the city. But the authority of the Emperor at Constantinople was acknowledged, at least in theory, till 1138, when the Normans added Naples to their kingdom.[1]
The case of Amalfi was much the same. Here there were Imperial "Prefects"; in 958 these Prefects become hereditary dukes, and reign till the Norman conquest in 1073. In the tenth and eleventh centuries Amalfi was a mighty power. Its fleet sailed all over the Mediterranean; it became a kind of emporium where the merchandise of Italy, Sicily, and Africa was bartered. The Amalfitans obtained special privileges at Constantinople; they had a large colony there.
Caieta[2] was another famous Greek city. It had "Consuls" since the early part of the ninth century, and it also became, practically, a self-governing republic.
In these and the other Greek Imperial cities there were councils, the "Boni homines" (καλοὶ ἄνθρωποι), who settled their internal affairs. The Code of Justinian was their law, though it was often crossed by the Lombard customs. They dated their acts by the reign of the Great Basileus at Constantinople. They were, at any rate, supposed to send him tribute and to consider the views of the Catapan on any important matter. But the Empire was conscious that it had but a loose hold on its Italian Themes. Its policy was to leave the Italian cities alone as much as possible, to keep them in good temper by showering titles and honours on their chief citizens, and to be content with nominal recognition and such occasional tribute as could be raised without exciting bad feeling. The Catapan had a difficult place to fill; he would need to be a person of considerable tact — but that is naturally a Greek quality. The titles given by the Emperor to various leaders of the South Italian cities are curious. At Salernum the governor was the Στρατηγός; there was a Πρωτοσπαθάριος of Bruttii, a "Patritius" at Amalfi, a Protoscriba of the Salentini. I have seen the title "Protonobilissimus" for one of these people.[3]
- ↑ The last Imperial Duke of Naples was Sergius VI (the thirty-third). He died in battle at Salerno in 1138. The Neapolitan republic had lasted 480 years. After the death of Sergius the people, making the best of things, elected the eldest son of Roger II as their Duke. So the city became part of the Norman state. But it still kept the forms of its Republican government, went on electing Consuls, and so on. Venice in the North followed the same course. It was not part of the Western Empire. It became a self-governing republic under the suzerainty of the Eastern Emperor. A. F. Gfrörer, "Byzantinische Geschichten," vol. i (Graz, 1872).
- ↑ Gaeta.
- ↑ "Magister militum" in Greek takes the odd form Μαστρομίλιος.
