13 - Byzantine Italy, c. 680–c. 876

Summary

bryzantine italy in 680

By the last quarter of the seventh century the Byzantine areas of Italy had experienced over a century of upheaval. Within decades of their first invasion of Italy in 568 the Lombards had established a powerful kingdom consisting of the territories north of the river Po, Tuscany and the two outlying duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. The empire was confined to the areas of Rome and its duchy, Ravenna and the neighbouring areas of the Exarchate and Pentapolis, approximating to the present-day Romagna and Marche, and a few coastal areas elsewhere. The Byzantines had only been able to hold on to their possessions by initiating a thorough-going militarisation of society, which involved the concentration of land in military hands and the concentration of authority in the hands of the commander-in-chief in Ravenna (the exarch) and his subordinates (duces and magistri militum at a provincial level and tribuni in the localities). In many areas, such as the Roman Campagna, this process was accompanied by a steady shift of population, as settlement became concentrated on military strongholds and refuges, usually located on promontory sites. Although the pressure eased somewhat in the seventh century, Liguria and most of the remaining settlements on the Venetian mainland were lost to the Lombards in the reign of King Rothari (636–52), and the duchy of Benevento made continual encroachments in the south, which accelerated after the unsuccessful expedition of Constans II to southern Italy (663–8).