City of Fortune

Name: City of Fortune
Rating: 4.23 (5843 reviews)

by Roger Crowley Book 1 in the Mediterranean Trilogy series.

First published 2011

Amazon

4.2(5,843)

Roger Crowley traces the rise of Venice from a trading city at the head of the Adriatic into a maritime empire whose merchants and fleets connected western Europe with Byzantium and the eastern Mediterranean. The decisive expansion came through shipping, crusading and commercial privilege, above all during the Fourth Crusade, when Doge Enrico Dandolo helped direct the expedition that culminated in the sack of Constantinople in 1204. Venetian power then rested on a chain of ports, islands and colonies protecting the sea routes on which the republic’s wealth depended.

The same dispersed system left Venice exposed to changing trade patterns, rivalry with Genoa and the rise of Ottoman power. Crowley follows the republic through wars, diplomacy and the defence of its overseas possessions as Constantinople fell and Ottoman-Venetian conflict intensified. The book presents Venice’s empire as a commercial and naval network rather than a conventional territorial state, showing how control of routes, harbours and information could create exceptional power while also producing long-term strategic vulnerability.