Script.  Rer.  Ital.  t.  xii.  p.  156.    In  the  Haia,   1753.    Muratori  informs  us  that

tenth    century    Constantine    Porphyro-  so  late  as  1084  the  doge  obtained  the  title

genitus,  in  his  book  De  Administratione  of    Imperialis    Protosevastos    from    the

Imperil,  claims  the  Venetians  as  his  sub-  court  of  Constantinople  ;   a  title  which

jects,  though  he  admits  that  they  had,  he  continued    always   to    use.     (Annall

for  peace  sake,  paid  tribute  to  Pepin  and  d'  Italia,  ad  ann.)    But  I  should  lay  no

his  successors  as  kings  of  Italy,   p.  71.  stress  on  this  circumstance.    The  Greek,

I  have  not  read  the  famous  Squittinio  like  the  German  emperors  in    modern

della  liberti  Veneta,  which  gave  the  re-  times,   had    a  mint  of   specious    titles

public  so  much  offence  in  the  seventeenth  which    passed    for    ready    money    ovel

century  ;  but  a  very  strong  case  is  made  Christendom,
out  against  their  early  independence  in


HER  GOVERNMENT.  437

of  their  republic  under  its  doge  Henry  Dandolo.  Three
eighths  of  the  city  of  Constantinople,  and  an  equal  propor-
tion of  the  provinces,  were  allotted  to  them  in  the  partition
of  the  spoil,  and  the  doge  took  the  singular  but  accurate  title,
Duke  of  three  eigths  of  tlie  Roman  empire.  Their  share
was  increased  by  purchases  from  less  opulent  crusaders,  es-
pecially one  of  much  importance,  the  island  of  Candia,  which
they  retained  till  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  These
foreign  acquisitions  were  generally  granted  out  in  fief  to  pri-
vate Venetian  nobles  under  the  supremacy  of  the  republic.1
It  was  thus  that  the  Ionian  islands,  to  adopt  the  vocabulary
of  our  day,  came  under  the  dominion  of  Venice,  and  guar-
anteed that  sovereignty  which  she  now  began  to  affect  over
the  Adriatic.  Those  of  the  Archipelago  were  lost  in  the
sixteenth  century.  This  political  greatness  was  sustained
by  an  increasing  commerce.  No  Christian  state  preserved
so  considerable  an  intercourse  with  the  Mohammedans.
