210 chapter four
after the military setbacks of 1343–1344, Janibek planned a combined
land and sea operation for spring of the following year to encircle the city.
to guarantee success, he decreed that while the land forces were gather-
ing in Solkhat, galleys should be built in the crimea’s Western ports, and
in nearby Soldaia, to blockade caffa by sea.265 Several centuries of experi-
ence in naval warfare certainly told in favour of the Genoese when they
responded, promptly and efficiently, to the threat from the steppe sailors:
a squadron was swiftly prepared in Genoa in March 1345, and destroyed
Janibek’s naval programme in its early stages.266
With the Venetians neutral, Genoese naval supremacy proved just as
powerful elsewhere in the Black Sea: rumour had it, credibly enough given
the circumstances, that the emir of Sinope intended to send a fleet of
Muslim warriors to help his Jochid coreligionists, but this remained only
a rumour.267
265 Venetian envoys sent this news too to the doge, in January 1345: De extra sentimus
quod Imperator facit fieri ad Cibanum, Calamitam et per Gotiam galleas .XXX. vel circha et,
ut predicitur, in Sorgati facit preparari (e)difficia et gentem et, ut apparet, ipse Imperator
intendit in isto primo tempore veniendi ad obsessum Gaffe per mare et per terram (Morozzo
della rocca, “Notizie,” p. 282; cf. papacostea, “tana,” p. 212); further infomation came
three months later from a Genoese who had been charged with spying out the region:
Die .XV. mensis marcii applicuit in Gaffam dominus Federicus Pichameio cum illa gallea
armata que possita est ad custodiam istius terre, que gallea missa fuit per istos dominos
per riperiam Gotie usque in Cressonam causa sciendi novam. Qui dominus Federicus dixit
quod in Calamita fiunt .V. gallee, de quibus ipse vidit .III., et in Soldaia dicitur quod similiter
.IIIor. galle fiunt et alique galiote, que galle quousque huc videntur malle esse ad pontum.
Fuit datum domino Imperatori magnum intendimentum et magnam spem predictarum gal-
learum et incepte fuerunt cum magna (s)ponte et trionfo, sed, sicut nobis apparet, modicum
effectum habebunt. [.. .] Item dixit [.. .] quod civitas Cressone at omnes marine *** (deser)
tantur et quilibet trait se infra terram et hoc de precepto domini Imperatoris ad hoc ut aliqua
v(ictualia) detur Gaffe. Dixit etiam [.. .] quod [.. .] dice(batur) publice de adventu Mogalbey,
[.. .] qui, ut dicitur, venit cum magno exercitu ad obsedium Gaffe (Morozzo della rocca,
“Notizie,” pp. 288–289).
266 a Venetian letter sent to the doge from caffa at the end of March described the
Genoese construction drive and the outcome: In ista terra sunt facte multe galiote a viginti
usque in .LX. remis, cum quibus isti intendunt cursiçare et derobare per riperiam marinam
istius Imperii (Morozzo della rocca, “Notizie,” pp. 288–289).
267 No other source reports the fact noted by a Venetian agent on 5th april 1345: Isti
domini .IIIIor. [= caffan leaders] determinaverunt mitendi dominum Ranierium Spinolam cum
una galiota a .XXXor. usque in .XL. remos usque Sinopim et ibi videre si veritas est quod iste
Calabi intendit armare omnes suas galiotas et galleam et contra eos ire et oviare ipsos in mare
(ibid., p. 289). the emir’s intention to come to the aid of the Jochids against the Genoese
is plausible enough if we consider that the Venetians accused their Genoese partners vos
probitis cum vestris navigiis etiam lignis illis de Sinopi qui sunt in partibus Turchie, quod ipsi
in Imperio predicti Imperatoris Çanibec venire non deberent ad marcadiçandum (ibid., p. 291).
an embassy sent by Ratana, qui est domnius tocius Turchie Maris Maius disembarked at
caffa in September 1344 on the way to Janibek, and does not seem to have been an attempt