Many criminals and other undesirables have found their way to Acre.

More important, the earlier homogeneity of a French character has given way to an Italian predominance, but the Italians of Outremer are as divided as they were in Italy.

The Genoese-Venetian rivalry extends to the Levant and occasionally, as at Acre in 1256, results in outright war.

When the Venetians are evicted from Tyre, war grows out of a dispute concerning land in Acre owned by the monastery of Saint Sabas but claimed by both Genoa and Venice.

Genoa has a clear upper hand at first, but its early successes in the War of Saint Sabas are abruptly reversed when the Republic of Pisa, a former ally, signs a ten-year pact of military alliance with Venice.