Duchy of Perugia

Duchy of Perugia
Duchy of Perugia
Duchy of the Byzantine Empire
554 – ca. 752
Location of Perugia
Map of the Exarchate and the Lombard territories around the mid-7th century.
Capital Perugia
Historical era Middle Ages
 - Establishment under the authority of the Praetorian Prefect of Italy 554
 - Part of the Exarchate of Ravenna 584
 - De facto control by the Papacy ca. 752

The Duchy of Perugia was a duchy (Latin: ducatus) in the Italian part of the Byzantine Empire. Its civil and military administration was overseen by a duke (dux) appointed by and under the authority originally of the Praetorian Prefect of Italy (554–584) and later of the Exarch of Ravenna (584–751).[1] Its chief city and namesake was Perugia, located at its centre. It was a band of territory connecting the Duchy of the Pentapolis to its northeast with the Duchy of Rome to its southwest, and separating the duchies of Tuscia (to its northwest) and Spoleto (to its southeast), both parts of the Lombard Kingdom of Italy. It was of great strategic significance to the Byzantines since it provided communication between Rome, the city of the Popes, and Ravenna, the capital of the Exarchate. Since it cut off the Duke of Spoleto from his nominal overlord, the king ruling from Pavia, it also disturbed the Lombard kingdom, which was a constant thorn in the Byzantines' side. This strategic importance meant that many Lombard and Byzantine armies passed through it.

Thomas Noble, an American historian, has surmised that by 739–740, when Pope Gregory III was negotiating with Charles Martel, Duke of the Franks, for assistance against the Lombards, the Pope already envisaged an independent republic of his "peculiar people" (peculiarem populum), meaning the inhabitants of the duchies of Perugia and Rome who, so remote from either Ravenna or the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, depended upon the Pope for defence and for their foreign relations.[2] Hildeprand, the heir to the throne, and Peredeo, Duke of Vincenza, united to take Ravenna, probably in 737–740. According to the contemporary Lombard historian Paul the Deacon, this occurred before "the Romans, swollen with their accustomed pride, assembled on every side under the leadership of Agatho, duke of the Perugians, and came to seize Bononia (Bologna), where Walcari, Peredeo, and Rotcari were then staying in camp, but the latter rushed upon the Romans, made a great slaughter of them and compelled those who were left to seek flight."[3] According to modern historians Georg Waitz, Jan Hallenbeck, and Paolo Delogu, this took place before the ephemeral conquest of Ravenna. The most common interpretation is that Agatho was trying to regain Bologna, which was a part of his duchy until it was conquered by Liutprand around 727–730, and in so doing broke a truce between the Byzantines and Lombards, thus provoking an assault on Ravenna.[4]

In 749, the Lombard king Ratchis invaded the duchies of Perugia and Pentapolis, besieging the capital city of the former. Pope Zachary met the king at Perugia and convinced him to lift the siege and abdicate to a monastery. It has been suggested that Ratchis was forced to attack Byzantine Italy by a part of Lombard nationalists, or conversely that he attacked because Zachary had broken the terms of his predecessor's Peace of Terni, a twenty-year truce.[5] In any case, "all Italy was quiet" between Ratchis's accession in 745 and his attack on Perugia in 749, according to Zachary's biographer in the Liber pontificalis.[5]

With the collapse of the exarchate and the capture of Ravenna by the Lombards in 751,[6] the duchy of Perugia was left under de facto Papal authority by 752.[7] In a passage of the Ludovicianum that can date no earlier than 774, the cities of the Roman duchy are listed from north to south, with the cities of the duchy of Perugia added to those of Roman Tuscany, indicating that by the time of conquest of the Lombard kingdom by the Franks, Perugia had been incorporated into the Papally-ruled duchy of Rome.[8] In fact, the duchy of Perugia as a distinct political unit cannot be charted later than the 740s.[9]

References

  1. ^ Noble 1984, pp. 3–5.
  2. ^ Noble 1984, pp. 44–48.
  3. ^ Paul the Deacon 1974, VI, 54.
  4. ^ Noble 1984, p. 41.
  5. ^ a b Noble 1984, pp. 56–57.
  6. ^ Noble 1984, p. 57.
  7. ^ Noble 1984, pp. 59, 94–95.
  8. ^ Noble 1984, p. 160.
  9. ^ Noble 1984, p. 182.

Sources

Further reading


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Duchy of the Pentapolis — Duchy of the Byzantine Empire …   Wikipedia

  • Duchy of Rome — A greatly reduced Duchy of Rome (3) in 717. The Duchy of Rome (Latin: Ducatus Romanus) was a Byzantine district in the Exarchate of Ravenna. Like other Byzantine states in Italy, it was ruled by an imperial functionary with the title dux. These… …   Wikipedia

  • Perugia — Perugian /peuh rooh jeuhn, jee euhn/, adj., n. /pe rddooh jah/; Eng. /peuh rooh jeuh, jee euh/, n. 1. a city in central Umbria, in central Italy. 136,933. 2. Lake of. See Trasimeno. * * * City (pop., 2001 prelim.: 148,575), capital of Umbria… …   Universalium

  • Italy — /it l ee/, n. a republic in S Europe, comprising a peninsula S of the Alps, and Sicily, Sardinia, Elba, and other smaller islands: a kingdom 1870 1946. 57,534,088; 116,294 sq. mi. (301,200 sq. km). Cap.: Rome. Italian, Italia. * * * Italy… …   Universalium

  • States of the Church — • Consists of the civil territory which for over 1000 years (754 1870) acknowledged the pope as temporal ruler Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. States of the Church     States of the Church …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Italy — • In ancient times Italy had several other names: it was called Saturnia, in honour of Saturn; Enotria, wine producing land; Ausonia, land of the Ausonians; Hesperia, land to the west (of Greece); Tyrrhenia, etc. The name Italy, which seems to… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Spoleto — • Archdiocese in Umbria, Italy Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Spoleto     Spoleto     † …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Demetrios Chalkokondyles — Δημήτριος Χαλκοκονδύλης Demetrios Chalkokondyles,[1][2][3] …   Wikipedia

  • Historical states of Italy — Italy until the present era was a conglomeration of city states and small independent nations. The following is a list of the various states that made up what we now know as Italy during the past. (rounded up to a year significant to Italian… …   Wikipedia

  • Fraticelli — • A name given to various heretical sects which appeared in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, principally in Italy Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Fraticelli     Fraticelli …   Catholic encyclopedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”