Italia after the fall of the Western Empire

[Favonius Cornelius]

this thread was split from the Romanization At A Glance Topic

 

Interesting stuff! Know much about the condition of Italia after the fall of the Western Empire?

[Ursus]

Not too much, no. The north fell to the Goths, then to the Byzantines, then to the Lombards, then to the Franks and (later) the Holy Roman Empire (I think that's the progression, in any event it was gobbled up by various post-Roman forces). The South fell to Normans and then to Saracens. The Middle became the Papal States. I'm sure the Medieval military buffs could probably give you more detail.

 

I do know the northern cities around the Po River Valley were the first to recover and even today remain richer than the rest of Italy.

[Favonius Cornelius]

The South fell to Normans and then to Saracens.

 

Saracens? I don't remember them ever taking southern Italy. Sicily yes. Also I think the Byzantines only took the southern portion of Italy but never quite the north.

[Tobias]

Also I think the Byzantines only took the southern portion of Italy but never quite the north.

That's right. After Justinian's campaigns and the subsequent invasion by the Lombards, by about 605, the Byzantines had managed to keep almost half the country, and to stop a unified Lombard kingdom coming into being.

By 717-8, in Italy, the Lombards were acquiring the Empire's territory little by little. In 751 they finally took the Imperial headquarters, Ravenna. Rome was obviously in the Lombard's sights, with no chance of reinforcements from Constantinople. Pope Zachary (who was the de facto ruler of Rome since 741), instead of asking the Emperor of the East for help, sought assistance from the Frankish kindom. Around 751, he blessed the Frank Pepin's elevation from Major-Domo to King of the Franks. Pepin payed Zachary back in 754 by clearing the Lombards out of the Papal state, which nominally remained part of the Byzantine Empire.

Zachary's successor Stephen cemented the Papal-Frankish alliance by conferring the title Patrician of the Romans upon Pepin in 754. In so doing he was usurping the role of the Emperor, but the latter was in no position to stop him. In 756 Pepin defeated the Lombard King again, and forced him to give up the last century of conquests from the Empire in northern Italy. The Emperor Constantine V demanded that the ceded territory be returned to Byzantium, but instead Pepin gave it to the Pope, creating the Papal States (Patrimonium Petri). In 772 Papal bulls ceased to bear the Emperor's name. In 774 Pepin's son and successor Charles the great (Charlemagne) conquered the Lombard Kingdom, calling himself King of the Franks and Lombards. The Papal States became a Frankish protectorate, and Charles went on to conquer almost the whole of continental Christian Western Europe. In 800, when Charles was visiting Rome, Pope Leo III took the logical step of anointing him "Emperor governing the Roman Empire", reputedly to Charlie's own surprise. At first, the Byzantines ignored this claim, but, under military pressure from Charlemagne in the Adriatic and southern Italy, they recognized him as Emperor of the Franks in 812. They reserved the title Emperor of the Romans for themselves

via http://www.sci.gu.edu.au/~wiseman/Roman/19Maps.html#623

 

By 925 A.D, much Byzantine territory was lost to the arabs, but in the Italian territory, Byzantine power and influence was far more than it had been for about two centuries, as these territories alone were not able to resist the relentless Arab onslaught .

By the time of Basil Bulgaroktonos, and his brilliant recoveries in the Mediterranean, Venice in Italy was fully independent; a nation that would prove rather a terrible problem for the Byzantines later.

Later again, the Byzantine's Norman mercenaries revolted in 1040, dissatisfied with how much the Byzantines were paying them. They invaded mainland Italy, where their revolt spread. Sicily was abandoned in 1043. In 1071, the last Byzantine city in Italy fell to the Norman adventurers. The Byzantines would not have control over any part of Italy ever again after this.

Sorry for the lecture

 

By the way, great work Ursus, i really enjoyed reading that.

[Ursus]

Ooops. Looks like I was a bit off. Post Roman Medieval Europe is not my forte. Thanks to whoever split it.

[Viggen]

Actually for a brief time Justinian had the north of italia too,

http://www.ku.edu/kansas/medieval/108/lect.../justinian.html

 

cheers

viggen

[Northern Neil]

I understand that Roman material culture persisted until the Lombard invasions of the 7th century. Had Justinian not devastated and weakened Italy in his attempt at reconquest, the Gothic rulers might have been better placed to prevent the ensuing Lombard invasion, and with it the final destruction of a recognisably Roman culture.

 

The Citizens of Neapolis welcomed the East Roman reconquest because of their Greek heritage. This suggests to me that Greek was still spoken by the Neapolitans even after seven hundred years of Roman rule.