20 THE STONES OF VENICE

of the people on the one side, and the authority of the Doge on the other.

Then the first period, of nine hundred years, presents us with the most interesting spectacle of a people struggling out of anarchy into order and power; and then governed, for the most part, by the worthiest and noblest man whom they could find among them,* called their Doge or Leader, with an aristocracy gradually and resolutely forming itself around him, out of which, and at last by which, he was chosen; an aristocracy owing its origin to the accidental numbers, influence, and wealth of some among the families of the fugitives from the older Venetia, and gradually organising itself, by its unity and heroism, into a separate body.

This first period includes the Rise of Venice, her noblest achievements, and the circumstances which determined her character and position among European powers; and within its range, as might have been anticipated, we find the names of all her hero princes-of Pietro Urseolo, Ordalafo Falier, Domenico Michieli, Sebastiano Ziani, and Enrico Dandolo.¹

§ 5. The second period opens with a hundred and twenty years, the most eventful in the career of Venice-the central

* “Ha saputo trovar modo che non uno, non pochi, non molti, signoreggiano, ma molti buoni, pochi migliori, e insiememente, un ottimo solo.”-Sansovino.² Ah, well done, Venice! Wisdom this, indeed.

¹ [Pietro Orseolo II. (reigned 991-1008), the hero of the Dalmatian War; it was to celebrate that expedition that the function, afterwards developed into the famous Sposalizio del Mare, originated. Ordelafo Falier (1102-1118), after a successful expedition to Sidon, was defeated and killed, in spite of his personal valour, by the Hungarians at Zara (see St. Mark’s Rest, § 3). For Domenico Michieli (1118-1130), and his Tyrian expedition from which he brought back as spoils the Pillars of the Piazzetta and for the other famous things that he did, see St. Mark’s Rest, ch. i. (“The Burden of Tyre”). For the brilliant reign of Sebastiano Ziani (1172-1178), see H. F. Brown’s Venice, pp. 106-113; and for his work as a builder of the Ducal Palace, see Stones of Venice, vol. ii. ch. viii. § 11. The reign of Enrico Dandolo-the “blind old Dandolo” of Byron (see Childe Harold, iv. 12)-(1193-1205) is memorable for the capture and sack of Constantinople: for a reference to his conduct in the siege, see St. Mark’s Rest, § 91; it was he who brought to Venice the bronze horses which stand over the principal portal of St. Mark’s.]

² [Venetia Citta Nobilissima et singolare descritta in xiiii Libri da M. Francesco Sansovino, ed. 1663, p. 5.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]