International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

John R. Melville-Jones
University of Western Australia, Perth WA, Australia; 
[e-mail]
The Battle of Gallipoli 1416: A Case of Irrational Exuberance
After establishing a beachhead in Europe at Gallipoli in 1354, the Ottomans took over more and 
more of the European territory of the Byzantine Empire, although the pace of expansion was slowed 
or even briefly reversed because of the problems that followed their defeat at the Battle of Ancyra 
in 1402. During this period and afterwards the Venetians attempted to maintain good diplomatic 
relations with the sultan and the emperor, although this was difficult when Ottoman vessels made 
piratical attacks on Venetian ships and land-based establishments. In 1414, in particular, attacks 
were made on the island of Negropont (Euboea), which had been under Venetian control since 
1390, and large numbers of prisoners were taken and carried off. Reparations were sought. Then in 
1416 a Venetian squadron which was escorting an embassy to the Sultan found itself, because of a 
misunderstanding, fighting the Turkish fleet that was stationed there. The result was a resounding 
victory for the Venetians, which may have led them in later years to overestimate what they could 
do in the East, and encouraged them to attempt to keep Thessalonica from the Ottomans.

---

476
Dmitry Vozchikov
Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation; 
[e-mail]
Laonikos Chalkokondyles and the Late Byzantine Feedback of the Venetian Myth
The paper deals with the image of the «Serenissima», constructed by post-Byzantine intellectual 
Laonikos Chalkokondyles in his «Histories» (1450s–1460s). Chalkokondyles payed special attention 
to the political structure of the Italian city-states. Previous late Byzantine authors had rarely mentioned 
the main particularities of the political order or current home situation in the Italian republics or 
had tried to classify them in classical terms, for example, Theodore Metochites blamed the Genoese 
«ungovernable democracy» for corrupting this prosperous city. As A. Kaldellis states, Chalkokondyles 
wrote a first account of the government of an Italian state in the Byzantine literature.
In this report the author’s attempt is to trace how the common places of the Venetian myth 
penetrated into the late Byzantine discourse (including two controversial portrays of Venice, written 
by Demetrios Kydones) and how Chalkokondyles used ideologemes of Venetian superiority, justice, 
«
libertatis continuatio
» (a term, coined by the Venetian chronicler Lorenzo de Monacis), and a 
maritime mythology. In his epic narrative Chalkokondyles presented Venice as a state of unique 
stability and prudent laws, as the wealthiest and the most beautiful city in Italy. Chalkokondyles 
noticed that the Republic of Venice had not ever been thrown into any inner political turmoil. This 
statement was one of the most frequent common places in the Venetian narrative. The Byzantine 
historian’s contemporary, the Venetian humanist Lauro Quirini praised «our happiest Venetian 
republic <…> which avoided any faction». Chalkokondyles mentioned Bajamonte Tiepolo’s 
conspiracy (1310) as a historically abnormal event, he also said that Tiepolo himself (not Tiepolo’s 
standard-bearer as it was in the Venetian narratives) was killed by a certain woman, who stroke him 
with a stone. This passage in the «Histories» was probably influenced by the episode of the death of 
Pyrrhus, described by Plutarch, who was one of the most popular classical authors in Byzantium.
Chalkokondyles underlined that the Venetians were the most skilled sailors who had several 
times defeated the Greeks. The Venetian offence into Terraferma was also mentioned in the 
«Histories». The historian described the Venetian political institutes, including the doge (ἡγεμών), 
in details and pointed out that the Venetian government once (probably the process of Serrata in 
1297) had been changed from democracy to aristocracy. The 15
th
-chentury Venetian chronicler de 
Monacis stated in Ciceronian way, that his «principate» had combined three forms of government 
with the doge as a king, the Senate as optimates and the Great Council as a people, and this was an 
optimal model for the maritime city-state.
In general, Chalkokondyles admired the Venetian political order, but also blamed its government 
for neglecting the destiny of the «close peoples» because of commercial interest. Nevertheless, 
Chalkokondyles was definitely aware of the Venetian official ideology and his description of the 
«Serenissima» was influenced by the Venetian myth, so the myth had the feedback that was expected 
by the Venetian political elite.

---