216 benjamin arbel
could be based on forces available in the colonies themselves, sometimes
using local militias, as in the case of the violent events in western Crete
in 1523–28.349 In smaller colonies, such as Lesina, military intervention
had to come from outside, through the Venetian navy. In such cases com-
manders had the authority to execute or banish rebels and confiscate their
property. But as shown by Monique O’Connell, such measures could also
be overturned through the procedure of appeal to Venice, which some-
times creates the impression that Venetian repressive actions, even the
most drastic ones, were never conclusive.350
In dealing with social conflicts in its overseas dominions, the patrician
Republic could not afford to act in disharmony with the foundations of
the Venetian aristocratic regime. On the one hand it consented to the
development of corporative bodies representing the popular strata of
society, as it did in Nicosia or in Dalmatia. It also tried to act as an objec-
tive arbitrator in conflicts between the nobility or other privileged groups
and new forces that demanded to participate in local self-rule. On the
other hand, whenever such conflicts developed into violent disturbances,
Venice intervened in defense of the local elites, suppressing the popu-
lar forces. This was done despite repeated reports by Venetian governors,
themselves patricians, about the corruption and even the unfaithfulness
of the same elites whose prerogatives were defended by the Republic in
such moments of crisis.351
References in modern historiography to the collaboration of the Cypriot
and Cretan peasantry with the invading Ottoman army during the Cyprus
war (1570–71) and the war of Crete (1645–69) should be evaluated within
this context. Yet the circumstances of a small village, and even more so
an individual peasant family, that encounters a huge invading army can-
not be considered in the same light as the episodes treated above. The
choice in such circumstances must have been among flight, collaboration,
or death, and the historian has no right to judge the people confronted
with such a situation. There were undoubtedly also cases of collabora-
tion in less dramatic circumstances, but despite the uneasy relationship
between Venice and some of its subjects, especially in Crete, one can also
bring opposite examples of collaboration with Venice in the defense of
the two islands against the invading enemy. Briefly, I tend to believe that
349 Papadia-Lala, Αροτικές Ταραχές; O’Connell, Men of Empire, pp. 149–58.
350 O’Connell, Men of Empire, p. 149.
351 Ventura, Nobiltà e popolo, pp. 217–28, 241–42; Tenenti, “Le Isole Ionie,” pp. 17–18
and n. 7.