Society, Administration And Identities In Latin Greece 143
latter policies were widely adopted by the maritime powers of the age, Venice
and Genoa. Concurrently, however, already from the 13th century Venice initi-
ated the creation of a powerful maritime state in the East that was of both
centralised character as well as possessing self-governing privileges.
The feudal institutions adopted in medieval Greece were in large part sus-
tained by the Assizes of Romania (or, on the island of Cyprus, by the Assizes
of Jerusalem); nevertheless, there are also instances of an empirical applica-
tion of feudal principles, e.g. in the Venetian regions and principally Crete, as
well as the adoption of other codes, such as the Customs of Barcelona in the
Catalan lordship.
Within the feudal lordships of Latin Greece the governor was assisted by
the Latin feudatories who, as members of the local councils and possessing
high administrative and judicial competences, composed the upper social
stratum. The feudal administrative-social organisation gradually also saw the
entry of Greeks, who were either members of the former Byzantine elite or
else new elements sympathetic to the West. The Latin and Greek feudatories
mainly lived in the walled fortress cities/castles which gradually became cen-
tres of commerce and crafts. Next in the social hierarchy was a mixed urban
population ranging from affluent merchants to simple folk (craftsmen, labour-
ers) who were mainly local Latins or foreigners, but also Greeks. Last on the
social scale and living outside the city walls were the landless Greek peasants
making up the great majority of the population: agricultural labourers, they
toiled under an oppressive socioeconomic regime, working on the domains of
the landowners who, though mainly Latin at the start, increasingly included a
growing number of Greeks.
The Venetian-ruled Greek lands saw the institution of a similar social organ-
isation where, however, civil institutions predominated: at the top of the social
scale were the nobles or citizens, both Latins and Greeks, members of the civic
communal councils who were, in their vast majority, also big landowners/feu-
datories and who participated in the local administration; they were followed
by the intermediate and lower social strata residing in the city (cittadini-civili
and popolo), while at the lowest level were the Οrthodox Greek-peasants, both
unfree and free.
It was against this social backdrop that there gradually emerged the new
identities of Latin Greece that materialised on the basis of composite “eth-
nic”, religious and social constituents. At the start, the divisions were founded
mainly on differences of rite: the ruling upper class was closely identified
with the western Catholics and the socially inferior, ruled populations with
the Greek-Orthodox. Although one’s religious affiliation remained a constant
feature of differentiation between Latins and Greeks throughout the period of