Communes · The Byzantine Empire (the Empire of the Romans) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Venetians

The largest Latin community in the capital.

Its quarter (the embolos) is a strip of the Golden Horn shore with houses, workshops, warehouses, landing stages and churches (among them St Akindynos, named in the grant of 1082), first granted in 1082 and enlarged since. In 1171 Manuel I arrested every Venetian in the empire and seized their goods; Isaac II restored the quarter and the privileges in 1187-1189, and Alexios III's chrysobull of November 1198 confirmed them and listed the provinces where Venetians trade free of the kommerkion. Choniates says that in practice the emperor squeezed the Venetians, taxed their ships, set the Pisans on them and left the 1171 compensation unpaid, so the community nurses a grievance.

Venetian merchants also trade in the Thracian towns named in their privileges (Rhaidestos, Herakleia, Selymbria, Adrianople, Apros, Peritheorion in the grant of 1082).

Who he is

Name
not pinned (the community answers to Doge Enrico Dandolo)
Title
The Venetian community under the doge's representatives
Since
quarter granted in 1082 by Alexios I; restored by Isaac II in 1187-1189 after the seizures of 1171; privileges confirmed November 1198
Born
-
Family
-
Confidence
medium

Choniates; the chrysobull of 1198 (Tafel and Thomas I); Wikipedia, Massacre of the Latins.

Overlord

The emperor (the ground and the privileges are his grant); the community obeys Venice.

What it holds

  • The quarter on the Golden Horn with its landing stages and churches
  • Freedom from the kommerkion throughout the provinces listed in 1198

How it was acquired

Imperial chrysobulls of 1082, 1126, 1148, 1187, 1189 and 1198.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: the Pisans (fighting in the city and at sea) and the Genoese.

How things stand that morning

In possession of its quarter; aggrieved but at peace.

Wealth

The carrying trade of the empire, grain, oil, silk, Levant goods.

Military

Armed crews; no garrison.

Threats

  • A new seizure like 1171; Pisan attacks; mob violence like 1182.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The privileges are documented; the officers of 1200 and the exact bounds of the quarter are not pinned.

On the map: Too small to draw as an area; a marker on the Golden Horn shore (position approximate).

Primary sources for Byzantium

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
  • History of Niketas Choniates, Niketas Choniates (about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204). The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Read online
  • The Capture of Constantinople, Gunther of Pairis (about 1205 to 1210). Written at the Cistercian abbey of Pairis in Alsace from the account of its abbot Martin, who preached the crusade at Basel in 1200 (Gunther gives the sermon) and led a contingent from the Upper Rhine. Read online
  • The Conquest of Constantinople, Robert de Clari, knight of Picardy (about 1205 to 1216). A rank-and-file crusader's account that begins with the preaching of the crusade and the taking of the cross in 1199 to 1200 by the counts of Flanders, Blois and Champagne and by the Picard lords, among them Peter of Amiens, Robert's own lord, then the negotiations with Venice. Read online
  • The Palace Revolution of John Komnenos (31 July 1200), Nicholas Mesarites (1200 or soon after). An eyewitness narrative of the one-day coup of John Komnenos the Fat at Constantinople on 31 July 1200: the crowning of the usurper in Hagia Sophia, the mob's plunder of the Great Palace, the stand of the palace clergy and the guard at the church of the Virgin of the Pharos, where Mesarites was skeuophylax, and the recovery of the palace by Alexios III's men that night. Read online
  • History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
  • The Conquest of Constantinople (Villehardouin), Geoffrey of Villehardouin (about 1207 to 1213). Opens with the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly and the tournament at Ecry (28 November 1199) where Theobald III of Champagne and Louis of Blois took the cross, then the taking of the cross by Baldwin of Flanders, Hugh of Saint-Pol, Geoffrey of Perche and others through early 1200, the assemblies at Soissons and Compiegne in 1200, and the six envoys sent to Venice in the winter of 1200 to 1201. Read online
  • The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online

7 more in the sources library for The Balkans and Byzantium.

Sources and studies

  1. Niketas Choniates, History (Historia), trans. H. J. Magoulias, O City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniates (Detroit 1984), the reign of Alexios III, book pages 249-296 (full text read through the archive.org search of the scan)
  2. Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden I (1856): the chrysobull of Alexios III for Venice, November 1198, with its list of provinces
  3. Wikipedia: Massacre of the Latins

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.