Democratic Culture in the Early Venetian Republic

Abstract

Between the fifth and the thirteenth century ad, from the fall of Rome to the stirrings of the Renaissance, the politics of Europe was monarchical and hierarchical, feudal, brutal and unfair. Throughout this exact period, Venice played a role in keeping democratic tendencies alive. Venice flourished in the so-called ‘Dark Ages’, economically and intellectually, with a system of government that often fell into oligarchy and sometimes toyed with autocracy, but which nevertheless kept the best traditions of Greek and Roman democratic citizenship alive. The most serene republic—Serenissima, as Venice styled itself—had many democratic virtues: it was founded in equality and frank speech, at play in the liminal and willing to adapt collectively to defend itself and prosper. Venice owes its existence to its location on a large lagoon formed by the estuaries of many rivers to the west and by the long, thin sand islands thrown up by the currents of the Adriatic Sea to the east. Because of its location, Venice could avoid the worst of the barbarian invasions and the wars between empires to keep alive its own republican, and even democratic traditions.