The more powerful of the two fleets which it sent out was despatched into the eastern Mediterranean under Carlo Zeno, the bailiff and captain of Negropont.
The first Turkish war lasted from 1464 to 1479, and ended in the loss of Negropont and several places in the Morea, and the payment by Venice of an annual tribute for trading rights.
He escaped in a Venetian galley to Negropont, and then proceeded to Athens, thence to Apulia, finally to France.
In modern times the name Sporades is more especially applied to two groups - the northern Sporades, which lie north-east of Negropont (Euboea), Skiathos, Skopelos and Ikos being included in the department of Magnesia and Scyros in that of Euboea; and the southern Sporades, lying off the south-west of Asia Minor, being included in the Turkish vilayet of the "Islands of the White Sea."
In modern history Euboea or Negropont comes once more prominently into notice at the time of the fourth crusade.