lomatist. He
found himself at once involved in the war with Genoa, and almost
immediately came the battle of Sapienza, when the Genoese took five
thousand prisoners, including the admiral, Niccolo Pisani. This blow was
a very serious one for the Venetians, involving as it did great loss of
life, and there was a growing feeling that they were badly governed.
The Doge, who was but a figure-head of the Council of Ten, secretly
thinking so too, plotted for the overthrow of the Council and the
establishment of himself in supreme power. The Arsenal men were to form
his chief army in the revolt; the false alarm of a Genoese attack was to
get the populace together; and then the blow was to be struck and
Faliero proclaimed prince. But the plot miscarried through one of the
conspirators warning a friend to keep indoors; the ringleaders were
caught and hanged or exiled; and the Doge, after confessing his guilt,
was beheaded in the courtyard of this palace. His coffin may be seen in
the Museo Civico, and of his unhappy story Byron made a drama.

One of Faliero's party was Calendario, an architect, employed on the
part of the Doges' Palace in which we are now standing. He was hanged or
strangled between the two red columns in the upper arches of the
Piazzetta facade.

The first Doge to be represented here is Antenorio Obelerio (804-810),
but he had had predecessors, the first in fact dating from 697. Of
Obelerio little good is known. He married a foreigner whom some believe
to have been an illegitimate daughter of Charlemagne, and her influence
was bad. His brother Beato shared his throne, and in the end probably
chased him from it. Beato was Doge when Rialto became the seat of
government, Malamocco having gone over to the Franks under Pepin. But of
Beato no account is here taken, Obelerio's successor being Angelo
Partecipazio (810-827), who was also the first occupant of the first
Ducal Palace, on the site of a portion of the present one. It was his
son Giustiniano, sharing the throne with his father, who hit upon the
brilliant idea of stealing the body of S. Mark from Alexandria and of
preserving it in Venice, thus establishing that city not only as a
religious centre but also as a place of pilgrimage and renown. As Mrs.
Richardson remarks in her admirable survey of the Doges: "Was it not
well that the government of the Doge Giustiniano and his successors
throughout the age should become the special concern of a
Saint-Evangelist