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Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium. Episode 162.

Venetians and Normans.

So we've covered Italy and the former Carolinian realms.

Now we move on to talk about other western and northern powers that will impact our story going

forward. Venice, the Normans, the Hungarians, the Petrenegs and the Russ.

Last time I said would be talking about all of that today but I've now changed my mind.

So today it will just be the westerners and next time we'll move on to the step.

This should make everything easier to remember. As usual we'll be talking big picture and

only focusing on the relevance of these nations to Byzantium. But all of this is definitely worth

your attention. Everything we discuss today will play a big role in the collapse of Roman power

over the next century and a half. Let's begin with Venice and remind ourselves of where we were

at the end of the last century. Back in episode 114 we talked about the growth of Venetian wealth

fueled in part by the slave trade. The money that this traffic brought to the lagoon

allowed for vital building projects to take place at the start of the 10th century.

It was during this period that walls were built around the islands of the Rialto and an iron chain

was put in place that could be thrown over the entrance to the Grand Canal.

These moves were made in response to Maggiar raids but they also fitted a general pattern

of Venice becoming a more centralised and independent state.

Historians observed that during the 10th century the powers of the Doge became ever more

...