Carlo Zeno

Carlo Zeno (born 1334, Venice—died March 8, 1418, Venice) was a Venetian admiral whose victory over the Genoese at Chioggia, near Venice, in 1380 was a turning point in the struggle between the two great maritime republics.

Briefly a student at the University of Padua, Zeno was forced by poverty to become a soldier, but later he became a merchant. During commercial voyages to Constantinople and Crete, he acted as envoy for his native city in negotiations with the Byzantine emperor John V Paleologus. In 1378, when the War of Chioggia broke out, he was sent to defend Treviso (north of Venice); and, after the defeat of a Venetian fleet at Pola (across the Adriatic from Venice), he harassed the Genoese in the Ligurian Sea and the Aegean. His ships were off Cyprus when he learned that a Genoese fleet under Adm. Pietro Doria had taken Chioggia and was threatening Venice. Hastening home, he found that the Venetians, commanded by Vettor Pisani, had managed to blockade the port of Chioggia by sinking ships in the channel. In the ensuing battle, Doria was killed, and the Genoese were encircled. On June 24, 1380, the Genoese, reduced to starvation, surrendered. When Pisani died in August, Zeno became grand admiral.

On retiring to civilian life, Zeno served in embassies to France and England and in the Venetian government. In 1403 he was once more called to military service, first against a French fleet off Genoa and then fighting on land against Francesco I Carrara, lord of Padua. Accused of having taken part in the sack of Carrara’s palace, he was imprisoned for two years. After his release he went to the Holy Land and, visiting Cyprus, took over command of its army against the Genoese, whom he expelled from the island. In 1410 he returned to Venice.