Overview
Venice is a republic on all three bookmarks. Its top title, k_venice, sits at kingdom tier in the game files. On patch 1.20.1.2 the realm counts two counties in 867 and in 1066, and nine in 1178, vassals included. The holder is the doge: Orso I Participazio in 867, Domenico Contarini in 1066, and Orio Mastropiero in 1178.
On patch 1.20.1.2 the game text calls Republic an unplayable government form, the government of burghers and merchants, in which an elected citizen rules for life. You can marry into Venice and fight it. You cannot pick the doge.
Silk & Silver changes that on 17 Nov 2026. Republics such as Venice and Genoa become playable, with patrician families, an Assembly that passes laws, and a doge chosen by popularity. Venice starts with the Maritime Republic administration, the one that trades furthest. Republics can set up Trade Posts in foreign counties and join other republics in Trade Leagues.
Starts
867
Orso I Participazio is doge. The title history seats him on 13 July 864, and he dies in 881. On the 867 map he holds three titles, Venice among them, and two counties, at age 67. He is Cisalpine by culture. His faith is Chalcedonianism, the undivided church By God Alone sets before the schism.
1066
Domenico Contarini is doge. The title history gives him the seat from 1043 until 1071, when Domenico Selvo follows. The Contarini are one of the patrician houses the files tie to Venice. Across the Adriatic, Robert Guiscard's Apulia is the power that later pulls the Venetian fleet into Byzantine service.
| Seat | Detail |
|---|---|
| Start | 1066 |
| Bookmark | Rags to Riches |
| Title | Apulia |
| Realm size | 10 counties |
| Status | Independent |
| Difficulty | Medium, the bookmark rating in patch 1.20.1.2 |
| Culture | Norman |
| Faith | Catholicism |
| Dynasty | Hauteville |
| Age | 51 |
1178
Orio Mastropiero is doge. The files seat him on 13 April 1178, after Sebastiano Ziani, and he holds the title until 1192, when Enrico Dandolo follows. Venice now counts nine counties. In 1177 Ziani's city hosted the peace between Pope Alexander III and Frederick Barbarossa. In 1171 Manuel I Komnenos had ordered the arrest of Venetians across the Byzantine Empire.
| Seat | Detail |
|---|---|
| Start | 1178 |
| Bookmark | Call of the Empire |
| Title | Byzantine Empire |
| Realm size | 91 counties |
| Status | Independent |
| Culture | Greek |
| Faith | Orthodoxy |
| Dynasty | Komnenos |
| Seat | Detail |
|---|---|
| Start | 1178 |
| Title | Holy Roman Empire |
| Realm size | 197 counties |
| Status | Independent |
| Faith | Catholicism |
| Dynasty | Hohenstaufen |
Later impact
Venice's eastern fortune ran through Constantinople. Alexios I Komnenos granted Venetian merchants tax-free trade in a chrysobull usually dated 1082, in return for the fleet he needed against Robert Guiscard. Manuel's arrests in 1171 broke that arrangement for a time.
Enrico Dandolo, Mastropiero's successor, sailed with the Fourth Crusade. The crusade took Constantinople in 1204, and Venice took a share of the empire's ports and islands. That is the long shadow of the 1178 seat.
In Silk & Silver Venice is the model republic. Entrepôts in cities such as Venice take goods in and let other merchants carry them further. Merchants can join or found a republic and keep their company. The 1178 Guelphs & Ghibellines bookmark opens on northern Italy after the Treaty of Venice.
Historical links
- Robert Guiscard · 1066 · Apulia
- Manuel I Komnenos · 1178 · Byzantine Empire
- Frederick Barbarossa · 1178 · Holy Roman Empire
- Silk & Silver
- Feudal, clan, and tribal
- Domain economy
- Republican Heir trait
- Byzantine Empire
- Komnenos dynasty
- Alexios I Komnenos
- The Papacy
All realms · republic · 867 · 1066 · 1178