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Deftruc

Aeet,

A. D. $349.

1

CHAP. the war, already murmured at their loffes; the fuccours from their mother-country were delayed by the factions of Genoa; and the most cautious embraced the opportunity of a Rhodian veffel to remove their families and effects from the scene of hoftility. In the fpring, the Byzantine fleet, tion of his feven gallies and a train of fmaller veffels, iffued from the mouth of the harbour, and fteered in a fingle line along the fhore of Pera; unfkilfully prefenting their fides to the beaks of the adverfe fquadron. The crews were compofed of peasants and mechanics; nor was their ignorance compenfated by the native courage of Barbarians: the wind was strong, the waves were rough; and no fooner did the Greeks perceive a distant and inactive enemy, than they leaped headlong into the fea, from a doubtful, to an inevitable peril. The troops that marched to the attack of the lines of Pera were ftruck at the fame moment with a fimilar panic; and the Genoefe were aftonished, and almoft afhamed, at their double vićtory. Their triumphant veffels, crowned with flowers, and dragging after them the captive gallies, repeatedly paffed and repaffed before the palace the only virtue of the emperor was patience; and the hope of revenge his fole confolation. Yet the diftrefs of both parties, interpofed a temporary agreement; and the fhame of the empire was difguifed by a thin veil of dignity and power. Summoning the chiefs of the colony, Cantacuzene affected to defpife the trivial object of the debate; and after a mild reproof, moft liberally granted the lands, which had been

previously refigned to the feeming cuftody of his CHAP. officers 5o.

But the emperor was foon folicited to violate the treaty, and to join his arms with the Venetians, the perpetual enemies of Genoa and her colonies. While he compared the reasons of peace and war, his moderation was provoked by a wanton infult of the inhabitants of Pera, who discharged from their rampart a large ftone that fell in the midst of Conftantinople. On his just complaint, they coldly blamed the imprudence of their engineer; but the next day the infult was repeated, and they exulted in a fecond proof that the royal city was not beyond the reach of their artillery. Cantacuzene instantly signed his treaty with the Venetians; but the weight of the Roman empire was fearcely felt in the balance of thefe opulent and powerful republics". From the ftreights of Gibraltar to the mouth of the Tanais, their fleets encountered each other with various fuccefs; and a memorable battle was fought in the narrow fea, under the walls of Conftantinople. It would not be an eafy talk to reconcile the accounts of the Greeks, the Venetians, and the Genoefe"; and while I depend on the

narrative

Do The events of this war are related by Cantacuzene (1. iv. s. 11.) with obscurity and confufion, and by Nic. Gregoras (1. xvii. c. I-7.) in a clear and honeft narrative. The prieft was lefs refponsible than the prince for the defeat of the fleet.

5 The fecond war is darkly told by Cantacuzene (1. iv. c. 18. P. 24, 25, 28-32), who wishes to disguise what he dares not deny. I regret this part of Nic. Gregoras, which is still in MS. at Paris. 52 Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. xii. p. 144.) refers to the

most

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Victory of noefe over

the Ge

the Venetians and

Greeks,

A. D.

1352,

Feb. 13.

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CHAP. narrative of an impartial hiftorian ", I fhall borrow from each nation the facts that redound to their own difgrace, and the honour of their foes. The Venetians, with their allies the Catalans, had the advantage of number; and their fleet, with the poor addition of eight Byzantine gallies, amounted to feventy-five fail: the Genoefe did not exceed fixty-four; but in those times their fhips of war were diftinguished by the fuperiority of their fize and strength. The names and families of their naval commanders, Pifani and Doria, are illuftrious in the annals of their country; but the perfonal merit of the former was eclipfed by the fame and abilities of his rival. They engaged in tempeftuous weather; and the tumultuary conflict was continued from the dawn to the extinction of light. The enemies of the Genoefe applaud their prowefs: the friends of the Venetians are diffatisfied with their behaviour: but all parties agree in praifing the fkill and boldnefs of the Gatalans, who, with many wounds, fustained the brunt of the action. On the feparation of the fleets, the event might appear doubtful; but the thirteen Genoefe gallies, that had been funk or taken, were compenfated by a double lofs of the allies; of fourteen Venetians,

moft ancient Chronicles of Venice (Carefinus, the continuator of Andrew Dandulus, tom. xii. p. 421, 422.) and Genoa (George Stella, Annales Genuenfes, tom. xvii. p. 1091, 1092.); both which I have diligently confulted in his great Collection of the Hiftorians of Italy.

53 See the Chronicle of Matteo Villani of Florence, 1. ii. c. 59, 60. P. 145-147. c. 74, 75. p. 156, 157. in Muratori's Collection, tom, xiv.

ten

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ten Catalans, and two Greeks; and even the CHAP. grief of the conquerors expreffed the afsurance and habit of more decifive victories. Pifani confeffed his defeat, by retiring into a fortified harbour, from whence, under the pretext of the orders of the fenate, he steered with a broken and flying fquadron for the isle of Candia, and abandoned to his rivals the fovereignty of the fea. In a public epiftles, addreffed to the doge and fenate, Petrarch employs his eloquence to reconcile the maritime powers, the two luminaries of Italy. The orator celebrates the valour and victory of the Genoese, the first of men in the exercise of naval war he drops a tear on the misfortunes of their Venetian brethren; but he exhorts them to pursue with fire and sword the base and perfidious Greeks; to purge the metropolis of the Eaft from the herefy with which it was infected. Deserted by their friends, the Greeks were in- Their treaty capable of resistance; and three months after the with the battle, the emperor Cantacuzene folicited and empire, fubfcribed a treaty, which for ever banifhed the Venetians and Catalans, and granted to the Genoefe a monopoly of trade, and almost a right of dominion. The Roman empire (I fmile in tranfcribing the name) might foon have funk into a province of Genoa, if the ambition of the repub

54 The abbé de Sade (Memoires fur la Vie de Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 257–263.). translates this letter, which he had copied from a MS. in the king of France's library. Though a fervant of the duke of Milan, Petrarch pours forth his aftonifhment and grief at the defeat and despair of the Genoefe in the following year (p. 323-332.).

May 6.

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CHAP. lic had not been checked by the ruin of her freedom and naval power. A long conteft of one hundred and thirty years was determined by the triumph of Venice; and the factions of the Ge noefe compelled them to feek for domestic peace under the protection of a foreign lord, the duke of Milan, or the French king. Yet the spirit of commerce survived that of conqueft; and the colony of Pera still awed the capital and navigated the Euxine, till it was involved by the Turks in the final fervitude of Conftantinople itself.