Editing Exarchate of Ravenna (section)

==Exarchate==
The exarchate was organised into a group of duchies ([[Duchy of Rome|Rome]], [[Maritime Venice|Venetia]], [[Duchy of Calabria|Calabria]], [[Duchy of Naples|Naples]], [[Duchy of Perugia|Perugia]], [[Duchy of the Pentapolis|Pentapolis]], [[Lucania (theme)|Lucania]], etc.) that were mainly the coastal cities in the Italian peninsula since the Lombards held the advantage in the hinterland.

The civil and military head of these imperial possessions, the exarch himself, was the representative at Ravenna of the emperor in [[Constantinople]]. The surrounding territory reached from the River Po, which served as the boundary with [[Venice]] in the north, to the [[Duchy of the Pentapolis|Pentapolis]] at [[Rimini]] in the south, the border of the "five cities" in the [[Marches]] along the [[Adriatic]] coast, and reached even cities not on the coast, such as [[Forlì]]. All this territory, which lay on the eastern flank of the [[Apennine Mountains|Apennines]], was under the exarch's direct administration and formed the Exarchate in the strictest sense. Surrounding territories were governed by [[dux|duke]]s and {{Lang|la|[[Magister militum|magistri militum]]}} ("masters of the soldiers") more or less subject to his authority. From the perspective of Constantinople, the Exarchate consisted of the province of Italy.

The Exarchate of Ravenna was not the sole Byzantine province in Italy. Byzantine [[Sicily]] formed a separate government, and [[Corsica]] and [[Sardinia]], while they remained Byzantine, belonged to the [[Exarchate of Africa]].

The Lombards had their capital at [[Pavia]] and controlled the great valley of the [[Po River|Po]]. The Lombard wedge in Italy spread to the south, and established duchies at [[Duchy of Spoleto|Spoleto]] and [[Benevento|Beneventum]]; they controlled the interior, while Byzantine governors more or less controlled the coasts.

[[Piedmont]], [[Lombardy]], the interior mainland of [[Venetia (region)|Venetia]], [[Tuscany]] and the interior of [[Campania]] belonged to the Lombards, and bit by bit the Imperial representative in Italy lost all genuine power, though in name he controlled areas like Liguria (completely lost in 640 to the Lombards), or Naples and [[Calabria]] (being overrun by the Lombard duchy of Benevento). In Rome, the pope was the real master.

At the end, 740, the Exarchate consisted of [[Istria]], Venetia, [[Ferrara]], Ravenna (the exarchate in the limited sense), with the [[Duchy of the Pentapolis|Pentapolis]], and [[Perugia]].

These fragments of the province of Italy, as it was when reconquered for [[Justinian I|Justinian]], were almost all lost, either to the Lombards, who finally conquered Ravenna itself in 751, or by the revolt of the pope, who finally separated from the Empire on the issue of the [[Iconoclasm|iconoclastic reforms]].

The relationship between the [[Pope]] in [[Rome]] and the Exarch in Ravenna was a dynamic that could hurt or help the empire. The Papacy could be a vehicle for local discontent. The old Roman senatorial aristocracy resented being governed by an Exarch who was considered by many a meddlesome foreigner. Thus the exarch faced threats from outside as well as from within, hampering much real progress and development.

In its internal history, the exarchate was subject to the splintering influences that were leading to the subdivision of [[sovereignty]] and the establishment of [[feudalism]] throughout Europe. Step by step, and in spite of the efforts of the emperors at Constantinople, the great imperial officials became local landowners, the lesser owners of land were increasingly kinsmen or at least associates of these officials, and new allegiances intruded on the sphere of imperial administration. Meanwhile, the necessity for providing for the defence of the imperial territories against the Lombards led to the formation of local militias, who at first were attached to the imperial regiments, but gradually became independent, as they were recruited entirely locally. These armed men formed the {{Lang|la|exercitus romanae militiae}}, who were the forerunners of the free armed burghers of the Italian cities of the [[Middle Ages]]. Other cities of the exarchate were organized on the same model.