History of the Republic of Venice to command such a galley. By 1563, the population of Venice had dropped to about 168,000 people. With the outbreak of another war with the Ottomans in 1570, Venice, Spain and the Pope formed the Holy League, which was able to assemble a grand fleet of 208 galleys, 110 of which were Venetian, under the command of John of Austria, half-brother of Philip II of Spain. The Venetians were commanded by Sebastiano Venier. The Turkish fleet, equal in number to the allied one, had sailed up the Adriatic as far as Lesina, and then returned to Lepanto in the Gulf
History of the Republic of Venice captured and sacked in 1204. Venetians saved from the sack several artistic works, such as the famous four bronze horses, bringing them to Venice. As a result of the partition of the Byzantine Empire that followed, Venice gained some strategic territories in the Aegean Sea (three-eighths of the Byzantine Empire), including the islands of Crete and Euboea. Moreover, some present day cities, such as Chania on Crete, have core architecture that is substantially Venetian in origin. The Aegean islands formed the Venetian Duchy of the Archipelago. The Republic of Venice signed a trade treaty with the Mongol Empire in 1221.