Caesar the Brave (Caesarius, it, Cesario il Valoroso) was the admiral of the fleet of the
Duchy of Naples during the reigns (840 – 870
AD) of his father,
Sergius I, and brother,
Gregory III.
In 846, he commanded the Neapolitan contingent in the
Christian victory over the
Saracens at
Gaeta. In 849, he commanded the Neapolitans at the
Battle of Ostia
The naval Battle of Ostia took place in 849 in the Tyrrhenian Sea between Muslim army and an Italian league of Papal, Neapolitan, Amalfitan, and Gaetan ships. The battle ended in favor of the Italian league, as they defeated the pirates. It is o ...
.
In May 859, a massive joint expedition of
Salerno,
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
,
Amalfi
Amalfi (, , ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto (1,315 metres, 4,314 feet), surrounded by dramati ...
, and
Suessola marched on
Capua
Capua ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain.
History
Ancient era
The name of Capua comes from the Etrus ...
.
Count Lando I was in a paralysis at that time and his son
Lando II took up arms to defend the city. He defeated the forces sent against them, led by Caesar and Gregory, at the bridge of Teodemondo over the
Volturno
The Volturno (ancient Latin name Volturnus, from ''volvere'', to roll) is a river in south-central Italy.
Geography
It rises in the Abruzzese central Apennines of Samnium near Castel San Vincenzo (province of Isernia, Molise) and flows southe ...
. Caesar was captured with 800 soldiers and led back to Capua in chains.
Erchempert Erchempert ( la, Erchempertus) was a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Monte Cassino in Italy in the final quarter of the ninth century. He chronicled a history of the Lombard Principality of Benevento
The Duchy of Benevento (after 774, Principa ...
places the battle on 8 May, the day of
Michael the Archangel
Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...
, whose cult was popular among the
Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the '' History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...
. It is therefore significant to Erchempert (a Lombard) that the Lombard Lando should defeat a largely Greek army on such a day.
In 870 Caesar was imprisoned by his nephew,
Sergius II, having opposed his closeness to the
Aghlabid
The Aghlabids ( ar, الأغالبة) were an Arab dynasty of emirs from the Najdi tribe of Banu Tamim, who ruled Ifriqiya and parts of Southern Italy, Sicily, and possibly Sardinia, nominally on behalf of the Abbasid Caliph, for about a ...
s, and he died in prison.
[Kreutz, p. 73]
Sources
*
*Llewellyn, Peter. ''Rome in the Dark Ages''. London: Faber and Faber, 1970.
Notes
9th-century births
9th-century deaths
Italian admirals
9th-century Italian nobility
Medieval admirals
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