Pisani. The possessions of Venice on the mainland, which were then
small, were assailed by Francesco Carrara and the Hungarians. Her only
ally in the war, Bernabo Visconti of Milan, gave her little help on
this side, but his mercenaries invaded the territory of Genoa. The
danger on land seemed trifling to Venice so long as she could keep the
sea open to her trade and press the war against the Genoese in the
Levant.

During the first stage of the war the plans of the senate were carried
out with general success. While Carlo Zeno harassed the Genoese
stations in the Levant, Vettor Pisani brought one of their squadrons
to action on the 30th of May 1378 off Punta di Anzio to the south of
the Tiber, and defeated it. The battle was fought in a gale by 10
Venetian against 11 Genoese galleys. The Genoese admiral, Luigi de'
Fieschi, was taken with 5 of his galleys, and others were wrecked.
Four of the squadron escaped, and steered for Famagusta in Cyprus,
then held by Genoa. If Pisani had directed his course to Genoa itself,
which was thrown into a panic by the defeat at Anzio, it is possible
that he might have dictated peace, but he thought his squadron too
weak, and preferred to follow the Genoese galleys which had fled to
Famagusta. During the summer of 1378 he was employed partly in
attacking the enemy in Cyprus, but mainly in taking possession of the
Istrian and Dalmatian towns which supported the Hungarians from fear
of the aggressive ambition of Venice. He was ordered to winter on the
coast of Istria, where his crews suffered from exposure and disease.
Genoa, having recovered from the panic caused by the disaster at
Anzio, decided to attack Venice at home while the best of her ships
were absent with Carlo Zeno. She sent a strong fleet into the Adriatic
under Luciano Doria. Pisani had been reinforced early in the spring of
1378, but when he was sighted by the Genoese fleet of 25 sail off Pola
in Istria on the 7th of May, he was slightly outnumbered, and his
crews were still weak. The Venetian admiral would have preferred to
avoid battle, and to check an attack on Venice itself, by threatening
the Genoese fleet from his base on the Istrian coast. He was forced
into battle by the commissioner (_proveditore_) Michael Steno, who as
agent of the senate had authority over the admiral. The Venetians were
defeated with the loss of all their galleys except six. Lu