Italy in the Eighth Century

The invasion launched by war-bands of Lombard and other peoples led by Alboin in 568 had a decisive effect on the map of Italy for centuries. Much of the north was rapidly conquered, including Milan in 569 and Pavia in 572. The inadequate Byzantine garrisons were thrown into disarray, Lombard raiding parties penetrated into Tuscany and the Rome area and semi-autonomous duchies were set up in the south at Spoleto and Benevento. Gradually the empire was able to put up more effective resistance by exploiting Lombard divisions, bribing the Franks to invade the Lombard kingdom, recruiting Lombard renegades as mercenaries and concentrating authority in the hands of one military governor, known by 584 as the exarch. By 603, when a truce was declared, the empire retained secure control of the Rome

Lorrbard -  frontiRr ai the

Time oi tfjce of 605

Northern fronher of Lombard kingdom

Conquests of King Agiluil 4590-6 ;b>

Tcrfilo»v conquered bY ’>’e lombardsc 636-?b

Extent of Exarchate at the death of Xing 1 iutorand (744f

Lards in Rome area granted to papacy by Charles in 781- 7

ITALY IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY

Extent of lands oromised to oapacv by OonatJon of Pepin' according to papal accounts

And Ravenna areas, together with a corridor following the line of the Via Amerina through Umbria, and coastal enclaves around Venice, Genoa, Naples and other southern cities.

For much of the seventh century the frontier remained static, broken by King Rothari's capture of Genoa in 643 and the defeat of the Emperor Constans' expedition against Benevento in 663/ 4. As the empire became increasingly endangered by threats in the east, more power within the Byzantine territories was exercised by the local military garrisons and their leaders, and in the case of Rome by the pope. In the Lombard kingdom dynastic instability did not prevent increasing prosperity and adoption of Roman institutions. By c. 680 the Lombards had dropped their Arian and pagan beliefs in favour of Catholic Christianity and secured recognition from the empire. Gradually their pressure on the imperial provinces increased, as the Romans became discontented with the religious and taxation policies of the eastern empire and King Liutprand (712-44) attempted to unite the peninsula under Lombard rule. Resistance to such a take-over was led by the popes, who remained essentially loyal to Byzantium, but they were unable to gain any substantial aid from their imperial 'protectors'. Following the Lombard Aistulf's capture of Ravenna in 751, and threats to Rome itself, Pope Stephen II obtained the intervention of the Frankish king Pepin III, who defeated Aistulf and recognized sweeping papal claims over much of central Italy (Donation of Pepin, 756). Threats were renewed by Aistulf's successor Desiderius against Pope Hadrian I, who called on Pepin's son Charles to intervene in 773. In 774 Charles captured Pavia and became king of the Lombards. The Lombard kingdom retained its distinctive social and governmental institutions and only gradually did an influx of Frankish officials and an increase in the wealth and power of the Church take place.

The political map of Italy remained confused in the late eighth century. Benevento (unlike its neighbour to the north, Spoleto) remained outside effective Frankish control and became a principality and a centre of traditional Lombard legitimacy under Desiderius' son-in-law Arichis, often allying itself with Byzantium to preserve its independence. The empire itself retained Sicily and its footholds in Calabria and Apulia, together with the nominal allegiance of the maritime cities of Amalfi, Gaeta, Naples and Venice. Its province of Istria fell to the Franks in the late eighth century. The papacy's claim to much of central Italy, including southern Tuscany, Spoleto, as well as the duchy of Rome and the old Exarchate, was zealously propagated by Lateran officials on the basis of the Donation of Constantine (a contemporary forgery) as well as the vague promises of the Frankish kings. In no sense, however, did it amount to a papal state. In many areas the papacy was more concerned with estates and rights than overall jurisdiction, while in others the Franks were induced by bribes or Realpolitik to leave power in the hands of local figures such as the archbishop of Ravenna. Even in the duchy of Rome, the papacy's authority was far from secure, as was shown by the revolt against Pope Leo III (795-816), which led to the latter's appeal to Charles for aid and the Frankish king's assumption of the imperial title in St Peter's on Christmas Day 800.

T. S.Brown