Venice was now in the first springtime of her splendor. The islands, which had themselves been constructed on the marshes, were already covered with stately buildings. The city had increased in wealth as Constantinople had declined.
The monopoly over the seas once possessed by Constantinople had long since been shared by the republic, which recognized in the annual ceremony of the Bucentaur that her wealth was derived from commerce. She had been, as we have seen, specially favored in the New Home. The tone of her civilization was that of Constantinople rather than that of any Western city. Her wealth, her distinction as a city whose civilization was more advanced than that of any Western rival, were derived from her intercourse with the New Rome. The very aspect of her streets wTere a reproduction of what had been seen on the Golden Horn. Her famous church, dedicated to St. Mark, was but a reproduction on a smaller scale of the still more famous church of the Divine Wisdom of the Incarnate Word which existed in Constantinople.
The Crusaders of this and of former expeditions were profoundly impressed with the prosperity and magnificence of Yenice. The New Home was still the royal or imperial city; but both cities evidently opened to the Crusaders new worlds of wealth, luxury, and civilization. They marvelled much, says Robert de Clari, at the great riches they found in Venice, and numbers of contemporary writers bear testimony to the astonishment which her civilization excited.
Of late years the Venetians had had difficulties with the Hostility of New Rome. We have seen- that these difficulties arose, in great measure, from the fact that the in Constantinople. fluence of Venice in Constantinople was no longer sufficient to exclude that of the other Italian republics Visit Bulgaria. Isaac Angelos had, in 1187, and again in 1189, as we have also seen, concluded a new alliance, assuring to Venice her old privileges, together with the payment of a considerable indemnity.
Alexis the Third
The consideration for the valuable concessions offered by the emperor was that the Venetians should place their fleet at the disposition of the empire, even in the case of a war against the emperor in the West. This treaty was confirmed in 1199 by Alexis the Third. In the spring of 1200 a quarrel took place at Constantinople between the Venetians and their great rivals the Pisans. The Venetians complained that their treaties had been violated ; that the subsidies promised by the emperor had not been paid ; above all, that the Pisans had been favored at their expense. The doge, during the summer of the same year, sent an embassy to Alexis to demand the payment of arrears and the renewal of commercial privileges.
Another embassy was sent six months later, and, indeed, the whole year was occupied with negotiations, which served only to show that it was improbable that the republic should regain her supreme influence on the Bosphorus. But the hostility to Constantinople reached its height when the Venetians learned that Alexis had, in May, 1201, received an embassy from Genoa, and was negotiating with Ottobono della Croce, its leader, for the concession of privileges for trade in Romania which Venice had hitherto regarded as exclusively her own. From this time the doge appears to have determined to avenge the wrongs of his state on the ruler who had ventured to favor his rivals.
Famous Henry Dandolo
The Doge of Venice at this time was the famous Henry Dandolo. He was already a very old man, but full at energy, greedy at glory, exasperated against the empire, and devoted to the interests of the republic. lie was able to command with equal success an army or a fleet. Though he was nearly, if not quite, blind, he devoted an amount of attention and ability to the cares of government which places him in the first rank of Venetian administrators. The Hew Rome was the special object of his hatred. The general belief after his death was that his eyes had been put out by order of the Emperor Alexis during his visit in 1172 or 1173 to Constantinople. "What is certain is that he bore against the empire an inextinguishable hatred, which made him willing to embrace any project directed against its capital city. He possessed the entire confidence of his fellow-citizens. His influence in Venice was so great that when he subsequently embarked with the Crusaders his son was appointed regent during the absence of his father.
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