Pirenne, Henri: the Expansion of Islam in the Mediterranean Basin [3]

Pirenne, Henri: The Expansion of Islam in the Mediterranean Basin [3] From H.Pirenne’s «Mohammed & Charlemagne», Dover Publications, INC. Mineola, New York. 3. Venice and Byzantium It may be said that the Islamic invasion was as decisive for the East as for the West of Europe. Before this invasion the Emperor of Constantinople was still the Roman Emperor. The policy of Justinian in this respect is characteristic: he claimed that the entire Mediterranean was subject to the Imperial authority. After the invasion, on the contrary, the Emperor was reduced to the defensive in Greek waters, until in the 11th century he appealed to the West for assistance. Islam immobilized and engrossed him. Here we have the whole explanation of his policy. Henceforth the Occident was closed to him. Once Africa and Carthage were lost, after an obstinate defence under disastrous conditions, the sphere of action of Byzantine policy was confined to Italy; but even here only the coastal regions were retained. In the interior of the country Byzantium could no longer resist the Lombards. Her impotence led to the revolt of the Italians and the defection of the Pope. Henceforth the Empire strove to retain only Sicily, the Adriatic, and the cities of the South, but these outposts of Byzantium were becoming more and more autonomous. The expansion of Islam came to a halt on the Byzantine frontier. Islam had robbed the Empire of its Syrian, Egyptian and African provinces, to some extent by exploiting national differences. But the Greek nucleus resisted, and by resisting it saved Europe, and doubtless, in saving Europe, it saved Christianity. But the encounter was tremendous. Byzantium, twice attacked while Islam was at the height of its vigour, owed her victory to her fleet. She remained, in spite of all, a great naval power. Of all the westward prolongations of the Byzantine Empire, the most important and the most original was the extraordinary city of Venice, the story of which, if we except the United Provinces, constitutes the most curious chapter in the economic history of the ages. The first inhabitants of the sandy and desolate islands of the lagoon were wretched fugitives, escaping from the hordes of Attila in the 5th century, at the time of the attack upon Aquileia. Other fugitives came to join them at the time of the Frankish occupation of Istria in the time of Narses,(60) and still more on the occasion of the Lombard invasion. The islands were thus populated by an exodus which was at first only temporary, but then became permanent. Grado received the greater number of the fugitives from Aquileia, whose bishop assumed the tide of patriarch, and became the spiritual head of the new Venetia. Caorle, in the estuary of the Livenza, was peopled by emigrants from Concordia, who were accompanied by their bishop. Next Heracliana was founded, and Aquileia by the Piave. The people of Altinum took refuge on Torcello, Murano, and Mazzorbo. The refugees from Padua settled at Malamocco and Chioggia. In the beginning the group of islands from which Venice was afterwards to rise were the most sparsely populated: Rialto, Olivolo, Spinalunga, Dorsoduro were occupied only by a few fishers.(61) In the primitive Venetia of the 6th or 7th century the religious centre was Grado, the political centre Heracliana, and the commercial centre Torcello. Escaping from the conquerors on terra firma, the Byzantine administration still survived, represented by a few functionaries and tribun. Here dwelt a population which was essentially maritime; the words in which Cassiodorus describes it make us think of the inhabitants of the primitive Holland. “It looks from a distance as though the boats were gliding over the meadows, for one does not see their hulls.”(62) It will be readily understood that such a life was favourable to the development of energy and ingenuity. In the beginning the people lived by fishing and the manufacture of salt, which their boats carried to the mainland, exchanging it for corn. The only commercial centre of the region was Comacchio at the mouth of the Po, which was frequented by Byzantine ships bringing oil and spices. Comacchio, the seaport for the Po Valley, doubtless profited by the cessation of the Oriental trade with the Gulf of Lyons. A commercial treaty which was made about 715 between the city and Luitprand, in which there is mention of pepper, shows that the port was in communication with the Levant.(63) Doubtless the Venetians were quick to imitate their neighbours. At all events, Venetian commerce developed in the course of the 8th century. In 787-791 their merchants were excluded from Ravenna at the request of Charlemagne —which proves that they were not willing to acknowledge him as king of the Lombards;(64) and this necessarily meant a closer alliance with Byzantium. Their relations with the Emperor could only be advantageous to them; he was too remote for them to be otherwise. Their ideal was autonomy under one or two Doges, elected by them, and ratified by Byzantium. From time to time causes of difference arose, when Venice turned toward the Frankish Emperor. In 805, for example, she sent an embassy to Charles in order to place herself under his protectorate. But this step is rather to be referred to party conflicts in the cities, and to disputes with Grado, whose patriarch had already applied to Charles for protection in 803.(65) At this time Venice had just been extending her rule to the small cities of the Dalmatian coast, and was doubtless fearing a reaction on the part of Byzantium. Little note has been taken of this incident, but it was none the less of the greatest importance. Charles, in reply to the embassy of the Venetians, immediately annexed their city to the kingdom of Italy; and this offered his Empire an opportunity of becoming a maritime power and obtaining a foothold in Dalmatia. But it did not avail itself of the opportunity. Byzantium, on the contrary, was quick to see the danger. In the following year Nicephorus despatched a fleet which obtained the immediate submission of Venice. There was no reaction from Charles; he confined himself to offering the patriarch of Grado a refuge in his States.(66) In 807 the King of Italy, Pippin, concluded a truce with the commander of the fleet, Nicetas, and the Venetians surrendered the culprits to the βασιλεύς, who exiled them. He rewarded his partisans by the titles of spatharius and ὕπατος.(67) The affair was too tempting to be dropped. In 810 Pippin, having borrowed the shipping of Comacchio, recaptured Venice and the Dalmatian coast.(68) But a Byzantine fleet, under the command of Paul, a prefect of Cephalonia, compelled him immediately to abandon his conquests. He died the same year (July 8th). Charles hastened to invite the Byzantine legates to Aix, where he concluded peace with them, surrendering Venice and the cities of Istria, Liburnia and Dalmatia. This peace became a definite treaty on January 13th, 812: the Carolingian Empire surrendered the sea on which it had just given such striking evidence of its impotence.(69) Venice was definitely beginning to enter the Byzantine orbit, and to mark, on the frontier of the Occident, the commencement of a different world. Her piazza proves this more eloquently than all the documents. The peace of 812 left Venice in an exceptionally favourable situation. It was the condition of her future greatness.(70) On the one hand, her union with the Empire enabled her to expand in the Orient, and this without threatening her autonomy, since the Empire had need of her support in its struggle against Islam. On the other hand, it opened the Occident to her enterprise, for when he renounced the possession of the city Charles acknowledged its right to trade within the Frankish Empire. Secure against attack from the West, Venice had nothing to fear, apart from Comacchio, which held the mouth of the Po. In 875, therefore, she destroyed her rival, who disappeared for good. Henceforth the markets and the ports of Upper Italy—Pavia, Cremona, Milan, and the rest— were dependent upon the commerce of Venice.(71) There remained the Saracen peril. Here the interest of Venice was the same as that of the Emperor. In 828 he asked for the assistance of her warships. In 840 Venice came to the help of the Empire by sending sixty of her ships; upon which the Musulmans burned Ancona and captured the Venetian vessels.(72) In 867-871 Venice made war upon Bari from the sea, in concert with the Byzantines and Louis II, who attacked the city from the land. But in 872 the Musulmans attacked Dalmatia; and in 875 they besieged Grado. Nevertheless, Venice retained the mastery of the Adriatic, and by so doing assured navigation to the Levant. This, however, did not by any means prevent Venice from trafficking with Islam. It is true that the Emperor, as early as 814-820, had prohibited trading with the Saracens of Syria and Egypt, but the Venetians traded with the infidel, even while they fought him. It was from Alexandria that a fleet of ten ships brought the relics of Saint Mark to Venice in 827, the Venetians having stolen them unknown to the Christians, as to the Musulmans, of the city.(73) The most important branch of Venetian trade was the traffic in the Slav slaves of the Dalmatian coast. In 876 the Doge prohibited this trade, but in vain. In the middle of the 9th century the merchants were even selling Christian slaves to the Musulmans.(74) The commercial treaty concluded between Venice and Lothair in 840,(75) which shows that the city was essentially mercantile, forbade the sale of Christian slaves and of eunuchs.

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