Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Maps of the Byzantine and Venetian worlds
- 1 Venice: the Byzantine province
- 2 Venice: the Byzantine protectorate
- 3 Venice: the ally of Byzantium
- 4 Venice: the partner of Byzantium
- 5 Byzantium, Venice and the First Crusade
- 6 The parting of the ways
- 7 The calm before the storm
- 8 The Fourth Crusade
- 9 Venice in Byzantium: the Empire of Romania
- 10 Venice: champion of a lost cause
- 11 Byzantium, Venice and the Angevin threat
- 12 Byzantium, Venice and Genoa
- 13 Conflicting interests and competing claims
- 14 Byzantium, Venice and the Turks
- 15 Byzantium: the victim of commercial rivalry
- 16 The profit and honour of Venice
- 17 Jewels for an island
- 18 Byzantium in thrall to the Turks and in debt to Venice
- 19 Byzantine optimism and Venetian vacillation
- 20 Byzantium the suppliant of Venice
- 21 The worst news for all of Christendom: Venice and the fall of Constantinople
- 22 Legacies and debts
- Byzantine Emperors
- Doges of Venice
- Bibliography
- Index
12 - Byzantium, Venice and Genoa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 April 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Maps of the Byzantine and Venetian worlds
- 1 Venice: the Byzantine province
- 2 Venice: the Byzantine protectorate
- 3 Venice: the ally of Byzantium
- 4 Venice: the partner of Byzantium
- 5 Byzantium, Venice and the First Crusade
- 6 The parting of the ways
- 7 The calm before the storm
- 8 The Fourth Crusade
- 9 Venice in Byzantium: the Empire of Romania
- 10 Venice: champion of a lost cause
- 11 Byzantium, Venice and the Angevin threat
- 12 Byzantium, Venice and Genoa
- 13 Conflicting interests and competing claims
- 14 Byzantium, Venice and the Turks
- 15 Byzantium: the victim of commercial rivalry
- 16 The profit and honour of Venice
- 17 Jewels for an island
- 18 Byzantium in thrall to the Turks and in debt to Venice
- 19 Byzantine optimism and Venetian vacillation
- 20 Byzantium the suppliant of Venice
- 21 The worst news for all of Christendom: Venice and the fall of Constantinople
- 22 Legacies and debts
- Byzantine Emperors
- Doges of Venice
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
By terms of the treaty of Orvieto signed in July 1281 Venice had declared war on Byzantium. The Doge had miscalculated. The chance of riding to Byzantium on a wave of moral fervour had passed. Yet so long as a state of war existed it was not safe for Venetian merchants to sail to Constantinople and the empire. They were specifically forbidden to do so by several decrees of their government between 1282 and 1285. There were still Venetians living in Constantinople. Many of them had been born there. But the commercial quarter which Michael VIII had granted them in 1277 lay dormant or closed down. The Genoese across the water in Galata reaped the benefit of the Doge's miscalculation. It was an expensive mistake and its effects were aggravated by events nearer home. The interdict imposed on Venice was not lifted until a new pope was elected in 1285. There was rebellion in Istria and Trieste, vigorously supported by the Patriarch of Aquileia. A series of natural disasters had left hundreds of citizens homeless and hungry. The food shortage could have been alleviated if Venetian convoys had been able to resume their shipments of corn from Constantinople and the Black Sea. The major Venetian colonies in Romania, especially Modon, Coron, Negroponte and Crete, had not changed hands, and repeated orders went out for the strengthening of their fortifications and defences in the war against the emperor. Crete provided welcome supplies of corn, though rebellion was constantly being subsidised by Byzantine agents in the island; and in Negroponte the Venetians had to fight the Byzantine army to retain possession.
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- Byzantium and VeniceA Study in Diplomatic and Cultural Relations, pp. 212 - 227Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989