Modern maritime states.-Venice. crease, extend, and grow rich with the spoils of the Roman people, without imagining that it was destined, at a future day, to extinguish their name in the same manner as so many others had been swallowed up in that of Rome. ARTICLE III. Of the Modern States who have claimed the empire of the Sea, prior to the discovery of the New World. MODERN History, also, affords examples of the inordinate claims of certain European powers, to the empire of the sea, and whose conduct in this respect, exhibits a striking contrast to the moderation of other nations, who acknowledge the imprescriptible laws of nature, and the vanity of such pretensions. Section I. VENICE. § 1. WHILE the Roman empire was crumbling to pieces in the hands of its barbarous invaders, on the western shore of the Adriatic, over which it was destined to rule,(91) a new city rose in splendour (91) Sannazarius, a celebrated poet, has described, in beautifu! verse, the magnificence and maritime sovereignty of Venice: "Viderat adriacis Venetam Neptunus in undis Stare urbem, et toto ponere jura mari. Nunc mihi Turpeias quantumvis, Jupiter, arces Objice, et illa tui mania martis, ait; Si Tiberim pelago prefers, urbem aspice utramque, Rapid growth of the Venetian marine.--The crusades. from the bosom of the waves. The maritime power of Venice was coeval with her birth, and rapidly grew into maturity and strength. After subduing the Istrian and Dalmatian pirates, she boldly attacked the Normans and Saracens, and vanquished them in a naval battle. She triumphed, afterwards, over the Hungarians, and subjected the Naventines, who infested the Adriatic gulf with their piracies. These first brilliant essays, gained her the great reputation which her marine afterwards enjoyed. 2. The crusades soon furnished an excellent opportunity for Venice to advance her glory. The christian princes having confederated in 1099, to deliver Palestine from the oppression of the Mussulmen, commenced their career by signal victories over the infidels, and by taking the cities of Nice and Antioch. The Venetians, invited to the assistance of the crusaders, arrived in the seas of Asia Minor, with a fleet of two hundred sail, under the command of Henry Contarini, and Michael Vitalis, son of the doge. Their first operation was to take Smyrna. They afterwards seized on Joppa, and, keeping along the borders of Palestine, they aided the French in the capture of Askalon, and other places on that coast. 3. The affairs of the christians in the Holy Land, under Count Baldwin, falling into disorder, they implored new succours from the Venetians. Venice Maritime power of the Venetians.-Their naval victories. a soon equipped a considerable armament, and entrusted it to the command of Dominichus Michieli, the doge; who, having surprised the Ottomans, while they were besieging Joppa, by sea and land, made a dreadful carnage among them, carried off number of their vessels, dispersed the rest, and compelled them to abandon their enterprise. After this expedition, Michieli directed his victorious fleet to the coast of Tyre. This city, which so wearied the valour of Alexander the Great, and disheartened that of Baldwin, could not hold out against the skill and courage of the Venetians. They laid siege to it by sea, and took it. 4. The preponderance acquired by the Venetians over the Adriatic sea, in consequence of a long series of victories and brilliant actions, gained them such high consideration and respect, that in 1177, they took advantage of the enthusiasm of Pope Alexander III, to obtain from him a grant of the sovereignty of the sea. The Pope, persecuted by the Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, took refuge in Venice, where he was received with the honours due to his dignity. The Emperor, wishing to punish the Venetians for their partiality, sent his son Otho against them, with a fleet of 75 gallies. The doge, Sebastian Ziani, met the prince with a fleet of 30 gallies. Notwithstanding this inequality of forces, he engaged the enemy on the coast of Istria, entirely defeated the imperial fleet, took 48 gallies, and brought Otho a prisoner to Venice. The pope confers on the Venetians the sovereignty of the Adriatic sea 5. The pope, overjoyed at this success, went out to receive the victorious doge, and, to immortalise his triumph, presented him his ring, with these words: "Use this as a chain, to hold the waves in subjection to the empire of Venice; with this ring espouse the sea, and hereafter, on the same day, in every year, let the celebration of this marriage be renewed by you and your successors. By "this ceremony, posterity will learn, that your arms "have acquired the vast dominion of the waves, and "that the sea is subject to you, as the wife to her "husband."(92) Such is the origin of the pompous ceremony performed every year at Venice on the day of the ascension.(93) 6. By the favour of the christian princes, established in the east, the Venetians obtained many privileges, which gave extension and security to their maritime commerce. They possessed for a long time, the kingdom of Cyprus, obtained, by stratagem, (92) This ridiculous prediction of the pope, and these singular espousals, did not prevent the French army, some centuries afterwards, from dissolving the marriage. By the treaty of Campo Formio, confirmed by that of Luneville, the 9th of February, 1801, between France and the emperor of Germany, the Adriatic has received a second husband. (93) Festo Ascensionis Domini quot annis, ritu solemni, Dux, navi Bucentauro dicta, vectus comitante amplissimo Senatus ad perpetuandum sibi maris dominium, annulum in medias undus projecit, dicendo: desponsamus te mare, in signum veri et perpetui dominii. Paulus Merula, in Cosmographia, part 2, lib. 4, cap.5. Great naval power and commerce of the Venetians. the Morea, the island of Candia, and a part of the Archipelago. They were masters of Constantinople, Naples, Sicily, and a great part of Italy. The crusades, so ruinous to the princes of Europe, were a source of riches, power, and reputation to Venice. Her citizens had, for a long period, maintained considerable maritime wars against the Greeks, the Saracens, the Pisans, the Genoese, the dukes of Milan, the Turks, and the English. Their superior skill, and naval resources, enabled them to triumph over these nations, and rendered them formidable to all Europe. From the farthest shore of the Black sea, to the coasts of England, they enjoyed an extensive and flourishing commerce. Their fleets were numerous and well equipped; skilful workmen filled their spacious and magnificent arsenal; and they were the only nation that excelled in naval architecture. Able and experienced mariners, and galley-crews, composed of men vigorous and indefatigable, of Cypriots, of Candians, and Sclavonians, rendered their naval forces superior to any in Europe or Asia. 7. The Venetians, with so many advantages at sea, were too conscious of their superiority, to suppose that they ought to behave with justice and moderation towards commercial nations. Their spoliations and vexations, were so provoking, that Helian, the French ambassador, in a discourse delivered in the German diet, did not scruple to compare them to sea-monsters, rocks, and tempests. This harangue, |