Chapter DXIV: Section 2: The Congress shall have power to enforce this (4)

"Many of the Warings and probably of the English also had
taken military service at an early period under the Byzantine
emperors. They formed a body-guard for the Emperor, and soon
gained for themselves a renown greater than that possessed by
the earlier imperial guard of the Immortals. The Byzantine
writers usually speak of them as the barbarian guard or as the
axe-bearers. Their weapon was the Danish battle-axe, or rather
bill, and seems not to have had two blades turning different
ways like those of a halberd, but to have had one with a sharp
steel spike projecting, so that the weapon could be used
either to strike or to thrust. Anna, the daughter of Alexis
the First, calls them Warings or Varangians. Nicetas speaks of
them as Germans. The Western writers call them usually Danes,
or 'English and Danes.' The conquest of England by William the
Norman caused many of the English to emigrate to Russia and so
to Constantinople, where they joined the Waring guard. …
Warings and English, while occupants of the Greek palace,
still spoke their own language, had their own laws, and chose,
with certain exceptions, their own officers. The one in
command was called the acolyth, or follower, because his place
was immediately behind the Emperor."

_E. Pears,
The Fall of Constantinople,
chapter 6. section 3._

ALSO IN:
_V. Thomsen,
The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia,
lecture 3._

See, also, RUSSIA: A. D. 862.

VARAVILLE, Battle of.

A decisive victory over the French, invading Normandy, by Duke
William—afterwards the Conqueror of England—A. D. 1058.

_E. A. Freeman,
Norman Conquest,
chapter 12, section 2 (volume 3)._

VARCHONITES, The.

See AVARS.

VARIAN LAW.

See MAJESTAS.

VARIAN MASSACRE, The.

See GERMANY: B. C. 8-A. D. 11.

VARINI, The.

See AVIONES.

VARKANA.

See HYRCANIA.

VARNA, The battle of (1444).

See TURKS: A. D. 1402-1451.

VARNA, Siege and capture (1828).

See TURKS: A. D. 1826-1829.

VARUS, and his Legions, The destruction of.

See GERMANY: B. C. 8-A. D. 11.

VASCONES, The.

See BASQUES.

VASSAL.

See FEUDALISM.

VASSAR COLLEGE.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: REFORMS, &c.: A. D. 1804-1891.

VASSILI.

See BASIL.

VASSY, The Massacre of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1560-1563.

VATICAN, THE. THE LEONINE CITY.

"The name Vatican was applied by the writers of the Augustan
age to the whole range of hills extending along the western
bank of the Tiber, including the Janiculum and the Monte
Mario. … But the name Vaticanus has now been restricted to the
small hill standing behind the Basilica of St. Peter's, upon
which the Vatican Museum and the Papal Gardens are situated.
This hill is a small projecting portion of the range which
includes the Janiculum and Monte Mario, and it is separated
from the Janiculum by a depression, along which the street of
the Borgo S. Spirito runs. The derivation of the name Vatican
is lost. Gellius has preserved a quotation from Varro, in
which the word is said to be derived from a deity Vaticanus,
the presiding god of the first rudiments of speech ('vagire,'
'vagitanus'). Paulus Diaconus gives a different explanation,
founded on the supposed expulsion of the Etruscans in
fulfilment of an oracle ('vatum responso expulsis Etruscis');
and from this Niebuhr and Bunsen, following him, have supposed
that an Etruscan city existed here in ancient times. There
appears to be no sufficient evidence of such a settlement."

_R. Burn,
Rome and the Campagna,
chapter 11._

In the ninth century, at the time of the pontificate of Leo
IV., "the nations of the West and North who visited the
threshold of the apostles had gradually formed the large and
populous suburb of the Vatican, and their various habitations
were distinguished, in the language of the times, as the
'schools' of the Greeks and Goths, of the Lombards and Saxons.
But this venerable spot was still open to sacrilegious insult:
the design of enclosing it with walls and towers exhausted all
that authority could command or charity would supply: and the
pious labour of four years was animated in every season and at
every hour by the presence of the indefatigable pontiff. The
love of fame, a generous but worldly passion, may be detected
in the name of the Leonine City, which he bestowed on the
Vatican; yet the pride of the dedication was tempered with
Christian penance and humility."

_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 52._

VATICAN COUNCIL, The.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1869-1870.

VATICAN LIBRARY, The.

See LIBRARIES, MODERN: EUROPE, and ITALY.

VAUCHAMP. Battle of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).

VAUDOIS.

See WALDENSES.

VAUGHT'S HILL, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (FEBRUARY-APRIL: TENNESSEE).

VAVASSOR, VAVASOUR.

See FEUDAL TENURES;
also CATTANI.

VECTIGAL, THE. VECTIGALIA.

"Pascua—Vectigalia-Publicum-are the terms employed to denote
generally the Revenues of Rome, from whatever source derived.
Pascua, i. e. Pasture lands, signified Revenue; because, in
the earliest ages, the public income was derived solely from
the rent of pastures belonging to the state. … Vectigal is the
word used more frequently than any other to denote the Revenue
of the state generally. … Publicum, in its widest acceptation,
comprehended every thing which belonged to the community at
large."

_W. Ramsay,
Manual of Roman Antiquity,
chapter 8._

"Cicero states that there was a difference between Sicily and
all the other Roman provinces in the management of the
Vectigal, which is the name for the contribution which the
provinces made to the Roman State. All the provinces except
Sicily paid either a fixed land-tax (vectigal stipendiarium)
or tenths [decumæ] or other quotæ of their produce, and these
tenths were let at Rome by the censors to the Publicani, who
paid the State a certain sum for the privilege of collecting
the tenths and made out of them what profit they could. … The
tenths of wheat and barley were let in Sicily to the
Publicani, but sometimes a community would bid for its tenths
and pay them itself."

_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 3, chapter 4._

{3598}

VECTIS.
The ancient name of the Isle of Wight.

_E. H. Bunbury,
History of Ancient Geography,
chapter 24, section 2 (volume 2)._

VEDAS. VEDIC HYMNS. VEDISM.

See INDIA: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS,
and IMMIGRATION AND CONQUESTS OF THE ARYAS.

VEHMGERICHTS. VEHMIC COURTS.

"In times when political, social, and legal life are in
process of fermentation, and struggling towards a new order of
things, the ordinary tribunals lose their authority, and from
the body of the people men spring up to protect the right in a
primitive fashion, and to punish the criminal who has escaped
the ordinary penalties of the law. Thus, at the close of the
Middle Ages, or, more precisely, the first half of the 15th
century, the Vehmgerichts (or Vehmic Courts, also called Free
Courts, Franchise Courts, Secret Courts) rose to an authority
which extended all over Germany, which knew no respect of
persons, and before which many evil-doers in high places, who
had bade defiance to the ordinary tribunals, were made to
tremble. The name 'Vehme' is derived from the old German
'vervehmen,' which means to ban, or to curse. The Vehmic
courts were peculiar to Westphalia, and even there could only
be held on the 'Red Land'—that is, the district between the
Rhine and the Weser. They were dependent on the German Emperor
alone, and their presidents, the Free-counts, received from
the Emperor in person, or from his representative, the Elector
of Cologne, the power of life and death. They traced their
origin to Charlemagne, who, respecting the legal customs of
the old heathen Saxons, introduced county courts among them
after they had been converted to Christianity. For, even in
the most ancient times, the Saxon freemen used to assemble at
an appointed season, after they had held their great
sacrifice, and hold a 'Thing' under the presidency of one of
their oldest members, called the Grave, or Count, where they
inflicted punishment and administered justice. The Vehmic
court consisted of a Free-count and a number of assessors, who
were called 'The Initiated,' because they knew the secrets of
the holy Vehme. There must be at least fourteen of these
assessors, but there were generally twice that number. As it
was no secret when a man was all assessor, and as it
contributed greatly to the safety of his person, since people
took good care not to molest a member of the holy Vehme, it
gradually came about that men from every German province
obtained admission into the number of assessors. When the
Emperor Sigismund was elected into the number of 'The
Initiated' at the Franchise Court of Dortmund, the number of
assessors is said to have amounted to 100,000, among whom were
many princes and nobles. And about a thousand assessors are
said to have been present when the ban was issued against Duke
Henry of Bavaria in 1429. … There was a 'secret court' to
which only the initiated had access, and a 'public court'
which was held in the morning in the light of day at a known
court-house. The presidents' chairs were always set in the
open air under a lime, oak, pear, or hawthorn tree, an often
near a town, castle, or village. At Dortmund the president's
chair was placed close to the town wall under a lime-tree,
which, though sadly shattered, is still standing between the
rails inside the railway station. Round the stone table were
ranged three stone benches for the assessors; on the table
there was carved in relief the German imperial eagle, and on
it was placed the sword of justice, … The Vehmic court which
was originally, and was bound to be, a public one, gradually
altered its character, enveloped itself in mysterious
darkness, and under the cloak of secrecy lent itself to all
sorts of unrighteous objects. In 1461, accordingly, princes
and cities leagued together to suppress the irregularities of
these courts, and as soon as the orderly administration of
justice came into existence with the rise of the new princely
authority, they perished from their own impotence."

_A. W. Grube,
Heroes of History and Legend,
chapter 13._

ALSO IN:
_Sir W. Scott,
Introduction to "Anne of Geierstein."_

_A. P. Marras,
Secret Fraternities of the Middle Ages,
chapter 5._

VEII. VEIENTINE WARS.

See ROME: B. C. 406-396.

VELABRUM, The.

See FORUM BOARIUM.

VELETRI, Battle of.

See ITALY: A. D. 1744.

VELETRI, Battle of (1849).

See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.

VELIBORI, The.

See IRELAND. TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.

VELITES.

The light infantry of the Roman army, as distinguished from
the heavy-armed legionaries. "The velites did not wear any
corslet or cuirass, but their tunic appears to have been
formed of leather. … It is possible also that the velites
sometimes wore, instead of leather, a tunic of quilted linen."

_C. Boutell,
Arms and Armour,
chapter 4._

VELLICA, Battle of.

See CANTABRIANS.

VELLINGHAUSEN, or KIRCH-DEN-KERN, Battle of (1761).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1761-1762.

VELLORE, Sepoy mutiny and massacre at (1806).

See INDIA: A. D. 1805-1816.

VELOCASSES, The.

See BELGÆ.

VENATIONES.

Contests of wild beasts with each other or with men, in the
Roman amphitheatres, were called Venationes.

_W. Ramsay,
Manual of Roman Antiquities,
chapter 10._

VENDEE, The War in La.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1793
(MARCH-APRIL), (JUNE), (JULY-DECEMBER);
1793-1794 (OCTOBER-APRIL); and 1794-1796.

VENDEMIARE, The month.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (OCTOBER)
THE NEW REPUBLICAN CALENDAR.

VENDEMIARE: The 13th.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

VENEDI, The.

"The Venedi extended beyond the Peucini and Bastarnæ [around
the mouths of the Danube] as far as the Baltic Sea; where is
the Sinus Venedicus, now the Gulf of Dantzig. Their name is
also preserved in Wenden, a part of Livonia. When the German
nations made their irruption into Italy, France, and Spain,
the Venedi, also called Winedi, occupied their vacant
settlements between the Vistula and Elbe. Afterward they
crossed the Danube, and seized Dalmatia, Illyricum, Istria,
Carniola, and the Noric Alps. A part of Carniola still retains
the name of Windismarck derived from them. This people were
also called Slavi."

_Tacitus,
The Germans,
note to Oxford Translation,
chapter 46._

"The Venedi [of Tacitus] … are obviously the Wends—the name by
which the Germans always designate the neighbouring Slavonian
populations; but which is no more a national name than that of
Wälsch, which they apply in like manner to the Latin races on
their southern frontiers."

_E. H. Bunbury,
History of Ancient Geography,
chapter 26, section. 2, foot-note (volume 2)._

See, also, SLAVONIC PEOPLES, and VANDALS.

{3599}

VENEDI OF BOHEMIA, The.

See AVARS: 7TH CENTURY.

VENEDOTIA.

See BRITAIN: 6TH CENTURY.

VENETA.

See (in Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.

VENETI OF CISALPINE GAUL, The.

One of the tribes or nations of Cisalpine Gaul bore the name
of the Veneti. The Veneti occupied the country between the
rivers Adige and Plavis and seem to have been considerably
civilized when they first appear in history. They became
allies of the Romans at an early day and were favorably dealt
with when Gallia Cisalpina was added to the dominions of
Rome. "No ancient writer distinctly states to what race the
Veneti belonged. They are said to have resembled the Illyrians
in dress and manners; but the very way in which this statement
is made shows that its author did not regard them as
Illyrians. … I have no doubt that the Veneti belonged to the
race of the Liburnians, and that accordingly they were a
branch of the wide-spread Tyrrheno-Pelasgians, in consequence
of which they also became so easily Latinized." The capital
city of the Veneti was Patavium (modern Padua). "Patavium was
a very ancient and large town, and it is strange that it
appears as such in Roman history all at once. It is mentioned
as early as the fifth century [B. C.], during the expedition
of the Spartan Cleonymus; it is also spoken of at the time of
Caesar and of the triumvirs. But Strabo is the first who
describes Patavium as a large town, and in such a manner as to
make it evident that it was an ancient place. He says that,
next to Rome, it was the wealthiest city of Italy. … In the
time of Augustus it was a large commercial and manufacturing
place."

_B. G. Niebuhr,
Lectures on Ancient Ethnography and Geography,
volume 2, page 246._

VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL, The.

"The Veneti were one of the Armoric states of the Celtae.
Their neighbours on the south were the Namnetes or Nannetes
(Nantes), on the east the Redones, and on the north the
Curiosolitae, and the Osismi in the north-west part of
Bretagne, in the department of Finistère. The chief town of
the Veneti was Dariorigum, now Vannes, on the bay of Morbihan
in the French department of Morbihan, which may correspond
nearly to the country of the Veneti. The Veneti were the most
powerful of all the maritime peoples who occupied the
peninsula of Bretagne. They had many vessels in which they
sailed to the island Britannia, to Cornwall and the parts
along the south coast of England, as we may assume. They
surpassed all their neighbours in skill and experience in
naval affairs."

_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 4, chapter 6._

The Veneti, "together with the Aulerci, Rhedones [or Redones],
Carnutes, Andi and Turones, occupied the whole space between
the lower Seine and the lower Loire, and were apparently
closely united among themselves."

_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 7._

"The Andes [Andi] are the people whom Tacitus names the
Andecavi, and the copyists of Ptolemy have named Ondicavae.
They were west of the Turones, and their position is defined
by the town Juliomagus or Civitas Andecavorum, now Angers on
the Mayenne."

_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 4, chapter 6._

"In my opinion these Veneti were the founders of the Veneti in
the Adriatic, for almost all the other Keltic nations in Italy
have passed over from the country beyond the Alps, as for
instance the Boii and Senones. … However, I do not maintain my
opinion positively; for in these matters probability is quite
sufficient."

_Strabo,
Geography;
translated by Hamilton and Falconer,
book 4, chapter 4, section 1._

VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL, The.
Cæsar's campaign.

Cæsar's third campaign in Gaul, B. C. 56, was directed against
the Veneti and their Armorican neighbors. These tribes had
submitted themselves in the previous year to Cæsar's
lieutenant, the younger Crassus; but the heavy exactions of
the Romans provoked a general rising, and Cæsar was called to
the scene in person. The Veneti were so amphibious a race, and
their towns were generally placed so much out of the reach of
a land army, that he found it necessary to build a fleet at
the mouth of the Loire and bring it up against them. But the
Veneti were better sailors than the Romans and their ships
were more strongly built, so that the advantage would have
still remained to them if Roman inventiveness had not turned
the scale. Cæsar armed his men with hooked knives at the end
of long poles, with which they cut the rigging of the Venetian
ships and brought down their clumsy sails, which were of
leather. By this means he overcame and destroyed them, in a
great naval fight. When the survivors submitted, he ruthlessly
slew the senatorial elders and sold the remnant of the people
into slavery.

_Cæsar,
Gallic Wars,
book 3, chapters 7-16._

ALSO IN:
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 4, chapter 6._

_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 7._

_Napoleon III.,
History of Cæsar,
book 3, chapter 6._

VENETIA.

See VENICE.

----------VENEZUELA: Start--------

VENEZUELA:
Aboriginal inhabitants.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CARIBS AND THEIR KINDRED,
and COAJIRO.

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1499-1550.
Discovery and naming of the province.
Its first occupation by German adventurers.

"The province contiguous to Santa Martha on the east was first
visited by Alonso de Ojeda, in the year 1499.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1499-1500.

The Spaniards, on their landing there, having observed some
huts in an Indian village, built upon piles, in order to raise
them above the stagnated water which covered the plain, were
led to bestow upon it the name of Venezuela, or little Venice.
… They made some attempts to settle there, but with little
success. The final reduction of the province was accomplished
by means very different from those to which Spain was indebted
for its other acquisitions in the new world. The ambition of
Charles V. often engaged him in operations of such variety and
extent that his revenues were not sufficient to defray the
expense of carrying them into execution. Among other
expedients for supplying the deficiency of his funds, be had
borrowed large sums from the Velsers of Augsburg, the most
opulent merchants at that time In Europe. By way of
retribution for these, or in hopes, perhaps, of obtaining a
new loan, he bestowed upon them the province of Venezuela, to
be held as an hereditary fief from the crown of Castile, on
condition that within a limited time they should render
themselves masters of the country, and establish a colony
there. …
{3600}
Unfortunately they committed the execution of their plan to
some of those soldiers of fortune with which Germany abounded
in the 16th century. These adventurers, impatient to amass
riches, that they might speedily abandon a station which they
soon discovered to be very uncomfortable, instead of planting
a colony in order to cultivate and improve the country,
wandered from district to district in search of mines,
plundering the natives with unfeeling rapacity, or oppressing
them by the imposition of intolerable tasks. In the course of
a few years, their avarice and exactions, in comparison with
which those of the Spaniards were moderate, desolated the
province so completely that it could hardly afford them
subsistence, and the Velsers relinquished a property from
which the inconsiderate conduct of their agents left them no
hope of ever deriving any advantage. When the wretched
remainder of the Germans deserted Venezuela, the Spaniards
again took possession of it."

_W. Robertson,
History of America,
book 7._

ALSO IN:
_F. Depous,
Travels in South America,
chapter 1._

See, also, EL DORADO.

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1718-1731.
Embraced in the viceroyalty of New Granada.
Raised to a distinct captain-generalship.

See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1536-1731.

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1810-1819.
The War of Independence.
Miranda and Bolivar.
The great Earthquake.

See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1810-1819.

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1821.
Beginning of the Emancipation of Slaves.

See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1821-1854.

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1821-1826.
Confederation with New Granada and Ecuador in the
Republic of Colombia, and the breaking of the Confederacy.

See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1819-1830.

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1829-1886.
Summary record of revolutions and civil wars.
The strife of the Yellows and the Blues.

"In all countries, under whatever name they may be known,
there are two great political parties; the conservatives and
the reformers. … Venezuela is no exception to the general
rule; there is the 'Oligarquia,' which desires to let things
alone, and the 'Liberal' party, which wishes to remould them
in accordance with the spirit of the age. The Spanish
misgovernment left a legacy of bitterness and anarchy that has
been the cause of much misery. Political passion runs very
high in the country, and its history for a generation between
these two parties has been a continual struggle, always more
or less warlike. The existence of Venezuela in an independent
capacity is due, in a large measure, to the personal ambition
of Paez, by whose influence the great Liberator was exiled
from his fatherland, and the republic separated from Colombia.
Whatever may have been the real wishes of the people, the
death of Bolivar put an end to all thoughts of re-union; and
Paez became its first constitutional president. The second
president was the learned Dr. José Maria Vargas, whose
election in March 1835 was said to have been irregular, and
led to the ' Revolucion de las Reformas.' He was deposed and
expelled in July, but in August recalled to power! General
Paez now took the field against the ' reformistas,' and a
civil war ensued, continuing until March 1836, when they were
completely subjugated, and treated with great rigour by order
of the Congress, but against the desire of Paez, who entreated
to be allowed to deal with them clemently. In 1836, Dr. Vargas
resigned the presidency, and after the remainder of his term
had been occupied by three vice-presidents, General Paez, in
1839, became again the legitimate head of the nation. Now that
the grave had closed over Simon Bolivar, the passions which
had prevented the recognition of his greatness died also, and
on the 17th of December 1842, the ashes of the immortal
Liberator were transferred from Santa Maria with every mark of
public respect and honour and received a magnificent national
funeral, in the Temple of San Francisco, in Caracas. The fifth
president was General Soublette, and the sixth General Jose
Tadeo Monagas, who was elected in 1847. A great part of the
Venezuelan people believe that all the evils that have fallen
upon the republic since 1846 have had their origin in the
falsification of votes, said to have taken place during the
election of Monagas for president. The liberal candidate was
Antonio Leocadio Guzman; and it is asserted that he had a
majority of votes. … Monagas did not have an easy tenure of
office, for the opposition of Paez led to two years of civil
war. Here it may be noted to the credit of the liberal party
that, at a time when many of its opponents were prisoners, it
abolished the penalty of death for political offences. To his
brother, General Jose Gregorio Monagas, afterwards president
of the republic, was due the emancipation of the slaves. The
famous law of March 24th, 1854, conceded liberty and equal
rights to all; but by a strange irony of fortune, he who had
given the precious boon of freedom to thousands died himself
incarcerated in a political prison. … At the beginning of 1859
the discontent of the liberals had reached a pitch which led
to the outbreak of the War of the Federation. It was in this
struggle that the present leader of the liberal party first
displayed his military skill." Antonio Guzman Blanco, born in
1830 and educated for the law, lived some years in the United
States, part of the time as Secretary of Legation at
Washington. Driven from Venezuela in 1858, "his expatriation
soon after brought him in contact, first in St. Thomas and
afterwards in Curazao, with General Falcon, then the head of
'los liberales.' Falcon landed in Venezuela in July 1859, and
proclaimed the Federal Republic. Many rose to support him, and
in Caracas, on the 1st of August, the president, Monagas, was
arrested; the next day the same troops declared against the
Federation, and fired upon the people! So commenced the five
years' War of the Federation, which has left, even to the
present day, its black and ruined tracks across the face of
the country. On the 30th of September was fought the battle of
Sabana de la Cruz, resulting in the fall of Barquisimeto. In
this action, so fortunate for the liberals, Guzman Blanco made
his acquaintance with war, and showed so much military talent
and energy that he was induced to leave his civil duties and
take a 'comandante's' commission. The victory of Santa Ines,
in December of the same year, followed. … The attack on San
Carlos followed soon after, and was a disaster for the
federals, who lost their general, Zamora, and were forced to
retreat.
{3601}
Falcon sought aid in Nueva Granada." The next year Guzman
Blanco won the victory of Quebrada-seca, October 21, 1862.
"Other victories followed, and were crowned by the grand and
decisive combat of the 16th, 17th, and 18th of April, which
gave the province of Caracas to the Federals, and led to a
treaty between the two parties. The peace of Coche was
arranged by Señor Pedro José Rojas, secretary to the Dictator,
as Paez was sometimes called, and Guzman Blanco, as
representative of Falcon, the chief of the revolution. Paez,
by this treaty, undertook to abdicate 30 days later, when an
assembly of 80, nominated in equal parts by the chiefs of each
party, was to decide on a programme for the future. The
assembly met in Victoria, and nominated Falcon President and
Guzman Blanco provisional vice-president of the Federation.
Falcon entered Caracas in triumph on July 24, 1863, and Guzman
Blanco became Minister of Finance and of Foreign Relations."
Guzman Blanco visited Europe in 1864 and 1867 to negotiate
loans. "Meanwhile, in Caracas, the 'oligarquia,' which now
assumed the name of the Blue party (El Partido Azul), was not
idle, and its activity was increased by dissensions in the
opposition. A section of the liberal party [or 'los
amarillos'-'Yellows'] had become greatly disaffected to
Marshal Falcon, who abdicated in favour of two revolutionary
chiefs, Bruzual and Urrutia. This led to the treaty of
Antimano, by which the 'partido azul' recognized the new
government, but directly afterwards proclaimed the presidency
of General José Tadeo Monagas. Three days' sanguinary combat,
at the end of July 1868, gave it possession of Caracas."
Guzman Blanco, returning at this juncture from Europe, was
driven to take refuge in the island of Curazao; but in
February, 1870, he reappeared in Venezuela; was supported by a
general rising; took Caracas by assault, and defeated the
Blues in several battles. "The congress of plenipotentiaries
of the states met at Valencia, and nominated Guzman Blanco
provisional president, and by the end of the year the enemy
was nearly everywhere defeated."

_J. M. Spence,
The Land of Bolivar,
volume 1, chapter 8._

From the liberation of Venezuela to the present time, "every
successive President seems to have been employed, during his
short lease of power, in trying to enrich himself and his
adherents, without the least consideration for his unfortunate
country. On paper all the laws are perfect, and the
constitution all that could be desired, but experience has
shown that the influence of the executive power is able to
subdue and absorb every other power, legislative or judicial.
One law which the Congress passed, viz:—that of division of
the National property among the defenders of the country, as
the only way of rewarding their heroic services, has become a
precedent of very bad import. At first, those who had risen
and driven out the Spaniards divided the land among
themselves, but as successive Generals strove for and gained
the Presidency they again forfeited the property of the
opposing party, and divided their possessions among their own
followers. … Paez, Vargas, Paez, Zea, Soublette, Paez, Gil,
Monagas, Falcon, Monagas, Polidor, Pulgar, Blanco, Linares,
Blanco, Crespo, and again Blanco, have succeeded each other
with marvellous rapidity, the principal occupation of the
deposed President being to conspire against his successor.
Some of them succeeded to power more than once, but Don Gusman
Blanco alone, since Bolivar, seems to have got a firm hold of
the Government, and although, by the letter of the
Constitution, he can only hold power for two years at a time,
and cannot possibly hold two terms consecutively, yet the
intervening Presidents were little more than dummies to keep
his seat warm. … At present [1886] Don Gusman Blanco is
supreme. He is reported to be immensely wealthy, and is a man
of great capacity and intelligence."

_W. Barry,
Venezuela,
chapter 5._

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1869-1892.
The constitution.
The rule of General Blanco.
The Revolution of 1889.

"The Venezuelan Constitution is modelled after the American
Constitution, with modifications grounded upon the Calhoun
doctrine of State rights.

See CONSTITUTION OF VENEZUELA.

The confederation consists of eight States, which are supreme
and coordinate in their sovereign rights. The National
Government represents, not the people, but the States. … In
1869 opened an era of peace and progress under the political
domination of General Guzman Blanco. For 20 years, whether he
was the head of a Provisional Government established by force
of arms, or the constitutional Executive, or Minister to
France, his will was the supreme force in the State. … He
suppressed Clericalism and established genuine religious
liberty. He built rail-ways, improved the public roads, and
adorned the cities. … He developed the industries and commerce
of the country, and promoted its prosperity by a policy at
once strong and pacific. It was a system of political
absolutism. … A reaction against it was inevitable. … The
signal for a political revolution was raised by university
students in October, 1889. They began operations by flinging
stones at a statue of Guzman Blanco in Caracas. … It was a
singularly effective revolution, wrought without bloodshed or
excitement. This political movement was successful because
Guzman Blanco was in Paris, and his personal representative in
the executive office was not disposed to resent public
affronts to his patron. The President, Dr. Rojas Paul, was a
wise and discreet man. … He reörganized his Cabinet so as to
exclude several of the devoted partisans of Guzman Blanco, and
brought Dr. Anduesa Palacio into the field as a candidate for
the Presidency. … Anduesa's administration, instead of being
an era of reform, reproduced all the vices and corruption of
the old order, and none of its progressive virtues. After two
years it ended in civil war, usurpation, and the enforced
resignation of Anduesa."

_I. N. Ford,
Tropical America,
chapter 12._

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1892-1893.
Constitutional Government restored.

Anduesa Palacio resigned in favor of Vice President Villegas,
and the legality of the succession was disputed by the
opposition, under ex-President Joaquin Crespo. The civil war
continued, and three short-lived dictatorships were set up in
succession; but in October, 1892, Crespo entered Caracas and
established a constitutional government. In June, 1893, a new
constitution was adopted. In October, Crespo was elected
President for a term of four years.

----------VENEZUELA: End--------

VENI, VIDI, VICI.

See ROME: B. C. 47-46.

{3602}

----------VENICE: Start--------

VENICE: A. D. 452.
The origin of the republic.

When Attila the Hun, in the year 452, crossed the Alps and
invaded Italy, "the savage destroyer undesignedly laid the
foundations of a republic which revived, in the feudal state
of Europe, the art and spirit of commercial industry. The
celebrated name of Venice, or Venetia, was formerly diffused
over a large and fertile province of Italy, from the confines
of Pannonia to the river Addua, and from the Po to the Rhætian
and Julian Alps. Before the irruption of the barbarians, fifty
Venetian cities flourished in peace and prosperity. … Many
families of Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, who fled
from the sword of the Huns, found a safe though obscure refuge
in the neighbouring islands. At the extremity of the Gulf,
where the Adriatic feebly imitates the tides of the ocean,
near a hundred small islands are separated by shallow water
from the continent, and protected from the waves by several
long slips of land, which admit the entrance of vessels
through some secret and narrow channels. Till the middle of
the 5th century these remote and sequestered spots remained
without cultivation, with few inhabitants, and almost without
a name. But the manners of the Venetian fugitives, their arts
and their government, were gradually formed by their new
situation; and one of the epistles of Cassiodorus, which
describes their condition about seventy years afterwards, may
be considered as the primitive monument of the republic. …
Fish was the common, and almost the universal, food of every
rank: their only treasure consisted in the plenty of salt
which they extracted from the sea."

_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 35._

"The inhabitants of Aquileia, or at least the feeble remnant
that escaped the sword of Attila, took refuge at Grado.
Concordia migrated to Caprularia (now Caorle). The inhabitants
of Altinum, abandoning their ruined villas, founded their new
habitations upon seven islands at the mouth of the Piave,
which, according to tradition, they named from the seven gates
of their old city. … From Padua came the largest stream of
emigrants. They left the tomb of their mythical ancestor,
Antenor, and built their humble dwellings upon the islands of
Rivus Altus and Methamaucus, better known to us as Rialto and
Malamocco. This Paduan settlement was one day to be known to
the world by the name of Venice. But let us not suppose that
the future Queen of the Adriatic sprang into existence at a
single bound like Constantinople or Alexandria. For 250 years,
that is to say for eight generations, the refugees on the
islands of the Adriatic prolonged an obscure and squalid
existence,—fishing, salt-manufacturing, damming out the waves
with wattled vine-branches, driving piles into the sand-banks;
and thus gradually extending the area of their villages. Still
these were but fishing-villages, loosely confederated
together, loosely governed, poor and insignificant. … This
seems to have been their condition, though perhaps gradually
growing in commercial importance, until at the beginning of
the 8th century the concentration of political authority in
the hands of the first doge, and the recognition of the Rialto
cluster of islands as the capital of the confederacy, started
the Republic on a career of success and victory."

_T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 2, chapter 4 (volume 2)._

VENICE: A. D. 554-800.
A dukedom under the Exarchs of Ravenna.

See ROME: A. D. 554-800.

VENICE: A. D. 568.
A refuge from the invading Lombards.

See LOMBARDS: A. D. 568-573.

VENICE: A. D. 697-810.
The early constitution of government.
Origin of the Doges.
Resistance to Pippin, king of the Lombards.
Removal to the Rialto and founding of the new capital city.

"Each island had at first its own magistrate: the magistrates
of the most considerable being called Tribunes Major, the
others, Tribunes Minor, and the whole being equally subject to
the council-general of the community; which thus constituted a
kind of federal republic. This lasted nearly three hundred
years, when it was found that the rising nation had fairly
outgrown its institutions. Dangerous rivalries arose among the
tribunes. … At a meeting of the Council-General in A. D. 697,
the Patriarch of Grado proposed the concentration of power in
the hands of a single chief, under the title of Doge or Duke.
The proposition was eagerly accepted, and they proceeded at
once to the election of this chief. 'It will be seen (remarks
Daru) that the Dogeship saved independence and compromised
liberty. It was a veritable revolution, but we are ignorant by
what circumstances it was brought about. Many historians
assert that the change was not effected till the permission of
the Pope and the Emperor was obtained.' The first choice fell
on Paolo Luca Anabesto. It was made by twelve electors, the
founders of what were thenceforth termed the electoral
families. The Doge was appointed for life: he named his own
counsellors: took charge of all public business; had the rank
of prince, and decided all questions of peace and war. The
peculiar title was meant to imply a limited sovereignty, and
the Venetians uniformly repudiated, as a disgrace, the bare
notion of their having ever submitted to a monarch. But many
centuries passed away before any regular or well-defined
limits were practically imposed; and the prolonged struggle
between the people and the Doges, depending mainly on the
personal character of the Doge for the time being, constitutes
the most startling and exciting portion of their history." The
third Doge, one Urso, alarmed the people by his pretensions to
such a degree that they slew him, and suppressed his office
for five years, substituting a chief magistrate called
"maestro dell a milizia." "The Dogeship was then [742]
restored in the person of Theodal Urso (son of the last Doge),
who quitted Heraclea [then the Venetian capital] for
Malamocco, which thus became the capital." In his turn,
Theodal Urso lost the favor of the people and was deposed and
blinded. "It thenceforth became the received custom in Venice
to put out the eyes of deposed Doges." Later in the 8th
century the Dogeship was secured by a family which went far
towards making it hereditary, and rendering it boldly
tyrannical; but the yoke of the would-be despots—Giovanni and
Maurice, father and son—was broken in 804, and they were
driven to flight. The head of the conspiracy which expelled
them, Obelerio, was then proclaimed Doge.
{3603}
"The events of the next five years are involved in obscurity.
One thing is clear. Pepin, King of the Lombards [son of
Charlemagne], either under the pretence of a request for aid
from the new Doge, or to enforce some real or assumed rights
of his own, declared war against the Republic, and waged it
with such impetuosity that his fleet and army, after carrying
all before them, were only separated from Malamocco, the
capital, by a canal. In this emergency, Angelo Participazio,
one of those men who are produced by great occasions to mark
an era, proposed that the entire population should remove to
Rialto, which was separated by a broader arm of the sea from
the enemy, and there hold out to the last. No sooner proposed
than done. They hastily embarked their all; and when Pepin
entered Malamocco, he found it deserted. After losing a large
part of his fleet in an ill-advised attack on Rialto, he gave
up the enterprise, and Angelo Participazio was elected Doge in
recognition of his services, with two tribunes for
counsellors. One of his first acts was to make Rialto the
capital, instead of Malamocco or Heraclea, which had each been
the seat of Government at intervals. 'There were round Rialto
some sixty islets, which the Doge connected by bridges. They
were soon covered with houses. They were girt with a
fortification; and it was then that this population of
fugitives gave to this rising city, which they had just
founded in the middle of a morass, the name of Venetia, in
memory of the fair countries from which their fathers had been
forcibly expatriated. The province has lost its name, and
become subject to the new Venice.'"

_The Republic of Venice
(Quarterly Review, October, 1874, volume 137), pages 417-420._

In 803 Charlemagne concluded a treaty, at Aix-la-Chapelle,
with Nicephorus I. the Byzantine or Eastern Emperor,
establishing boundaries between the two empires which disputed
the Roman name. "In this treaty, the supremacy of the Eastern
Empire over Venice, Istria, the maritime parts of Dalmatia,
and the south of Italy, was acknowledged; while the authority
of the Western Empire in Rome, the exarchate of Ravenna, and
the Pentapolis, was recognised by Nicephorus. The commerce of
Venice with the East was already so important, and the
Byzantine administration afforded so many guarantees for the
security of property, that the Venetians, in spite of the
menaces of Charlemagne, remained firm in their allegiance to
Nicephorus. … Venice, it is true, found itself in the end
compelled to purchase peace with the Frank empire, by the
payment of an annual tribute of thirty-six pounds of gold, in
order to secure its commercial relations from interruption;
and it was not released from this tribute until the time of
Otho the Great. It was during the reign of Nicephorus that the
site of the present city of Venice became the seat of the
Venetian government, Rivalto (Rialto) becoming the residence
of the duke and the principal inhabitants, who retired from
the continent to escape the attacks of Pepin [king of Italy,
under his father, Charlemagne]. Heraclea had previously been
the capital of the Venetian municipality. In 810 peace was
again concluded between Nicephorus and Charlemagne, without
making any change in the frontier of the two empires."

_G. Finlay,
Byzantine Empire, 716-1057,
book 1, chapter 2, section 1._

ALSO IN:
_H. F. Brown,
Venice,
chapters 1-2._

VENICE: 8th Century:
Still subject to the Eastern Empire.

See ROME: A. D. 717-800.

VENICE: A. D. 810-961.
Spread of commerce and naval prowess.
Destruction of Istrian pirates.
Conquests in Dalmatia.

"During the ninth, and the first sixty years of the tenth
centuries,—from the government of Angelo Participazio, to the
coming into Italy of Otho the Great,—the Venetian affairs,
with brief intervals of repose, were wholly occupied with
civil commotions and naval wars. The doges of the republic
were often murdered; its fleets were sometimes defeated; but,
under every adverse circumstance, the commercial activity, the
wealth, and the power of the state were still rapidly
increasing. In the ninth century the Venetians, in concert
with the Greeks, encountered, though with indifferent success,
the navies of the Saracens; but the Narentines, and other
pirates of Dalmatia, were their constant enemies, and were
frequently chastised by the arms of the republic The Venetian
wealth invited attacks from all the freebooters of the seas,
and an enterprise undertaken by some of them who had
established themselves on the coast of Istria deserves, from
its singularity and the vengeance of the republic, to be
recorded in this place. According to an ancient custom, the
nuptials of the nobles and principal citizens of Venice were
always celebrated on the same day of the year and in the same
church. … The Istrian pirates, acquainted with the existence
of this annual festival, had the boldness [A. D. 944] to
prepare an ambush for the nuptial train in the city itself.
They secretly arrived over night at an uninhabited islet near
the church of Olivolo, and lay hidden behind it with their
barks until the procession had entered the church, when
darting from their concealment they rushed into the sacred
edifice through all its doors, tore the shrieking brides from
the arms of their defenceless lovers, possessed themselves of
the jewels which had been displayed in the festal pomp, and
immediately put to sea with their fair captives and their
booty. But a deadly revenge overtook them. The doge, Pietro
Candiano III., had been present at the ceremony: he shared in
the fury and indignation of the affianced youths: they flew to
arms, and throwing themselves under his conduct into their
vessels, came up with the spoilers in the lagunes of Caorlo. A
frightful massacre ensued: not a life among the pirates was
spared, and the victors returned in triumph with their brides
to the church of Olivolo. A procession of the maidens of
Venice revived for many centuries the recollection of this
deliverance on the eve of the purification. But the doge was
not satisfied with the punishment which he had inflicted on
the Istriots. He entered vigorously upon the resolution of
clearing the Adriatic of all the pirates who infested it: he
conquered part of Dalmatia, and he transmitted to his
successors, with the ducal crown, the duty of consummating his
design."

_G. Procter,
History of Italy,
chapter 1, part 2._

{3604}

VENICE: A. D. 829.
The translation of the body of St. Mark.
The Winged Lion of St. Mark.

"In the second year of the reign of Doge Giustiniano
Particiacio there was brought to Venice from Alexandria the
body of the holy evangelist St. Mark. For, as Petrus Damianus
says, Mark was brought from Alexandria into Venice, that he
who had shone in the East like the morning star might shed his
rays in the regions of the West. For Egypt is held to be the
East and Venice the West. There he had held the rule of the
Church of Alexandria, and here, being, as it were, born again,
he obtained the sovereignty of Aquileia. Now this is how the
thing was done. The king of the Saracens wishing to build
himself a palace in Babylon, gave command that stones should
be taken from the Christian churches and other public places,
that they might build him a splendid house. And at that time
there came by chance to the Church of St. Mark, Bon, tribune
of Malamocco, and Rustico da Torcello, who had been forced by
the wind, contrary to the edicts of Venice, to put in to the
harbour of Alexandria with ten ships laden with merchandise,
and they observing the sadness of the guardians of the church
(two Greeks, by name Stauratio, a monk, and Theodoro, a
priest), inquired the cause. And they answered that by reason
of the impious edict of the king they feared the ruin of the
church. Thereupon they prayed them to give them the holy body
that they might carry it to Venice, promising them that the
Doge of Venice would receive it with great honour. But the
keepers of the church were filled with fear at their petition,
and answered reproaching them and saying: 'Know ye not how the
blessed St. Mark, who wrote the Gospel, St. Peter dictating at
his request, preached in these parts and baptised into the
faith the men of these regions? If the faithful should become
aware, we could not escape the peril of death.' But to that
they answered: 'As for his preaching, we are his firstborn
sons, for he first preached in the parts of Venetia and
Aquileia. And in peril of death it is commanded, "If they
persecute you in one city, flee ye to another," which the
evangelist himself obeyed when in the persecution at
Alexandria he fled to Pentapolis.' But the keepers said:
'There is no such persecution now that we should fear for our
persons.' But while they spake, came one and broke down the
precious stones of the church, and when they would not suffer
it they were sorely beaten. Then the keepers seeing the
devastation of the church, and their own great danger,
listened to the prayer of the Venetians and appointed them a
day when they should receive the holy body. Now the body was
wrapped in a robe of silk sealed with many seals from the head
to the feet. And they brought the body of St. Claudia, and
having cut the robe at the back and taken away the body of St.
Mark, they placed in its stead the blessed Claudia, leaving
the seals unbroken. But a sweet odour quickly spread into the
city, and all were filled with astonishment, and not doubting
that the body of the evangelist had been moved, they ran
together to the church. But when the shrine was opened and
they saw the garment with the seals unbroken, they returned
quickly to their homes. And when the body should be borne to
the boats, they covered it with herbs and spread over it
pork-flesh for the passers-by to see, and went crying,
'Khanzir, khanzir!' which is the Saracen's abomination. And
when they reached the ships they covered it with a sail while
they passed through the Saracen ships. And as they sailed to
Venice the ship which bore it with many others was saved from
peril of shipwreck. For when the ships had been driven in the
night by a tempestuous wind and were not far from Monte, the
blessed St. Mark appeared to the Monk Dominic and bade him
lower the sails of the ships. Which, when they had done, the
dawn appearing, they found themselves close to the island
which is called Artalia. And ten of them, having asked and
obtained pardon for breaking the edicts of the Doge, they came
to the port of Olivola. And the Doge, and the clergy, and the
people came to meet them, and brought the body, with songs of
thanksgiving, to the Doge's chapel."

_Old Chronicle;
translated in "The City in the Sea,"
by the Author of "Belt and Spur,"
chapter 3._

"Our fathers did not welcome the arrival of the captured
eagles of France, after the field of Waterloo, with greater
exultation than the people of Venice the relics of the blessed
Evangelist. They abandoned themselves to processions, and
prayers, and banquets, and public holidays. … The winged 'Lion
of St. Mark' was blazoned on the standards, and impressed on
the coinage of the Republic. … The Lion became the theme of
many political symbols. Thus it was represented with wings to
show that Venetians could strike with promptitude; sitting, as
a sign of their gravity in counsel—far such is the usual
attitude of sages; with a book in its paws, to intimate their
devotion to commerce; in war time the book was closed, and a
naked sword substituted."

_W. H. D. Adams,
The Queen of the Adriatic,
pages 42-43._

See, also, LION OF ST. MARK.

VENICE: A. D. 1032-1319.
Development of the constitution of the aristocratic Republic.
The Grand Council.
The Council of Ten.
The Golden Book.