86 Gasparis
term sergentes or servientes (sergeants) and we have the first appearance of the
terms cavallaria and serventaria or sergentaria.19 The term serventaria denotes
the land assigned to the serventem and the term cavallaria (which appears only
once in the document) denotes landed property in general, just like militia,
which continues to be used in reference to the land given to the milites. The
term pheudum also appears in this document for the first time, as a synonym
of militia or cavallaria, the land that is, that the feudatories would receive upon
arrival to Crete.
The expedition of 1222 was joined, for the first time, by two non-Venetians:
Ardizonus Zonus from Padua (de civitate Padue) and Thomas de Tumba from
Caorle (de Caproli).20 Though the document of the first colonisation makes
reference only to “faithful Venetian subjects” installing themselves in Crete,
all the subsequent documents (be they colonisation documents or treaties)
feature the terms milites Latini, which of course included both Venetians and
other Italians. The term may also be taken to refer to all those who adhered to
the Catholic faith, since it is often juxtaposed with the Greeks (Greci).21
The feudatories of Crete, regardless of whether they were Venetian or other
Latins, are also described by the term milites Cretenses, which first appears
in 1231 in a decree by the Doge of Venice Jacobo Tiepolo.22 The Treaty of the
Two Sybritoi, concluded in 1234 between the Duke of Crete Angelo Gradonico
and the inhabitants of the territory of Rethymnon is signed not just by
the authorities, but also by 40 milites feudati de Creta.23 Thus we see that
alongside the term fief we also have the first appearance of the term feudatory
( feudatus) in an official document. The term would gain wider currency dur-
ing the 14th century.
19 The term sergentes had already made its appearance in 1213, in the treaty between the
Duke of Crete Jacobo Tiepolo and Marco Sanudo: “In primis enim omnes milites et ser-
gentes de parte domini Ducis.. .” See, Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden, 2:159, no. 235.
20 Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden, 2:240, no. 263.
21 The treaty between the Venetians and Marco Sanudo in 1213 mentions: “et de omnibus
aliis animalibus potestatem habere debeant vendere ad Grecos, et non ad Latinos; et suas
causas recommendare debent, quibus voluerint, tam Latinis, quam Grecis.” See, Tafel
and Thomas, Urkunden, 2:163, no. 235. The treaty between the Duke of Crete Domenico
Delphino, Constantinos Sevastos and Theodoros Melissenos in 1219 says: “prenominati lo
Sevasto et Mellisino com suis guarnire de militibus et sergentibus ad servandum eos, sicut
milites Latini.. .” See, Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden, 2:211, no. 255.
22 Ernst Gerland, ed., Das Archiv des Herzogs von Kandia im königl: Staatsarchiv zu Venedig
(Strasburg, 1899), p. 77.
23 Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden, 2:322–26, no. 290.