 When the battered fleet returned to Venice , news of the defeat spread throughout the city to mixed reactions . Though some were willing to forgive the defeat considering the circumstances , many others needed someone to blame for the loss that was considerable not only in human and material terms , but also symbolically . The people of Venice had been humiliated by an upstart nation with practically no naval experience . Though Guiscard would die the next year and the Norman threat would quickly disappear , a scapegoat was needed at that moment . A faction of influential Venetians , possibly led by Vitale Faliero based on later writings , led a popular revolt to depose Selvo , and in December 1084 they succeeded . Selvo apparently did not make a great effort to defend himself and was sent off to a monastery . He died three years later in 1087 , and was buried in the <unk> of St. Mark 's Basilica . 
