160 chapter four
concluding a treaty with the emperor andronikos II palaiologos in 1285
which allowed them to take part in Black Sea commerce. this placed
great strain on anybody trading with the Genoese.70 the fall of acre
in 1291 deprived Venice of their main base for the oriental trade,71 and
the loss was aggravated by a papal embargo against the Mamluk sultan,
announced right after the catastrophe. they then tried to force their way
into the Black Sea, and the inevitable result was that the first war of the
Straits between the two Italian naval and commercial powers broke out
in the last decade of the thirteenth century.72
among the first Venetian actions which announced the new course
of events was the Senate’s decision on 10th april 1291 to send an envoy
ad imperatorem noqa, to the “emperor Noghai,” who was to stay in the
Mongol capital for three years if the mission was a success.73 there is no
doubt that the Venetians intended to supplant the Genoese as the Golden
horde’s trading partners:74 Noghai was beyond question the most power-
ful figure in the ulus of Jochi,75 well able to take such a decision, and was
just at that moment engaged in replacing the ruling (and rightful) khan of
the Golden horde, töle Bugha, with prince toqta.
there is no record that any such accord was ever reached, and the
question that remains—and may probably be answered in the negative—
is whether the Venetians acted in concert with Noghai when they moved
against caffa in the final years of the century. the Venetians were the first
to attack crimea, following Genoese attacks in the eastern Mediterranean
at coron in 1293 and off the port of ayas in 1294. the Serenissima mobil-
ised its forces and in 1296 launched an attack on the Straits and the Black
Sea. the assault came in two waves, the first squadron burning Genoese
pera and the second, a large fleet commanded by Giovanni Soranzo, doing
the same to caffa in the autumn.76
70 papacostea, “Gênes,” pp. 228–229.
71 on the Genoese part in the fall of acre, see above, p. 85 note 114.
72 cf. heyd, Histoire, II, p. 169, caro, Genua, II, pp. 174–181, Brătianu, Recherches, pp.
251 ff. (chapter ‘Les origines de la guerre de curzola’), Schmid, Beziehungen, pp. 147 ff.,
Berindei, o’riordan, “Venise,” p. 245, papacostea, “Gênes,” pp. 230–233.
73 cf. Manfroni, “Le relazioni,” p. 384, Brătianu, Recherches, pp. 256–257, Soranzo, Pap-
ato, p. 455, Spuler, Horde, p. 70 note 37, Schmid, Beziehungen, p. 141, papacostea, “Gênes,”
p. 230.
74 on this see Brătianu, Recherches, p. 262, caro, Genua, II, p. 184, papacostea, “Gênes,”
p. 230.
75 See chapter 4.3.2.
76 cf. Loenertz, “Menego Schiavo,” pp. 317–318, Laiou, Constantinople, p. 107, papa-
costea, “Gênes,” pp. 231–232.