Venice: The Meeting of East and West - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 81

turned his adventures into a book, The Million Marvels , copies of which circulated far and
wide. When movable type came to Europe around 1450, Marco's book inspired the Por-
tuguese to seek a sea route to the Indies around Africa. And it inspired Christopher Colum-
bus, who sailed with two topics, The Bible and Marco's The Million Marvels , to seek the
Indies by sailing west across the Atlantic. So, in one of history's ironies, it was a son of
Venice who inspired sailors from the Iberian peninsula to flood Europe with wealth that
would ultimately undo Venice.
AFTER THE FALL OF ROME
Venice's history does not begin with Marco Polo, however. Instead, we must go back 800
years earlier when social organizations were defined primarily in terms of smaller group-
ings. In eastern Italy, along the mid-to-northern Adriatic coast, the Veneti tribes struggled
against invaders, especially the Lombards (“longbeards”) who moved west and south from
an area along the Danube. Sometime before 400 CE, the Veneti took refuge on islands
built from the sediment of rivers that emptied into the sea. The islands were enlarged by
dams and channels that diverted river flow, and the Veneti population expanded. Farming,
fishing, and coastal trading supported the islanders, their watery moat making them secure
against marauders. Gradually the islanders sharpened their skills in naval warfare while
also increasingly strengthening their bonds of mutual support. Venice as a social and polit-
ical entity had emerged.
The city's date of birth is uncertain. The year 421 CE is claimed by the Venetians as
their city's founding date. And for the next 800 years, as the brilliant James (Jan) Morris
writes, “the Venetians established their independence, founded their commercial suprem-
acy in the eastern Mediterranean, and evolved their own system of aristocratic Government
at home.” [75]
As Venice prospered, it became an object of hostile takeovers. Charlemagne took the
crown and title of Holy Roman Emperor in 800. Eager to expand the empire's boundaries
and coffers, Charlemagne's son, Pepin, mounted an invasion, but the stronghold of islands
and their mastery of the sea put an end to Holy Roman ambitions. More important, Venice
had a powerful ally, the empire of the Byzantines, whose capital city, Constantinople, was
the largest and wealthiest city west of Beijing. Byzantium ruled the eastern Mediterranean,
Ravenna was its Italian capital, and the Exarch (a governor with extended authority) of
Ravenna exercised Constantinople's authority over Venice.
Venice's eastern trade increased. Trading colonies (and, later, sovereignties) were es-
tablished across the eastern Mediterranean. By 840, the Byzantine bonds were dissolved,
not directly but with characteristic Venetian obliqueness. Without the consent of the Byz-
antines, the doge of Venice made a treaty with Charlemagne's grandson. The treaty now