thekingsguard: The Venetians here are definitely acting like savages; comes from hiring a bunch of pirates to swell your armada. Although by the standards of medieval sacks, this isn't any worse than usual.
Dragos Cel Mare: Yeah, the sack here is actually fairly standard for a medieval sack which is only made special by who got caught in it. The Romans will not be so lenient.
And spot on with the cycle of vengeance.
eliphas8: Agreed. It's like 1204 all over again. Drowning the doge would be poetic justice from Theodoros' point of view. 'You killed my wife, well now I'm going to let your "wife" kill you.'
Tongera: Unlikely. Venice's site is too valuable to wreck, and it has too many people for everyone to be killed. Although the Romans will certainly try. They'd wipe out all vestiges of the Serene Republic, but keep the city. After all, it was a part of the Empire once.
rldragon: Yeah, the Middle Ages were rather gruesome at times, although every time can say that unfortunately.
The Sandman: That's the crux of the problems for the Venetians. No monarch can tolerate this precedent, even if they support this one incident.
Derekc2: The Venetians sort-of shot themselves in the foot. They hired a bunch of pirates to bolster the armada, and when they started looting and raping and killing the remainder joined in. Not all Venetians agree with what's going on, and Part 2 will show one of them.
The Romans will be anti-republican. When they hear the word 'Republic' the first thing they think of is 'Venice'. Hardly conducive to make them receptive.
bolhabela: That's the Venetian problem. Even the Holy Roman Emperor, who likes the idea of the Roman Imperial family being wiped out, won't be able to stomach this precedent. It's way, way, way, too easy for it to be turned around to bite him.
Elfwine: Agreed. Whether or not their excuses are true, not very many people are going to believe the Venetians.
The Venetians weren't specifically targeting the Imperial family. After all, having the Empress, one of the Princesses, and the Crown Prince means astronomically HUGE ransoms. But since Helena, Zoe, and Andreas weren't in garb that screamed 'I'm royal!' like purple robes, the Venetians weren't very thorough on their background checks before they started treating them like peasants in a city sack.
Evilprodigy: They were. The Venetians wouldn't expect Roman royalty to be in woolen clothing, not when they have access to both Roman and Chinese silk.
Avitus: Andreas will be getting a whole lot of attention in the coming years. The answer to your questions, at least in part, will be in Part 2.
Grouchio: Neither Andreas or Theodoros will exterminate all of Italy. Genoa, Ancona, and Urbino are all friends, while Sicily and Milan are both friendly-leaning neutrals.
Ferngolly: Yeah, the Roman response is not going to be pretty at all.
MerryPrankster: Yeah, something like this already happened once, in 1204. The Romans still haven't quite gotten over that, and now this...
Sidheach: In retrospect from the Pope's point of view, it's actually a very, very good thing he didn't call this a crusade.
General Finley: "Two hundred and fifty years ago the dogs came. They sacked our cities, slaughtered our people, and raped our mothers and sisters, even in the churches of the God they claimed to worship. Then we were too weak to strike back. And now they have done it again. But this time it is different. This time we are strong. And this time we will strike back.
"I will be a Timur to the state of Venice."
Arrix85: Agreed. By the standards of the Middle Ages, the Venetians here aren't being any worse than usual. Doesn't mean they're not disgusting, but nobody around them, including the Romans, is any better. After all, in Italy the Romans were practicing a primitive eugenics program by kidnapping 'Italian' children to be raised as Romans.
And it is the Macedonian tagma in the Balkans now, currently facing a combined Serbian-Bulgarian army that outnumbers it about three to one.
frozenpredator: The word will spread rapidly, and Avignon is definitely going to hang this over Rome's head.
Mathalamus: Before this, in Roman eyes, the Lords of Asia (Timur and Shah Rukh) were demons. Well, guess who just got added to the list.