Not one of them
recognized another without reserve; the same play of chance which had
helped to found and consolidate one dynasty might upset another. Nor
was it always a matter of choice with the despot whether to keep quiet
or not. The necessity of movement and aggrandizement is common to all
illegitimate powers. Thus Italy became the scene of a 'foreign policy'
which gradually, as in other countries also, acquired the position of a
recognized system of public law. The purely objective treatment of
international affairs, as free from prejudice as from moral scruples,
attained a perfection which sometimes is not without a certain beauty
and grandeur of its own. But as a whole it gives us the impression of a
bottomless abyss.
Intrigues, armaments, leagues, corruption and treason make up the
outward history of Italy at this period. Venice in particular was long
accused on all hands of seeking to conquer the whole peninsula, or
gradually so to reduce its strength that one State after another must
fall into her hands. But on a closer view it is evident that this
complaint did not come from the people, but rather from the courts and
official classes, which were commonly abhorred by their subjects, while
the mild government of Venice had secured for it general confidence
Even Florence, with its restive subject cities, found itself in a false
position with regard to Venice, apart from all commercial jealousy and
from the progress of Venice in Romagna.
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