The Venetians: A New History: from Marco Polo to Casanova by Paul Strathern Read Free Book Online Page B

triumph. He knew that the Aragonese were still blockading Alghero, and surmised that Genoa would soon rally all its available naval forces to relieve the port.
    This proved to be a fatal blunder. The arch-tactician Paganino Doria, who had sailed from Genoa with the remnants of the city’s fleet, eluded his rival and completely outmanoeuvred both Venetian fleets. In a superb piece of seamanship, he managed to slip past the Venetian patrol at the mouth of the Adriatic without his ships being detected, and then headed north up the Adriatic towards Venice. In August 1354 he made landfall on the Istrian peninsula, attacking the Venetian port of Parenzo (modern Poreč) less than forty miles south of Venice itself. Here he set fire to buildings and added insult to injury by desecrating the great sixth-century Euphrasian Basilica, carrying off the bodies of St Maurus and St Cyrillus. *
    When news of this outrage reached Venice it caused consternation. Yet, as ever, the authorities refused to panic. A skilled captain-general was designated to take charge of the city’s defences, and twelve men of noble family were appointed as his deputies, with each charged to raise 300 men. At the same time the citizens were mobilised, all galleys in the Arsenale were commissioned and, contrary to tradition, even Doge Dandolo donned armour in readiness to defend the city. At the same time, a large boom constructed of galleys and massive tree-trunks linked together by chains was strung across the narrow 300-yard channel between San Nicolò on the Lido and the Sant’Andrea fort, the main entrance from the sea into the lagoon.
    Doria now sailed for Venice, where he arrived off the Lido. Onshore,Venetians lining the beach watched in horror as the Genoese galleys hunted down a defenceless merchantman, capturing it and setting fire to it less than a mile from where they stood. Thus Doria demonstrated that Genoa now had control of the Adriatic, yet he quickly saw that he would be unable to pass the boom and attack Venice itself. And such an attack would have been largely symbolic, for he did not have the manpower to take the city. He also realised that the Venetian navy was bound to return soon, and decided to set sail for the safer waters of the open Mediterranean.
    Sure enough, Pisani soon returned from his fruitless searching in the eastern Mediterranean. Upon being told what had happened, he tried to deduce what Doria’s next move would be. By now autumn was approaching, and Pisani guessed that Doria would most likely put in for the winter at the Genoese island stronghold of Chios, which lay off the Aegean coast of Anatolia (modern Turkey). He knew that here Doria would be able to stock up on provisions and repair his ships in a safe, protected harbour. Pisani duly sailed east into the Aegean and eventually spied Doria’s ships at Chios.
    Yet Doria would not be drawn to leave harbour; he was expecting a reinforcement squadron of twelve galleys, and it seemed likely that he would sit out the winter in Chios. The notorious October storms were now sweeping down the Aegean, and Pisani decided to retire for the winter himself. He embarked for the south-western tip of the Peloponnese, calling in at the Venetian fortress of Corone to pick up fresh despatches from Venice. These warned him not to launch any precipitate attack on the Genoese, as peace negotiations were to be renewed. He then rowed his galleys to the nearby small harbour of Porto Lungo.
    By now Doria’s reinforcements had arrived, and he decided against sitting out the winter at Chios. He and his fleet, which at this point consisted of twenty-five galleys, would be needed at Genoa. In the last week of October he embarked on a southerly course, hoping to round the Peloponnese before the worst of the winter storms. But this time his luck did not hold, and he was forced to take shelter in the south-west Peloponnese. By chance, the bay in which his ships anchored lay just over a mile down the