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 416 THE DECLINE AND FALL conduct ; the validity of their treaty depends on the judgment of St. Peter ; but he inculcates their most sacred duty of estab- lishing a just subordination of obedience and tribute, fi-om the Greeks to the Latins, from the magistrate to the clergy, and from the clergy to the pope. Divisionof In the division of the Greek provinces,^ the share of the empire 'enetians was more ample than that of the Latin emperor. No more than one fourth was appropriated to his domain ; a clear moiety of the remainder was reserved for Venice ; and the other moiety was distributed among the adventurers of France and Lombardy. The venerable Dandolo was proclaimed despot of Romania, and invested, after the Greek fashion, with the purple buskins. He ended, at Constantinople, his long and glorious life ; and, if the prerogative was personal, the title was used by his successors till the middle of the fourteenth centuiy, with the singular though true addition of lords of one fourth and a half of the Roman empire.^ The doge, a slave of the state, was seldom pei'mitted to depart from the helm of the re- public ; but his place was supplied by the hail, or regent, who exercised a supreme jurisdiction over the colony of Venetians; they possessed three of the eight quarters of the city ; and his independent tribunal was composed of six judges, four coun- sellors, two chambei'lains, two fiscal advocates, and a constable. Their long experience of the Eastern trade enabled them to se- lect their portion with discernment ; they had rashly accepted the dominion and defence of Hadrianople ; but it was the more reasonable aim of their policy to foi-m a chain of factories and cities and islands along the maritime coast, from the neighbour- hood of Ragusa to the Hellespont and the Bosphorus. The labour and cost of such extensive conquests exhausted their treasury ; they abandoned their maxims of government, adopted a feudal system, and contented themselves with the homage of their nobles,^'^ for the possessions which these private vassals 8 In the treaty of partition, most of the names are corrupted by the scribes ; they might be restored, and a good map, suited to the last age of the Byzantine empire, would be an improvement of geography ; but, alas ! d'Anville is no more ! fThe act of partition annexed to the treaty with geographical notes was edited by Tafel in his Symbolae criticae geographiam Byzantinam Spectantes, part 2.] 8 Their style was Dominus quartae partis et dimidise imperii Romani, till Gio- vanni Dolfino, who was elected Doge in the year 1356 (Sanuto, p. 530, 641). For the government of Constantinople, see Ducange, Histoire de C. P. p. 37. 1" Ducange (Hist, de C. P. ii. 6) has marked the conquests made by the state or nobles of Venice of the islands of Candia, Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Na.xos, Paros, Melos, Andros, Mycon6, Scyro, Cea, and Leronos. [See Appendix 18.]