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Balkans and Anatolia (11th–12th c.)Society and economy

Massacre of the Latins

In April or May 1182, as Andronikos Komnenos took power in Constantinople from the regency of the Latin-born empress Maria of Antioch, his troops and the city mob fell upon the Italian merchant community: Genoese and Pisans were killed or driven out, and their quarters were plundered and burned. The number of victims is unknown and may have been in the hundreds rather than thousands. Resentment of the privileged Italian merchants fed the violence, though some historians see it as an outcome of the political struggle of 1180–1182 rather than of long-standing hatred of Latins.

Date
between April and May 1182exact date unknown: an interval is given
Place
Constantinopletoday: Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
Participants
Byzantine Empire, Republic of Genoa, Republic of Pisa
Threads
Balkans and Anatolia (11th–12th c.)
Also known as
Резня латинов; Latin massacre of 1182; Andronikos I Komnenos; Андроник I Комнин; Maria of Antioch; Мария Антиохийская

Since Alexios I's chrysobull of 1082 for Venice, and later grants to Pisa and Genoa, Italian merchants had traded in the empire on privileged terms, and their colony in the capital grew: Eustathios of Thessalonica spoke of up to 60,000 Latins in Constantinople, a figure considered greatly exaggerated. In March 1171 Manuel I had the Venetians in the empire arrested, so only a handful of them were in the city in 1182, but the Genoese and Pisans remained. After Manuel's death in 1180 his widow, the Latin princess Maria of Antioch, ruled as regent for the boy emperor Alexios II, and her regency was notorious for favouring Latin merchants. In the spring of 1182 Andronikos Komnenos marched on the capital; the fleet sent against him under Andronikos Kontostephanos went over to his side, and the regency collapsed.

The celebrations turned into violence. Andronikos's Paphlagonian troops, aided by the city mob, attacked the Latin quarters; their inhabitants were killed or forced to flee, and the quarters were plundered and set on fire. William of Tyre, who was not an eyewitness and whose account may be exaggerated, wrote that the killing was indiscriminate and that the papal legate, Cardinal John, was beheaded and his head dragged through the streets tied to a dog's tail. The death toll is unknown: the Genoese and Pisan community itself has been estimated at fewer than 3,900 (from Caffaro's figures for 1162), most of whom were killed or fled, and David Jacoby considered figures in the hundreds far more likely than thousands. Andronikos, who had no particular hostility towards the Latins, let the massacre run its course.

In September 1183 Andronikos was crowned co-emperor, and soon afterwards Alexios II was strangled. The massacre attracted little attention at the time and was quickly forgotten; it chiefly benefited Venice, whose Genoese and Pisan rivals had been driven from the city, and by 1192 new treaties had again granted Genoa and Pisa reduced dues. During the sack of Constantinople in 1204 some Genoese and Pisans even fought on the Byzantine side.

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Connections

Related events

  • Alexios I's chrysobull for VeniceMay 1082 · Balkans and Anatoliathe privileges granted to Italian merchants since the chrysobull of 1082 fed the resentment that exploded in 1182
  • Sack of Constantinople12–13 April 1204 · Balkans and Anatoliain 1204 some Genoese and Pisans, victims of 1182, fought for the Byzantines against the crusaders and Venetians

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Western and Central Europe

Africa

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The same period

12th century

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (English): Massacre of the Latins
  2. Wikipedia (English): Andronikos I Komnenos
  3. Wikipedia (Russian): Резня латинов
  4. Wikipedia (Russian): Андроник I Комнин
  5. Brand C. M. Byzantium Confronts the West, 1180–1204. — Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968.
  6. Wikidata: Q1246569