The richest and most politically complex regions in Italy in the earliest middle ages were the Byzantine sections of the peninsula, thanks to their links with the most coherent early medieval state, the Byzantine empire. This comparative study of the histories of Rome, Ravenna, and Venice
examines their common Byzantine past, since all three escaped incorporation into the Lombard kingdom in the late 7th and early 8th centuries. By 750, however, Rome and Ravenna's political links with the Byzantine Empire had been irrevocably severed. Thus, did these cities remain socially and
culturally heirs of Byzantium? How did their political structures, social organisation, material culture, and identities change? Did they become part of the Western political and ideological framework of Italy?
This stusy identifies and analyses the ways in which each of these cities preserved the structures of the Late Antique social and cultural world; or in which they adapted each and every element available to them to their own needs, at various times and in various ways, to create a new identity based
partly on their Roman heritage and partly on their growing integration with the rest of medieval Italy. It tells a story which encompasses the main contemporary narratives, documentary evidence, recent archaeological discoveries, and discussions on art history; it follows the markers of status and
identity through titles, names, ethnic groups, liturgy and ritual, foundation myths, representations, symbols, and topographies of power to shed light on a relatively little known area of early medieval Italian history.
Author(s): Veronica West-Harling
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 720
City: Oxford
Cover
Rome, Ravenna and Venice, 750–1000
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Figures
List of Maps
List of Tables
List of Plates
List of Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
The Context
The Terminology: Some Difficult Words
The Geography: Why These Cities?
The Methodology: How to Articulate the Debate
The Source Material
Narrative Sources
Documentary Sources
Material Culture
Art and Architecture
Historiography and Current Research
Presentation: the Structure of the Book
1 A Tale of Three Cities: History and Histories
A Short History of Italy from Late Antiquity (Fourth Century) to 750
The Period 750 to 1000
Rome
The Lombard Crises and the End of Byzantine Rule
The Franks in Rome and Carolingian Rule to 888
The Regnum Italiae, Aristocratic Rule in Rome, and the Ottonians
Ravenna
The Autocephaly Conflict and its Afterlife
Anti-Roman and Anti-papal Policies of the Church of Ravenna under the Carolingians
Reconciliation with Rome and the Ottonian Alliance
2 The Actors: the Elites and the Populus, I: Rome
Introduction: the Society of Byzantine Italy
The Roman Aristocracy
Aristocratic Families from 750 to 900
Aristocratic Families in the Tenth Century
Wealth
The Popes
The Struggle to Control the Papacy: Contested Elections
The Struggle to Control the Papacy: Conflicts, Riots, and Depositions
Conclusions
The Populus
The Urban Clergy
The Merchants, Artisans, and Other Wealth-creators
Conclusions
3 The Actors: the Elites and the Populus, II: Ravenna and Venice
Aristocracy and Church from the Eighth to the End of the Ninth Century
The Elites in Romagna and the Archbishop of Ravenna in the Ninth and Tenth centuries
Titles and Social Status
Anthroponymy
Wealth
Church Personnel
The Rest of the Clergy
Merchants and Artisans
Conclusions
Venice
The Families of the Future Doges
The Other Aristocratic Families
The Struggle for Control of the Duchy
The Remaining Venetians
The Clergy
The Bishops of the Lagoon
The Rest of the Clergy
The Populus
Merchants and Aristocrats: the Same People?
Artisans
Slaves
Conclusions
4 The Stage: Places of Power, Instruments of Control
The Places
Residences of the Rulers
Residences of the Aristocracy
Residences of the Saints
Churches
Foundations and Restorations
Dedications and Relics
Liturgy and Ideology
Homes of the Elite in this World and the Next: the Monasteries
Instruments of Control
Manifestations of power
The first form of display was generosity to the less fortunate.
Charity and the Charitable System
Art and Architecture
Statements of Power
Titulature and Dating
Coinage
Objects of Power: Emblems, Symbols, and Gifts
Conclusions
5 Exercising Power in the City: The Public Space
Who Owns the Public Space in the City?
Christianization and Appropriation of the Public Space by the Church in Rome
The Cult of St Peter and the Pilgrimage ‘ad limina’
The Papacy’s Role in Running the City
Appropriation of the Public Space by Laymen as a Political Arena: Rewriting Topographies in Rome, Venice, and Ravenna
The Public Space: Place of Cohesion, Place of Conflict
Creating Cohesion, Bringing the City Together
A Space of Representation and the Creation of City Identity:
A Space of Assemblies: Justice, Rulership, Defence
The Public Space as a Place of Conflict:
Using the Emperor: the Factions in the City
In Rome
In Venice and Ravenna
Contested Elections
Riots and Conspiracies
Conclusion: the Public Space—Space of Unity, Space of Separation
6 Memory and the Construction of City Identity
The Roman Past as Common Ground
Anthroponymy
Law and the Notariate
The Saints and the Liturgy
Ideology
Titles and Social Status
Topography and Lifestyle
Preserving and/or Constructing the Past: Romanitas and Apostolic Succession
Romanitas
The Apostolic Succession and the Other Founding Saints
Construction of the Present: Patron Saint and/or Imperial Renovatio
Venice
Ravenna
Rome
7 Concluding Thoughts
Bibliography
Written sources, numismatics, and epigraphy
Literature
Index
