| As a constant hotbed of unrest, the Sphakia area provoked the lively interest of Venetian administrative deputies, which emerges from a series of reports they sent to the Senate in the closing decades of the 16th century. The situation was exacerbated by the undying antagonism between two large families, the Pateroi and the Papadopouloi. In order to secure peaceful living conditions and the dispensation of justice, a number of local residents made repeated appeals to the Venetian authorities, seeking the installation of a provveditor at Sphakia or Frangokastello invested with powers extending to the imposition of the death penalty. Two of these reports from Sphakians, presented to Venetian officials at Chania in 1593 and 1594, are published here in the Italian original and a Greek translation with notes. |