Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
From Swamp to Empire
A malarial swamp seems like a strange place to found an empire, unless you consider the
circumstances: from the 5th to the 8th century, Huns, Goths and sundry other barbarians re-
peatedly sacked Roman Veneto towns along the Adriatic, and made murky wetlands off the
coast seem comparatively hospitable. Celtic Veneti had lived in the area relatively peace-
fully since 1500 BC, had been Roman citizens since 49 BC, and were not in the habit of
war. When Alaric led a Visigoth invasion through the province of Venetia in 402, many
Veneti fled to marshy islands in the lagoon that stretches along the province's Adriatic
coast. Some Veneti tentatively returned to the mainland when the Visigoths left, but after
Attila, king of the Huns, attacked in 452, many refugees took up permanent residence on
the islands.
The nascent island communities elected tribunes and in 466 met in Grado, south of
Aquileia, forming a loose federation. When Emperor Justinian claimed Italy's northeast
coast for the Holy Roman Empire in 540, Venetia (roughly today's Veneto region) sent
elected representatives to local Byzantine government in Ravenna, which reported to a
central authority in Constantinople (now called Istanbul). But when warring French Lom-
bards swept eastward across the Po plains in 568, Veneti refugees headed for the islands in
unprecedented numbers, and the marsh began to look like a city. Thousands settled on the
commercial centre of Torcello; others headed to the now submerged island of Malamocco,
bucolic Chioggia, and the fishing and local trading centre of Rivoalto (colloquially known
as Rialto).
Crafty Venetian settlers soon rose above their swampy circumstances, residing on land
lifted above tides with wooden pylons driven into some 30m (100ft) of soft silt. When the
Byzantine grip slipped, Venice seized the moment: in 726 the people of Venice elected
Orso Ipato as their
dux
(Latin for leader), or doge (duke) in the Venetian dialect, the first of
118 elected Venetian dogi that would lead the city for more than a thousand years. Like
some of his successors, Orso tried to turn his appointment into a hereditary monarchy. He
was assassinated for overstepping his bounds; some later dogi with aspirations to absolute
power were merely blinded. At first, no one held the doge's hot seat for long: Orso's suc-
cessor, Teodato, managed to transfer the ducal seat to Malamocco in 742 before being de-
posed. Gradually the office of the doge was understood as an elected office, kept in check
by two councillors and the Arengo (a popular assembly).
The Lombards had failed to conquer the lagoon, but the Franks were determined to suc-
ceed. When they invaded, the Franks were surprised by resistance led by Agnello Parte-
