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 Ch. VI THE CATALANS IN GREECE, 1311—1 380 179 
Athenian duchy had been guilty of depredations against the Vene tians, "with
whom we have a truce and are at peace." He promised an investigation and
the punishment of the offenders; he desired peace with the Venetians, of
whom, however, he was clearly sus picious.24 
An interesting report of June 26, 1318, sent to the doge of Venice by Dandolo,
concludes with the news, "On June 21 at about the hour of vespers we learned
from a trustworthy source that a ship of 48 oars has been armed at Athens.
It is to carry two ambassadors of Don Alfonso, [chosen] from among his better
people, to the [Greek] emperor, and it is to leave Athens tonight. We have
also learned from the same reliable informant that another ship is being
armed at Athens, which is to take [another] two ambassadors of Don Alfonso.
. . with two Turkish ambassadors into Turkey. They are going to enlist a
goodly number of Turks, from 1,000 to 
1,500... "25 
Diplomatic representations were made to Don Alfonso Fadrique and to his father
Frederick II of the harm which Catalan corsairs and their Turkish allies
were doing to Venetian commerce and of the ultimate consequences of Venetian
hostility to the Catalan Com pany. On September 2, 1318, king Frederick II
of Sicily answered the several grievances detailed by the Venetian envoy
of whom the doge had written the Angevin princes; Frederick had probably
warned his son to be careful some time before this, but the Sicilian archives
are very fragmentary for this period. The king refused to recognize as infractions
of the peace or as unjust the acts charged in most of the complaints made
against his son Alfonso, and his replies to the Venetian envoys are full
of Catalan enmity toward the Angevin lords of Achaea.26 But with the Venetians
the king of Sicily desired amicable relations and the settlement of differences
existing between them, and he appointed envoys to treat with the doge and
republic of Venice "to achieve a final peace and concord or a long truce
between the republic of Venice, her citizens and subjects, and Alfonso and
the Catalan Company."27 
 24. Dipl., doc. XCV, pp. 114—115. Catalan piracy was unceasing, however,
among the islands of the Archipelago (ef. Dipl., does. XCVI, C—CII);
see W. Heyd, Histoire du commerce du Levant, trans. Furey Raynaud, I (repr.
1967), 538. 
 25. Dipl., doc. XCVIII, p. 119. Catalan sloops (vachetae) had been on a
raid to Euboea, and a fleet (armata) had just attacked Cassandrea on the
Thermaic Gulf. 
 26. Dipl., doc. CIII, pp. 124—127; Thomas, Diplomatarium veneto-levantinum,
I, no. 64, pp. 110—113; ef. Setton, Catalan Domination, p. 34. 
 27. Dipl., doc. CIV, pp. 127—128; Thomas, Diplomatarium veneto-levantinum,
I, no. 65, pp. 113—114. The Venetian conditions of peace presented
to the Sicilian envoys in the early winter of 1318 and the doge's statement
of terms for the envoys to take to Frederick II are