The Revolt of Saint Titus (Greek: Eπανάσταση του Αγίου Τίτου) was a fourteenth-century rebellion against the Republic of Venice in the Venetian colony of Crete.
Owing to its central location along the trade routes, its size and its products, Crete had a strategic importance for the Venetian rule in the Eastern Mediterranean.
On 8 August 1363, Latin feudatories in Candia were informed that a new tax, aimed to support the maintenance of the city's port, was to be imposed on them by the Venetian Senate.
Within a week, the revolt spread to the rest of the island and the commanders (rectors) of the main cities were substituted by men loyal to the insurgents.
Being a state colony, Crete featured a fiscal administration imposed over both the Latin and the indigenous population, thus creating the potential of a sympathy and later an alliance between the colonists and those being colonized.
This was emphasized further by the fact that at the time of the revolt, settlers had been living in Crete for two or three generations and an acculturation process had made the local culture more familiar to them than that of their homeland Venice.
Crete being one of its major overseas possessions, the Senate considered the revolt to be a serious threat to its security, comparable to that posed by Genoa, its traditional enemy.
Requests for help were sent to Pope Urban V, the doge of Genoa, Joan I of Naples, Peter I of Cyprus, Louis I of Hungary, John V Palaeologus and the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller in Rhodes.
[4] Most responded positively, expressing their support and issuing decrees that instructed their subjects to refrain from making any contact or providing any aid to the insurgents on Crete.
The Venetian expeditionary fleet sailed from Venice on April 10, carrying foot soldiers, cavalry, mine sapper, and siege engineers.
News of the victory reached Venice in June 1364 and was greeted with prolonged celebrations in the Piazza San Marco, which as poet Petrarch described in a letter, included mock battles, banquets, games, races and jousts.