6 - Venetian Reactions to the Normans of Southern Italy under Robert Guiscard: from Enmity to Congeniality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2020
Summary
This chapter considers the manner in which some specific events involving the Normans in southern Italy at the time of Robert Guiscard are represented in the 237 Venetian chronicles that cover the period in question. These chronicles are preserved either in manuscript (215) or – more rarely (22) – in edited form. The texts were written between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries, so they can be viewed rather as secondary sources. However, they express very well the perspective of Venetian society on certain events of the past.
Usually, the Normans appear in the narratives of the Venetian chroniclers when Robert Guiscard threatened Byzantium under its ruler Emperor Alexios I Comnenus (1081–1118). The majority of the chronicles narrate the Byzantine emperor's appeal to doge Domenico Selvo (1071–84) to participate in the defence of Romania against Robert (1081).
Short versions
Scenario A
According to most Venetian chronicles (ninety-eight, or 41.35 per cent), the event unfolded very simply:
– Alexios is under attack by Robert Guiscard;
– the emperor makes an appeal to the Venetians;
– Doge Domenico Selvo assists the Byzantines;
– the emperor owes his gratitude to the Venetians.
In this scenario the most common text of the confrontation with Robert Guiscard is as follows (according to chronicle pseudo-E. Dandolo):
Ancora nel tempo del dicto [Duxe], Alexio imperator de Gretia mandò a Venesia domandando secorso et aida a çiò che contrastar podese a Ruberto Guiscardo del’insulla de Cecillia re, el qual era andado a dapnnificar alcuna parte de Romania. Alora meser lo Duxe cum conscentimento del povolo quello sì socorse de navillii bem armadi, i quali a la tornada soa, cum grande utelle et honor del dicto imperador, fu reccevudi in Veniesia cum salvamento, dela qual cosa l’imperador molto ringraciando, obligandossi a li Venetiani perpetualmente.
(Also in the time of the mentioned [doge], Emperor Alexios of Greece sent [a mission] to Venice in order to ask for assistance and help to enable him to oppose Robert Guiscard the king of the island of Sicily, who had come to inflict damage upon a part of Romania. Hence, with the consent of the people, messer the doge assisted him with well-equipped ships, which on their return, with great utility and honour of the mentioned emperor, were received in Venice safe and sound, for which reason the emperor was grateful, being for ever obliged to the Venetians.)
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- Warfare in the Norman Mediterranean , pp. 151 - 174Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2020