Basileii şi dogii veneţieni (1081-1204)
The Byzantine Emperors and the Doges of Venice
(1081-1204)
This essay wants to present how tensioned the relations between the Byzantine empire and Venice were through the passing of time, mostly in the 11-th and in the 12-th centuries. We can say that the connections between those two parties were always determined by the political situation or by the economic or commercial interests existing at that moment of being. With the passing of time the citadel from the Lagoon will gain its emancipation, and from a vassal of the Byzantine empire will become a political equal partner of Constantinople. The Venetians followed their economic, commercial and political purposes. The Byzantines need to have a strong fleet as their allies, and this made the Eastern empire to offer Venice enormous comercial advantages.The Venetians were treacherous and were able to do everything to assure their economic privileges. The internal crisis which overwhelmed Byzantium at the end of the 12-th century was very skilfully speculated by Venice. The treaties signed by Venice with the Byzantine empire(1082, 1147, 1184, 1187, 1197) showed the enormous influence the tradesmen from the Adriatic Sea had on the internal markets of the Byzantine empire. Practically the Byzantine economy was subjected to the Venetian monopoly. The Venetian tradesmen and merchants dominated the Byzantine markets and, to assure this domination, they had to speculate the events at the beginning of the XIIIth century. The Republic from the Lagoon was the main factor in leading the fourth crusade to Constantinople and to its conquering.
Keywords: Byzantium, Venice, merchants, tradesmen, civil war, Constantinople, treaties, Enrico Dandolo, Manuel Comnenos, Isaac II
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Rosenblum, Paris, 1972. - Niketas, Choniates, Historia, ed. J. Dieten, Berlin,1975.
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Special Works
- Ahrweiler, Hélène, Byzance et la mer/Byzantium and the sea, Paris, 1966.
- Brezeanu, Stelian, O istorie a Bizanţului/A history of Byzantium, Bucureşti, 2004.
- Chalandon, Ferdinand, Les Comnène/The Comnenes,II., Paris, 1971.
- Lazzarini, V., I titoli dei dogi di Venezia/The titles of the Venetian doges, în: Nuovo Archivio Veneto, n.s., V/2, 1903.
- Lilie, Ralph Johannes, Handel und Politik zwischen dem byzantinischen Reich und den italienischen Kommunen Venedig, Pisa und Genua in der Epoche der Komnenen und der Angeloi (1081-1204)/Commerce and politics between the Byzantine Empire and the Italian communes Venice, Pisa and Genoa in the age of Komnenian and Angelo (1081-1204), Amsterdam, 1984.
- Martin, M., The Venetians in the Byzantine Empire before 1204, p.214 în : Byzantium and the West c. 850-1200,Amsterdam, 1988.
- Nicol, Donald, Byzantium and Venice, Cambridge,1988.
- Thiriet, Freddy, La Romanie venetienne au Moyen Age/The Venetian Romania during the Middle Ages, Paris,1975.
