The Venetians: A New History: from Marco Polo to Casanova Read Free

proceeded to inflict rape and pillage on the local settlements, a move intended to draw the Venetians to the scene as soon as possible. While the Genoese waited, a calm descended and banks of mist began to drift over the glassy sea. Early on the morning of 6 September the sharp black prows of the Venetian galleys appeared out of the mist, as if ready for battle. Then, for no accountable reason, they disappeared back into the mist once more.
    Doria suspected that the Venetians, despite their superior numbers, were still afraid of taking on the might of the Genoese fleet. But this was not the case. Dandolo had been informed of the position of the Genoese fleet by boats in flight from Curzola, and now sailed to the other side of the island. Here he put ashore a contingent of soldiers who covertly began making their way over the barren rocky mountains to the far shore. On the morning of Sunday 8 September, in a coordinated attack, the Venetian soldiers stormed the Genoese encampment while the Venetian fleet rounded the island on a following wind and launched into the Genoese galleys. Owing to the element of surprise, the Venetians were able to gain the upper hand, ramming and setting on fire a number of Genoese galleys. On land, a hail of Venetian arrows rained on the Genoese camp and the Venetians charged. At sea, Dandolo managed to capture ten Genoese galleys, but in the midst of this operation a number of his own galleys ran aground in shallow water. Doria immediately seized upon this mishap. As the sea battle continued, he surreptitiously manoeuvred the Genoese ships around the Venetian galleys, until at last he had them surrounded. As Doria began forcing the Venetian galleys into an ever tighter concentration, rendering them unable to manoeuvre, the Genoese began firing burning arrows into their midst. Fire began to spread through the Venetian fleet, yet still they continued to fight. However, after almost nine hours of continuous fighting the Genoese finally overwhelmed the Venetian fleet, eventually capturing or destroying eighty-four of their original ninety-six galleys, and taking prisoner no fewer than 8,000 men. This represented a staggering blow to Venice’s ability to fight; at the time the entire population of the city was just under 100,000, and theseprisoners accounted for almost one-third of the able-bodied male population of the city.
    Faced with the prospect of disgrace and capture by the Genoese, the humiliated Dandolo took his fate into his own hands. It is said that he gave orders that he be lashed to his flagship’s mast, and then proceeded to smash his head against it until his skull split open. However, his defeat had not been quite as devastating as he perhaps imagined. Dandolo’s fleet had managed to inflict sufficient damage on the galleys under Doria’s command that the Genoese admiral decided not to risk consolidating his victory by sailing to attack Venice itself.
    Amongst the Venetians taken prisoner was Marco Polo. Since returning to Venice he had continued to trade, and had done so with such success that he soon had sufficient funds to sponsor the building and equipping of a galley, which he himself captained in the campaign. Along with his thousands of fellow captives, Marco Polo was now transported back to Genoa in triumph aboard the captured galleys. Within a month of the battle he found himself confined inside the grim Palazzo di San Giorgio; adding insult to injury, this prison had been constructed out of stones taken more than thirty years previously from the sacked Venetian embassy in Constantinople. Polo and his fellow Venetians now faced the prospect of being confined for many years.
    In the manner of the period, the prisoners were allowed to range freely within the castle, and ‘nobles’ such as commander Marco Polo were permitted large cells that could be decorated with furniture – carpets, bed, hangings and so forth – sent from home. Although many of the poorer ordinary