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    Éllen Cristina da Costa

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    ATHENS AND ROME, FLORENCE AND VENICE City States in Classical Antiquity and Medieval Italy Edited by ANTHONY MOLHO KURT RAAFLAUB JULIA EMLEN With 49 figures @ Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart 1991 Proceedings of a conference sponsored by Brown University's Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies ‘Distribution in the USA and Canada by The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor ‘CIP Tielaufnahmeder Doutschen Bibliothek ‘City state in classeal antiquity and medieval Italy : Athens ‘and Rome, Mlorence and Venice fed. by Anthony Molho.. ‘Sturigart: Steiner, 1991 ISN 3:515.05873-7 NB Motho, Anthony [Hrsg] Jed Verwortng des WerkesauSerha dr Grenzen des Utheberrechisgesetes ist zu ‘ign strafbar, Dies gilt insbosondere fr Ubersetzang, Nachdruck, Mikrovefilmung oder ‘vorgleichbare Verfahren sowie ir di Speicherang in Datenverabeltungsanlagen. © 1991 by Pranz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH. Sitz Sitgart Dros) Druckerei Peter Prot, Bucusburg. Printed in the Fe, Rep, of Germany Contents Acknowledgements Ralitors’ Preface Introductory Remarks: Max Weber's “The City” Revisited, Wilfried Nippel PART I CONSCIOUSNESS AND REPRESENTATION Reflections of the Greek City on Unity and Division, Nicole Lorauex ‘Rome: The History of an Anachronism, Timothy J. Cornell ‘The City and the “New” Saints, Chiara Fragoni City and Citizen: Changing Perceptions in the Fifteenth and. Sixteenth Centuries, Alison Brown Commentary: Carmine Ampolo Giovanni Ciappelli PART Il CITIZENS AND THE POLITICAL CLASSES ‘Notims of Citizenship in Ancient Greece, David Whitehead ‘The Legal Definition of Citizenship in the Late Middle Ages, Diego Quaglioni ‘Who Rules? Power and Participation in Athens and Rome, Walter Eder ‘The Rulers of Florence, 1282-1530, David Herliby ‘rom Social to Polit Riccardo Fubini Commentary: Christiane Klapisch-Zauber ical Representation in Renaissance Florence, PART 111 POLITICS AND CONFLICT ‘The lixercise of Power in the Roman Republic Erich S. Gruen ‘The Dialogue of Power in Florentine Politics, John M. Najemy ‘A Typology of Social Confic in Greek Polis, Thomas J. Figueira ‘Soelal Structure and Conflict in the Medieval City, Giorgio Cracco tary: Harry W. Pleket Ronald F. Weissman 19 33 3 7 93 113 aa 135 1s 169 197 23 241 281 269 L. Richardson jr Civic Urbanism in Medieval Florence, Franek Semura Urbanism in Medieval Venice, Juergen Schulz Commentary: Edmond Frézouls James Ackerman PART V SYMBOLS AND RITUALS Keith Hopkins Symbols and Rituals in Florence, Franco Cardin Commentay: Glen W. Bowersock Marino Berengo ‘The Italian City-State and Its Territory, Giorgio Chittolini Diplomacy in the Italian City-State, James S. Grubb Commentary: Hartmut Galsterer Anthony Molho Concluding Reflections, Guido Clemente Index PART IV URBAN AND ARCHITECTURAL FORMS ‘The City of Athens: Space, Symbol, Structure, Tonio Hélscher Urban Development in Ancient Rome and the Impact of Empire, Symbols and Rituals in Classical Athens, Adalberto Giovanni From Violence to Blessing: Symbols and Rituals in Ancient Rome, ‘The Self-Definition of the Venetian Republic, Patricia Fortini Brown PART VI TERRITORY, EXTERNAL RELATIONS AND EMPIRE ity State, Territory and Empire in Classical Antiquity, Kurt Ragflaub S65 355 381 403 419 447 453 459 479 499 sit 349) 555 589 603 619 a7 To Our Colleagues in she Department of Classics ‘and the Departmene of Histor) Brown University, ‘most especially to the memory of David Herliby 510 Symbols and Rituals private, and their history belongs to the complex story of the struggle among the families constituting the Florentine oligarchy. One of the main functions Of the brigate was to create a consensus among the lower classes, great lovers of rich and colorful spectacles, and of the show of power, glory, and wealth of the families involved in the games. In other words, we are in the realm in which “gifts” and “wastefulness,” that is, the festive destruction of economic wealth, take on a basic importance. Gifts and wastefulness (the knight’s form of largesse) were, with the prowess shown in military games, the two basic courtly virtues. Another courtly element was the erotic content of ostentatious military prowess (as can be seen in the 1464 nighttime armeggeria by Bartolomeo Benci in honor of Marietta Strozzi) In a world of shifting personal and family relationships, such a message of love could casily be converted or subverted into a vendetta, The limit of twelve participants per brigata (twelve being a fatidic number since there are twelve apostles, twelve months in a year, twelve constellations, and twelve knights of the Round Table) was also easily circumvented, either by increasing the number of brigate or by keeping the members to that number but increasing the number of secondary characters and walk-ons, Lorenzo certainly wanted to show all and sundry that he, as a leader, and his brigaza wielded enough power to dominate the city in which he rode around fully armed, having obtained a special permit. In fact, this permit had been easily obtained from the Medici allies in the Signoria, whose prime concern was to legitimate what was happening in the city. One such example was the joust of 1469. This was the twenty-year-old Lorenzo's formal debut as head of the Medici family and as the city’s “crypto-prince.” Another such occasion occurred in 1475 when he presented his brother Giuliano to the city and to the world at large, an event whose intent was to remind everyone of the chivalric tale of two knights, one of whom was older tnd wiser while the younger was more active and valiant, sagesse and prowesse being the two cardinal knightly virtues, rarely found in one person, but triumphant when conjoined in “two brothers-in-arms.” ‘These events, celebrated by knights and by the brigate, must be seen as pact of a multitude of festivities organized by a number of different societd, for devotional reasons or even just to celebrate a specific event in the vatious parts of the city. It was this world of proliferating and interconnecting societa, ‘each with its own purpose, statutes, and insignia, that seems to have pulverized and destroyed the republic's traditional institutions and its public authority. In this context, chivalric panoply held a privileged position and had a greater catalyzing function than did other clements contributing to the end of the Florentine republic. Lorenzo used this panoply as the prime instrument to build up his prestige as lord of Florence. This is how things stood, and in this light, Giannotti’s denunciation becomes more readily understandable. 14, Thanks to Allen Grieo for his translation ofthis emay from Haan, The Self-Definition of the Venetian Republic PATRICIA FORTINI BROWN This city of Venice, common domicile ofall; «free land never subjugated by anyone like all the others; built by Christians not by wish, but by fear; not by counsel, but by necessity; and not by shepherds like Rome, but by 2 powerul land rich people; and these [people] from that time tothe present have always been a bulwark agains the Barbarians, and warsors forthe faith of Chis. '—Marin Sanudo, Laus wrbis Venetae, c.1493 RITING AT THE END of the fifteenth century, the Venetian diarist “Marin Sanudo was not ashamed to compare his home city favorably with Rome, on three counts: its freedom in perpetuaens its Christian origins; and the nobility of its founders. He was only following a long tradition, at least four centuries old, of unabashed civic sel-glorification. Indeed, one of the most striking characteristics of Venetian public life in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was an abiding concen foc mpuation. Although evry state engaged in imagemaking, perhaps none exceeded Venice in its ability to {fashion a positive selfpresentation through ceremonial, through visual symbols, and through the manipulation of historical accounts.' Although the republic had its detractors, modern scholars have even been inspired to refer to the resulting image as the “myth of Venice.” Pr et of ap Vee tilly decd phon Kao ne created an alluring paradigms; for the lst thirty years it has tended to define the terms of scholarly discourse about Venetian statecraft inthe early period. Any consideration of the republic seems bound to account for the remarkably compelling image, whether justified or not, ofan ideal state born and continuing to flourish under divine providence: free, but secure; wealthy, but pious and just; peace-loving, but also a militant defender of liberty and the faith? Tbe zach eo dard, Ce Rina Rena sence Venice Hinson: Pncston University Psy 1981) 2” Gin Foal, "Nascia tan ue" in ind sori bn onoe dl Gosche Volpe (Pores: Sanson 3358) 1, 445-7 who alo presets « cours, For an overview of free lteratue se James Grubb, * When Mth Lone Power Fur Decade of Votan Historiography," Journal of Modern History 58 (1986) 43-94, 512 Symbols and Rituals A key feature of the process of self-fashioning was the perfecting of historiographical tradition that privileged certain Key evens in the Venetian past.! Such events often entered the historical record on modest terms, but they grew in the telling and became essential components of the “myth.” With their narrative particulars expanded and burnished over time, they were tual easformed no ‘consequential and politically emblematic occasions, 1ough the paucity of surviving sources gives us only a fragmentary pictur of the earlier peciod, it sill sems evident that the cvtcal phase or ther claboration — and for the formation of a Venetian civic identity — can be placed in the thirteenth century. As we will see, the historical scripts were further refined during the following century. But by the dogeship of Andrea Dandolo (1343-1354), the basic paradigms, while open to further revision according to the exigencies of time and circumstance, were essentially complete, ‘Three iconic narratives had emerged by this time as the major fixed points of Venice's mythic chronology: its foundation on the day of the An- ‘unciation in 421; the translation of Saint Mark's relics, in 828-829; and the peace of Venice of 1177. These would remain the seminal events of the Venetian myth until the end of the republic, providing sources and armatures of support for those symbols and rituals that were critical for its visual reification. In this chapter we will attempt to trace the formative process that lay in back of their creation as historical paradigms. BORN FREE AND CHRISTIAN ‘The relatively late foundation of Venice was a particularly delicate ‘point, and ‘one that Venetian chroniclers strove to put into the favorable ‘perspective that would eventually inform Sanudo’s confident synopsis. The earliest surviving ‘Venetian chronicle worthy of the name is the Cronaca veneziana of Giovanni. Diacono, who wrote in the first decades of the eleventh century.‘ In his terse (and modest) account of Venetian origins, there were two Venices, The first spread ‘over the mainland at the head of the Adriatic Sea: “Its capital is the city of Aquileia, in which the holy Evangelist Mark, illuminated by divine ‘grace, preached the gospel of our lord Jesus Christ."5 In Giovanni’s view, the second Venice, situated on the islands of st lagoon, grew out of the first at the time of the Longobard invasions in ‘The inhabitants ofthe fist Venice, not wishing “to passin an ‘aoa x sae tc ea aa ricer a oo ec Prren a iret ota, 1 Publi in Gontde veneeneenchisine a. Glove Mons, Juno Store ttn, 1880) 5771 and now neta. vis commentary ‘omnia sonaiona ol Gina laono el Maro De fat Vee La Samper ee rd Gon Fa imc Baar Me 80,3 . Brown: Self Definition of the Venetian Republic. 513 under the power of the Longobardi, . .. sought refuge in the nearby islands.” Led by the patriarch of Aquileia to the island of Grado, the people brought ‘with them the relics of the holy martyr Ermagoras and other saints and founded “Nova Aquileia” as capital of the new Venice. Migration continued over the next century to eleven other islands. The island of Rialto, even though the last to be settled, “in any event is the richest and most exalted of all, because itis distinguished not only for the beauty of its churches and its houses, but also because itis the capital of the dogeship and the seat of the bishop.” These migrants, wrote Giovanni Diacono, were named Venetici: ‘Rnet, although in Latin it would have one more letter, isa name that derives from Greck and signifies ‘worthy of praise."** The chroniclers second Venice ‘was one of “very well fortified castles and cities,” and he did not suggest ‘earlier habitation in the lagoon area, Indeed, he ignored previous notices that alluded to an earlier migration of refugees fleeing Attila and the barbarian hordes and their establishment of rude island settlements in huts.” ‘But the question of primitive origins was too intriguing to be passed over, by chroniclers of the twelfth century, when, according to Antonio Carile, ‘Venetian historiography assumed a “literary and fantastic character.”* Although the legend of Saint Mark's early mission to Aquileia, which claimed him as its first patriarch, was accepted virtually unchanged from Giovanni, Diacono’s faccount, the first edition of the Chronicon Altinate gave Venice a Trojan an- festry like many other European cities with imperial aspirations.’ It also en- lowed it with a famous ancestor in the person of Antenor, “who reached the ‘shore of the lagoon with seven galleys, and in that place built the city named ‘Aguileia, because it was connected to the water {aquis}.”” By the third edition ‘of the Chronicon Alvinate, it was the “impious pagan named Attila, most favage, with a great army,” who destroyed antiqua Venecia and razed the ‘pital city of Aquileia to the soil. So now it was Attila, Flagelliems Dei, and not the Longobardi who first drove the Christian descendants of the original ‘Trojan settlers to take refuge in wood huts on uninhabited islands of the Ingoon. The tribal name of the Venetici or Eneti also received an expanded ‘uyymology; it was now said to be derived from Aeneas." By the last quarter of the twelfth century, a more precise chronology for the city was established, ‘with a foundation date of 421, deriving from the Attilan emendations, making us appearance in the Annales veneti® As Edward Muir notes, the Trojan myth Ibid 62,7 - 66,4. Cf. Carle, “La formasion,” 53. 7. Catile, “La forrasione,” 5657. 59. 9, Dated beween 1081 and 1204, See Carle, “La formazione," 44-45 and 5965. See she go Buchthah Historia Trolena: Studies im the History of Medieval Secular Mutation I The Wau Insite, Leiden: EJ. Beil, 1971) 20°52. 0, Carl, "La 60. 1s Thi, 6-64, 12; Vieorio i iol “Hl preteso documento della fondazione di Venezia a cronaca can Don a At ae eto Ven we tra ar, no. 2 514 Symbols and Rituals ‘was attractive to Venetians on several counts. First, the Trojan people had never paid tribute to another power, choosing to leave their city rather than become subjects. Furthermore, from such worthy ancestors, the Venetian patriciate could claim noble blood, as well as a love of freedom from the beginning. ‘The aims of this early chronicle tradition were to establish Venice's independence ab origine and to prove the jurisdictional authority of the patri- archate of Grado, as legitimate heir of Aquileia." By the middle of the thie teenth century, Venice's place in the Meditecranean world had changed con- siderably. After its participation in the Fourth Crusade had culminated in a victory over Byzantium and the profitable sack of Constantinople of 1204, it entered the ranks of world powers, and for atime the Venetian doge held the tidle “Lord of a Quarter and Half a Quarter of the Roman Empire.”"® Not surprisingly, historiographical aspirations were heightened to match Venice's new role as the center of a colonial empire. The chronicles of Martino da Canal (1267-1275) and Marco (1292) retained the three main lines of the Chronicon Altinate — the Trojan foundation, Saint Mark’s preaching mission in Aquileia, and the raids of Attila as the immediate impetus to lagoon settlement — but they refined and embellished them with an elevated laudatory agenda, Wood huts were conspicuously absent from their accounts. Canal referred instead to “noble men and women” who escaped the destruction of Aquileia: “They brought with them gold and silver in great quantities, and so they had beautiful churches and beautiful campaniles and bells constructed, and they built in the major city seventy churches, complete with large campa- niles and bells, and dispersed through the salt waters, convents in great ‘quantity."6 In placing the birth of the city in 421, he used the notarial formula “en Van de lincarnacion de nostre seignor Jesu Crist."”” His reference to the in- eamation, although used elsewhere in the chronicle, may have had further implications; for traditions that seem to have dated back as far as the twelfth ‘century or even earlier put Venice's actual birth date precisely on March 25, ‘or Annunciation Day.!" As we will se, the Annunciation was also alluded to in the facade decoration of $. Marco, completed during the period in which Canal was writing. Such dating, of course, afforded the city impeccable Chris- tian credentials from the beginning," This gave it a subtle edge even over 13, Mule, Gioe Ria, 67-68 14, Carle, “La formazione," 6. 5, See Donald Quuller, The Fourth Crusade (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1978), fand Antonio Carle La cronschstca venesana (uecolt XII[-XVD di fronte alla spartisone ‘della Romania nel 1204 (Plorece:. 8. Osc, 1969), 16, Marino da Canal Les Esioies de Venise: Cronsca veneciana in lingua francese ‘ale oni al 1275, ed. A. Limentani (lorence: LS. lech 1972) 7. 17. Thad, Antonio Niero, I sent patroni" in Culto dei semti« Venesa (Venice: Suaium Cattolio Venetiano, 1965) 78.79, 19. Mui, Choe Ritual, 70:72, Brown: Sei Defnition ofthe Venetian Republic 51S Constantinople, a yet older city less tainted by a pagan heritage than Rome: vee ‘outer, then i val, and by the tine of Canal, its former subject. "With Canal’s chronicle we enter a period whose histriographial pan. in Carle's view, “neither poor nor monotonous.” Grest Council passed an act that called for the establishment of organic collections of state documents, including the most antique. Carile points out: “The collection and conservation of documents, ancient and recent, is an infallible sign of an already mature historical sensibility in the culing class’ It was within this context that the chronicler Marco began writing his own history of the city in 1292, He went further than Canal, claiming thatthe first ‘Trojan colonists had arrived in Venice immediately after the fall of Troy, while Rome was founded only 454 years later: “And on account of this, i is ‘well known that the first construction of Rialto preceded the construction of [the city of] Rome.” He also addressed the issue of Venice’s priority over Padua, now a troublesome competitor. Because that city also claimed a foun- dation by Antenor, Marco resolved the problem by claiming that the Trojan leader had arrived in Venice well after the initial building of the city by an advance guard of his countrymen. Only later, the chronicler advised, did ‘Antenor found Padua ‘Two centuries later, in a miscellany of notes accompanying a manuscript of his De origine, stu et magistratibus urbis Venetae, Marin Sanudo was thus able to place the city within a broad temporal framework: Terve edificade avanti !avenimento de Christo. Troia anni 2931 Roma 715 ‘Ravenna 2140 Dopo Vadvenimento [sic] Constantinopoli 270 Venetia 421 His chronology is revealing, Although he did not go as far as the chronicler ‘Marco in claiming priority over Rome, the second Venice was put into a

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