These they would
willingly have ransomed at any price, but their enemies would not release
them except on the payment of two white pullets for each warrior. The
shameful ransom was paid in the Piazza, to the inextinguishable delight of
the Venetians, who, never wanting in sharp and biting wit, abandoned
themselves to sarcastic exultation. They demanded that the Paduans should,
like the patriarch, repeat the tribute annually; but the prudent Doge
Ziani judged the single humiliation sufficient, and refused to establish a
yearly celebration of the feast.
One of the most famous occasional festivals of Venice is described by
Petrarch in a Latin letter to his friend Pietro Bolognese. It was in
celebration of the reduction of the Greeks of Candia, an island which in
1361 had recently been ceded to the Republic. The Candiotes rose in
general rebellion, but were so promptly subdued that the news of the
outbreak scarcely anticipated the announcement of its suppression in
Venice.
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