Short history of Rome, Italy and the Lombards

The city of ROME was founded in the 8th century, BC, by local LATINS and SABINES and was ruled by Etruscan kings from 616 BC. But after the expulsion of the last of these kings, Lucius TARQUINIUS SUPERBUS in 510 BC, and the foundation of the Roman republic in 509, the power of the Etruscans declined as the Romans began the unification of Italy. This process reached its final stage in 89 BC, when the right of Roman citizenship was extended throughout Italy, with the consequent diffusion of Roman institutions and the Latin language and culture from the Alps to Sicily.

The Roman Empire began effectively with the defeat of Mark ANTONY and CLEOPATRA in 31 BC by the man who would later become Emperor AUGUSTUS. During the following centuries the increasing extent of the Roman possessions outside Italy and the complexity of the imperial bureaucracy resulted in a decline in the importance of Italy itself, a process accelerated by the growing number of emperors born outside Italy, whose allegiances lay elsewhere. The Edict of Caracalla (AD 212 or 213), which extended Roman citizenship to nearly all free provincials throughout the empire, further undermined Italy's special status. In 330, Emperor CONSTANTINE I transferred his capital from Rome to Constantinople, built on the site of Byzantium. Italy's administrative autonomy was lost shortly afterwards when two dioceses were joined with that of Africa to form a single prefecture. The loss of temporal power, however, was to some degree compensated for by the growing importance of Italy as a center of Christianity: starting in the 2d century AD several bishoprics were founded--in Milan, Ravenna, Naples, Benevento, and elsewhere--in addition to that of Rome. After 476, when the Germanic chieftain ODOACER deposed the last western emperor, Romulus Augustulus (ruled 475-76), military control of Italy passed into barbarian hands. Under the Ostrogothic king, THEODORIC (ruled 493-526), in practical terms Italian political and social ties were with the West, in spite of continuing theoretical ties with the BYZANTINE EMPIRE. By 553, however, internal feuds permitted the Byzantine emperor JUSTINIAN I to regain control. Peninsular Italy was administered from its capital at RAVENNA as merely one division of the empire, although the Byzantines gradually and grudgingly admitted the ecclesiastical primacy of Rome in the West.

During the early Middle Ages, Italian ties with the "New Rome" of the East (Constantinople) were first threatened and later severed after a series of invasions from the west and north into Italy. The severing of ties with the East was confirmed by the eventual emergence of the PAPACY and the Italian cities as powers in their own right.

After the Ostrogoths, another Germanic people, the LOMBARDS, arrived in Italy--in 568; their control soon spread from the north to Tuscany and Umbria, although much of southern and eastern Italy remained in Byzantine hands. The Lombards were resisted chiefly by the popes - most notably GREGORY I (ruled 590-604) - who acted as de facto political and military as well as ecclesiastical leaders and held a band of land stretching across the peninsula that later became the PAPAL STATES. By the end of the 7th century, papal resistance had induced the Lombards to consolidate their power in northern and central Italy, where they achieved a high degree of political unification. Meanwhile, the unrest in the Byzantine centers in the south reflected the disturbances taking place in Byzantium itself, and popular revolts broke out in Rome, Naples, Venice, and elsewhere. Thus by 728 the Lombards, under Liutprand (ruled 712-44), were able to extend their influence in spite of further papal attempts at intervention. During Liutprand's reign, many of the Lombards converted from ARIANISM to Roman Catholicism. By this time they were accepting many other elements of Roman culture, including the Latin language; their law and administration reflected both Roman and Germanic influences.

The success of the Lombards, however, was temporary. Under the pretense of restoring to the papacy its lost territories, Pope Stephen II (r. 752-57) invited the FRANKS, still another Germanic tribe, to invade Italy. In 774 the Franks expelled the Lombard rulers; Lombard territory passed into the hands of the Frankish ruler CHARLEMAGNE, who was crowned emperor in Rome on Dec. 25, 800. The following century was characterized by continual feuding between Franks and Byzantines, the chief beneficiaries being the SARACENS, newly arrived from North Africa. These Arabs originally came to assist rebels against the Byzantine Empire. The Saracens remained to conquer (827-78) Sicily, however, and to establish outposts in southern Italy; in 846 they launched an attack on Rome itself. The collapse of the Carolingian empire in the 9th century, at the same time as the resurgence of Byzantium under the Macedonian dynasty, caused a brief return to eastern influence.

This constant alternation of power was temporarily ended by the arrival in Italy - once again by papal invitation - of the German king OTTO I, who was crowned Holy Roman emperor in 962. The Ottonian dynasty fell, however, shortly after 1000, leaving in the north a vacuum to be exploited by the local small landowners and town merchants. Meanwhile, local insurrections weakened the Saracens' hold on the southern coastal cities, although the Arabs remained strong in Sicily.

In this climate of political and social fragmentation, individual Italian cities began to assert their autonomy. During the 11th century an elaborate pattern of communal government began to evolve under the leadership of a burgher class grown wealthy in trade, banking, and such industries as woolen textiles. Many cities - especially FLORENCE, GENOA, PISA, MILAN, and VENICE - became powerful and independent CITY-STATES. Resisting the efforts of both the old landed nobles and the emperors to control them, these communes hastened the end of feudalism in northern Italy and spawned deeply rooted identification with the city as opposed to the larger region or country. The cities were often troubled by violent and divisive rivalries among their citizens, the most famous being the papal-imperial struggle--between the GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES, the supporters respectively of the popes and the emperors. Despite such divisions, however, the cities contributed significantly to the economic, social, and cultural vitality of Italy.

Unlike the north, with its network of vigorously independent urban centers, southern Italy experienced a significant consolidation after its conquest by the NORMANS. Bands of these invaders arrived in Italy early in the 11th century. Starting c.1046, ROBERT GUISCARD and his successors expelled the Saracens and Byzantines and carved a powerful domain out of APULIA CALABRIA, Campania, and Sicily. Although the Norman territories remained a fief of the papacy, papal overlordship became a mere formality in the 12th century - especially after 1127, when ROGER II united the southern part of the peninsula with Sicily; he assumed the title of king of Sicily in 1130. While the Normans were consolidating their rule in southern Italy, the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire continued their struggle for dominance in northern and central Italy. In 1077, Pope GREGORY VII humbled Holy Roman Emperor HENRY IV at Canossa during the INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY. Later, Pope ALEXANDER III successfully supported an alliance of northern cities known as the Lombard League against the efforts of Emperor FREDERICK I (Barbarossa; r. 1152-90) of the HOHENSTAUFEN dynasty to impose imperial authority over them. Early in the 13th century the Hohenstaufen FREDERICK II succeeded in uniting the thrones of German and Norman Sicily. Although Pope INNOCENT III (r. 1198-1216) opposed the emperor and advanced far-reaching claims of political and religious supremacy, Frederick established one of the wealthiest and most powerful states in Europe, centering on his brilliant court at PALERMO, with its great cultural innovations.

The papal-imperial conflict culminated in 1262 with a papal invitation to Charles of Anjou, brother of King Louis IX of France, to conquer Sicily. Charles, the founder of the ANGEVIN dynasty of Naples, ruled from 1266 as CHARLES I, king of Naples and Sicily. French rule, which introduced feudalism to the south at a time when it was weakening elsewhere, was highly unpopular, and in 1282 a successful revolt (the SICILIAN VESPERS) resulted in the separation of Sicily from the mainland. PETER III of Aragon was made king of Sicily while the former Norman domains on the mainland remained under Angevin rule as the Kingdom of Naples. In the 15th century both kingdoms became Spanish possessions; they were then reunited under the title Kingdom of the TWO SICILIES.