Essays on the Latin Orient — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Essays on the Latin Orient
John Stuart Mill · en
But the calm was soon disturbed by a fresh outbreak. In 1283 the same
Alexios Kallerges who had been so valuable an auxiliary of Venice in the
last rising inaugurated a rebellion which, arising out of the curtailment
of his own family privileges, spread to the whole island and lasted for
sixteen years. The home Government made the mistake of under-estimating
the importance of this movement, which it neglected to suppress at the
outset by the despatch of large bodies of men. As usual, the insurgents
operated in the mountains, whence the Venetians were unable to dislodge
them, while the Genoese laid Canea in ashes in 1293, and tried to
establish relations with the insurrectionary chief. But Kallerges was not
disposed to exchange the rule of one Italian State for that of another,
and, as he saw at last that he could not shake off the Venetian yoke
single-handed, he came to terms with the Governor. His patriotic refusal
of the Genoese offers had excited the admiration of the Venetians, who
were ready to make concessions to one whom Genoa could not seduce. He
was allowed to keep the fiefs which the Angeloi had granted in the
Byzantine days to his family, he was created a knight, and his heirs
received permission to intermarry with Venetians—a practice absolutely
prohibited as a rule in Venetian colonies. It is pleasant to be able to
record that both parties to this treaty kept their word. Kallerges on his
death-bed bade his four sons remain true to Venice; one of his grandsons
fought in her cause, and his descendants were rewarded with the title of
patricians—at that time a rare distinction. These frequent insurrections,
combined with the horrors of plague and famine, do not seem to have
permanently injured the resources of the island, nor were the ravages of
corsairs, fitted out by the Catalans of Attica in the early part of the
fourteenth century, felt much beyond the coast. At any rate, in 1320 such
was the prosperity of the colony that the Governor was able to remit a
large surplus to Venice after defraying the costs of administration. But
the harsh policy of the Republic gradually alienated the colonists as
well as the natives. A demand for ship-money caused a fresh rebellion of
the Greeks in 1333, in which one of the Kallergai fought for, and another
of them against, the Venetian Government. Eight years later a member of
that famous Cretan family, forgetting the patriotic conduct of his great
ancestor, entered into negotiations with the Turks; but he was invited to
a parley by the Venetian Governor, who had him arrested as a traitor and
thrown in a sack into the sea. This act of cruelty and treachery had the
effect of embittering and prolonging the Cretan resistance, so that the
Venetians soon held nothing in the island except the capital and a few
castles. At last the arrival of overwhelming reinforcements forced the
rebel leader, Michael Psaromelingos, to bid his servant kill him, and the
rebellion was over.