Duchy of Rome
Dvcatvs Romanvs Δουκᾶτον Ῥώμης | |||||||||
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Duchy of the Byzantine Empire | |||||||||
Late 7th century–756 | |||||||||
Duchy of Rome within the Byzantine Empire in 717 | |||||||||
Capital | Rome | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
• Establishment | Late 7th century | ||||||||
• Establishment of the Papal States | 756 | ||||||||
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Today part of | Italy Vatican City |
This article is part of a series on |
Vatican City |
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The Duchy of Rome (
History
It is uncertain when exactly the Duchy of Rome was established, but it was most likely in the late 7th century, given the lack of earlier references to such a territory. The dux of Rome was subservient to the
Importance of Rome to Byzantine Italy
The strategic importance of the Duchy of the Pentapolis (Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Sinigaglia, Ancona) and the Duchy of Perugia lay in their ability to retain control of the districts between Ravenna and Rome, and with them communication over the Apennine Mountains. If this strategic connection were broken, it was evident that Rome and Ravenna could not singly maintain themselves for any length of time. This was also recognized by the Lombards. The same narrow strip of land broke the connection between their Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento and the main portion of the king's territories in the north. The Lombards made multiple attacks against this front to wrest control of the peninsula from the Byzantines.
Lombard attacks and increase in papal responsibility
In 728 the Lombard
This expression of the
The belief that the Roman territory (at first in the more restricted, but afterwards also in the wider sense) was defended by the
This caused the pope in 739 to turn for the first time to the powerful Frankish kingdom, under the protection of which
Accordingly, the successor of Gregory III, Pope Zachary, changed the policy that had been previously followed toward the Lombards. He formed an alliance with Liutprand against Transamund, and in 741 received in return the four castles as the result of a personal visit to the camp of the king at Terni. Liutprand also restored a number of patrimonies that had been seized by the Lombards, and furthermore concluded a twenty years' peace with the Pope.[6]
The duchy now had a respite from Lombard attacks. The Lombards fell upon Ravenna, which they had already held from 731 to 735. The Exarch Eutychius had no other recourse than to seek the aid of the pope. Liutprand did in fact allow himself to be induced by Zachary to surrender the greater part of his conquests. Nor was it unimportant that these districts too once owed their rescue to the pope. Only a short time after Liutprand's death in 744, Zachary was successful in further postponing the catastrophe.[7]
Fall of the exarchate – Donation of Pepin
In 751 the Exarchate of Ravenna fell to the Lombards under King Aistulf. Rome, under Pope Stephen II, attempted diplomatic negotiations with Aistulf, and upon the failure of those negotiations, entreated King Pepin the Short of the Franks to intervene on its behalf.[8] Pepin defeated the Lombards by 756 and granted the lands of the Duchy of Rome as well as some of the former Lombard possessions associated with the Exarchate of Ravenna to the Papacy in what is referred to as the Donation of Pepin, marking the true beginning of the Papal States. [9]
Dukes
The dukes were initially appointees of the exarch, but by mid-century they were created by the Pope.
- Peter ( –725)[10]
- Marinus (725– )[11]
- Stephen (fl. 743)[12]
- Toto (767–68)[13]
- Gratiosus (769–72)[14]
- John (772– )[15]
- Theodore (fl. 772×95)[16]
The office of Duke of Rome disappeared around 778–81, but there are scattered references to dukes among the Papal officers, who may be successors of the dukes of Rome:
Notes
- S2CID 165863499.
- ^ For a map of the Duchy, see: B. Bavant, Le duché byzantin de Rome. Origine, durée et extension géographique, Mélanges de l'école française de Rome, Année 1979, 91-1, fig. 3
- ^ a b c Schnürer, Gustav. "States of the Church", The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 24 April 2016
- Clarendon Press, 1895. pp 475–478.
- ^ Mann, Horace K., The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages. Vol. I: The Popes Under the Lombard Rule]], Part 2, 657–795. (1914) pp. 219–220
- ^ Butler, Alban (1866). "Zachary, Pope and Confessor". The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. Vol. III. Dublin: James Duffy.
- ^ Richards, Jeffrey. The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages, 476–752. (1979) London. Routledge. p. 229
- ^ Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.—Part III.
- ^ Frankpeople
- ^ Thomas F. X. Noble, The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal State, 680–825 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984), 22.
- ^ Noble, Republic of St. Peter, 29.
- ^ Noble, Republic of St. Peter, 53.
- ^ Noble, Republic of St. Peter, 112–18, 128, 195–201, 236, 248–49.
- ^ Noble, Republic of St. Peter, 116–17, 234.
- ^ Noble, Republic of St. Peter, 130, 234.
- ^ Noble, Republic of St. Peter, 234–35.
- ^ Noble, Republic of St. Peter, 247.
- ^ Noble, Republic of St. Peter, 210n.
References
- Gustav Schnürer (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
- AA.VV., Atlante storico-politico del Lazio, Regione Lazio, Editori Laterza, Bari 1996. (in Italian)
- Galasso G., Storia d'Italia, Vol I, Utet, Torino 1995. (in Italian)
- Bavant B., Le Duché byzantin de Rome, Mélanges de l’Ecole Française de Rome 1979. (in French)
- Liber pontificalis. (in Latin)