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Pietro Zeno (died 1345)

Phantastical depiction of Zeno's death by Giuseppe Gatteri

Pietro Zeno[a] (died 17 January 1345) was the Venetian captain and bailiff of Negroponte (1331–33)[b] and one of the leaders of the Smyrniote crusade (1343–45).[3]

In May–June 1332, an Aydinid Turkish fleet of 380 ships under Umur Bey attacked Negroponte.[3] Zeno bought them off with a large tribute.[4] On 18 July 1332, Doge Francesco Dandolo charged Zeno and Pietro da Canale with arranging an anti-Turkish alliance.[3] By the end of the year the Naval League, "a union, society and league for the discomfiture of the Turks and the defence of the true faith", had been formally constituted.[5] In 1334 Zeno took command of the league's fleet of twenty galleys and on 14 September defeated the large fleet of Yakhshi, emir of Karasi, off Adramyttion.[3]

In September 1343, the Venetian Grand Council elected Zeno captain of the flotilla of five galleys which it was sending to assist the crusade against Aydinid-held Smyrna.[6] Although the crusade was a great naval success and Smyrna was taken, Zeno was killed by Umur Bey's forces in an ambush while he and the other crusader leaders, including Henry of Asti, were attempting to celebrate a mass in a church in the no-man's-land between the battle lines.[7]

Zeno's son, also Pietro Zeno, was a famous diplomat in the eastern Mediterranean.[8]


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Morgan 1976, p. 417.
  2. ^ Hopf 1873, pp. 371.
  3. ^ a b c d Setton 1976, pp. 180–82.
  4. ^ Bury 1887, p. 211.
  5. ^ Nicol 1988, p. 253.
  6. ^ Setton 1976, p. 185.
  7. ^ Setton 1976, p. 192.
  8. ^ Miller 1908, pp. 593–595.

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