This is a recap of the Oxford History of Italy book on this particular age, from 476, the fall of the western Roman empire, to about 1000.
1 Invasions and Ethnic Identity- Walter Pohl
Roman expansion meant there was little room for a Roman Italian ethnic identity. Rome had conquered, just within the Italian peninsula- Etruscans, Veneti, Celts in the north, regional peoples in the south and Greeks along the coastlines. Romanness was more a political identity which was fairly flexible and allowed maintenance of prior cultures alongside Roman culture. This is why even after the Roman empire fell, Byzantium could reintegrate much of Sicily- Sicily already had a Greek cultural population who had maintained their Grecian identities even while living under Rome.
Rome also imported many slaves from all over their conquered lands.
The military likewise saw an increasing ‘barbarian’ influence in the later years. Goths in particular gained prestige as both fearless fighters and the adaptability to Roman ways.
Then there were the later invasions of Goths and Vandals that brought people into Italy.
In 476, Odoacer overthrew Romulus Augustus. His intention wasn’t to overthrow the “Roman Empire”, it was just the latest in a succession of removals of emperors. But he was the first barbarian to establish a relatively unified control over Italy. We are uncertain what race he was actually from, which fits well with the makeup of the military at the time.
In 489, Theodoric, a Goth king, invaded Italy and by 492, he had ousted Odoacer and taken over Italy. Goths had traditionally been seen as a Nordic people who moved into Poland, then the steppes, then the Danube. But they weren’t a homogenous people. Over the centuries they had a fluctuating migration of other people into their ranks, and the Romans tended to use “Goth” as a term for lots of different peoples in those regions.
Theodoric was willing to integrate with the Roman authorities, who hoped they could use the Goths for their own purposes even while being subject to them. The Goths wanted to preserve their special status, but adapt to the Roman culture. Theodoric’s reign 493-626 brought relative peace and prosperity to Italy.
in 535, Theodohad deposed his coruler and this gave the Byzantine emperor Justinian cause to attack Italy. The next 20 years of war seriously degraded the Roman infrastructure. By 553, Italy was ruined and a series of plagues caused depopulation.
During Rome, there was a political unity, but with the infrastructure now demolished, each city’s peace and safety depended on their own walls and defenses.
The failure of the Byzantine empire to establish rule in Italy tempted the Lombards to invade in 568. Since the armies now met no resistance, they disbanded once they arrived. Some went back home, others moved to the south to Spoleto and Benevento and founded Duchies there. Those that settled in the cities of the Po valley established their own more local armies. While Theodoric had relied on the Roman central administration to rule, that was now gone. So the Lombards could only rely on whatever local civic structures remained. Rather than a few thousand Lombards ruling Roman slaves, the Lombards integrated into whatever civil structures existed, and mixed with the local populations.
There were effectively two models for being an ‘elite’: barbarian warrior landowner and roman cleric. But eventually the landowner portion of the first became more important than the warrior portion. By the 700’s it became difficult for the Lombards to raise enough warriors to fight off the Franks. It is difficult to define Lombard traits. By the 600’s they had already lost any distinctive dress or appearance, and they were fully Catholic.
Byzantine Italy
The region around Ravenna is still known today as Romagna, and was the center of Byzantine rule in Italy for about 200 years. It wasn’t until 751 that Ravenna fell to Aistulf the Lombard king.
Frankish rule and its Impact
The popes in Rome had invoked the help of the Franks to ward off the Lombards. By the 750s Pippin III had intervened in north Italy. The Lombard kingdom fell to the Franks in 774, and Charlemagne was crowned king of Lombardia. Carolingian rule gained ground in Italy and under the Frank’s Catholic faith, the Pope’s retained some measure of autonomy. During the first part of Carolingian rule, Pavia was the seat of government. While the Carolingians included Franks, Alamans, and Bavarians, the Italians called them all theotisci, which was the origin of the word deutsch, and the italian word tedeschi. Charlemagne and his successor, Louis the Pious (814-840) attempted to streamline government, and this helped the Catholic church to become more integrated into Italian civic structure.
Ethnic diversity: regional powers and invaders in the 9th and 10th centuries.
The Magyars, Hungarians, began raiding Italy in the 800-900s.
In the south of Italy, Benevento had splintered into smaller regional powers. The Lombards had split, and the Byzantine and Saracen empires were making inroads in the south.
Italian identities in this period attached to cities.
2 Public Power and authority- François Bougard
Royalty and transmission
The state and public authority was actually stronger in Italy than in many other parts of Europe. And the Italians seemed to want that authority.
In Rome, kingly authority was derived from the battlefield and command of armies. This carried over and the Lombards also had a tradition of transmitting power through acclamation by the people-army. In Lombard history, the spear was the symbol of authority. But with the Franks, the crown became the symbol of authority, which was transmitted through a coronation ceremony. By the 800’s invoking papal authority was also a source of legitimacy.
The role and power of the queen
The queen played an important part in the function and transmission of royalty. She bore the children that would rule and took possession on her husband’s death. Queens played an important part in the royalty during the Lombard rule. But her role diminished during the Frankish and Carolingian years.
But the growing autonomy of the Italian kingdom under the Franks opened up opportunities for the public role of queens. She engaged in diplomatic activity at the highest levels, presided over a general assembly in the North while her husband was a prisoner in the south, and presided over court cases. The fact that women could exercise power was now firmly established.
While female power in Italy was stronger than elsewhere, it was not strictly defined, therefore it remained ambiguous.
Sites of power
Pavia, 20 miles south of Milan, was a major center of power.
Rome still had some prestige, though it was diminished from its heyday.
Under the Lombards, Verona, Milan, Pavia and Ravenna were seats of power.
Under the Carolingians, Mantua was added.
Spoleto, Benevento, and Salerno were acknowledged seats of power in the south.
3 The Aristocracy- Stefano Gasparri
The decline of the senatorial order
The senatorial order was model for most of western European aristocracy. It was founded on land ownership, embodied nobility, and linked prestige to the exercise of political power and ancient lineage without excluding ‘new men’. In Italy especially, this aristocracy was already many generations old. Senators continued in their civil functions, and continued their traditional way of life in social, political and institutional ways that continued the res publica at least in theory.
Rival camps of senators had arisen between Rome and Ravenna. But during the war between the Goths and Byzantium, there was an attempt to eliminate the senatorial class.
Arrival of the Lombards
The senatorial class functionally disappeared during this time frame. This was partly a function of the division of Italy into different areas ruled by different powers. Senators in those areas no longer reported to Rome, which was the ancient center of power and the place where all the old families were based. The Senatorial class persisted in Byzantine Italy, but the senate no longer operated.
The ruling class during the Lombard period were dukes and direct underlings of the king, with a military background. These constituted a warrior aristocracy.
Seventh to ninth century: Romans and Lombards compared
The political class in Byzantine Italy was called militia, and recruits were drawn from landowners. The tribunes were a powerful group of landowners. While the Lombard presentation was much more militaristic, in functional terms, governance was provided by landowners who had served in the army.
4 Ecclesiastical Institutions- Claudio Azzara
Ecclesiastical institutions in late Roman Italy, and the role of the bishops
After the Edict of Theodosius (380) the church institutions that had developed slowly and with little unity, began to be organized in more permanent and stable ways.
Christian communities were headed by an episcopus, or bishop; and each congregation was headed by a presbyter, or priest. The separation of the church into clearly defined clergy and laity was accelerated by the decreasing importance of the eucharistic sacrifice. By the sixth century, the mass could be celebrated even without any people.
Increasing qualifications excluded large groups from the clergy, and by 502 the laity was excluded altogether from church management.
Dioceses were essentially based on the Roman civitates. With the decline of the Roman political and administrative functions in the later empire, the clergy took responsibility over many civil functions, as well as spiritual care of the local believers.
Ecclesiastical institutions in the countryside
During the seventh and eighth centuries there was an increase in rural churches. This seems to have been due to members of the richest levels of society building churches on their properties in order to display their status, even when there was no need for new buildings. By the ninth century, with not enough people to support these excess buildings, some were falling into disuse. Parish churches tended to be for the poor, while the rich maintained private chapels.
5 The Papacy- Claudio Azzara
With the empire defining Christianity as the official religion by Theodosius in 380, the institutional structures of the church needed retooling. The resulting construct was on the concept of speculum principis, in which the res publica was ruled by an emperor, one and only, who was an earthly reflection of the one God; with divinely granted power and specific authority with regard to religious matters. He was to be entrusted with safeguarding the unity and peace of the Church.
From the papacies of Callistus I (217-222) and Stephen I (254-257) the bishops of Rome had begun to define themselves as successors of the apostle Peter, who according to tradition, had founded the church at Rome. This authority was based on Matt. 16:18-19. Based on this tradition, the bishop of Rome claimed a primacy over the whole Christian Church, but not yet supremacy.
Pope Gelasius I (451) devised a formula of equal collaboration in the government of the world.
With the fall of the empire in 476, the popes were faced with an unprecedented situation- Italy was now ruled by barbarian chiefs. The relations between the various local churches was increasingly problematic. In order to manage the church’s land, it was forced to improve its administrative structures, so it created a large network directed by officials called rectores. Under the Lombards, Rome had to deal with Arian kings, but with Charlemagne in the 800’s the conditions for an imperial church were established. Charlemagne himself took up the Romanization of the churches in his empire. While the popes themselves played a marginal role in this, they benefitted from it. The seat at Rome became the preeminent role of the universal church.
The Lateran council in 1059 reserved the election of future popes exclusively to cardinals, removing lay participation in any way. The evolution of the church from honorary primacy to total supremacy over a huge jurisdictional hierarchy was complete. Obedience to Rome was synonymous with orthodoxy and opposition to Rome was condemned as heretical.
6 Rural Economy and Society- Chris Wickham
Economic geography
Italy has never been a coherent socio-economic unit. The disunity comes from the fact of the Appenine mountain ranges running the length of the peninsula. Communications were possible, but not organic enough to make a single political system easy. Italy was therefore a territory of separate economic regions, onto which were mapped its major political units.
In the north, the Po valley was the largest economic unit, but even in Roman times it was never really part of the rest of the peninsula.
The Appenines filled the rest of Italy and their twists formed four low-lying regions with the classic Mediterranean triad of wheat, vines, and olives. Northern Tuscany is the first. Lazio and Rome are the second. Campagna and Naples are the third, and Puglia on the heel is the fourth.
Sicily and Sardegna were separate. Sardegna was largely isolated but Sicily was an important grain supplier and, being positioned in the middle of the Mediterranean, was the center of sea lanes.
During the Roman empire’s days, there was a greater unity than we find until perhaps even up to the 20th century. Rather than regions focusing on specialized products from each region, and then trading for overall economic progress, each region tended to aim for self-sufficiency. Large scale agriculture was not really a factor and each region maintained its own economic and social base.
Patterns of landowning
Rome saw some of the greatest landowners in the history of mankind. But that scale of ownership did not survive the breakup of the empire. With few exceptions, landowners in the middle ages were restricted to single-city territories, or at most, the area of a few close cities. Even by the tenth century, even the most extensive landowners were still located within city territories. In the south it was even more restricted because the size of the political territories were smaller.