailor and an assistant. But the spectacle of the strangled corpse not only terrified, it angered the nobility. This feeling of rage against the power of the Ten, and its delegation the Three, was increased and justified when, within four months of Foscarini's execution, it was discovered that he had suffered unjustly. The infamous informer, Girolamo Vano, was in his turn strangled; and the Council did all that lay in their power to make amends. By an order, which was printed, published to the whole city, and sent to 408 all foreign courts, they declared their fatal error; they exhumed, and reburied with all pomp, the body of the murdered senator ; but such a flood of lurid light had been let in upon the dark places of the Ten, and such suspicion of their procedure was aroused, that they never recovered their prestige. They had given a handle to their enemies, and these were not slow to take advantage of it. The cases of the Spanish conspiracy, of Bragadin, and of Foscarini, displayed a corrupt state of society in Venice, with which the Ten endeavoured to deal vigorously in the interests of the State. But the exercise of their power, showing itself as the only real efficient power in the State, roused the jealousy of the other branches of the constitu- tional structure, the Maggior Consiglio and the Senate. This jealousy now drew support from a radical transformation which had been slowly taking place inside the constituent body of the Venetian oligarchy, the noble caste. The long conflict on the mainland of Italy in the fifteenth century, the continual drain of war with the Turks, the immense and unprofitable expenditure entailed by the League of Cam bray, had all contributed to exhaust not only the public treasury but private resources as well. The blow which Venetian commerce received through the opening of the Cape route, and by the altered conditions of the Levant after the capture of Constantinople, had caused Venetian merchants to withdraw their capital from trade, and to invest it in banking, or in large landed possessions on terra ferma. In 1610 Leonardo Dona, addressing the Senate on the economic conditions of the Eepublic, declared that " commerce now lacks capital. The nobility takes no more part in trade; all its resources are tied up in funds or in real estate, and expended either on house property or on amusements in the city." The patriciate had withdrawn from commerce; at the same time luxury was on the increase, as is shown by the repetition of useless sumptuary laws. One noble house vied with another in the splendour of its display: it became derogatory for a patrician to engage in the acquisition of wealth. The greater houses were able to support this tax on their resources. But a large THE f BARNABOTTI' 409 number of the less substantial nobility was utterly im- poverished. In the interests of the dignity of the State it was considered desirable that the highest offices, such as those of Inquisitor or member of the Ten, should not be filled by any who were unable to maintain a fitting train of life, or who, owing to their impecuniosity, were open to bribes. And thus a vast schism took place inside the aristocratic body. On the one side were many nobles who, while still members of the Great Council, were excluded from participation in the supreme offices of the administration ; on the other, a few wealthy families, in whose hands the whole power in the State threatened to become concentrated. The divergence between the two classes grew more and more accentuated, and it was to the poorer class of nobles that the reformers looked for support in their attack on the position of the Ten and the Three. The poor nobles, called Barnabotti, commanded a majority in the Great Council, and the struggle which was now approaching resolved itself into a contest between the Maggior Consiglio, the basis of the whole Venetian constitu- tion, and the Council of Ten, the efficient member of the Venetian executive. This commercial impoverishment, which produced the class of Barnabotti, was effecting not merely the noble caste but the whole population as well. Leonardo Dona, in the speech from which we have already quoted, first confirms the growing poverty in Venice, and then points to the universal decline of trade as its cause ; foreign merchants no longer come to Venice; wanting them, industries fall off; population diminishes ; consumption of produce decreases ; customs dues shrink; the treasury suffers. He lays the blame for all these disasters at the door of protection. Venice is a close port, with heavy duties on imports and exports, and governed by laws which prevent any but Venetian citizens from trading by sea, or from buying direct from traders and not through the medium of Venetian middlemen ; these oppressive burdens, he said, had thrown all Mediterranean commerce into the hands of the Florentines at Leghorn, and of the Genoese, both of whom were free 410 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC traders; while outside the Mediterranean the Levant trade was absorbed by the English and the Dutch. The remedy, he suggested, was to open the port of Venice to foreign traders and merchants. If this were done, the natural advantages of her geographical position, lying so far into the heart of Europe, would again make themselves felt, and would restore prosperity to the State. " Unless some such step be taken," continued Dona, " your Excellencies must remember that we have no more ships, no sailors, no navigation, few merchants, little capital, the population is leaving the city, and even those merchants who still have houses, intend to follow." The Govern- ment, in face of this disastrous condition of affairs granted the freedom of the port to foreigners, under certain conditions ; and this proving insufficient to restore commercial activity, they, later on (1662), removed the import dues, but unwisely retained the export dues. The result was that merchants who brought their goods to Venice still experienced difficulty in distributing them over the continent; the goods lay locked up in Venetian warehouses. The commercial decline of the port continued, and the poverty it entailed produced a whole class among the citizens who were hostile to the Government from which they were excluded. This hostility coalesced with the indignation against the ever-growing power of the few great families, who made the Ten, the real core of the administration, their private appanage. A reformer appeared in the person of Eenier Zeno. He had distinguished himself during his Eoman embassy by attacking various Venetian noblemen of note. He alleged that Antonio Dona had been guilty of appropriating the public funds, and that the Cardinal Dolfin was a paid emissary of France. He made himself so unpopular at the Vatican that the Government sent an ambassador-extra- ordinary, who took the management of affairs out of Zeno's hands. When Zeno returned to Venice he became the champion of the reform party. In spite of strong opposition from the executive the Great Council elected him a Ducal Councillor. Some violent words of his, uttered in the College, were held to be an insult to the Doge. The Ten RENIER ZENO 411 met and summoned Zeno to present himself within eight days. He failed to do so, and was banished for a year to Palma. During this period the Doge and his family, without raising any opposition from the chief authorities in the State, committed several acts in direct contravention of the statutes. One of the Doge's sons accepted a cardinal's hat, and two others were elected to the Senate. The reformers succeeded in securing the recall of Zeno, whose time of banishment had nearly expired. On his return to Venice he was at once elected a member of the Ten, and began his attack on the illegal actions of the Doge and his family. He insisted on delivering in person an admonition to the Supreme Magistrate, which he justified upon the ground of the duty he owed to the Great Council, from whom, as member of the Ten, he declared that he drew all his -authority. In making this statement he was attempting to reaffirm the original conception of the constitution, that all offices of State drew their authority from the great constituent body, the Maggior Consiglio. The Doge gave way, and ordered the election of two other senators in the room of his two sons. So far, in spite of considerable tension, matters had pro- ceeded in order. But Zeno now insisted that the admonition to the chief of the State should be registered. This called up all the friends of the Doge, and in replying to them Zeno, in the Senate, made a further violent attack on the ducal conduct, pointing out fresh instances in which he had contravened his coronation oath. Donato, a member of the Doge's party, rejoined by an attack on Zeno, declaring that he had acted illegally as a member of the Ten, in adminis- tering an admonition without the consent of his colleagues. This was a statement of the independent position of the Ten as against Zeno's view, that a decemvir was individually answerable to the Maggior Consiglio. When Zeno mounted the tribune for the purpose of replying, two of the Capi de' Died ordered him to descend. He refused, declaring that they had no authority to give such an order in the Senate. The chiefs said, " Then we shall summon the Ten." The sitting broke up in confusion. The question was now fairly posed 412 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC between the Capi de' Died and the Maggior Consiglio. Zeno attacked the two in the first sitting of the Great Council. He moved that they had rendered them- selves liable to a fine, and requested the Council to declare whether or not a member of the Ten was within his rights in admonishing the Doge. The Council voted in favour of Zeno, and he secured a triumph. But the victory of Zeno exposed him to the bitterest hatred from the ducal party. On the evening of 30th December, 1627, as he was standing at the Porta della Carta of the palace, he was attacked by five individuals, and so severely wounded with a hatchet that he fell to the ground in a faint. He recovered, and his feelings against the Ten were more than ever embittered. He declared that they protected the Doge's party while they left him exposed to danger of assassination. The flight of the Doge's son Giorgio, immediately after the deed, left no doubt whence the blow had come. Giorgio was deprived of his nobility, his goods were confiscated, and, along with two of his companions, and two gondoliers, he was banished from the State. But the Ten took no active measures to enforce the decree, and Giorgio was able to realise and save his property, and to live unmolested at Ferrara. Zeno insisted that, as he had suffered in execution of his commission from the Great Council, the trial and punishment of his assailants belonged to that Council, not to the Ten. The Ten replied by enjoining upon him silence as regarded all matters already decided by their tribunal. Zeno kept silence for a while, but at length he spoke in the Maggior Consiglio, attacking the murderers of liberty, and inveighing against the order of the Ten, which forbade free discussion of affairs. The Doge took part in the debate, constantly interrupted by Zeno : the sitting grew more and more stormy : the ducal party drowned the voices of their opponents by beating on the benches, and at last the assembly dissolved in uproar. The Ten immediately held a meeting. They ordered the arrest of Zeno, but instructed their officer to avoid finding him. They were afraid >f a revolution. Zeno was cited to appear, and was condemned in contumacy to ten years' imprisonment in Cattaro. REFORM OF THE TEN 413 This high-handed act, interfering with the freedom of debate in the Great Council, set the whole city in a blaze, and brought matters to a crisis. The Ten found themselves forced to give way. A commission to examine and revise the statutes of the Decemviral Council was appointed. Following up the current of hostility to the Ten, the Great Council cancelled as illegal the injunction to keep silence, and the sentence of banishment pronounced by the Ten; and further, ordered those documents to be erased from all public registers. The Commission presented its report, and many of its recommendations were accepted. The Ten lost its right to revise decisions of the Great Council, and some modifications in the election of its secretaries were approved. But the burning point the jurisdiction over the patriciate which the Commission wished to retain for the Died, raised now, as always, the most violent debate. It was proved, however, that the conduct of the nobles was essentially a matter of State importance, and the Commissioners carried their point. An order of the day was passed defining the limits of the Decemviral authority. It closed with these words: "The Council of Ten, and its chiefs, shall not in- terfere in any matters other than those above mentioned, without express orders from the Maggior Consiglio, which alone is able to regulate and define the authority of all the other magistracies in the Kepublic." This clause was de- signed as a sop to the defenders of the Great Council against the Ten; but, as a matter of fact, the Ten retained all, or nearly all, their ancient authority, and after this long struggle they still emerged as the real governing body in the State. The episode of Renier Zeno had in reality been pro- ductive of very little effect. It serves to show that the Republic, at the close of its career, was endeavouring to return to its early constitutional conception, in which the Maygior Consiglio was the core of the administration. The conditions of Venice remained the same as before. There still existed the poorer class of nobles, in opposition to the few wealthy families who reserved to themselves the vital .authority of the most powerful council in the State. 414 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC The opposition became active once more in the eighteenth century. The only difference between the opposition of the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries is, that the members of the latter were tinged with philosophical revolutionary ideas imported from France. The spirit of hostility to the Ten and the Three was fanned to a name by a slight accident, which illustrates the looseness of the times and the petty tyranny which a Venetian noble was capable of exercising. Angelo Querini, a senator, in order to please a lady friend of a friend of his, procured an order of expulsion against a modiste, whose caps had not suited the lady in question. The modiste appealed to the Inquisitors of State, and they cancelled the order as unjust. Thereupon Querini began to complain of the intolerable tyranny of the Three. He quickly found sympathy, and formed a party among the poor nobles. The Three resolved to arrest and deport Querini to Verona. This act roused all the latent hostility of the Great Council, and, in 1761, they refused to elect the new members to the Council of Ten. The quarrel followed the same lines as the Zeno episode. A Commission was appointed to report on the authority of the Ten, and its delegation the Three. The Commission was divided, three signing a majority report in favour of the Inquisitors, and two pre- senting a minority report, in which they endeavoured to crush the tribunal of the Three, and to reduce all jurisdic- tion to the Ten alone. The whole episode, which ended in the complete triumph of the Three, is chiefly remarkable for the spirited and wise defence of that body by Marco Foscarini. "The tribunal has frequently saved the State from dangerous conspiracies. Its. impartiality is above suspicion when we remember that office lasts for one year only, and that any of its members can easily be removed by a decree of the Great Council. The Three have no funds at their disposal. It is certain, from the universal testimony of all statesmen, that no aristocratic Government can last for long unless it provide some corrective for its defects ; and these defects are want of rapidity and want of secrecy. GIORGIO PISANI 415 In some corner of the constitution we must place a rapid and a secret authority. The body which punishes crimes will always be exposed to criticism and attack. Thanks to the Great Council and the Magistrates, the State has been able to preserve in efficiency the tribunal of the Three while preventing it from affecting the constitution of the Kepublic in any way." But in spite of the triumph of the Conservative party, French philosophical ideas were spreading rapidly in Venice, sapping the authority of the Government, and encouraging a general break-down of law and order. The Administration endeavoured to react against the growing spirit ; and when the inefficiency of their policy caused an outcry against the Ten, they tried to stifle criticism by closing all cafe's and wine-shops at nightfall, and forbidding the discussion of political topics. The following notice was found posted up : " The company of night thieves thanks the Chief of the Ten for giving them the opportunity of winning their supper at a reasonable hour." The growing spirit of Eepublicanism found expression when the Government proposed to take over the port, which had hitherto been worked by a Guild. Giorgio Pisani became the mouthpiece of the party, and declared such a policy to be " anti-politic, anti-economic, anti-civil, anti- forensic, anti -republican." Whenever a member of the Government speaks we find his remarks deeply tinged with a sense of disquietude, a dread of change, a presentiment of the end. This feeling received full expression when Carlo Contarini addressed the Great Council in 1779. "All is in confusion, in disorder," he exclaimed ; " our commerce is languishing; bankruptcies continually prove it. Food is exorbitantly dear. That which sufficed once to maintain our families and left a margin to help the State, is now insufficient to keep us alive." When the Doge, Paolo Eenier, speaks in 1780, the note is the same. " If there be any State in the world which absolutely requires concord at home, it is ours. We have no forces, neither on land nor on sea; we have no alliances. We live by luck, by accident, and solely dependent upon the conception of Venetian 416 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC prudence which others entertain about us." Eenier thought the evil lay in the schism between the rich and the poor nobility ; between the democratic revolutionary ideas espoused by the one party, and the conservative and rigid ideas maintained by the other. And yet, while states- men were using such language in the Council Chamber, the population of Venice, in its cafe's and salons, was entirely engrossed in discussing whether Vitalba, as Don Adone in Carlo Gozzi's Droghe, d'Amore, really represented Pier Antonio Gratarol, Secretary to the Senate; and Ballarin was detailing the trivialities of Venetian society to his master, the ambassador of the Republic in France. The Republicanism of Giorgio Pisani, however, was not destined to alter the constitution of Venice. In spite of his great popularity, which secured for him election as Procurator of S. Mark, he and his party were not as strong as the Inquisitors of State. In May, 1780, Pisani was arrested and deported to Verona. CHAPTER XXII CONCLUSION THE long process of decay and death which has formed the dolorous theme of the preceding chapters, does not, how- ever, represent the whole picture of Venetian decline. It is the essential fact about the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries in Venice, but it was not the most obvious fact. During this period the Venetians were enjoying, in a way which attracted and dazzled Europe, that lovely home which they had constructed for themselves while the spirit of their constitutional vitality was still vivid within them. The osseous structure, the rib-work of the constitution, remained long after the spirit had departed. That beautiful and variegated structure, the city of Venice, survived, and still survives and floats upon the waters of the lagoon, though the force which gave it birth has disappeared. It is this external Venice which continues to exert such a potent fascination, and draws now, as it drew centuries ago, countless enthusiasts to the city in sea. My endeavour in the course of these pages has been to display the inner working of the Venetian spirit, to grasp the essential features of Venetian political and constitutional life. We have seen how Venice was born under the pressure of barbaric invasion; how the mainland refugees settled like a flock of frightened birds upon the mud-banks of the lagoon ; how the fusion of discordant elements took place under the dread of attack. The physical difficulties of their home gave the newcomers the mastery of seamanship, 2 E 418 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC and fitted them to take advantage of their opportunities, when the Carolingian revival of Europe created a demand for foreign merchandise. Venice was launched as a commercial race, and mistress of the Mediterranean. In the fourth Crusade, actuated by a purely selfish policy, she committed a crime when she sacked Constantinople. The immediate results of this action were materially advantageous. But the rapid development produced two consequences. The population of the city increased, and with the in- crease came a division a distinction between rich and poor, destroying the ancient equality of the Venetians, and creating a caste. This double process led up to the settlement of the constitution. Venice emerged from the Serrata del Maggior Consiglio under the dominion of a rigid oligarchy, with the Ten as its executive arm. The sack of Constantinople entailed further results. It brought Venice into collision with G-enoa in a struggle for supremacy in the East. She fought and destroyed her rival. But each fresh success was surely leading to further complications. The continuous growth of population raised the question of her food supply. Without a food-yielding territory, Venice was in danger of starvation if defeated at sea. Her neighbouring princes, Scala, Carrara, Visconti, were weak compared with the Eepublic. Their feebleness offered her the occasion which she took. She put out her hand, created a land empire, and reached the apogee of her development. But now arrived the consequences of her actions. The sack of Constantinople let the Turks into Europe. The destruction of the Genoese left them supreme in the Levant. Venice lost her Eastern trade. The creation of a land empire roused the jealousy of Italian princes and the alarm of European sovereigns, lest the balance of power should be disturbed. Venice was crushed by the League of Cambray. The discovery of the Cape route completed her ruin. The rigidity of her consti- tution kept her alive to all appearances, but what remained was the mere shell ; the vital spirit, the initiatory principle, had disappeared. THE ATTRACTION OF VENICE 419 And yet it was a beautiful shell which the Venetian spirit had constructed as its dwelling place. A Venetian writer, Sansovino, calls his history of the city "Venezia, citta nobilissima e singolare " : nobilissima in its pomp of palaces and the sylendour of its decorative art, singolare for the beauty of its natural position, floating on the waters between sea and sky and Alps. The long series of eulogists, stretching through the centuries, bear sufficient witness to the truth of Sansovino's title. Cassiodorus, Longinus, Enrico da Rimini, Petrarch, Coryat, Fynes Moryson, St. Didier, De Brosse, George Sand, Goethe, Byron, Shelley, Eogers, and so on, through the list of living moderns, all have paid their tribute of devotion to that wonderful sea- shell of the Adriatic, which the Venetian spirit evolved for itself during the long process of its birth, growth, and decay. There can be no mistake as to the fervour of the passion ; it is impossible to doubt the sincerity of the accent. Take, by way of example, Cassiodorus's "Hie vobis aqua- tilium avium more domus est " ; or Canal's "For henor de cele noble cite que Ten apelle Venise " ; or Moryson's " This most noble city, as well for the situation, and for the freedom which citizens and very strangers have, and for manifold other causes, is worthily called in Latine Venetia, as it were veni etiam, that is, Come again " ; or Howell's " Renowned Venice, the admiredst citie in the world, a citie that all Europe is bound unto. ' Did you know the rare beauty of the virgin city, you would quickly make love to her"; or Shelley's " Sun-girt city, thou hast been Ocean's bride and then her queen." These writers vie with each other in the warmth of their admiration. Nor is this fervour altogether singular. In no other city of the world, perhaps, have natural beauty of position and wealth of decorative art combined to produce so homo- geneous a whole. Large tracts of Venetian history may be explored in the architecture of Venice. The remnants of more ancient temples, the columns and capitals of so many 2E2 420 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Venetian churches, recall the flight from the mainland and the earliest settlement in the lagoons. S. Mark's, with its Eastern aroma, bears continual witness to the connection between Venice and the Greek Empire, and is the monument of her greatest glories. The Ducal Palace, and the splendid private dwellings which line the Grand Canal, are reminis- cent of Venetian land empire. Her painting, no less than her architecture, is intimately connected with the history of the Kepublic. That art bloomed to perfection after Venice had touched her apogee, had reached her highest point of vigour in her development upon the mainland ; and those master brushes of Veronese and Tintoret were largely employed in chronicling the glories of Venice in the home of her chief magistrate. After the League of Cambray the Eepublic resigned herself to the role of magnificent self-presentation, and her great masters, one and all Titian, Tintoret, Veronese, Tiepolo assisted her design ; they are decorators called upon to make the Ducal Palace, the Guild Hall, the private house, worthy of the Venetian claim to be the most gorgeous city in Europe. Whether or not the absence of any considerable litera- ture in Venice is to be explained on the theory that poetry was unessential to her role, that she required the decorative rather than the reflective arts, the fact remains that the Eepublic gave birth to no poet of the first rank. Her chief services to literature undoubtedly lie in the protection and encouragement which she offered to the art of printing ; and she received her reward in the glory which such names as John of Spires, Jenson, Eatdolt, Aldus, Giolitti, bestow upon the city of the lagoon. The enthusiasm which Venice awakened in those who visited her is no doubt due in part to the amenity and the pleasurability of life on the lagoons. Moryson notes " the freedom which the citizens and very strangers have." Venice laid herself out to be a city of diversion for Europe, " the revel of the earth, the masque of Italy," and she succeeded. "Veni etiam" she is supposed to have said to her guests, and most of them were only too ready to return. Of DECLINE OF THE REPUBLIC 421 course this glittering sea of pleasure concealed dark abysses of corruption, where a whole world of -loose characters lived, moved, and had their being. We catch glimpses of this doubtful region in such cases as those of Bragadin, the sixteenth-century Cagliostro, with his anima d' oro to gull the greedy and needy patricians ; or again in that vivid episode of Venetian life, the murder of Lorenzino de' Medici ; or in Lord Orford's curious publication ; or, above all, in the un- published calendars of the criminal departments of the Ten or the Holy Office. The decline of the Eepublic, the failure of her vital force, did not interrupt the flow of pleasure, nor check the flaunting glories of civic state. Amusement, ease of life, when business and battles were over, was still sought for and found. The political effacement of the Eepublic, and the rigid prohibition of politics as a topic, left Venetian society with little but the trivialities of life to engage its attention. The Illustrissimi, in periwig and crimson cloak and sword, sauntered on the Liston, at the foot of the Cam- panile, in the Square. The ladies over their chocolate tore each other's characters to shreds. Venice laughed when the following mot, at the expense of the Procuratessa Tron, went the round of the salons : " La Trona vendeva el palco piu cara dela persona." " Gav6 razon," replied that spirited lady, " perche questa, al caso, la dono." They might dis- cuss with ribald tongues the eccentric tastes of the great Procuratore Andrea Tron, but if they ventured to suggest a remedy for financial embarrassments, if they dared to contemplate a reform, deportation to Verona stared them in the face. And so life was limited to the Liston, the cafe, the casino ; to a first night at the Teatro San Moise or San Samuele; to a cantata at the Mendicante, the Pieta, or Incurabili. Their excitements were scandal and gambling though the game of panfil was forbidden upon pain of death, pena la vita al solito varied by the interest which might be roused by a battle-royal between Goldoni and Gozzi, or the piquant processo of Pier Antonio Gratarol. Sometimes the whole city would be thrown into a flutter by the arrival of some princes incogniti, like the Counts of 422 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the North, when the ladies would put on their finest dresses, and fight with each other outside the royal box for the honour of presentation. Tiepolo painted their houses with hues as delicate, evanescent, aerial, as the miracle of a scirocco day on the lagoon ; Longhi depicted their lives in the Ridotto, in the parlour of a convent, in the alcove; Chiari, Goldoni, Gozzi, Buratti, or Baffo, wrote for them ; Galuppi, Jomelli, Hasse, Faustina Bordone, made music to them in their conserva- tories. There was taste though rococo; there was wit though malicious, in their salons, where the cicisbeo and the abbatino ruffled their laces, toyed with coffee-cups, learned to carry their hat upon their hip while leaning on the back of a lady's chair. And this diffusion of taste found its best expression in a late rinascimento of Venetian art and cul- ture, pungent in Buratti, realistic in Longhi and Goldoni, fanciful and capricious in Carlo Gozzi; reminiscent of the great age, while looking forward to the modern world, to post-revolution art, in the work of that superb master Tiepolo, whose easel pictures might have hung in the Salon, and been painted by the most recent of plein-airists. It was a charming existence, which Venetians and foreigners alike enjoyed. The Venetians appeared to their visitors as a happy family, disturbed by no more serious troubles than the pretty tempers and humours of its pets. Goethe likens the Doge to "the grandpapa of all the race"; the heir to the Russian throne exclaims, " Voila 1'effet du sage gouverne- ment de la Republique. Ce peuple est une famille." An easy, elegant, charming life the Venetians spent in their beautiful chambers, stuccoed in low relief and tinted with mauve and lemon, with pistaccio green and salmon ; there they read their Baffo, their Buratti, their Calmo; and thence late at night, or rather in the early morning, they were wont to pass across the lagoon to the Lido, where they made a matutinal supper and paid their orisons to the rising sun. But all this charm, this amenity, this decor of life, was doomed to be swept away. Mightier forces of a younger and therefore more vigorous birth were at work beyond the FALL OF THE REPUBLIC 423 Alps. Could the Eepublic have survived the shock of the French Eevolution, had she been able to resist Napoleon till England had time to appreciate the value of her position as a point of attack against the conquerer, and to come to her rescue, the State of Venice, whatever modifications she might have undergone in her constitution, would probably have maintained her independence. That, however, was not to be. In 1796 Bonaparte arrived in Italy. He had the Austrians in front of him. Venetian territory was quite unprovided with defences sufficient to secure its neutrality. It became the field of operations for both armies. The Eepublic could only complain at Vienna and to Napoleon. The latter requisitioned as he pleased, and stormed when provisions did not come in to his orders. He threatened to impose a fine of one million lire on Vicenza if the Podesta did not instantly supply an ambulance train. The Eepublic was powerless. The Senate discussed the advisability of retiring from the continent altogether. Later on, they proposed to surrender the mainland provinces to Austria, Bonaparte had no sooner established his position against the Austrians, than he let it be seen that he was resolved to overthrow the Venetian Government. Immedi- ately after the truce of Judenberg, he sent Junot to Venice. The General brought a letter in which his chief declared that all Venetian terra ferma was in arms against the French, and for this he held the Government respon- sible. He claimed the murderers of French soldiers, and demanded the instant disbanding of the armed masses, on threat of war. The College made a mild reply, in the hope of appeasing the fury of Bonaparte. But immediately after- wards an event occurred which caused Napoleon to declare war at once. The French commandant Laugier, on board the Liberatore d' Italia, was cruising about the Adriatic in search of Austrian ships. He approached the Lido, and made as though he were about to enter the Lido port. The commandant, Pizzomano, requested him to withdraw; but whether on purpose, or swept on by the tide, Laugier's ship continued to advance. Shots were exchanged, the Liberatore boarded, and Laugier was killed. This gave Napoleon his 424 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC pretext. By the secret clauses of the peace of Leoben, he had already assigned to the Emperor of Austria, Dalmatia and the mainland provinces between the Oglio and the Po. He was looking for an excuse to attack Venice, and the death of Laugier furnished him with one. It was perfectly impossible for Venice to make any resistance by force. She had ships in the arsenal, but they were in bad repair, and without crews. Inside the city itself there was a party, imbued with the ideas of the Eevolution, and desirous of upsetting the government of the Ten and the Three. The fall of the Eepublic was inevit- able. The Government sent a deputation to Napoleon, at Gratz. They found him in a domineering mood. His remarks were all prefaced by " io voglio," and he concluded thus : " I have 80,000 men and twenty gunboats, io non voglio piu Inquisitori, non voglio piiji Senato, sard un Attila per Io Stato Veneto." This was language which had been used before towards Venice by the League of Cambray, by Ossuna, Viceroy of Naples ; but this time it was on the lips of a man who could make it good. Napoleon was convinced that Venice had been treacherous to him, that she intended to cut off his retreat had his campaign against Austria miscarried. He was resolved that French troops should enter the city. Between Napoleon's insistence and a dread of a rising inside the town, the Government was forced to give way. The Procurator Pesaro expressed the common opinion when he exclaimed, " Vedo che per la mia patria la xe finia " ; and the Doge when he said, " Sta notte no semo sicuri nb anche nel nostro letto." On the 12th May the Maggior Consiglio passed a resolution which accepted a new form of government, subject to the approval of General Bonaparte. The Eepublic of Venice disappeared in the whirlwind of the French Eevolution, and the Doge, as he laid aside the ducal bonnet, was able to say to his servant with only half a regret, " Take it away ; we shall not use it any more." " ToU questo ; no la doperb piti" INDEX ABONDIO, 355 Acre, St. Jean d', 90, 159 Venetians and Genoese at, 142 Adda, western frontier of Venice, 296, 297, 332, 347, 358 Adelaide, Empress, 62 Adria, Saracens at, 49 Adriatic, Sclavs in the, 17 Venetian supremacy in the, 94, 155, 156 Agnadello, battle of, 340, 341, 342, 343, 352, 384 Ajas, battle of, 160 Alaric, 3 Albiola, 38, 55 Alboin, 8, 9, 15 Aldus, 310, 420 Aleppo, 361 Alexander III., Pope, 98,108-111.155 IV., 143 V., 268, 269 Alexius I., Emperor, 76, 86 II., 113 III., 117 IV., 123-130 Ducas, 128 Alfonso, of Naples, 323 Altino, 3, 5, 10 Bishop of, 82, 83 Alviano, 340, 345, 346, 352, 353 Amalasunta, 7 Amain, 64, 78, 116 Amboise, d', George, 3,32, 334 Anacletus I.. Pope, 93 Anafesto, Paolo Lucio. 18, 21, 22, 23 Ancona, 108 war with, 156 Andronicus I., Emperor, 113 Paleologus, 157 son of John Paleologus, 223, 224 Andros, 132 Anema, tower of, 224 Anhalt, Prince of, 343 Anselnio, 271, 272 Antium, battle off Cape, 225 Aquileia, 3, 5, 23-25, 44, 51, 52, 65, 70, 98, 111, 270, 294, 295 Ardisonio, Nicolo, 41 Aristocracy, commercial, 150, 157, 185 Army, see Venetian Art, see Venetian Arundel, Lady, 407 Ascalon, 90 Asolo, 323 Athens, 378 Attila, 5, 10 Avogadori di Comun, 115, 164, 178, 179, 273, 274 Axouchos, 96 Azoff, Genoese in, 208 BADGER, 137 Badoer, 174-176 Stefano, 138 Bagnolo, peace of, 321 Bajazet, Sultan, 244, 245, 274 Baldo, Monte. 297 Balduino, Francesco, 271, 272 Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, 87, 88 of Flanders, Emperor, 129, 130, 143 Ballotino, 151 Banking, see Venetian Banoli, Dalmasio de', 186, 287 Barattiere, Nicolo, 112 Barbarian invasions, 3, 10, 11 Barbaro, Marco, 204 Barbaromani, 31, 37 Barbarossa, Chaireddin, 362 Barbolani, family, 50 Bari, siege of, 70, 137 Barnabotti, 409 Baseggio, family, 50 Basel, Council of, 294 Basil, Emperor, 64, 70 Bassano, 240 Beato visits Karl, 37 2 K3 426 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Bebe, Torre delle, 54 Bedmar, Marquis de, 403 Beirut, 361 Belisarius, 7, 8 Bellini, 310 Belluno, 61, 65, 240, 271 Beltrame, 204, 205 Bembo, Marco, Bailo, 160 Pietro, Cardinal, 324 Benedict XIII., Pope, 268, 269 Bergamo, acquisition of, 290 Bertucci, Israello, 204 Bessarion, Cardinal, 213, 310, 311, 312 Bestemmia, Executori contra la, 401 Bibiones, 1 Black Sea, Genoese in, 159 Blois, treaty of, 335 Bocconio, conspiracy of, 167, 168 Bologna, war with, 152 treaty of, 347 Boniface of Montferrat, 123-130 Borgia, Cesare, 332, 334, 335 Bosphorus. battle of, 199 Bragadin, Giambattista, 405 Marcantonio, 365-368 Brandolin, 389 Brenta, 4, 9, 94 Brescia, siege of, by Carmagnola, 288 acquisition of, 290 siege of, 296 Bribery and corruption, 282 Brondolo, 31, 38, 49, 54, 226, 229, 230, 231, 232 Brussels, peace of, 346 Buono, 45 Bussone, see Carmagnola CABRERA, 199 Cagliari, battle of, 199, 200 Calendario, Filippo, 204 Calergi lead revolt of Candia, 216 Calioannes (John Comnene), Emperor, 89, 92 Caloman, King of Hungary, 88 Caloprini, Domenico, 51, 52 family, 61, 62 Stefano, 61 Cambray, League of, 249, 263, 294, 310, 326-347 peace of, 347 Campofregoso, 222 Canal, Girolamo da, 362 Martin da, 45, 133-147 Nicolo, 314, 315 Candia (Crete), 130, 131 settlement of, 133 revolt of, 215-218 loss of, 371-378 Candiano, Pietro, 53, 56, 57-59 Vitale, 60 Cannareggio, sestierc, 101 Caorle, 2, 49, 61 Cape route, 265, 309, 311, 324-326 Caprulse, see Caorle Capuano, Peter, Legate, 121 Cardona, Raymond de, 343-346 Carmagnola, 277, 284-293, 294 Caroso, Pietro, revolution of, 47 Carpaccio, 310 Carrara, family, 189-207, 208 Francesco, 224-236, 239, 242, 243- 244, 246-248 in league with Hungary, 209, 210, 219-221 Jacopo, 189 Marsilio, 18, 192, 270 Casopo, battle of, 76, 79 Cassiodorus, 6, 13, 419 Castello, 33, 55 sestiere of. 101 Catinat, 360 Cattaro, 225 Cavalcabo, 292 Cavalli, Giacomo, 226, 229 Cavallino, 2 Cavarzere, 38, 54, 61, 98 Cavazza, 355 Celsi, Lorenzo, 213-215 Ceneda, 239, 240 Centranico, Pietro, 72 Tomaso, 138 Cephalonia, 92 Cesena, 335 Charlemagne, see Charles the Great Charles the Fat, 53 the Great, 32, 33, 35, 42, 74, 166 Martel, 29 IV., Emperor, 212 V., Emperor, 346, 347 VIII., of France, 329-331 Chioggia, 2 war of, 226-237 Chios, 89, 102 Christian, Archbishop of Mainz, 108 Christopher, Patriarch of Grado, 18 Bishop of Olivolo, 34, 37 Chrysobol of Basil, 64 of Alexius, 77, 78 Church, see Venetian Clermont, Council of. 84 Clugies major, see Chioggia minor, 2 Code, Venetian, 138, 139 Collegia, 182 Colleoni, Bartolomeo, 317 Colonies, see Venetian Colonna, Marcantouio, 365 Columns in Piazzetta, 112 at Porta della Carta. 142 Comacchio, war with, 53 INDEX 427 Commerce, see Venetian Commines, Philippe de, 330, 331 Comnene, sec Isaac and John Como, 97, 358. Compagnia della Calza, 259, 353 Conciliar principle, 289, 382 Concio, 19, 67, 273 Concordia, 5 Gondottieri, see Mercenary Congress of Venice, 108-112 Conrad of Hohenstaufen, 93 Consiglieri Ducali, 74, 82, 104, 182 Constance, Council of, 269 of Sicily, 114 Constantino, Emperor, 300, 301, 302 Constantinople, Venetian colony in, 78, 100, 133 siege and capture by Crusaders, 124-130, 339 recovered by the Greeks, 144 Venetians and Genoese in, 160 Turkish court in, 245 taken by Turks, 299-302 results, 309 Constitution, see Venetian Consuls, Paduan, 4 Contarini, Andrea, 218, 225 Antonio, 272 Domenico, 75 Jacopo, 155 Corfu, battle of, 77, 89 siege of, 95 acquisition of, 238, 239, 362 Cornaro, Caterina, 322-324 Giorgio, 296 Marco, 215 Correttoridella Pro-missions. ducalc,l35 Cortenuovo, battle of, 137 Council, Lateran, 24, 29, 44 of Mantua, 44 of Ravenna, 51 of Clermont, 84 of Forty, 115, 163 of Lyons, 155 of Ten, see Ten of Pisa, 268 of Constance, 269 of Basel, 294 of Three, see Three of Trent, 385 Crema, 299 Cremona, acquisition of, 334 Crete, see Candia Crimea, Genoese and Venetians in the, 197 Croce, Sta., sestiere, 101 Crusade, first, 84-87 third, 115 fourth, 117-30 of Pius II., 311, 312 Curzola, 68 battle of, 160, 161 Cyprus, acquisition of, 322, 323, 333 war of, 364-368 DALMATIA, 17, 48, 53, 67, 75 loss of, 88. 89, 186, 209, 211, 270 Dandolo, Andrea, chronicler, 36, 44, 194 Enrico, 102-107, 115-130, 132 Giberto. 145 Giovanni, 156 Leonardo, 216 Marco, 295 Marino, 135 Nicolo, 366 Patriarch of Grado, 98 Dante, 259 Daphnusia, 144 Dardanelles, 365 Deodato, mastro miles, 28 Doge, ib. 29 Desiderio, Lombard King, 32 Despots, Italian, 165, 166 D'Estrees, 359 Diaz, 324 Died, Consiglio dc', see Ten Diplomas, Imperial, 50, 54, 55, 58, 64 Doge, first, 18 origin of title, 18 authority of, 18, 19 Doge Consort, 33, 48, 74, 82 hereditary tendency, 40, 41 palace of, 42, 336 Duke of Dalmatia, 68 anti-dynastic tendency, 73 curtailment of powers, 103-105 method of election, 113, 139, 150, 151, 273 coronation oath of, 135, 155, 214, 273 income of, 136 ceremonies, 147, 148 place in the constitution, 183, 214 titles, 295 Doimo, Count of Veglia, 173 Dolfin, Giovanni, 210 Donate, Ermolao, murder of, 303 Leonardo, 391 Marco, 174 Patriarch of Grado, 24 Doria, Andrea, 362, 363, 365 Filippo, 197 Lamba, 160 Luciano, 225, 226 Paganino, 198, 201, 222 Pietro, 226 Dorsoduro, sesticre, 101 Durazzo, 76, 239 428 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC the, galley, 122 Eastern Empire, 7 relations of Venice to, 8, 15, 16, 17, 21, 27, 32, 50, 58, 65, 86, 94, 96, 97, 100, 113, 116, 132, 156, 157 Eccelino da Romano, 137, 141 Edward III. of England, 187, 195 Eginhard, 36 Elias, Patriarch of Grado, 24 Emo, Pietro, '227 Enrico da Rimini, 250 Este, Aldrovandino, 169 d', Azzo, 169 family, 53, 187 Folco, 169 Francesco, 169 Fresco, 169 Taddea, 243 Eterni, club of, 352 Eugene, Prince, 359, 360 FABRIACO, mastro miles, 28 Faenza, 335 Falier, Marin, 202, 203, 205 Ordelafo, 87 Vitale, 77 Famagosta, 222, 223, 365-368 Fano, Venetian protection of, 94 Feltre, 239, 240,. 271 Ferdinand of Naples, 321 Ferrara, Venetian colony in, 87, 137, 138 war of, 168-172, 186, 187, 319-321, 335 Feudal system, 80, 166 Feuds, family, 50, 61, 62, 173 Fieschi, 225 Finance, see Venetian Flabianico, 73 Florence, in league with Venice, 191, 278, 279, 283 at Constantinople, 313 Foix, de. Gaston, 343, 344 Fondaco de' Tedeschi, 253 Fondamenta, 13 Fornovo, battle of, 331 Fortunatus, Patriarch of Grado, 35, 36, 37, 42 Foscari, Francesco. 273, 278, 279 his Dogeship, 281-306 family, fall of, 302-305 Jacopo, case of, 302-305 abdication, 305, 306, 335 Paolo, 382 Foscarini, Antonio, 406-408 Giacomo, 369 Marco, 414 Fossa Xuova, battle of. 221 Francis I of France, 346 Frangipani, 345 Franks, 29, 32, 33, 34, ?6, 37, 42 Frari, church of the, 147 Frederick, Barbarossa, 96-99 II., 136, 138 French, claim to Milan, 298, 302, 321, 327, 331, 332 in Italy, 309 at war of Candia, 377 Fresne, du, 393, 394 Friuli, Dukes of, 17 acquisition of, 276, 277 Fuentes, 359 Fulk of Neuilly, 117 GALBAIO, MATJRIZIO, 32, 33, 34, 35 Giovanni, 33, 34, 35 Galla, Gaulo, 31 GaUipoli, battle of, 275, 276 Gambacorta, 243 Garda, Lago di, 281, 296, 297 Gattamelata, 296 Gattari, chronicles of, 243 Geminiano, San, 12, 148 Genoa, 85, 88, 116, 132, 137 and Venice in Levant, 142-146 at Constantinople, 144, 313 wars with Venice, 158-161, 222-236 war, 196-203 peace with Venice, 208 Giorgio, S., peace of, 289 Giorgione, 310 Giovanni, Patriarch of Grado, 34, 35 Gisello, 204 Giudici del Comun, 82 Giunta, see Zonta Giustinian, family, 50, 102 Longo, 301 Marco, 223, 224 Nicolo, 102 Pantaleone, 138 Taddeo, 219, 221, 228, 229 Goldoni, 422 Goths, 3; 8 Gottolengo, battle of, 289 Gozzi, Carlo. 416 Gradenigo, Bishop of Olivolo, 72 Bartolomeo, 194 Giovanni, 208 Pietro, 157, 158, 161, 162 Grado, 2, 5, 17 Christopher, Patriarch of, 18, 23- 25, 34 Giovanni, Patriarch of, 34, 35 Fortunatus, Patriarch of, 35 See of, 44 Venerius, Patriarch of, 44, 51, 65 attacked by Poppo, 70, 71 Patriarch of, removes to Venice, 75, 98 settlement of the Patriarchate, 111 INDEX 429 Gratarol, Pier Antonio, 416 Gregory II., Pope, 24, 25 IX., 137 XII., 268, 269 Grillo, dragoman, 372, 373 Grimaldi, Antonio, 199 Napoleone, 232 Grimani, Antonio, 332, 333 Grisons, 359 Guarino, Fra, 60 Guilds, see Venetian Guy, Emperor, 54 HAIFA (Caffa), siege of, 86 Hawkwood, Sir John, 244 Heinrich von Dietz, 109 Henry III. of France, 370, 371 of Hohenstaufen, 114 Heraclea, 2, 18, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34 end of, 37 Herisson, d', 343 Holy Office, see Inquisition Hungarians, 54, 55, 88, 209-212, 219-221 in war of CMoggia, 224 Hunniady, 300 Huns, 4, 5 Huss, result of burning, 269, 270, 277 Hwalderada, 59 Hypatos, title of, 27, 42 IBRAHIM, Sultan, 371 Iconoclasm, 25, 26 Index Expurgatorius, 387 Industries, see Venetian Innocent II., Pope, 93 III., 117, 123, 124, 129 Inquisition, in Venice, 140 Iiiquisitori sopra, il Doge def unto, 135 Inquisitors of State, 348 Interdict, 157, 170, 171, 172, 320, 339, 340 Investiture, 295 Irene, Empress, 35 Isaac Comnene, Emperor, 113, 123- 130 Isodore, Cardinal, 300 Istolii, family, 50 Istria, 6, 56 JACOPO, San, di Rial to, 12 Jaffa, 86 battle off, 89 Jenson, 300, 420 Jerusalem, kingdom of, 86 Jesolo, 2, 21, 22, 23, 27, 31, 34 end of, 37 Jews, 64 John the Deacon, see Sagornino Bishop of Olivolo, 37 XXIII., Pope, 269 John Comnene, 89, 92 John, Don, of Austria, 369 Joyeuse, Cardinal, 393, 394 Julius II., Pope, 335, 384, 385 Justinus II. , 22 KAFFA, 197 LADISLAUS surrenders Corfu, 239, 270 Lagoons, formation of, 1, 2 islands of, 2 early population of, 3, 4, 5, 6 amelioration of, 9, 10, 11 fortification of, 17, 49, 54, 55 rivalries inside, 18, 21 importance of, 79-95, 345, 347 Lampsacus, 132 Langlade, 404, 405 Lateran Council, 24, 29 Latin Empire, 129, 132, 156, 158 Laugier, 424 League, Holy, 343, 344 Leo, Archbishop of Ravenna, 32 the Isaurian, 25 Leopold, of Austria, 219 Lepanto, battle of, 368, 369 Lesbos, 89 Lewis I. of Hungary, 209, 220, 221 II., Emperor, 50 IX. of France, 152-154 XII. of France, 331, 334, 335-345 Lezze, Andrea da, 402 Liago, 13 Library of S. Mark, 213 Lido, 1-2, 226, 227, 228, 229 Limasol, 365 Lion, Nicolo, 204, 205 Liudprand, 22, 25, 26, 30, 32 Livy, 2 Lodi, 97 peace of, 299 Logothetes, nature of office, 64 Lombard League, 96-112 Lombards, 4, 8, 9, 11, 21, 27, 29, 30, 32 Longhi, 422 Longinus, 9, 14, 15 Longo, Girolamo, report on Turkish fleet, 313 Loredan, Alvise, 311 Antonio, at Scutari, 316, 317, 318 Paolo, 218 Pietro, 275 Lorenzo, Alimpato, 41 Lothair, 42, 49, 54 of Saxony, 93 430 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Lusignau, Jacques, 322, 323 Jeau II., 322 Pierre, 222 Luxury, introduction of, 76, 77 Lyons, Council of, 155 MACALO, battle of, 289 Maggiore, Consiglio, beginnings of, 103-105 Scrrata del, 162-167, 181 Sala del, 195, 283 new admissions to, 237, 375 its quarrel with the Ten, 402, 408- 415 Magistrate del Proprio, 82 Mahnmd, Grand Vizier, 313 Malamocco, 2, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36 attacked by Pepin, 38, 39, 46, 47, 226, 229, 230 Malek-Adel, Sultan of Egypt, 119 Maleo, battle of, 95 Malipiero, 321, 333, 337 Alessandro, 395 Orio, 113 Venetian Consul in Cyprus, 222 Malvasia, 363-379 Mantua, Council of, 44 Manuel, Emperor, 95 insulted by Venetians, 96 attacks Venetians, 99-102, 107 son of John Paleologus VI., 223 Marciana, biblioteca, 213 Marco, San, 12 translation of, 44-46 Basilica, 60, 78 rediscovery of, 78 church in Tyre, 91 sestiere of, 101 library of, 213 Marcomanni, 3 Mariegole. 254 Marignano, battle of, 346 Marino, Abbot, 82 Martial, 3 Martin V., Pope, 269 Maruffo, Matteo, 232 Mastro miles, title of, 28 Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, 87 Mauro, vision of, 10 Maxentius, Patriarch of Aquileia, 44 Maximilian, Emperor, 330, 331, 334, 335, 341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 346 Memmo, Jacopo, 305 Marin, 305 Tribuno, 60 Mercenary troops, 95, 186, 285-287 Mestre, 37 Metamaucus, see Malamocco Michel, Emperor, alliance with Venice, 43, 44 Michiel, Antonio, report on Turkish fleet. 312, 313 Michiel, Domenico, 88 Giovanni, 138 Vitale, 97 Milan, in Lombard League, 97 Mint, Venetian, 56 Mocenigo, Lazzaro, 375, 376 Pietro, 228, 315, 316 Tominaso, 262, 272, 273, 274, 279, 281 Mohammed, Sultan, 274, 275, 300, 301, 302, 311 Molin Luigi, 220 Monacis, de, Lorenzo, 31 Monegario, 31, 32 Montfort, Simon of, 123 Monticolo, 67 Morea, 311, 378, 379 Morosiui, family, 61, 62 Francesco, 376-379 Girolamo, 374 Leonardo, 222 Marco, 173 Marin, 139 Morosina, 158 Podesta, 137 Ruggiero, 160 Motta, la, battles of, 271, 272 Mudazzo, leads revolt of Candia, 216 Miilhausen, Diploma of, 64 Murad, Sultan, 223, 299 Murano, 2 Muscorno, Giulio, 406 Mustafa, 366, 367, 368 NAPOLEON, 423, 424, 425 Narenta, 67, 68 Narses, 8, 9, 12, 15, 26 Nasser Mohammed, 159 Nassi, 364 Nauplia, 363 Navagero, 374 Navy, see Venetian Negropont, 197-224 loss of, 314, 315 Nicephorus, Emperor, 36, 38, 42 Nicetas, Greek admiral, 38 Nicolo, San, body of, 86 Nicopolis, battle of, 245 Nicosia, 365, 366 Nissa, battle of, 300 Normans, 75, 95, 113, 114 OBELERIO, of Malamocco, 31 first Bishop of Olivolo,33,35, 36,37 visits Karl, 37, 46, 47, 74 Oderzo, 3, 5 INDEX 431 Olivolo, Bishopric of, 33, 34, 72 , Opitergium, see Oderzo Ordinanze, 358 Orleans, claim of, to the Milanese, 298 302, 321 Orseolo, expelled, 72, 73, 74 family, 70 Giovanni, 70 Orso, 25-28 Otto, 71 Pietro I., 59 Pietro II., 62-71 Osopo, Castle of, 345 Ossuna, Duke of, 403, 404 Otho II., Emperor, 57, 59, 61, 62, 74 III., 64, 65, 69 Otranto, 319 Otto of Brunswick, 123 PACCINO, Eustachio, 289 Padua, 3, 4 complains of Venice, 9 acquisition of, 241-249, 266, 267, 341, 342 Palace, first ducal, 42, 336 Paleologus, Michel, Emperor, 143 John, VI., 223, 224, 300 Paradise, the, galley, 122 Parenzo, 201, 225 Particiaco, Agnello, 41-43 Giovanni, 46 Giovanni II., 53 Giustiniano, 42-46 Orso, 51, 52 Orso II., 55 Paruta, Paolo, 369 Pasqualigo, Pietro, 325 Passarovitz, peace of, 379 Paul, Bishop of Altino, 10 exarch, 25, 26, 30 V., Pope, 385, 387-396 Pavia, battle of, 347 Piccinino, 296, 297 Pierre, Giacomo, 404, 405 Pelagius, Pope, 24 Pepin, King of France, 29, 166 King of Italy, 38, 39 Pera, 198 Peter, of Aragon, 198 Petrarch, 198, 207, 213, 217, 218, 221, 238, 259 Philip of Swabia, 123 II., 364, 369 Piali, Pasha, 365 Pilgrim, the, galley, 122 Pineto, 22, 37 Piovene, Cesare, 366 Pirates, Dalmatian, 48, 53, 67 Pisa, 85, 86, 88, 116, 137 Council of, 268 Pisani, Giorgio, 415, 416 Nicole, 198-203 Vettor, 202, 224-236 Pitigliano, 340 Pius II., Pope, 311, 312 Plague, 70, 196, 197, 371 Podesta, Venetian, in foreign towns, 137 Pola, battle of, 225, 226 Polani, family, 50 Pietro, 93 Polentani of Ravenna, 297 Polo, San, sestiere, 101 Pomposa, 69 Ponzio de Santa Paolo, 198 Poppo, Patriarch of Aquileia, 70, 73, 75, 111 Population of Venice, 187, 258 Porcaria, battle of, 145 Portolungo, 202 Porto Secco, 38 Poveglia, 2 Pozzetto, 151 Prcgadi, see Senate Primiciero, 147-151 Priuli, Diarii, 336 Processions, ducal, 147, 148 Procurators of S. Mark, 375 Promissione Ducalc, 135, 155, 214, 273 del Malcficio, 138 Proveditori in campo, 186, 225, 333, 340, 341 Pupillia, see Poveglia QUADI, 3 Quarnero, 49 Querini, Angelo, 414 Jacopo, 173 Nicolo, 202, 203 Piero, 173 RAGUSA, 107 Ravenna, 7, 8, 10, 22, 25, 26, 29, 30, 32, 33 Council of, 52, 87, 297 Renier, Paolo, 415 Revenue, see Venetian Rhodes, 85 Rialto, 2, 4 first building at, 12, 21 concentration at, 38, 39 growth of, 41 bridge, 112 Richelieu, 359 Ridolfi, Florentine ambassador, 283 Rimini, 335 Robert of Bavaria, 245 Guiscard, 76 of Naples, 187 432 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Roger II., Norman, 95 Rome, 7, 32, 44 claim on Ferrara, 168 Venetian attitude towards, 268-270, 321, 334, 335, 339, 340, 342 Roncaglia, 97, 98 Rossi, Pietro de', 191 Rosso dalla Turca, 142 Rudolph, Emperor, 55, 156 Rustico, 45 Ruzzini, Marco, 197 SABA, S., at Acre, 142 Sagornino, John the Deacon, 2, 31, 41 note Salinguerra, 137, 138 Salona, 8 Salt, monopoly of, 13, 225 San Servolo, 69 Sansoviuo, 419 Santorin, 132 Sanudo, Dukes of the Archipelago, 132 Diarii, 341, 353 Sapienza, battle of, 202, 203, 333 Saraceni,- 389 Saracens, 29, 43, 48, 49, 65 at Bari, 70 defeated off Jaffa, 89 Sarpi, Paolo, 387, 390-397 Saugi, son of Murad I., 223 Savii all' heresia, 140 grandi, 182 da terra ferma, ib. agli ordini, ib. Scala, Alberto, 189-192 Antonio, 241 Brunoro, 270 Can Grande, 189 family, 166, 189-192 Mastino, 189, 191 Schios (Chios), 89, 102 Sclavs, 17, 48 Scolari, Filippo degli, 270, 271, 272 Scutari, acquisition of, 239 siege of, 316-318 Sebenico, 88, 225 Selim, Sultan, 363, 364 Selvo, Domenico, 75 Senate, 74, 82, 104-115, 181 Sereno, Patriarch of Aquileia, 24 Serratadel Maggior Consiglio, 162-167 Sestieri, creation of, 101 Severino, San, 320 Sforza, Duke of Milan, 298 Galeazzo, 328, 329 Lodovico, 329, 332 Sidon, Venetian colony in, 87 Sigismund, Emperor, 269, 270, 271, 272, 276, 295 Silvii, family, 50 Slaves, galley, as crews, 153 Soissons, 117 Soranzo, Giovanni, 186 bailo, 372 Sottomarina, 229, 230 Spalato, 8 Span, Pippo, see Scolari Spanish claims on Italy, 327 conspiracy, 403-405 Speyer, John of, 310 Sposalizio del Mar, 69, 110, 111 Statute of Jacopo Tiepolo, 138, 139 of Treviso, 193, 194 Stauraco, 45 Stelvio, 358 Steno, Michel, 273 Stephen, Pope, 29 II. of Hungary, 88, 92 Vaivode, 221 Strabo, 2 Strategopoulos, 144 Suleiman, Sultan, 265, 361, 362 TEDALDO, Castle, 169, 170, 172 Tegaliauo, 23-25 Ten, Council of, 177-183, 302, 804, 305, 348 its last developments, 398-416 chiefs of the, 177, 178, 179 Tenedos, 223, 224, 236 Teodoro, San, 12, 42 displaced, 46 Castle of, 374 Theodore, guardian of S. Mark, 45 Theodoric, 7 Theodoras, Patrician, 22 Theophilus, Emperor, 48 Three, Council of, 400, 401, 402, 403, 414, 415 Tiepolo, Bajamonte, conspiracy of, 172-176 Giovanni, Battista, 420, 422 Jacopo, 135, 136 Lorenzo, 142, 152 Statuto of, 138, 139, 157, 384 Tintoret, 310, 420 Titian, 310, 420 Tolentino, Nicolo da, 288 Torcello, 2 flight to, 10 peopling of, 11, 12 See of, 51, 52 Torture, 179 Totila, 8 Tours, battle of, 29 Trade, see Venetian Tradonico, Pietro, 41 Doge, 47, 48, 51 Trapani, battle of, 146, 158 Trau, 88 INDEX 433 Treaty, with Liudprand, 22 of Salz, 36 with Lothair, 50 with Saracens, 65 with Isaac Comnene, 114 with Carraresi, 221 of Turin, 236 Trent, Council of, 385 Treviglio, 299 Trevisana, cannon, 232 Treviso, Statute of, 193, 194, 210, 211 siege of, 235 Tribunes, election of, 5 maritime, 6 major, 14 their jealousies, 18 as assessors, 31, 37 Tribune,- Pietro, 54, 55 Trieste, 219-220 Tripoli, in Syria, fall of, 159 Trivulzio, Gian Jacopo, 334 Turin, peace of, 236 Turks, 159, 188, 195 at Constantinople, 245, 274-276, 299-302, 311 their fleet, 312, 313, 314 in Otranto, 319, 332, 333, 334 wars with, 361-379 Tyre, siege of, 90-92 Venetian colony in, 91 ULRICH, Patriarch of Aquileia, 98 VALENTE, Giovanni de', 197 Valier, 355 Valona, 371 Valpollicella, 297 Valtelline, 296 war of the, 358, 359 Vano, Girolamo, 407 Varna, battle of, 300 Vasco de Gama, 324 Vaux, Abbot of, 123 Venerius, Patriarch of Grado, 44 Venetian, army, 186, 257, 258, 287 art, 310, 419, 420 banking, 255, 256, 306, 354, 408 Church, 12, 23, 33, 44, 51, 65, 268-270, 320, 321, 339, 340, 380-397 colonies, 215; in Levant, 89-93, 100, 133, 215-218; in Ferrara, 87 ; in Constantinople, 78, 100, 133, 160 commerce, 30, 32, 52, 53, 58, 64, 65, 66-68, 80, 81, 87, 150, 157- 159, 187, 237, 238, 251-256, 279, 326, 408, 409, 410, 415 constitution, 5. 14, 18, 19, 27, 28, 81, 33, 48, 73, 74, 81, 82, 103- 105, 112, 113, 135, 136, 150, 151, 155, 157, 162-168, 176-183, 305 diplomacy, 348 finance, 100, 101, 107, 1 14, 115, 229, 256-258, 273, 306, 313, 316, 320, 321, 336, 349-351, 353, 354, 375 government on mainland, 193, 194, 212, 262-268, 277-279, 295, 335 guilds, 254, 255 houses, 13 industries, 187, 253-255 inns, 259 judicial system, 82, 83, 115 literature, 420 luxury, 76, 77, 259, 310, 351, 352, 353, 420, 421, 422 medicine, 258 mint, 56 navy, 7, 15, 17, 18, 25, 26, 48, 49, 53,76, 81, 87, 89, 101,114, 139, 152-154, 251-253, 257, 312-314 police, 354, 355 population, 187, 258 revenue, 250-256 salt monopoly, 13, 255 wars, first war, 7 with pirates, 17, 48 Comacchio, 53 Normans, 76 Bologna, 152 Ancona, 156 Genoa, 158-161, 196-203, 222- 236 Ferrara, 168-172, 319-321 Scala, 191-192 Hungary, 209-212, 219-221 Carrara, 246-248 Turks, 274-276, 288-298, 311- 318, 332-334, 361-379 Sigismund, 276 League of Cambray, 338-347 Cyprus, 363-368 Candia, 371-378 Venice, geographical position of, 1, 2, 3, 184 growth of, 3-10, 29, 54, 147, 188, 212, 248, 249, 276 foundation of. 4 strategical value of, 7 concentration at Rialto, 38-42 fortified, 55 streets lit, 93 in Lombard League, 99 Congress of, 108-112 unable to feed herself, 152, 190, 191 recuperative power of, 250 decline of, 260, 306, 335, 336, 337, 349. 356, 357, 358, 417-425 partition of, 338, 339, 341 434 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC Venier, Antonio, denounces Foscari, 303 Sebastian, 368 Verme, dal, Jacopo, 245 Lucchino, 216, 217 Verona, under Venice, 266 Veronese, 420 Vespers, Sicilian, 156 Vicenza, siege of, by Carrara, 247- 266, 343 Victor IV., Pope, 98, 108 Villehardouin, 116, 117, 118, 129 Visconti, family, 166, 192, 224 Filippo Maria, 246, 264, 265, 277, 281, 288-298 Gian Galeazzo, 240-246 Giovanni, 200, 201 Matteo, 161 Valentine, 298 Vitalba, 416 Victoria, cannon, 232 Vivarini, 310 Voto delta Providenza, 134 WALPERT, Patriarch of Aquileia, 52 Wars, see Venetian Wenceslaus, 245 William of Sicily, Norman, 107, 113 Wintker, Marquis of Istria, 56 Wotton, Sir Henry, 386 ZACCHARY, Pope, 29 Zagonara, battle of, 283 Zane, Girolamo, 364, 365 Matteo, 389 Zara, 53, 67, 88, 114, 115, 117, 120- 123, 126, 186 Zeno, Carlo, 224 Marin, 133 Renier, 141, 410-413 Ziani, Pietro, 133 Sebastian, 106, 112, 113 Zimiskes, John, Emperor, 58 Zonta, 399, 402 Zorzi, 355 Marin, 186 THE END Second Edition, Revised. 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