Orso II Participazio (died 932) was the eighteenth

doge A doge ( , ; plural dogi or doges) was an elected lord and head of state in several Italian city-states, notably Venice and Genoa, during the medieval and renaissance periods. Such states are referred to as " crowned republics". Etymology The ...

of the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

, by tradition (historically, he was the sixteenth), from 912 to 932.

History

In 912 he was kidnapped in the Adriatic by a

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prince of

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by the name of Mihailo Višević while returning with the Doge's son from an official visit to

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

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was at war with Byzantium, the sovereign of Venice, so the coastal prince, who was a Bulgarian ally, dispatched him to Emperor Simeon I of Bulgaria, hoping he would push off Petar Gojniković's domination in the area. He was elected by the popular assembly. It seems that he was not related to the Participazio family that had already given many doges to the city. (There was a prior Orso II Participazio who vied for dogeship in about 887 but appears to have been entirely unrelated.) As soon as elected, he sent his son Pietro to Constantinople in order to re-establish the relationships with the

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, to Fall of Constantinople, its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. On ...

, which his predecessors had neglected. Pietro was named ''

protospatharios ''Prōtospatharios'' ( el, πρωτοσπαθάριος) was one of the highest court dignities of the middle Byzantine period (8th to 12th centuries), awarded to senior generals and provincial governors, as well as to foreign princes. History Th ...

'', which was corrupted to ''Baduario'' and, eventually, to ''Badoer'' (pronounced “Badoèr”), which became a prominent name among successive generations of Venetian nobility. The Adriatic was still plagued by Dalmatian,

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Pe ...

, and

Narentine The Narentines were a South Slavic tribe that occupied an area of southern Dalmatia centered at the river Neretva (), active in the 9th and 10th centuries, noted as pirates on the Adriatic. Named ''Narentani'' in Venetian sources, Greek sou ...

pirates, but the Doge took no action. Under his leadership, Venice acquired a mint. In 932, he withdrew to the monastery of Saint Felice in Ammiana, where he led a monastic life until his death. He was buried there. His portrait is placed in the church of the Madonna of the Garden.

Sources

* 932 deaths 10th-century Doges of Venice Orso Year of birth unknown Protospatharioi Byzantine Empire–Republic of Venice relations {{Italy-noble-stub