Note 314 — APPENDIX IX

It is curious to find this cowardly policy openly laid down by such authority as a maxim, and it affords a clue not only to the lax military operations of the grasping Republic, but betrays the secret that their mainland advantages were oftener gained by tortuous diplomacy than in open field. The Venetian proveditori were at first of the nature of quartermasters and commissaries-general, their duty being to distribute pay and quarters to the troops, as well as to levy and allot taxes whereby the military finances were maintained through the agency of local sub-commissaries. But they became tools of the ever-jealous Signory, empowered to control the commanders, as well as to watch and report their proceedings. We have frequent occasion to notice the bad consequences of this narrow policy.