VENETIAN SUPREMACY
later the King of Servia, being offended with the Republic, harried and plundered its merchants, raided Ragusan territory, and tried to capture the city, but was again defeated.
   Ragusa’s relations with Venice were on the whole satisfactory. There were occasional complaints on the part of the Venetian Government that the Ragusans did not fulfil their treaty obligations and failed to send the promised galleys to take part in the expeditions against the Almissan pirates and other enemies.1 On other occasions they were blamed for delaying goods (chiefly grain) which passed through the city on the way to Venice. However, when in 1296 Ragusa was almost entirely destroyed by fire, the Venetians showed generosity in providing money and building materials,2 and the Count Marino Morosini (1296-1298) issued a decree for rebuilding the city on a handsomer scale.3 During the Genoese war Ragusa lent four galleys to the Venetians, which took part in the battle of Curzola, and after that disastrous defeat the Ragusan ships lent aid to the scattered remnants of the Venetian fleet (1298).
   Ragusa had considerable intercourse with the neighbouring Dalmatian townships, especially with Cattaro, which was one of the oldest city-republics on the coast. But there were frequent quarrels between the two communities, partly through the intrigues of the Slavonic princes, and partly on account of commercial rivalries, both towns being competitors for the salt trade from the coast to the interior.4 Cattaro had sometimes been under the protection of the Servian kings, who used it as their
    1	Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 204 (1293-1331) and 261 (1294). 2 Ibid., 237.
   3	Reform., 57.	4 Salt was a commodity lacking in the interior.