They were eastern and western both, the Venetians, hot hearts for loving and conquering, icy heads for scheming and ruling.

Bit by bit they secured the ring of mainland behind them, all the while keeping at bay the Saracen and Slav sea rovers, whose ships were the terror of the Mediterranean.

Then they descended upon the pirates of Dalmatia, who thus harassed their trading vessels, and took all the Dalmatian coast.

The Doge of Venice became Duke of Dalmatia.

'True it is,' says their chronicles, 'that the Adriatic Sea is in the duchy of Venice,'[3] and they called it the 'Gulf of Venice'.