[Jimmy Valentine]

What about the marble columns that decorate the facade of the churches of Venice? Did they not come from Byzantium?

Just asking. Saw John Rhomer's series on Byzantium on British Television.

[wideawake]

What about the marble columns that decorate the facade of the churches of Venice? Did they not come from Byzantium?

There are many churches of Venice and some have facades that incorporate actual Byzantine work, some that are imitated from the Byzantine and some that are not Byzantine at all.

Additionally, just because a church's facade may incorporate Byzantine work does not mean that the work was plundered nor does it mean that work came from Constantinople instead of being native to Venice itself.

From about the time that Aistulf the Lombard killed the Byzantine Exarch in Ravenna, Byzantines in Italy and other supporters of the Byzantine Emperor in Italy began to settle in the Venetian islands to avoid the Lombards.

The original doges of Venice took their title and claimed their offices as duces of the Byzantine Empire.

Venice was essentially a Byzantine city in its origin. During the period 800-1100 the Byzantine Emperor grew ever weaker and weaker in Northern Italy and Venice became an independent state in that power vacuum - an inbetween place that was neither truly Byzantine nor truly Italian.

So the fact that Venice has so much of the Byzantine about its churches and architecture and culture is mostly due to that heritage and affinity.

Venice engaged in trade from the beginning, with Constantinople as its main trading partner for seven hundred years.