Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/256

 238 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. The monopoly over the seas once possessed by Constantinople had long since been shared by the republic, which recognized in the annual ceremony of the Bucentaur that her wealth was derived from commerce. She had been, as we have seen, specially favored in the New Rome. The tone of her civili- zation was that of Constantinople rather than that of any Western city. Her wealth, her distinction as a city whose civilization was more advanced than that of any Western rival, were derived from her intercourse with the J^ew Rome. The very aspect of her streets were a reproduction of what had been seen on the Golden Horn. Her famous church, dedi- cated to St. Mark, was but a reproduction on a smaller scale of the still more famous church of the Divine Wisdom of the Incarnate Word which existed in Constantinople. The Crusaders of this and of former expeditions were pro- foundly impressed with the prosperity and magnificence of Yenice. The New Rome was still the royal or imperial city ; but both cities evidently opened to the Crusaders new worlds of wealth, luxury, and civilization. They marvelled much, says Robert de Clari, at the great riches they found in Yen- ice,^ and numbers of contemporary writers bear testimony to the astonishment which her civilization excited. Of late years the Yenetians had had difficulties with the Hostility of New Rome. We have seen that these difficulties Scon-^" arose, in great measure, from the fact that the in- stautiuopie. fluence of Yenice in Constantinople was no longer sufficient to exclude that of the other Italian republics. Isaac Angelos had, in 1187, and again in 1189, as we have also seen, concluded a new alliance, assuring to Yenice her old privileges, together with the payment of a considerable indemnity. The consideration for the valuable concessions offered by the em- peror was that the Yenetians should place their fleet at the disposition of the empire, even in the case of a war against the emperor in the AYest. This treaty was confirmed in 1199 by Alexis the Third. In the spring of 1200 a quarrel took place at Constantinople between the Yenetians and their great ' Rob. de Clari, c. x.