Venice between myth and legend
Venice, March 25, 421
It is always difficult to establish the date of birth of a city. Yet, ancient cities have all given themselves a symbolic origin, considered fundamental for their greatness. Just think of Rome or Athens.
Strabo and Cassiodorus
It is generally stated that Venice arose by the will of populations fleeing from Attila, but we know that already in Roman times the islands of the lagoon were inhabited.
The geographer Strabo writes:
"... thanks to a regulation of the waters through canals and embankments, as in Lower Egypt, part of those places was drained and made fertile while the other is open to navigation; of the cities then, some are like islands…"
Even the historian Cassiodorus adds:
"... like those islands, the houses appear scattered in the middle of wide stretches of sea: and nature did not produce them, but human labor created them... The inhabitants have only one resource, that of eating only fish to satiety. There, poor and rich live in the same way... all their effort is aimed at the production of salt... "
The myth of San Marco
At the end of the 9th century the myth of the birth of Venice took shape.
There is talk of a Trojan colonization, which begins with Antenor, founder of Padua and then of Aquileia. According to legend, the descendants of the Trojans joined Roman nobles from Altino, giving rise to Venice: a city with Roman and Trojan roots.
Alongside this narrative, the legend of San Marco also emerges. During a trip to Rome to meet St. Peter, Mark stops in the Venice lagoon. Here, while sleeping, he dreams of an angel who predicts: "This will be the place where your body will rest forever."
According to tradition, the body of St. Mark was then stolen from Alexandria, Egypt by two Venetian merchants. They managed to get past customs by hiding it under pork.
Ainsi, le 31 janvier 828, le corps du saint arrive à Venise, accueilli par le doge Partecipazio, qui le place à l’endroit où se trouve aujourd’hui la chapelle du Palais des Doges.
The official birth date of Venice
March 25, 421: is the traditional date of the foundation of Venice.
March 25th is also the day of the Annunciation, that is, the entry of Christ into Mary's womb. A symbolic moment strongly linked to spirituality and birth. According to a news, perhaps deriving from the Paduan chronicler Giovanni da Nono, the city was founded by decree of the Paduan consuls and initially ruled by three of them.
In 1420, a serious fire destroyed the Palazzo della Ragione in Padua, along with all the documents. An anonymous person transcribed the legend of the Paduan foundation of Venice, turning it into a document. Several copies were made, in Latin and in the vernacular. Before 1509, the text was included in the official register of the civil registry of Padua.
The official historian of Venice
In 1425, the Council of Ten decided that the city needed an official historiographer.
The first to take on this role was Marcantonio Sabellico, who definitively established the date of foundation: March 25, 421.
Between myth and legend, Venice celebrates its 1600th anniversary...
