OF THE ROMAN EMPIEE 513 borrow from each nation the facts that redound to their oun disgrace and the honour of their foes. The Venetians, with their alhes, the Catalans^ had the advantage of number ; and their fleet, with the poor addition of eight Byzantine galleys, amounted to seventy-five sail ; the Genoese did not exceed sixty- four ; but in those times their ships of war were distinguished by the superiority of their size and strength. The names and families of their naval commanders, Pisani and Doria, are illus- trious in the annals of their country ; but the personal merit of the former was eclipsed by the fame and abilities of his rival. They engaged in tempestuous weather ; and the tumultuary con- [Battle of flict was continued from the dawn to the extinction of light. The orProte] enemies of the Genoese applaud their prowess ; the friends of the Venetians are dissatisfied with their behaviour ; but all parties agree in praising the skill and boldness of the Catalans, who, with many wounds, sustained the brunt of the action. On the separation of the fleets, the event might appear doubtful ; but the thirteen Genoese galleys, that had been sunk or taken, were compensated by a double loss of the allies : of fourteen Venetians, ten Catalans, and two Greeks ; and even the grief of the con- querors expressed the assurance and habit of more decisive vic- tories. Pisani confessed his defeat by retiring into a fortified harbour, from whence, under the pretext of the orders of the senate, he steered with a broken and flying squadron for the isle of Candia, and abandoned to his rivals the sovereignty of the sea. In a public epistle,^' addressed to the doge and senate, Petrarch employs his eloquence to reconcile the maritime powers, the two luminaries of Italy. The orator celebrates the valour and victory of the Genoese, the fii'st of men in the exercise of naval war ; he drops a tear on the misfortunes of their Venetian brethren ; but he exhorts them to pursue with fire and sword the base and per- fidious Greeks ; to purge the metropolis of the East from the heresy with which it Mas infected. Deserted by their friends, Their treaty the Greeks were incapable of resistance ; and, three months pu-e. May e after the battle, the emperor Cantacuzene .solicited and sub- scribed a treaty, which for ever banished the Venetians and Catalans, and granted to the Genoese a monopoly of trade and 5' The Abb6 de Sade (M^moires sur la Vie de P^trarque, torn. iii. p. 257-263) translates this letter, which he had copied from a Ms. in the king of France's library. Though a servant of the duke of Milan, Petrarch pours forth his astonish- ment and grief at the defeat and despair of the Genoese in the following year (p. 323-332). VOL. VI. 33
