Aegeae had grown to become an important …
Years: 1347 - 1347
Aegeae had grown to become an important harbor city of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia in the Middle Ages, and particularly in the thirteenth century.
The Venetians call Aegeae Aiazzo or (incorporating the initial of the definite article) Laiazzo, and it becsme known locally as Ayas.
The fall of Acre and the silting up of the harbor of Tarsus made it became the center of trade between West and East, benefiting from its good roads eastward.
Marco Polo had disembarked here to begin his trip to China in 1271.
The Battle of Laiazzo in 1294, in which the navy of the Republic of Genoa overcame that of the Republic of Venice, is thought by some to be that in which Marco Polo later became a prisoner of the Genoese.
Within the city a quarter and trading post belonging to another of the Italian maritime republics, Pisa, was also established.
The city, increasingly oppressed by the Mamluks, falls definitively into their hands in 1347, and when European trade routes with the East moves away from the Mediterranean, the city and its harbor will lose importance.
Locations
Groups
- Venice, (Most Serene) Republic of
- Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, or Little Armenia
- Egypt and Syria, Mamluk Bahri Sultanate of
