Agnellus (II.)

Influence of the Byzantine Empire and Venice around 840

Agnellus Particiaco , later also Partecipazio or Participazio († around 820) was, according to the historiographical tradition of Venice , as the state-controlled historiography there was called, co-dog of his grandfather Agnellus (I.) and his father Iustinianus . He died during a legation trip to Constantinople , probably at the beginning of the reign of the new Emperor Michael II. At the latest with the beginning of the Dogate of the Particiaco family, Venice's trade relations extended into the eastern Mediterranean as far as Greece, Sicily and Egypt, and relations with the imperial court in Constantinople were still cramped. The bones of St. Mark were transferred from Alexandria to Venice under Justinianus and the Doge decided to build a palace chapel to hold the relics , from which St. Mark's Basilica emerged . Venice thus documented its independence from Carolingian and papal claims, an attitude that was just as clearly demonstrated after the Doge's death, namely by his brother and successor John . Agnellus (II.) Died while his father was still alive, who was not yet a Doge. Since the younger Agnellus never ruled alone, he was not included on the list of Doges that the late Republic of Venice accepted as such. He was married to a Greek (?) Named Romana, who was named as Justinianus' daughter-in-law and widow of his son in the Doge's will of 829.

family

The family, often referred to in historiography as Partecipazio , which appears in contemporary sources as Particiaco , belonged to the tribunician families in the early days of the Republic of Venice . They held high political or military offices in eastern Veneto , which was part of the Eastern Roman Empire until the beginning of the 9th century , and who had succeeded in making the office of tribune hereditary.

Together with the Candiano and Orseolo, it was the Particiaco family who provided most of Venice's doges from 810 to the constitutional reform of 1172. The first doge of a Venice relatively independent of Byzantium was Agnellus (810–827). He was followed by his sons Justinianus and Iohannes (829-836), who was arrested and deposed in 836 and ended his life in a monastery. After Pietro Tradonico's reign for almost thirty years , the Particiaco returned to the doge chair: Ursus I from 864 to 881 , then his son John II from 881 to 887. Other doges were Ursus II (911-932) and his son Peter (939–942) from a side branch of the family, the Badoer. In addition to Agnellus (II.) As fellow dog, an Ursus Particiacus appears who briefly ruled the city in 832 without being included in the doge list above. The same applies to the two sons of the aforementioned John II, to Peter and Ursus .

Life and domination

Iustinianus or Giustiniano was on the one hand a very wealthy merchant who, as his testament shows in 829, maintained a fleet of trading galleys (cf. economic history of the Republic of Venice ). On the other hand, like the landlords of the mainland, he owned extensive estates on which cattle were raised, crops were grown and horticulture was practiced. According to his will, he had numerous servants and maids available, probably servants . Justinianus was already at an advanced age when he followed his father Agnellus in the Doge's office after he had already served as co-regent.

The mosaic of the Porta Sant'Alipio on St. Mark's Church is the only surviving mosaic from the Middle Ages on the west facade. It shows the transfer of the bones of St. Mark into the church in the presence of the bishop and the doge . The facade of the church in the background is shown with the most important characteristics of its shape from the 2nd half of the 13th century.

One of the cross-border structures that made a sharp demarcation of the spheres of influence with the Franconian Empire impossible is the land ownership of the dominant families of the lagoon, as the testament drawn up in 829 shows. In addition to rich possessions in the Ducat Venice, i.e. on Rialto, in Iesolo , Torcello and in Cittanova , on the Lidi and many islands, the family also owned lands in the Carolingian Treviso and around Pola in Istria. Equally important was the part of the fortune that was invested in trade, but also in ecclesiastical foundations such as those of Sant'Ilario , San Zaccaria and San Marco, which was still under construction.

No sooner had Iustinianus died in 829 than Obelerius , the Doge who had been driven out by the father of the two brothers around 810 , tried to return to Malamocco after almost two decades of exile , where he was able to reactivate his power base. In return, John had the city destroyed after defeating the rebels. But that was not all, a tribune called Caroso , whose name can be found among the witnesses on the will of Justinianus , rebelled , and Johannes had to flee to the Frankish court. For his part, Caroso was defeated and blinded by the followers of John after a few months, and his followers were driven out. For a while before the exiled Doge's return, a bishop named Ursus (Orso), who may have belonged to the Particiaco clan, ruled together with two tribunes.

reception

For Venice at the time of Doge Andrea Dandolo , the interpretation given to the rule of Agnellus Particiacus and his two sons Justinianus and John and his grandson Agnellus was of great symbolic importance. The focus of the political leadership bodies, long established in the middle of the 14th century, which at the same time steered historiography, focused on the development of the constitution, the internal disputes between the possessores , i.e. the increasingly closed group of the haves who at the same time occupied political power, but also the shifts in power within the lagoon, the Adriatic and the eastern Mediterranean as well as in Italy. The focus was always on the questions of sovereignty between the overpowering empires, of law from its own roots, and thus of the derivation and legitimation of their territorial claims. Similar to the Galbaii, who had also tried to found a dynasty, the uncertainty of the situation was attributed to deficiencies in the balance of power, i.e. in the constitution, which did not yet allow the power of the Doge to be incorporated in such a way that the formation of a dynasty was no longer possible . In the case of Justinianus and Agnellus, there was also the fact that extremely important relics came to Venice during his time , which were assigned to the most important spiritual places, above all San Zaccaria and St. Mark's Basilica. Relics of this kind could be a powerful argument in the struggle for rank and reputation in the hierarchy of the dioceses and patriarchies and, linked to this, the worldly claims. This was particularly true of the clashes with Aquileia and Rome. The early death of Agnellus - who, like his father, had traveled to Constantinople, but died there - meant that the transfer of power from his father to his uncle would probably have taken place without any disputes within the family, but Obelerius' attempted coup failed interpret themselves as a revolt by pro-Frankish forces. John's reign was even more unstable than that of his brother.

Proclamation of Leo V as emperor, Skylitzes manuscript, 13th century, Madrid

The oldest vernacular chronicle, the Cronica di Venexia detta di Enrico Dandolo from the late 14th century, presents the events on a largely personal level. While the later doge "Iustinian" was sent by his father to Constantinople to make successful agreements there to negotiate ("per voler alcuni pati fermar con lui"), his younger son Johannes was raised to a fellow doge in Venice because they trusted the House of Particiaco, as the chronicle explains the process. When the elder returned, he took over the position of his younger brother, who was exiled to Constantinople for having committed unnamed offenses against some Venetians ("habiando facto alcun despiaser, et grosso, ad alcuni dela Terra"). A connection with the dispute between the two brothers over the question of co-rule is negated here, although the younger one was initially preferred, but it was precisely this two-generation conflict, if one includes Agnellus' grandson, even three-generation conflict, which later became a number contradicting interpretations ignited.

Pietro Marcello led the fellow Doge in the section “Giustiniano Particiaco Doge XI” in 1502 in his work later translated into Volgare under the title Vite de'prencipi di Vinegia . This classification as the 11th Doge surprised, as he classified his father as the 9th Doge. Marcello claims that Agnello made his younger son Giovanni his “compagno”, whereupon Giustiniano, having returned to Venice from Constantinople, ostentatiously refused to return to his father. In the end, he gave in. So Giovanni resigned his office with the people's declaration of intent (“per commissione del popolo”), whereupon “Angelo” (I.) the other son Giustiniano and his son “Angelo” (ie Agnellus II) in 827 “si prese per compagno nel prencipato ”. Giovanni was then banished to Constantinople. The author describes in detail the translation of the relics of St. Markus. Justinianus, who died soon afterwards, made sure in his will that the church of St. Mark was enlarged; He decreed similar things for Sant'Ilario on the western edge of the Venetian region and for San Zaccaria .

Laconic turn reports the Chronicle of Gian Giacomo Caroldo , completed 1532. Caroldo says "Giustiniano Badoaro" had remained alone in the office after the death of his father in "DCCCXXVIJ" ( "rimase solo nel Ducato"). While other chroniclers date the use of the fleet against the Saracens , who began to conquer Sicily (the recent conquest of Crete is not mentioned), in the time of his brother John, Caroldo places it in the reign of Justinianus. He also briefly reports that although the fleet had gone south, it was unable to find the enemy, whereupon it turned back ("Ditta armata, non potendo ritrovar gl'inimici, ritorno à dietro"). Another fleet could not achieve anything in support against the Saracens, or, as Caroldo put it, “it could not carry out an honorable enterprise” (“nè potendo conseguir alcuna honorevol'impresa”). Instead, she brought - which contradicts the following sentence - the relics of St. Markus to Venice. In the second year of his ducat, according to the next sentence, Venetian traders (“mercanti Venetiani”) “con molta sagacità et industria” brought these relics from Alexandria. Instructions were given to the “fabrica” of St. Mark's Church to “discard” the “glorioso corpo” “honorevolmente” (“riponer”). Justinianus, heavily burdened by illness and due to the death of Agnellus (II.) Without children, called his brother back from Constantinople and made him his fellow doge and successor in office (“consorte et successor del Ducato”). In his will he left the monasteries of “San Illario e di San Zaccaria molte possessioni”, so he left them extensive possessions.

View of the pillars with the patron saints of Venice, on the left Marcus with the lion, on the right Theodor with the slain dragon, towards San Giorgio Maggiore

For the Frankfurt lawyer Heinrich Kellner , who made the Venetian chronicle known in the German-speaking area, where he largely followed Marcello, in his Chronica published in 1574, this is Warhaffte actual and short description, all people drawn to Venice live , "Justinan Partitiatius the tens of Hertzog" . According to Kellner, Justinianus took over "the regiment of the community alone at / in jar 827" after the death of his father. "At the beginning of his regiment" he sent "Keyser Micheln von Constantinopel" a fleet for the fight against the "Saracens / which then very narrow the islands of Europe / but they never encounter the enemy". So the fleet soon withdrew "in ir gewarsam" back. Kellner describes in detail the transfer of the relics of St. Markus to Venice. The Doge Justinian died shortly afterwards "when he ruled alone for two years". Kellner knows nothing about a fellow doge.

In the translation of the Historia Veneta by Alessandro Maria Vianoli , which appeared in Nuremberg in 1686 under the title Der Venetianischen Herthaben Leben / Government, and Die Die / Von dem Ersten Paulutio Anafesto an / bis on the now-ruling Marcum Antonium Justiniani , the doge was called “ Justinianus Participatius, the Eleventh Hertzog ”. After a fundamental introduction to the question of princely justice and strength, which is derived from the fear of God, Vianoli, standing in stark contrast to Marcello, adds: “[...] he can hardly be exalted to the throne / than he with one strong power / and a good number of warships / go into the Sicilian Sea / to chase away the Saracens / which are very afraid of the same island of all places / so they succeeded so happily / that he succeeded Michael, as the Greek Emperor at that time the same again admitted / whereupon both in Constantinople / and Venice / because of such warm Victori, all kinds of testimonies of joy were seen and held ”(p. 90). The robbery of St. Markus, on the other hand, describes Vianoli with only minor deviations. So you put the remains in a basket and covered them with pork, "which is strictly forbidden to enjoy in this Völcker law".

According to Johann Friedrich LeBret , who published his four-volume State History of the Republic of Venice from 1769 , under "Justinianus" "his people undertook the first warlike ventures against the Saracens". "Justinianus had some warships fitted out, which connected with the Greek ships." "Some Venetian historians," continues LeBret, "express themselves in such a way that a reasonable person cannot refrain from laughing. They couldn't find the enemy, they say, and they sailed back to Venice ”(p. 141). A second "attempt had just such a similar end as the first". Since Justinianus had no heirs, he called his brother John back from Constantinople. He “regained a dignity which his father had deprived him of in order to keep the peace among his sons. Justinian lived barely a year, since by his death he gave his brother sole rule ”(p. 142). The lack of inheritance of Justinianus is also here the only reason for the transfer of the Doge's rule to the brother.

Solidus , minted under Emperor Leo V.

In 1853, Samuele Romanin gave “Giustiniano” a few pages in the first volume of his eloquent, ten-volume opus' Storia documentata di Venezia . "Giustiniano", who returned from Constantinople after negotiations, refused to see his father when he saw his younger brother as a fellow doge. He and his wife retired to a house near the Church of San Severo. The then banished "Giovanni" fled from Zara to "Ischiavonia" and from there to Bergamo to see Emperor Ludwig. Leon the Armenian , 'although an iconoclast' ('sebbene iconoclasta'), tried to maintain good relations with Venice by means of gifts, especially relics. In view of the increasing danger from the Saracens, Venice has become more and more important. Nothing unusual was to be seen in it, because the Venetians also prayed for the emperor in reverse, without this being an indication that the Venetians were Byzantine subjects ("senz'esserne sudditi", p. 163). When Leos fell in 820, the grandson of Agnellus, who was also called "Agnello", was present to pay homage to the new emperor. Romanin inserts the construction of St. Mark's Church , which Justinianus began, into a picture of the brolio , St. Mark's Square , which can still be presented as a garden. In his will, Justinianus notes his wife Felicia and his daughter-in-law Romana ("la moglie Felicia e la nuora Romana"), where Romanin quotes from the "Pacta I, 39" ("... Felicitate uxore mea et Romana nure mea heredes mihi instituo") .

August Friedrich Gfrörer († 1861) believed in his History of Venice, which was published posthumously in 1872, from its founding to 1084 , that Justinianus was not only "in anger" after his return to Venice about the preference of his younger brother, but that he was from Constantinople returned to Venice. The elder Agnellus finally banished his younger son to Zara and raised Justinianus and his son " Angelo II " to be fellow doges. In the fact that Dogens' sons have been staying in Constantinople since 810, Gfrörer sees evidence of an otherwise unknown contract, according to which they are to be interpreted as hostages. Accordingly, the honors, such as the titles that the Byzantine emperors awarded these hostages, only kept appearances. The emperors had used the time "to get them used to the Greek court air or to instill in them the Byzantine official spirit." Accordingly, the raising of the younger son to be a fellow doge was a breach of the "secret treaty of 809". According to Gfrörer, the emperor had the older son sent to Venice, who behaved “like an avenger”. According to Gfrörer, the father only gave in because "Justinian had the entire power of the Eastern Empire to hold back" (p. 144). John had to "wander to the port city of Zara, which has been subject to Greek sovereignty since 810". In doing so, Gfrörer believes that Johannes, as Johannes Diaconus writes, first fled to the Slavs - according to Gfrörer, he could only negotiate with the Frankish emperor from there, because the Slavs recognized the Franconian sovereignty formally - and only then to the Franconian court while Andrea Dandolo lets him flee directly to the court. However, Gfrörer doubts that the man who had fled met with Emperor Ludwig the Pious, because he was only in Italy in 817. After being extradited to Agnellus and Justinianus, the younger brother was sent back to Constantinople as a hostage. Gfrörer argues that the father was ousted by Justinianus, his evidence is the founding document of S. Zaccaria, in which only Justinianus appears as doge, but not Agnellus. As he can see from the document, the foundation was also initiated by the Byzantine emperor. The ban on trading with the Muslims of Syria and Egypt also came from the emperor and was only taken over by the doges. In Gfrörer's picture it also fits that Angelo II had to pay homage to the new emperor after the murder of Emperor Leo, and that he died in the capital. According to Gfrörers: "Dandolo shares such facts which, in a way that does not grossly offend the sense of honor, reveal Veneto's dependence on Byzantium, and only clumsily keeps silent" (p. 149). The Doge's will, which provided for placement in an enlarged church that was built with his funds, has been preserved and edited to this day. Gfrörer takes from the Dandolo Chronicle, which the author notes that he had the relevant document in his hands and read it with his own eyes. Gfrörer expressly does not rule out that Justinianus wanted to rise to the status of “guardian and keeper of the city saint” in this way (p. 162), but prefers the “milder” variant, according to which the presence of the saint tends to the patriarchate of Venice, i.e. the Relocation of Grado in the lagoon should serve. With this, the "resettled patriarch entered into the same relationship with the doge there ... as the patriarch with the basileus in Constantinople". For Gfrörer, the robbery of human remains becomes a “weapon of defense” against the possible consequences of the Mantuan Synod. From the reward that the two tribunes offered the Alexandrian clergy for the religions, the author concludes that they acted on behalf of the Doge, and that only because of this could they make a corresponding offer to the clergy in Alexandria. In addition, as early as 819, at that time Agnellus and Iustinianus still together, had decreed that the monks of S. Ilario should be expressly exempt from being invited to a council by the bishops of Rivoalto-Olivolo or Grado. Men who were banished by the abbot were not allowed to be granted protection by the same bishops (p. 165) - this, too, is an indication of the suzerainty relationship with the Lagoon Church. Finally, according to Gfrörer, the younger brother returned from the Byzantine capital on the orders of the emperor, who at the same time demanded naval aid against the Saracens. The apparently independent policy of Justinianus was therefore met with distrust in Byzantium, so that Justinianus had to accept the return of his brother, whom he did not even consider in his will. Andrea Dandolo suggests this, according to Gfrörer, only as far as possible, but "Anyone who has a real job in running Clio's pen does not write for fools, but for those who know how to read necessary cases between the lines." P. 171).

Pietro Pinton translated and annotated Gfrörer's work in the Archivio Veneto in annual volumes XII to XVI. Pinton's own account, which only appeared in 1883, came to completely different, less speculative results than Gfrörer. He doubts that Justinianus was sent to Constantinople as a hostage (just as little as John later), which the sources do not speak of, but that the older son of the Dog was sent there for negotiations (the younger as an exile). In doing so, he reproached Gfrörer for overlooking the fact that the alleged hostage was returning to Venice to oppose the younger brother's preference - even when the younger John finally went to the Byzantine capital, Gfrörer claimed to be a hostage again. In Pinton's view, there was no connection between the naval aid and the Emperor's recognition of the new Doge (p. 60). Gfrörer also interprets the terms “ecclesia” and “cappella” anachronistically, because Andrea Dandolo himself uses the two terms without distinction for the St. Mark's Church. To infer from this that the relics had been kept in a side chapel of the Doge's Palace, he considered a misinterpretation. Gfrörer's assertion that Pope Gregory IV and Emperor Michael had forbidden the misuse of the relics, that one of them had ordered the hiding of the saint, the other, for fear of Venetian efforts to become independent, intended the younger brother to replace Justinianus, Pinton refuted with the statement, Justinianus was terminally ill and no other connection could be established between the events (pp. 58–61).

Heinrich Kretschmayr believed that Agnellus had "sent his son Justinian to the change of the throne in 814 and his grandson Agnellus with his Greek wife Romana in 820 to pay homage to Constantinople". He believes that the overthrow of John, the son of a Dog, who later fled and was ultimately exiled to Constantinople, makes it clear that this overthrow of Byzantium began. On the other hand, in the opposite direction, the older brother Justinianus was not only endowed with the honorary title Hypathos , but his son was even made a co-doge. In addition, Justinianus called himself "Imperialis hypatus et humilis dux Venetiae". Contrary to a Byzantine ban, Venetian traders sought out Egyptian waters in 828. Kretschmayr sees the naval operations in southern Italy and Sicily as an “army duty” for Venice, but this is expressly not verifiable for the eastern Mediterranean. Kretschmayr even claims that "the fleet was defeated".

swell

• La cronaca veneziana del diacono Giovanni , in: Giovanni Monticolo (ed.): Cronache veneziane antichissime (= Fonti per la storia d'Italia [Medio Evo], IX), Rome 1890, pp. 59–171, here: p. 107 ("Agnellus vero predictus dux legationis causa suum nepotem et equivocum Constantinopolim misit, ibique mortuus fuit.") ( Digitized version ).
• Luigi Andrea Berto (Ed.): Giovanni Diacono, Istoria Veneticorum (= Fonti per la Storia dell'Italia medievale. Storici italiani dal Cinquecento al Millecinquecento ad uso delle scuole, 2), Zanichelli, Bologna 1999, pp. 114, 116 (Im Connection with Agnellus (I.) and the two fellow dogs Iustinianus and Agnellus (II.): "Tunc satisfacere per omnia voluit Iustiniano suo filio; non solum ipsum sed etiam Agnellum, suum nepotem, eiusdem Iustiniani natum, consortem sui fecit ducatus." he also mentioned death in Constantinople Opel: "Agnellus vero predictus dux legationis causa suum nepotem et aequivocum Constantinopolim misit ibique mortuus fuit.") (on Berto-based text editing in the Archivio della Latinita Italiana del Medioevo (ALIM) of the University of Siena).
• Roberto Cessi (ed.): Documenti relativi alla storia di Venezia anteriori al Mille , Padua 1942, vol. I, n. 53, pp. 93-99 ("Romana nurus mea ab eo anno quo vidua remansit") ( Testament of the Doge ).
• Ester Pastorello (Ed.): Andrea Dandolo, Chronica per extensum descripta aa. 460–1280 dC , (= Rerum Italicarum Scriptores XII, 1), Nicola Zanichelli, Bologna 1938, pp. 142–146, sole rule of Iustinianus pp. 146–148. ( Digital copy, p. 142 f. )

literature

• Marco Pozza:  Particiaco, Agnello. In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 81:  Pansini – Pazienza. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2014.
• Şerban Marin: Giustiniano Partecipazio and the Representation of the First Venetian Embassy to Constantinople in the Chronicles of the Serenissima , in: Historical Yearbook 2 (2005) 75–92 (Stay of Justinianus in Constantinople, representation in the Venetian Chronicles, interpretation as the first real one Legation trip to Constantinople). ( academia.edu )

Remarks

1. ↑ Volker Herzner : The building history of San Marco and the rise of Venice to a great power , in: Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte 38 (1985) 1–58, here: p. 1 f. ( Digitized version ).
2. ↑ The presentation largely follows Marco Pozza:  Particiaco, Agnello. In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 81:  Pansini – Pazienza. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2014., which in this article offers a description of all four Particiaco, i.e. Agnellus, his two sons and his grandson Agnellus of the same name.
3. ^ Roberto Pesce (Ed.): Cronica di Venexia detta di Enrico Dandolo. Origini - 1362 , Centro di Studi Medievali e Rinascimentali "Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna", Venice 2010, p. 33.
4. ↑ Pietro Marcello : Vite de'prencipi di Vinegia in the translation of Lodovico Domenichi, Marcolini, 1558, pp 17-20 ( digitized ).
5. ↑ Șerban V. Marin (Ed.): Gian Giacomo Caroldo. Istorii Veneţiene , Vol. I: De la originile Cetăţii la moartea dogelui Giacopo Tiepolo (1249) , Arhivele Naţionale ale României, Bucharest 2008, p. 56 ( online ).
6. ↑ Heinrich Kellner : Chronica that is Warhaffte actual and short description, all life in Venice , Frankfurt 1574, p. 7r – 7v ( digitized, p. 7r ).
7. ↑ Alessandro Maria Vianoli : Der Venetianischen Hertsehen Leben / Government, und die Nachsterben / Von dem First Paulutio Anafesto an / bit on the itzt-ruling Marcum Antonium Justiniani , Nuremberg 1686, pp. 84-88, translation ( digitized ).
8. ↑ Johann Friedrich LeBret : State history of the Republic of Venice, from its origin to our times, in which the text of the abbot L'Augier is the basis, but its errors are corrected, the incidents are presented in a certain and from real sources, and after a Ordered the correct time order, at the same time adding new additions to the spirit of the Venetian laws and secular and ecclesiastical affairs, to the internal state constitution, its systematic changes and the development of the aristocratic government from one century to another , 4 vols., Johann Friedrich Hartknoch , Riga and Leipzig 1769–1777, Vol. 1, Leipzig and Riga 1769 ( digitized version ).
9. ^ Samuele Romanin : Storia documentata di Venezia , 10 vol., Pietro Naratovich, Venice 1853–1861 (2nd edition 1912–1921, reprint Venice 1972), vol. 1, Venice 1853, pp. 158–166 in connection with his father , sole governing body on pp. 166–170 ( digitized version ).
10. ↑ August Friedrich Gfrörer : History of Venice from its foundation to the year 1084. Edited from his estate, supplemented and continued by Dr. JB Weiß , Graz 1872, p. 143 ( digitized version ).
11. ^ Pietro Pinton: La storia di Venezia di AF Gfrörer , in: Archivio Veneto (1883) 23–63, here: p. 58 ( digitized version ).
12. ^ Heinrich Kretschmayr : History of Venice , 3 vol., Vol. 1, Gotha 1905, p. 60 f.