The Duchy of Rome (Latin: Ducatus Romanus; Greek: Δουκᾶτον Ῥώμης, romanized: Doukâton Rhṓmēs) was a state within the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna. Like other Byzantine states in Italy, it was ruled by an imperial functionary with the title of dux. The duchy often came into conflict with the Papacy over supremacy within Rome. After the founding of the Papal States in 756, the Duchy of Rome ceased to be an administrative unit and "dukes of Rome", appointed by the popes rather than emperors, are only rarely attested.
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👉 Duchy of Rome in the context of Kingdom of the Lombards
The Kingdom of the Lombards, also known as the Lombard Kingdom and later as the Kingdom of all Italy (Latin: Regnum totius Italiae), was an early medieval state established by the Lombards, a Germanic people, on the Italian Peninsula in the latter part of the 6th century. The king was traditionally elected by the very highest-ranking aristocrats, the dukes, as several attempts to establish a hereditary dynasty failed. The kingdom was subdivided into a varying number of duchies, ruled by semi-autonomous dukes, which were in turn subdivided into gastaldates at the municipal level. The capital of the kingdom and the center of its political life was Pavia in the modern northern Italian region of Lombardy.
The Lombard invasion of Italy was opposed by the Byzantine Empire, which had control of the peninsula at the time of the invasion. For most of the kingdom's history, the Byzantine-ruled Exarchate of Ravenna and Duchy of Rome separated the northern Lombard duchies, collectively known as Langobardia Maior, from the two large southern duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, which constituted Langobardia Minor. Because of this division, the southern duchies were considerably more autonomous than the smaller northern duchies.
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Duchy of Rome in the context of Roman civilisation
The history of Rome includes the history of the city of Rome as well as the civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman law has influenced many modern legal systems. Roman history can be divided into the following periods:
- Pre-historical and early Rome, covering Rome's earliest inhabitants and the legend of its founding by Romulus
- The period of Etruscan dominance and the regal period, in which, according to tradition, Romulus was the first of seven kings
- The Roman Republic, which commenced in 509 BC when kings were replaced with rule by elected magistrates. The period was marked by vast expansion of Roman territory. During the 5th century BC, Rome gained regional dominance in Latium. With the Punic Wars from 264 to 146 BC, ancient Rome gained dominance over the Western Mediterranean, displacing Carthage as the dominant regional power.
- The Roman Empire followed the Republic, which waned with the rise of Julius Caesar, and by all measures concluded after a period of civil war and the victory of Caesar's adopted son, Octavian, in 27 BC over Mark Antony.
- The Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 after the city was conquered by the Ostrogothic Kingdom. Consequently, Rome's power declined, and it eventually became part of the Eastern Roman Empire, as the Duchy of Rome, from the 6th to 8th centuries. At this time, the city was reduced to a fraction of its former size, being sacked several times in the 5th to 6th centuries, even temporarily depopulated entirely.
- Medieval Rome is characterised by a break with Constantinople and the formation of the Papal States. The Papacy struggled to retain influence in the emerging Holy Roman Empire, and during the saeculum obscurum, the population of Rome fell to as low as 30,000 inhabitants. Following the East–West Schism and the limited success in the Investiture Controversy, the Papacy did gain considerable influence in the High Middle Ages, but with the Avignon Papacy and the Western Schism, the city of Rome was reduced to irrelevance, its population falling below 20,000. Rome's decline into complete irrelevance during the medieval period, with the associated lack of construction activity, assured the survival of very significant ancient Roman material remains in the centre of the city, some abandoned and others continuing in use.
- The Roman Renaissance occurred in the 15th century, when Rome replaced Florence as the centre of artistic and cultural influence. The Roman Renaissance was cut short abruptly with the devastation of the city in 1527, but the Papacy reasserted itself in the Counter-Reformation, and the city continued to flourish during the early modern period. Rome was annexed by Napoleon and was part of the First French Empire from 1809 to 1814.
- Modern history, the period from the 19th century to the present. Rome came under siege again after the Allied invasion of Italy and was bombed several times. It was declared an open city on 14 August 1943. Rome became the capital of the Italian Republic (established in 1946). With a population of 4.4 million (as of 2015; 2.9 million within city limits), it is the largest city in Italy. It is among the largest urban areas of the European Union and classified as a global city.
Duchy of Rome in the context of Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)
The Kingdom of Italy (Latin: Regnum Italiae or Regnum Italicum; Italian: Regno d'Italia; German: Königreich Italien), also called Imperial Italy (Italian: Italia Imperiale; German: Reichsitalien), was one of the constituent kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire, along with the kingdoms of Germany, Bohemia, and Burgundy. It originally comprised large parts of northern and central Italy. Its original capital was Pavia until the 11th century.
Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and the brief rule of Odoacer, Italy was ruled by the Ostrogoths and later the Lombards. In 773, Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, crossed the Alps and invaded the Lombard kingdom, which encompassed all of Italy except the Duchy of Rome, the Republic of Venice and the Byzantine possessions in the south. In June 774, the kingdom collapsed and the Franks became masters of northern Italy. The southern areas remained under Lombard control, as the Duchy of Benevento was changed into the independent Principality of Benevento. Charlemagne called himself king of the Lombards and in 800 was crowned emperor in Rome. Members of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule Italy until the deposition of Charles the Fat in 887, after which they once briefly regained the throne in 894–896.
Duchy of Rome in the context of Donation of Pepin
The Donation of Pepin, or Donation of Pippin, was the transfer of Frankish territory in central Italy to Pope Stephen II made by Pepin the Short, King of the Franks, in 756. Credited with "effectively establishing the temporal authority of the papacy," the Donation took place amid the Byzantine Empire's decline in Italy and marked both "an important moment in the papal–Carolingian alliance" and an "important step" in the formation of the Papal States. With the fall of the imperial capital in Italy, Ravenna, to Aistulf, King of the Lombards in 751, "any semblance of imperial protection for Rome" had evaporated and the pope, who had technically been a Byzantine subject to this point, turned to Pepin for assistance. Pepin invaded Italy and, following an initial victory in 755, he decisively "defeated Aistulf and imposed a peace on him" in 756.
Pepin had promised Italian lands to Stephen II at a meeting in Quierzy, France in April 754. While this earlier promise is "often identified as the Donation," it may have been only verbal and "does not exist in written form." Papal accounts of the 754 promise state that Pepin "granted the pope the exarchate, including Ravenna, and the Roman duchy." In 756, the "Confession of St. Peter," a document listing the cities involved in the Donation, was "placed on the altar of Old St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome" along with "keys of the cities and territories in central Italy." The Confession document was created "following Pippin’s second invasion of Italy to assist the pope." After his initial invasion in 755, Pepin concluded the First Peace of Pavia, but Aistulf "refused to abide by" this agreement and attacked Rome. Pepin then defeated Aistulf again, imposing "heavy penalties" with the Second Peace of Pavia in 756.