n became alike familiar
with the two elements; and the demands of avarice succeeded to those of
necessity. The islanders, who, from Grado to Chiozza, were intimately
connected with each other, penetrated into the heart of Italy, by the
secure, though laborious, navigation of the rivers and inland canals.
Their vessels, which were continually increasing in size and number,
visited all the harbors of the Gulf; and the marriage which Venice
annually celebrates with the Adriatic, was contracted in her early
infancy. The epistle of Cassiodorus, the Praetorian praefect, is
addressed to the maritime tribunes; and he exhorts them, in a mild tone
of authority, to animate the zeal of their countrymen for the public
service, which required their assistance to transport the magazines of
wine and oil from the province of Istria to the royal city of Ravenna.
The ambiguous office of these magistrates is explained by the tradition,
that, in the twelve principal islands, twelve tribunes, or judges, were
created by an annual and popular election. The existence of the Venetian
republic under the Gothic kingdom of Italy, is attested by the same
authentic record, which annihilates their lofty claim of original and
perpetual independence. [58]

[Footnote 54: Paul the Deacon (de Gestis Langobard. l. ii. c. 14,
p. 784) describes the provinces of Italy about the end of the eighth
century Venetia non solum in paucis insulis quas nunc Venetias dicimus,
constat; sed ejus terminus a Pannoniae finibus usque Adduam fluvium
protelatur. The history of that province till the age of Charlemagne
forms the first and most interesting part of the Verona (Illustrata, p.
1-388,) in which the marquis Scipio Maffei has shown himself equally
capable of enlarged views and minute disquisitions.]

[Footnote 55: This emigration is not attested by any contemporary
evidence; but the fact is proved by the event, and the circumstances
might be preserved by tradition. The citizens of Aquileia retired to the
Isle of Gradus, those of Padua to Rivus Altus, or Rialto, where the city
of Venice was afterwards built, &c.]

[Footnote 56: The topography and antiquities of the Venetian islands,
from Gradus to Clodia, or Chioggia, are accurately stated in the
Dissertatio Chorographica de Italia Medii Aevi. p. 151-155.]

[Footnote 57: Cassiodor. Variar. l. xii. epist. 24. Maffei (Verona
Illustrata, part i. p. 240-254) has translated and explained this
curious letter, in the spiri