IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
42
I NTRODUCTION
disadvantage, where their rivals were so predominant and en-
joyed exemption from duties, to which the Genoese remained
subject. Hence jealousies and resentments reached a climax in
the Levantine settlements, and this colonial exacerbation re-
acted on the mother States.
A dispute which broke out at Acre in 1255 carne to a head
in a war which lasted for years, and was felt all over Syria. It
began in a quarrel about a very old church called St. Sabba's,
which stood on the common boundary of the Venetian and
Genoese estates in Acre,* and this flame was blown by other un-
lucky occurrences. Acre suffered grievously.1- Venice at this
time generally kept the upper hand, beating Genoa by land and
sea, and driving her from Acre altogether.+ Four ancient porphyry
figures from St. Sabba's were sent in triumph to Venice, and
with their strange devices still stand at the exterior corner of
St. Mark's, towards the Ducal Palace.+
But no number of defeats could extinguish the spirit of
Genoa, and the tables were turned when in her wrath she allied
herself with Michael Palaeologus to upset the feeble and tottering
Latin Dynasty, and with it the preponderance of Venice on the
Bosphorus. The new emperor handed over to his allies the
castle of their foes, which they tore down with jubilations, and
now it was their turn to send its stones as trophies to Genoa.
Mutual hate waxed fiercer than ever ; no merchant fleet of either
state could go to sea without convoy, and wherever their ships
met they fought§ It was something like the state of things
between Spain and England in the days of Drake.
The energy and capacity of the Genoese seemed to rise with
* On or close to the Hill called lllozzjoie ; see the plan from Marino Sanudo at p. 18.
t " Throughout that year there were not less than 4o machines all at work upon the city of Acre, battering its houses and its towers, and smashing and overthrowing everything within their range. There were at least ten of those engines that shot stones so big and heavy that they weighed a good 1500 lbs. by the weight of Champagne ; insomuch that nearly all the towers and forts of Acre were destroyed, and only the religious houses were left. And there were slain in this same war good 20,000 men on the two sides, but chiefly of Genoese and Spaniards." (Lettre de jean Pierre Sarrasin, in Michel's Joinville, p. 308.)
$ The origin of these columns is, however, somewhat uncertain. [See Cico, rza, I. P. 379.]
§ In 1262, when a Venetian squadron was taken by the Greek fleet in alliance with the Genoese, the whole of the survivors of the captive crews were blinded by
order of Palaeologus. (Roman. ii. 272.)
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