Page 183 - Il Mediterraneo quale elemento del Potere Marittimo - Atti 16-18 settembre 1996

ATHENS IN THE 5'h CENTURY B.C. THE REPUBLJC OF VENICE 169

and survive its aftermath. On the other hand, Athenian statesmen believed that
no other city-state would ever, could ever, match Athens' naval prowess. Pericles
himself discounted the notion that Sparta could arival Athens at sea:
"W e bave nothing to fear from their navy. They are farmers, not sailors" But
after the death of Pericles and due to bad diplomatic policies of Athens, Persia
decided to help Sparta in building of a Spartan navy. Money flowed into Sparta
and though naval success did not come immediately to the Peloponnesians, the ba-
lance at sea swung their way. The Spartans destroyed the Athenian navy at the ba-
de of Aegosporami in 405 B.C.
The City of Athens surrendered in the spring of 404 B.C.

The Republic of Venice

Historians are in generai agreement that before 452 A.D. when Attila inva-
ded nothern ltaly, the islands of the Venetian lago o n ha d a small native population
of simple, poor fishermen.
Refugees from the mainland occasionally fled from the barbarian invasions
to the safety 9f the islands. By 568 A.D. when the Lombards were beginning their
conquest of ltaly, a considerable population ha d· gathered o n the islands an d for-
med small townships. In 697 A.D. the power passed to a single leader, called THE
DOGE.
Soon Venice achieved independence as a republic. Her excellent position at
the crossroads of East and W est helped her to build up an empire in the Levant.
She started her expansion in the 10th century along the Dalmatian coast, thus gai-
ning contro! of the Adriaric, then gradually secured trading and other privileges
in a number of Mediterranean seaports.
In 1204. Doge Enrico Dandolo was a leader of the Fourth Crusade and the
Republic gained footholds in the Eastern Mediterr~nean in the islands of the lo-
nian and Aegean seas, including Crete and other parts of the Greek mainland.
She rul~d with skill, interfering little in local institutions and encouraging tra-
de. Venetian merchants traveled to the Crimea, Asia Minor, and the Persian Gulf;
Marco Polo brought glowing accounts from China and Persia.
In 1380 when Genoese fleet was defeated in Adriatic by the fleet of Venice,
the Republic was the undisputed queen of the seas. But, many of Athens' mistakes
would be repeated by the Venetian Republic.
Four factors contributed much to its decline:
Exhausting mainland wars and concomitant inattention to the Eastern threar
A lack of useful allies
Poor generalship
An inadequate army.