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INNOCENT III AND THE STATES OF EUROPE 465 the prospect of an equal share in all conquests, to provide a certain number of galleys, transport their army, and supply it with provisions for ajyear. The crusaders, however, did not keep their part of the agreement well. Some of them showed an inclination to set off by other routes of their own choosing; others were dilatory in starting at all; and when finally a number of them had been rounded up at Venice considerably later than the day appointed, they were fewer than had been expected and were unable to pay the full amount agreed upon. The doge offered to remit this deficit if before proceeding on the crusade they would aid Venice in conquering Zara, a rival city on the eastern shore of the Adriatic. Now, Zara was a Christian city claimed by the King of Hungary, and consequently any crusaders who attacked it would be liable to excommunication. The Vene- tians, however, who refused to allow the papal legate to accompany the expedition, cared little about being excom- municated, while the other crusaders had a shrewd suspi- cion that the pope would pardon them immediately after- wards, as turned out to be the case. Therefore they aided in the storming of Zara. Then the expedition, instead of proceeding to Syria or Egypt, went to Constantinople, where the Venetian mer- chants were already very influential, and over- Establish- threw a usurper and restored the hereditary Latin ° * C candidate to the Byzantine Empire. When he Empire failed to keep the promises which he had made in order to procure their aid, they deposed him in turn and disgraced themselves by sacking the rich city, burning many build- ings, wantonly destroying works of art, and committing imany atrocities and brutal crimes. In place of the Greek Empire and Comnenian dynasty, whose treachery Western public opinion believed to have been largely responsible for the failure of previous crusades, a Latin Empire (1204-1261) 'was now set up with Baldwin, Count of Flanders, as its first emperor. Outside Constantinople itself, however, his rule extended only to Nicomedia, a part of Thrace, and four islands in the ^Egean Sea. Venice received Crete, Eubcea,