Land and Landowners in the Greek Territories 85
The situation was altogether different in the case of the colonisation of
Canea in 1252. Here, the relevant document makes explicit reference to con-
quest (acquisitio) and counts the participating feudatories as part of an invad-
ing army. It is telling that the 15 cavallarie that had been set aside for the
capitaneus and his councillors to give to persons of their choosing, had to be
distributed before the conquest, to ensure that these persons would take part
in the fighting. As has already been mentioned, the capitaneus (along with his
two councillors) had been sent as head of the expedition and was responsible
for the conquest and subsequent organisation of the territory of Canea. Venice
had envisioned that the whole expedition would be completed within two
years. As is proven, however, by the document of 1256, the conquest and the
distribution of land took four years to complete. There can be no doubt that
the conquest of the western part of Crete was the final and toughest of the chal-
lenges that Venice faced, but one nonetheless that she concluded successfully.
At the end of the colonisation, 234 feudatories had arrived on the island and
had shared 1139 serventarie or 190 cavallarie. The number of cavallarie (190)
may resemble that of the original plan (200), but the number of fief-holders fell
far short of the 540 that Venice originally envisioned. Of course one should take
into account the number of colonists that had received fiefs separately, not
as part of an organised expedition. But in the 45 years between 1211 and 1256
much had changed; landownership in Crete was no longer regulated through
an organised plan. From now on state intervention focused on controlling who
acquired land and on ensuring that the responsibilities of the landowners were
fulfilled.
By the mid-13th century the organised colonisation of Crete had stopped, as
the land necessary to ensure political and social domination had been occu-
pied. In the following years, readjustments within the class of feudal landown-
ers in Crete took place due to different reasons.
Official Terminology vs. Reality
The terminology of the documents that accompanied colonisation and of
other documents, particularly the ones relating to deals made with various reb-
els, is interesting in its own right. In the document of the first colonisation, the
Venetians who participated in the expedition (dilecti fideles nostri, viri Veneti)
are referred to as milites and pedites and their assigned land as militia. The
militia of the former was to consist of six units (sex partes) and of the latter of
one (una pars). The terms milites (which is used generally to describe Venetian
feudatories) and militia (which is used to describe their land) emphasise the
military character of the expedition. The document of the second colonisation
(1222) expands this military terminology. The term pedites is replaced by the