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Sergius I Of Naples
Sergius I (died 864) was the first duke of Naples of his dynasty, often dubbed the "Sergi," which ruled over Naples for almost three centuries from his accession in 840 until the death of his namesake Sergius VII in 1137. Sergius was originally the '' dux'' of Cumae, a Neapolitan dependency. In 840, with the Franks trying to take the city, the people elected Sergius as duke (or ''magister militum'') of Naples. This was a move towards complete independence from the Byzantine Empire, which was incapable of defending the '' Ducatus Neapolitanus'' from the Lombards. Sergius continued the beneficial alliance the Neapolitans had made with the Saracens of Palermo earlier. He aided them in taking Bari from the Byzantines in 841 and Messina in 842. By turning away from the Byzantines and towards the papacy and the Franks, he opened the way for the expulsion of the Muslims from the Campania. The Saracens soon became too dangerous to keep as friends and Naples was forced to ally with Amalfi, ...
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Duke Of Naples
The Dukes of Naples were the military commanders of the '' ducatus Neapolitanus'', a Byzantine outpost in Italy, one of the few remaining after the conquest of the Lombards. In 661, Emperor Constans II, highly interested in south Italian affairs (he established his court in Syracuse), appointed a Neapolitan named Basil '' dux'' or ''magister militum''. Thereafter a line of dukes, often largely independent and dynastic from the mid-ninth century, ruled until the coming of the Normans, a new menace they could not weather. The thirty-ninth and last duke, Sergius VII, surrendered his city to King Roger II of Sicily in 1137. Dukes appointed by Byzantium * Gudeliscus, as duke of Campania (''dux Campaniae'') * Guduin, first recorded duke of Naples **'' seized by the rebel John of Conza'' * Anatolius *661–666 Basil *666–670 Theophylactus I *670–673 Cosmas *673–677 Andrew I *677–684 Caesarius I *684–687 Stephen I *687–696 Bonellus *696–706 Theodosius *706–711 C ...
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Ponza
Ponza (Italian: ''isola di Ponza'' ) is the largest island of the Italian Pontine Islands archipelago, located south of Cape Circeo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is also the name of the commune of the island, a part of the province of Latina in the Lazio region. History The island was inhabited from neolithic through Roman times. According to local legends, Ponza was named after Pontius Pilate, Roman governor of Judea who tried Jesus of Nazareth for sedition against Roman rule. Pontius Pilate's family owned a grotto on Ponza, which is still named after him. The Pontius Pilate legend of Ponza's name has recently come into dispute amongst historians, because the name "Pontia" appears in Strabo's ''Geography''. This pre-dates the birth of Pilate. It is not known if this is the same name as Ponza or a similar name. Also, ''Pontia'' means "Land of Bridges" in Latin, a name which could have been applied for Ponza's many naturally occurring arches and bridge-like landforms. Another ...
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Lando I Of Capua
Lando I (died 861) was the count of Capua from 843. He was the eldest son and successor of Landulf the Old. Like his father, he supported Siconulf against Radelchis in the civil war dividing the Principality of Benevento in the 840s. It was Lando who, in early 849, solicited the Emperor Louis II to arbitrate the claims of the two claimants and resolve the ongoing war which had brought Saracen mercenaries to the Mezzogiorno. In Louis's partition, Capua was made part of the Principality of Salerno, but Lando did not long obey Siconulf his overlord. Instead he allied with Duke Sergius I of Naples. To cement the alliance, Lando married his second-eldest son Landulf, the gastald of Suessola, to Sergius' daughter. During the minorities of Princes Sico and Adhemar, Lando dominated Salerno. The Salernitans took exception to rising Capuan influence and Adhemar called upon Guy I of Spoleto to intervene on his behalf. Lando responded by allying the Prefect Marinus of Amalfi to his side. ...
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Suessola
Suessula (Greek: ) was an ancient city of Campania, southern Italy, situated in the interior of the peninsula, near the frontier with Samnium, between Capua and Nola, and about 7 km northeast of Acerrae, Suessula is now a vanished city and the archeological site belongs to the city of Acerra, and not to San Felice a Cancello as reported in some sources. History Ancient Suessula is repeatedly mentioned during the wars between Romans and Samnites, as well as in the Second Punic War against Hannibal. Thus in the First Samnite War (343 BC) it was the scene of a decisive victory by Marcus Valerius Corvus over the Samnites, who had gathered together the remains of their army which had been previously defeated at Mount Gaurus (Livy vii. 37). In the following Campanian War the Suessulani followed the fortunes of the citizens of Capua, and shared the same fate, so that at the close of the contest, in 338 BC, they must have obtained the status of ''civitas'', but without the ri ...
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Gastald
A gastald (Latin ''gastaldus'' or ''castaldus''; Italian ''gastaldo'' or ''guastaldo'') was a Lombard official in charge of some portion of the royal demesne (a gastaldate, ''gastaldia'' or ''castaldia'') with civil, martial, and judicial powers. By the ''Edictum Rothari'' of 643, the gastalds were given the civil authority in the cities and the reeves the like authority in the countryside. Under the Lombard dominion, territories were delimited by ''giudicati'' or "judgments" among the several gastalds. From the immediate region of Parma and of Piacenza, numerous such ''giudicati'' survive, which cover the range of Lombard rule. The documents follow the same formalized structure, of which one between the gastald Daghiberto and the gastald Immo was adjudged by Adaloald, at Ticino, November 615. As paid officials with direct allegiance to the roving Lombard kings, whose seat was nominally at Pavia, the gastalds were often in conflict with the dukes, the great Lombard territorial ...
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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 Etruscan ''Capeva''. The meaning is 'City of Marshes'. Its foundation is attributed by Cato the Elder to the Etruscans, and the date given as about 260 years before it was "taken" by Rome. If this is true it refers not to its capture in the Second Punic War (211 BC) but to its submission to Rome in 338 BC, placing the date of foundation at about 600 BC, while Etruscan power was at its highest. In the area several settlements of the Villanovian civilization were present in prehistoric times, and these were probably enlarged by the Oscans and subsequently by the Etruscans. Etruscan supremacy in Campania came to an end with the Samnite invasion in the latter half of the 5th century BC. About 424 BC it was captured by the Samnites and in 343 BC b ...
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Gregory III Of Naples
Gregory III (died March 870), eldest son of Sergius I of Naples and Drusa, was the duke of Naples as co-regent with his father from 850 and as successor to his father from his father's death in 864 to his own some six years later. He was recorded as a man of learning, fluent in both Greek and Latin. During his tenure, his brothers played a significant role. Caesar was his admiral, Athanasius was bishop of the city, and Stephen was bishop of Sorrento. Sergius, their father, allied with Landulf, the gastald of Suessola and Sessa There are two places called Sessa in Campania, namely Sessa Aurunca and Sessa Cilento. The former is considerably the larger of the two (15 times the population), has a history dating back to pre-Roman times. and is the seat of a bishopric; it seems the more likely place. and son of Lando I, Count of Capua. In 859, Gregory received the Byzantine title of ''magister militum''. In May that year, a massive joint expedition of Salerno, Naples, and Amalfi mar ...
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Radelchis I Of Benevento
Radelchis I (also ''Radalgis'') (died 851) was the treasurer, then prince of Benevento from 839, when he assumed the throne upon the assassination (possibly at his instigation) of Sicard and imprisonment of Sicard's brother, Siconulf, to his death, though in his time the principality was divided. According to the ''Chronica S. Benedicti Casinensis'', the ''gastald'' of Capua, Landulf the Old, who had been an ally of Sicard, freed the imprisoned Siconulf and, with the support of Guaifer, chief of the Dauferidi family of Salerno, brought him to that city to be proclaimed prince in opposition to Radelchis. This was the beginning of a civil war which was to last more than a decade. In 841, Radelchis brought in the aid of Saracen mercenaries, as Andrew II of Naples had four years prior. The mercenaries sacked the city of Capua, forcing Landulf to found a new capital nearby on the hill of Triflisco. Siconulf responded by leasing his own band of Saracens. The depredations of the tw ...
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Siconulf Of Salerno
Siconulf (also ''Siconolf'', ''Sikenolf'', ''Siconolfo'', or ''Siconulfus'') was the first prince of Salerno, the brother of Sicard, prince of Benevento (832–839), who was assassinated by Radelchis. In response to Sicard's murder, the people of Salerno proclaimed Siconulf prince in opposition to Radelchis. At the time Radelchis was holding Siconulf prisoner in Taranto. A group of people from the cities of Salerno and Amalfi went there in disguise as Amalfian merchants and rescued Siconulf from prison, bringing him to Salerno.Kreutz, Barbara M. Before the Normans: South Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. (University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 1991) p. 23. It was Radelchis who first called in the aid of the Saracens against Siconulf in 841, though Siconulf soon retaliated by doing the same against his opponent. The war lasted ten years, during which the Saracen ravages worsened and churches were despoiled. Finally, in 849, the king of Italy, Louis II, came ...
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Guy I Of Spoleto
Guy I (died 860) was the Duke of Spoleto from 842. He was the son of Lambert I of Nantes and Adelaide of Lombardy, the eldest daughter of Pepin of Italy. He travelled with his father in 834 in the entourage of Lothair I. He was given the abbey of Mettlach in Lotharingia in 840, when the Emperor Louis the Pious died. Guy married Ida (Itta, Ita or Itana), daughter of Sico of Benevento. Their sons were Lambert I and Guy III. In 843, he interfered in the Beneventan civil war on the side of his brother-in-law Siconulf. He acted as arbiter several times for high fees, but only Lothair's successor, the Emperor Louis II, could end the strife. In 846, he alone succeeded in driving the Saracens out of Latium after their sack of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. In 858, he supported Adhemar of Salerno against the pretended Count of Capua, Lando I. By his intervention he secured the Liri Valley, with Sora and Arpino taken from the count's brother Landenulf of Teano Teano ( Teanese: ) is ...
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Louis II, Holy Roman Emperor
Louis II (825 – 12 August 875), sometimes called the Younger, was the king of Italy and emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 844, co-ruling with his father Lothair I until 855, after which he ruled alone. Louis's usual title was ''imperator augustus'' ("august emperor"), but he used ''imperator Romanorum'' ("emperor of the Romans") after his conquest of Bari in 871, which led to poor relations with the Eastern Roman Empire. He was called ''imperator Italiae'' ("emperor of Italy") in West Francia while the Byzantines called him '' Basileus Phrangias'' ("Emperor of Francia"). The chronicler Andreas of Bergamo, who is the main source for Louis's activities in southern Italy, notes that "after his death a great tribulation came to Italy." Childhood Louis was born in 825, the eldest son of the junior emperor Lothair I and his wife Ermengarde of Tours. His father was the son of the reigning emperor, Louis the Pious. Little is known about his early life, except that he gre ...
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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 Bavaria (815–817), King of Italy (818–855) and Middle Francia (840–855). Lothair was the eldest son of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious and his wife Ermengarde of Hesbaye, daughter of Ingerman the duke of Hesbaye. On several occasions, Lothair led his full-brothers Pepin I of Aquitaine and Louis the German in revolt against their father to protest against attempts to make their half-brother Charles the Bald a co-heir to the Frankish domains. Upon the father's death, Charles and Louis joined forces against Lothair in a three-year civil war (840–843). The struggles between the brothers led directly to the breakup of the Frankish Empire assembled by their grandfather Charlemagne, and laid the foundation for the development of ...
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