Catepanate of Italy

In 890 the Byzantines defeated the Saracens in southern Italy. They established themselves again at Bari, which had been the seat of the last Exarch of Ravenna, and ruled the Theme of Lombardy by means of an officer entitled Patrician and then Catapan. The catapanate comprised mainland Italy south of a line drawn from Monte Gargano to the Bay of Salerno. Amalfi and Naples, although north of that line, maintained allegiance to Constantinople through the catapan.

Some Norman adventurers, on pilgrimage to St. Michael's shrine on Monte Gargano, lent their swords in 1017 to the Lombard cities of Apulia against the Byzantines. From 1016 to 1030 the Normans were pure mercenaries, serving either Byzantines or Lombards, and then Sergius of Naples, by installing the leader Rainulf in the fortress of Aversa in 1030, gave them their first pied-à-terre and they began an organized conquest of the land. In 1030 there arrived William and Drogo, the two eldest sons of Tancred of Hauteville, a petty noble of Coutances in Normandy. The two joined in the organized attempt to wrest Apulia from the Byzantines, who by 1040 had lost most of that province. Bari was reduced (April 1071) and the Byzantines finally ousted from southern Italy. They returned briefly to besiege Bari in 1056.

See also: Exarchate of Ravenna, Exarchate of Africa

Encyclopedia Britannica 1911. April 24 http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)