HOW THE TWO BROTHERS POLO SET FORTH FROM CONSTANTINOPLE
TO TRAVERSE THE WORLD.
It came to pass in the year of Christ 1260, when Baldwin was reigning
at Constantinople,{1} that Messer Nicolas Polo, the father of my lord
Mark, and Messer Maffeo Polo, the brother of Messer Nicolas, were at
the said city of CONSTANTINOPLE, whither they had gone from Venice with
their merchants’ wares. Now these two Brethren, men singularly noble,
wise, and provident, took counsel together to cross the GREATER SEA on
a venture of trade; so they laid in a store of jewels and set forth
from Constantinople, crossing the Sea to SOLDAIA.{2}
NOTE 1.—Baldwin II. (de Courtenay), the last Latin Emperor of
Constantinople, reigned from 1237 to 1261, when he was expelled by
Michael Palaeologus.
The date in the text is, as we see, that of the Brothers’ voyage
across the Black Sea. It stands 1250 in all the chief texts.
But the figure is certainly wrong. We shall see that, when the
Brothers return to Venice in 1269, they find Mark, who, according
to Ramusio’s version, was _born after their departure_, a lad of
fifteen. Hence, if we rely on Ramusio, they must have left Venice
about 1253–54. And we shall see also that they reached the Volga
in 1261. Hence their start from Constantinople may well have
occurred in 1260, and this I have adopted as the most probable
correction. Where they spent the interval between 1254 (if they
really left Venice so early) and 1260, nowhere appears. But as
their brother, Mark the Elder, in his Will styles himself “_whilom
of Constantinople_,” their headquarters were probably there.
[Illustration: Castle of Soldaia or Sudak.]
NOTE 2.—In the Middle Ages the Euxine was frequently called _Mare
Magnum_ or _Majus_. Thus Chaucer:—
“In the GRETE SEE,
At many a noble Armee hadde he be.”
The term Black Sea (_Mare Maurum_ v. _Nigrum_) was, however, in
use, and Abulfeda says it was general in his day. That name has
been alleged to appear as early as the 10th century, in the form
Σκοτεινή, “The Dark Sea”; but an examination of the passage cited,
from Constantine Porphyrogenitus, shows that it refers rather to
the Baltic, whilst that author elsewhere calls the Euxine simply
Pontus. (_Reinaud’s Abulf._ I. 38, _Const. Porph. De Adm. Imp._ c.
31, c. 42.)
✛ _Sodaya, Soldaia_, or _Soldachia_, called by Orientals _Súdák_,
stands on the S.E. coast of the Crimea, west of Kaffa. It had
belonged to the Greek Empire, and had a considerable Greek
population. After the Frank conquest of 1204 it apparently fell to
Trebizond. It was taken by the Mongols in 1223 for the first time,
and a second time in 1239, and during that century was the great
port of intercourse with what is now Russia. At an uncertain date,
but about the middle of the century, the Venetians established a
factory there, which in 1287 became the seat of a consul. In 1323
we find Pope John XXII. complaining to Uzbek Khan of Sarai that
the Christians had been ejected from Soldaia and their churches
turned into mosques. Ibn Batuta, who alludes to this strife, counts
Sudak as one of the four great ports of the World. The Genoese got
Soldaia in 1365 and built strong defences, still to be seen. Kaffa,
with a good anchorage, in the 14th century, and later on Tana, took
the place of Soldaia as chief emporium in South Russia. Some of the
Arab Geographers call the Sea of Azov the Sea of Sudak.
The Elder Marco Polo in his Will (1280) bequeaths to the Franciscan
Friars of the place a house of his in _Soldachia_, reserving life
occupation to his own son and daughter, then residing in it.
Probably this establishment already existed when the two Brothers
went thither. (_Elie de Laprimaudaie_, passim; _Gold. Horde_, 87;
_Mosheim_, App. 148; _Ibn Bat._ I. 28, II. 414; _Cathay_, 231–33;
_Heyd_, II. passim.)