In early 744 Liutprand died, and Zacharias was able to confirm the twentyyear
treaty with his successor-but-one, Ratchis (744–9). For obscure reasons
Ratchis abandoned his pro-Roman policy in 749 and launched a campaign
against the Pentapolis. Zacharias met the king and prevailed upon
him to renounce his conquests, but within a short time Ratchis became a
monk and was succeeded by his brother Aistulf (749–56). Aistulf adopted
a more aggressive policy, including attacks on Istria, Ferrara, Comacchio
and Ravenna itself, which was in his hands by 4 July 751. The ease with
which the capital was finally taken may in part be explained by the exarch
Eutychios’ realism in surrendering the city in the face of considerable odds.
The existence of a pro-Lombard party among its citizens – hostile to the
only viable alternative, papal overlordship – may also help explain the city’s
defeat: this group may have included the city’s archbishop, Sergius, who,
according to Agnellus, had aspirations to rule the area ‘just like an exarch’.29
Certainly Aistulf showed himself aware of Ravennate sensibilities by observing
the forms and titles of Roman rulership, patronising the city’s churches
and showing deference to its patron, St Apollinaris. Nor did he attempt
a military occupation of the exarchate, relying on control exercised on its
border through the foundation of the royal monastery of Nonantola and
the foundation of the duchy of Persiceto under a loyal Friulian noble.
The long-term consequences of the fall of Ravenna in 751 proved dramatic
for the papacy and for the Lombard and Frankish kingdoms, especially
since the same annus mirabilis saw the deposition of the lastMerovingian
king with the sanction of Pope Zacharias, and the anointing of Pippin
the Short (751–68) as king of the Franks by the Frankish bishops. Ironically
the fall of the capital with more of a whimper than a bang had little
direct effect on the remaining territories of Byzantine Italy. The process of
decentralisation had been underway for decades, with effective power in the
hands of local elites led by duces. Nevertheless the history of the surviving
provinces is best studied by examining them in three separate blocks, since
in each the relatively uniform social structure of the imperial period was
gradually transformed by particular local factors. In the north, Venetia and
Istria retained their imperial allegiance; in the south, Sicily and the duchies
of Calabria, Otranto and Naples continued to come under the authority
of the strat¯egos of the Sicilian theme;and in central Italy the exarchate, the
Pentapolis and the duchies of Perugia and Rome were the subject of a
tug-of-war between the Lombards, the papacy and entrenched local elites.
World History
