By terms of the treaty of Orvieto signed in July 1281 Venice had declared war on Byzantium. The Doge had miscalculated. The chance of riding to Byzantium on a wave of moral fervour had passed. Yet so long as a state of war existed it was not safe for Venetian merchants to sail to Constantinople and the empire. They were specifically forbidden to do so by several decrees of their government between 1282 and 1285. There were still Venetians living in Constantinople. Many of them had been born there. But the commercial quarter which Michael VIII had granted them in 1277 lay dormant or closed down. The Genoese across the water in Galata reaped the benefit of the Doge's miscalculation. It was an expensive mistake and its effects were aggravated by events nearer home. The interdict imposed on Venice was not lifted until a new pope was elected in 1285. There was rebellion in Istria and Trieste, vigorously supported by the Patriarch of Aquileia. A series of natural disasters had left hundreds of citizens homeless and hungry. The food shortage could have been alleviated if Venetian convoys had been able to resume their shipments of corn from Constantinople and the Black Sea. The major Venetian colonies in Romania, especially Modon, Coron, Negroponte and Crete, had not changed hands, and repeated orders went out for the strengthening of their fortifications and defences in the war against the emperor. Crete provided welcome supplies of corn, though rebellion was constantly being subsidised by Byzantine agents in the island; and in Negroponte the Venetians had to fight the Byzantine army to retain possession.