later by the British, creating the Republic of the Seven United Islands (; ), the first autonomous Greek state since the Fall of the Byzantine Empire. According to the provisions of the treaty, the Ionian Islands would be a single federal state, with the individual islands preserving a degree of autonomy. It would follow the long-established model of the Republic of Ragusa, being an aristocratic republic led by the "primates and notables", and under Ottoman suzerainty, as token of which they would pay an annual tribute of 75,000 piastres to the Sultan. This was a victory for the Sultan, and a disappointment for the Islanders, who had been promised the right to choose their own form of governance in the proclamations of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Gregory V, and the head of the Russian fleet, Admiral Fyodor Ushakov. The new state's constitution, once agreed, would be approved by the signatory powers. As the new state lacked military forces, Russian and Ottoman forces would remain to garrison its forts and guarantee its security until the end of the war against France. The mainland exclaves of Parga, Vonitsa, Preveza, and Butrinto, on the other hand, would remain under Ottoman control but would enjoy a special status similar to that of the Danubian Principalities. Adoption of the "Byzantine" Constitution At the same time, without consulting their colleagues in Saint Petersburg or the provisional government in the Islands, Capodistrias and Sigouros Desyllas also composed a new constitution, and designed the new flag of the state. The so-called "Byzantine" Constitution (constituzione bizantina), thus named most probably because it was composed in Constantinople (Byzantion), comprised 37 articles. It envisaged an aristocratic federal republic, with a local administration on every island, headed by three syndics, to be chosen annually from the Great Council of the nobles of each island. The syndics elected a "dean" (πρύτανις) as head of administration for four-month tenures. The Senate in Corfu remained the highest authority of the federal state, composed of the representatives of the islands. Its president, the archon, was the head of state. The constitution was printed in Greek, with heavy use of Italian loanwords for administrative terms, by the patriarchal press in Constantinople. The new constitution was strongly reactionary, reversing the gains of the bourgeoisie in particular, in favour of the old noble families; even the titles of nobility granted in 1799, after the French left, and which