Venice at present formed a federative state, united by the memory of a
common origin and the sense of a common interest; the _arrengo_, which
met at Heraclia, the parent capital, at irregular intervals to
deliberate on matters of public concern, was too numerous and too
schismatical to exercise immediate control over the nation; and each
island was consequently governed, after the abolition of the primeval
consulate, in the name of the people, by a _gastaldo_ or tribune, whose
power, nominally limited, was virtually absolute. This administration
had lasted nearly two centuries and a half, during which period the
republic passed through a cruel ordeal of anarchy, oppression, and
bloodshed. The tribunes conspired against each other; the people
rebelled against the tribunes. Family rose against family, clan against
clan. Sanguinary affrays were of constant occurrence on the thinly
peopled _lidi_, and amid the pine-woods, with which much of the surface
was covered; and it is related that in one instance at least the bodies
of the dead were left to be devoured by beasts and birds of prey, which
then haunted the more thickly afforested parts.
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