Marcello Tegalliano (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ''Marcellus Tegalianus''; died 726) was, according to tradition, the second

Doge of Venice The Doge of Venice ( ; vec, Doxe de Venexia ; it, Doge di Venezia ; all derived from Latin ', "military leader"), sometimes translated as Duke (compare the Italian '), was the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice between 726 a ...

(717–726). He is described as having hailed from

Eraclea Eraclea () is a small city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, northern Italy. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic coast between the towns of Caorle and Jesolo. History From its founding until 742 AD, the Repu ...

, and during his nine-year reign was apparently in great disagreement with the nearby

Longobards 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 and ...

. He died in 726 and was succeeded by

Orso Ipato Orso Ipato (Latin: ''Ursus Hypatus''; died 737) was the third traditional Doge of Venice (726–737) and the first historically known. During his eleven-year reign, he brought great change to the Venetian navy, aided in the recapture of Ravenn ...

History

The only certain historical mention of Marcello (the surname Tegalliano is a late-fourteenth-century invention of the chroniclers

Nicolò Trevisan Nicolò Trevisa (died 1498) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Ceneda (1474–1498).

and

Enrico Dandolo Enrico Dandolo ( anglicised as Henry Dandolo and Latinized as Henricus Dandulus; c. 1107 – May/June 1205) was the Doge of Venice from 1192 until his death. He is remembered for his avowed piety, longevity, and shrewdness, and is known for his ...

) is the ''

Pactum Lotharii The ''Pactum Lotharii'' was an agreement signed on 23 February 840, between Republic of Venice and the Carolingian Empire, during the respective governments of Pietro Tradonico and Lothair I. This document was one of the first acts to testify to t ...

'' stipulated in 840 between the emperor

Lothair I Lothair I or Lothar I (Dutch and Medieval Latin: ''Lotharius''; German: ''Lothar''; French: ''Lothaire''; Italian: ''Lotario'') (795 – 29 September 855) was emperor (817–855, co-ruling with his father until 840), and the governor of Bavar ...

and the doge

Pietro Tradonico Pietro Tradonico ( la, Petrus Tradonicus; c. 800 - 13 September 864) was Doge of Venice from 836 to 864. He was, according to tradition, the thirteenth doge, though historically he is only the eleventh. His election broke the power of the Partici ...

. The text mentions the so-called ''terminatio liutprandina'', an agreement on the delimitation of the borders around

Cittanova Cittanova is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about southwest of Catanzaro and about northeast of Reggio Calabria. Located on the slopes of Aspromonte and facing t ...

concluded under the king of 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 and ...

Liutprand between Duke Paoluccio and the ''

magister militum (Latin for "master of soldiers", plural ) was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, ...

'' Marcello and still in force at the time of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

. The Pactum was repeatedly confirmed in the following centuries and was therefore well known to Giovanni Diacono, the first chronicler who, around the year 1000, identified Paoluccio and Marcello respectively as the first and second doges of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. These conclusions were then adopted by subsequent historiography up to the modern era, when some scholars questioned the historicity of Paoluccio and Marcello. For

Roberto Cessi Roberto Cessi (20 August 1885 – 19 January 1969) was an Italian historian and politician, specializing in Venetian history. Biography He was born in Rovigo, to painter Riccardo Cessi and Clementina Moretti. He studied at the University of Padu ...

the first doge was Orso, directly elected by the Venetians in 726 during a revolt against the government of the Byzantine emperor

Leo III the Isaurian Leo III the Isaurian ( gr, Λέων ὁ Ἴσαυρος, Leōn ho Isauros; la, Leo Isaurus; 685 – 18 June 741), also known as the Syrian, was Byzantine Emperor from 717 until his death in 741 and founder of the Isaurian dynasty. He put an en ...

; Paoluccio had to be identified with the exarch of Ravenna Paolo, while Marcello had been a ''magister militum'' belonging to the Byzantine hierarchy of

Venetikà The Venetikà ( gr, Βενετικὰ, la, Venetia) was a district of the Exarchate of Ravenna founded in 584 by List of Byzantine emperors, Byzantine emperor Maurice (emperor), Mauritius, divided from the previous Roman eparchy. In 697 the distr ...

. Carlo Guido Mor and Stefano Gasparri hypothesized instead that Paoluccio was the Lombard duke of Treviso, while Marcello had been his interlocutor on the Venetian side. Little is known about Marcello's rule. According to the chronicles, he died after nine years of dogeship - therefore, fixing the death of Paoluccio in 717, and that of Marcello in 726. During Marcello's dogeship the clash between the

patriarch of Grado This is a list of the Patriarchs of Grado (north-eastern Italy).
''

patriarch of Aquileia The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate (bishop), primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholicism, Independent Catholic Chur ...

was rekindled. He also repelled an attack from the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

s. In 723,

Pope Gregory II Pope Gregory II ( la, Gregorius II; 669 – 11 February 731) was the bishop of Rome from 19 May 715 to his death.

sent a letter to the bishops of the ecclesiastical province of Venice and Istria in which he reprimanded Sereno of

Aquileia Aquileia / / / / ;Bilingual name of ''Aquileja – Oglej'' in: vec, Aquiłeja / ; Slovenian: ''Oglej''), group=pron is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about from the sea, on the river N ...

about respecting the rights of Donato of Grado. The text is handed down to us in full by

Andrea Dandolo Andrea Dandolo (13067 September 1354) was elected the 54th doge of Venice in 1343, replacing Bartolomeo Gradenigo who died in late 1342. Early life Trained in historiography and law, Andrea Dandolo studied at the University of Padua, where ...

, however, many historians raised doubts about the veracity of the letter. Among the recipients there is also the ''magister militum'' Marcello, accompanied by the title of duke. However, the latter is considered a forgery designed to give greater credence to the document. According to Andrea Dandolo, Marcello was interred, like his predecessor, in

. The aforementioned Trevisan and Dandolo, on the basis of the assonance with name and surname, identified Marcello as the progenitor of the

Marcello Marcello is a common masculine Italian given name. It is a variant of Marcellus. The Spanish and Portuguese version of the name is Marcelo, differing in having only one "l", while the Greek form is Markellos. Etymology The name originally means ...

and Fonicalli families.

John Julius Norwich John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich, (15 September 1929 – 1 June 2018), known as John Julius Norwich, was an English popular historian, travel writer, and television personality. Background Norwich was born at the Alfred House Nursing ...

argued that the first doge, Paoluccio Anafesto, was

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

Exarch of Ravenna The Exarchate of Ravenna ( la, Exarchatus Ravennatis; el, Εξαρχάτο της Ραβέννας) or of Italy was a lordship of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) in Italy, from 584 to 751, when the last exarch was put to death by the ...

, and that Marcello was his ''

'' of the same first name.Norwich, p. 13

Notes

Sources

* Norwich, John Julius. ''A History of Venice''.

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, 1982. *''The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge: Volume 26.'' Charles Knight:

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, 1843. 8th-century Doges of Venice 726 deaths Year of birth unknown {{Italy-politician-stub