The Western Empire never extended into the South of Italy; it stopped at the frontier of the Papal States. It is true that once or twice a Western Emperor claimed jurisdiction in the South, as when Arichis II of Beneventum paid homage to Charles the Great, or Pandulf I, Iron-Head of Capua, was invested by Otto I. But these are isolated cases, in which someone seeks an appearance of legality by applying to the Western Emperor. He never had any real power down here. When Basil I and Lewis II joined forces to drive the Saracens from Bari, although Lewis would have liked to claim some reward for his trouble, as a matter of fact, all that was recovered came back to the allegiance of Constantinople. These lands were never part of the Western Empire. Even under the Normans they were considered independent of the Empire. The first who seriously disputed the authority of the Basileus here was not the Western Emperor, but the Pope, when he gave authority to the Norman conquerors.
The Lombards, together with a gradual latinization, already begun in Calabria and Apulia, might have done away with all that was left of Greek language and influence, but for a contrary movement, fostered by the Government at Constantinople since the seventh century. At that time there was again constant communication between Italy and the East. After the Moslem conquest of Egypt and Syria great colonies of Christians from those lands, fleeing from persecution and famine, came to Sicily and Rome. Thus the Popes Theodore I (642-649) and John V (685-686) were Levantines of the Eastern colony at Rome. Sergius I (687-701) was "by nation a Syrian of the land of Antioch, but born of Tiberius at Panormus in Sicily."[1] These colonies made a great revival, almost a new beginning of Greek population in Italy and Sicily. The Emperor Constans II (641-668), fleeing from Constantinople in 662, came to Rome with the idea of reigning there. Then, finding that he could do little against the Lombards on the mainland, he came to Syracuse and lived there for six years, till he was murdered in 668. Those years represent a new hellenization of Sicily, when the Byzantine court had its centre on the island. It was this Constans II who reformed the administration of the Imperial provinces.[2]
Since the seventh century the former wave of latinization in Calabria was met by this new spread of hellenization, coming in the first place from Sicily. Except for the Lombards, Calabria
