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RAVENNA, EXARCHATE OF
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See also:RAVENNA, EXARCHATE OF , the See also:official name of that See also:part of See also:Italy which remained in the See also:allegiance of the See also:Roman emperors at See also:Constantinople from the closing years of the 6th to the See also:middle of the 8th See also:century. The See also:civil and military See also:head of these possessions, the See also:exarch (q.v.), was stationed at Ravenna. The territory See also:round the See also:town, from the See also:southern border of the See also:modern See also:Venetia to the beginning of the Pentapolis at See also:Rimini, was under his See also:direct See also:administration and formed in a limited sense the exarchate. The other provinces were governed by See also:dukes and magistri militum, titles which were generally, but not always, See also:borne by the same See also:person. But as all were subject to his authority, they were included in the exarchate of Ravenna, which was therefore another name for the See also:province of Italy. The See also:borders of these dominions varied according to the fortunes of the imperial authority in its See also:long struggle with the See also:Lombards. See also:Sicily formed a See also:separate See also:government. See also:Corsica and See also:Sardinia belonged to the exarchate of See also:Africa. The reorganization of the province of Italy into the exarchate was forced on the emperors by the Lombard invasion, which began in 568, and their permanent See also:settlement. The Lombards thrust a See also:wedge into Italy. Its See also:base was in Venetia, and its point was advanced to the See also:Tiber. From the See also:early (See also:lays of the See also:conquest they spread to the See also:south, and established the duchies of Spoletum and Beneventum in the modern See also:kingdom of See also:Naples. They may thus be said to have hollowed out the imperial, or See also:Byzantine, possessions in Italy, the interior being under their See also:power, and the See also:coast remaining to the imperial See also:officers. This See also:illustration, however, is subject to two serious exceptions. As the Lombards spread they came into See also:possession of many parts of the coast. Then a See also:belt of imperial territory stretching from Rimini on the Adriatic, S.W. to the mouth of the Tiber, and including the duchies of See also:Perugia and See also:Rome, served to unite the immediate territory of Ravenna with the duchy of Naples, and to separate the two bodies under Lombard dominion, the kingdom in the See also:north, and the southern duchies Spoletum and Beneventum. The organization of the exarchate is placed by modern investigators under the reign of the See also:emperor See also:Maurice (582-602), when the imperial government began to recognize the See also:necessity of providing for a new and a long struggle. At the end of the 6th century the exarchate included See also:Istria; the maritime part of Venetia as distinct from the interior which was in the hands of the Lombard See also:kings at See also:Pavia; the exarchate proper, or territory around Ravenna on the eastern See also:side of the See also:Apennines, to which was added See also:Calabria, which at that See also:period meant the See also:heel and not the toe of the See also:boot; the Pentapolis, or coast from Rimini to See also:Ancona with the interior as far as the mountains; the duchy of Rome, or belt of territory connecting the Pentapolis with. the western coast, the coast of Naples, with Bruttium the toe of the boot, the modern Calabria, and See also:Liguria, or the See also:Riviera of See also:Genoa. The See also:Piedmont, See also:Lombardy, mainland of Venetia, See also:Tuscany and the interior of Naples be-longed to the Lombards. The advance of these barbarians was for a See also:time checked during the anarchy which followed the See also:death of See also:Alboin, and was subject to other suspensions. The See also:superior organization of the imperial government enabled it to regain lost territory and delay See also:complete ruin. In 590 the See also:empire regained much of Venetia. But these revivals were not permanent. The superiority of the empire was a See also:mechanical one, and during the two centuries or so that the exarchate lasted it lost ground. In 64o the Ligurian seacoast See also:fell See also:tender the power of the Lombards, and ceased to be an imperial province. About a century later the exarchate had been greatly reduced, though the imperial officials endeavoured to conceal the fact by retaining and transferring names when the reality of possession was lost. About 740 it consisted of Istria, Venetia (the maritime portion of which was ceasing to be a province and was becoming a protected See also:state, the forerunnerof the future See also:republic of See also:Venice), See also:Ferrara, Ravenna (the exarchate in the limited sense), Pentapolis, Perusia, Rome, the coast of Naples and Calabria (in the sense of the toe and not the heel of the boot) which was being overrun by the Lombards of the duchy of Beneventum, which with Spoletum held the interior. In Rome the See also:pope was the real See also:master. These fragments of the " province of Italy," as it was when reconquered by Justinian, were almost all lost either to the Lombards, who finally conquered Ravenna itself about 750, or by the revolt of the pope, who separated from the empire on See also:account of the iconoclastic reforms. The intervention of See also:Pippin the Carolingian, who was called in by the popes to protect them against the Lombards and the Eastern emperors alike, made a revival of the exarchate impossible. It disappeared, and the small remnants of the imperial possessions on the mainland, Naples and Calabria, passed under the authority of the " patricius " of Sicily, and when Sicily was conquered by the See also:Arabs in the loth century were erected into the themes of Calabria and Langobardia. Istria was attached to See also:Dalmatia. In its See also:internal See also:history the exarchate was subject to the influences which were everywhere, in central and western See also:Europe at least, leading to the subdivision of See also:sovereignty and the See also:establishment of See also:feudalism. Step by step, and in spite of the efforts of the emperors at Constantinople, the See also:great imperial officials became landowners, the owners of See also:land —kinsmen or at least associates of these officials—intruded on the imperial administration, while the necessity for providing for the See also:defence of the imperial territories against the Lombards led to the formation of See also:local militias, who at first were attached to the imperial regiments, but gradually became See also:independent. These armed men formed the exercitus romanae militiae, who were the forerunners of the See also:free armed burghers of the See also:Italian cities of the middle ages. The exercitus of Rome was divided into scholae, and had a See also:chief or patronus, and its banner. Other cities of the exarchate were organized on the same See also:model. Diehl is of See also:opinion that the exercitus was formed of the See also:ancient " possessores," or landowners and free townsmen, who were of a less See also:rank than the ordo senatorius. The great landowners who were developing into feudal lords, and the smaller freemen who were becoming independent burghers, See also:broke the imperial administration to pieces, and prepared the way for the final ruin of the exarchate.
See Etudes sur l'administration Byzantine dans l'exarchat de Ravenne (568-751), by See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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