within their spheres of interest, formally as direct subjects of the Greek emperor, and enjoying equal rights with Naples. At the head of these minor States were hypatoi or praefecti, who in time also developed dynasties. Thus the Byzantine bureaucracy was supplanted everywhere by local powers who usurped the dicio, and of whom some, for instance Venice and the coast towns of southern Italy, acknowledged the emperor's suzerainty, whilst others, like the Pontifical State, refused to do so. The victory of the local powers signified at the same time the universal establishment of the medieval system of seigniorial rule.
(B)
GREGORY THE GREAT
If the sixth century after Christ was one of the great ages of the world's history, it would not be difficult to claim for Pope Gregory I that he was the greatest man in it. The claim would be contested on behalf of the Emperor Justinian and the monk Benedict of Nursia, if not by many another who influenced the course of affairs; but if the work of medieval leaders of men is to be judged by its results on later ages, Gregory would seem to occupy a position of commanding greatness which is unassailable.
The facts of his life for the fifty years before he became pope are soon told, yet hardly one of them is without significance. He was born in Rome, of a family noble by race and pious by hereditary attachment to the things of God, probably in the year 540. Justinian was Caesar, dwelling at Constantinople, but exercising no slight control over Church and State in Italy. Vigilius was pope, and an example of pitiable irresolution in things both sacred and profane. Few could have foreseen in 540 that before the life — not a long one — of the child born to the ancient family of Roman senators and nobles would have closed in a new century, the temporal power of the Papacy would have been securely founded and the power of the Empire and the authority of the Emperor in Italy threatened with a speedy end. In the onrush of barbarian conquest it was not the military success of Justinian's generals which was to be continued under the heirs of his Empire and to secure the position which they had won. They had — in the words of the Liber Pontificalis — made all Italy rejoice, but it was the patient diplomacy of a great pope which would preserve the central independence of Christian Rome, between the decaying power of the Byzantines and the extending dukedoms of the Lombard invaders. It would not be preserved for long, it is true; but so firmly was it founded
