Duchy of Naples

A Byzantine outpost that drifted into independence and lasted five hundred years by refusing to commit to anyone. Naples was a Greek foundation, Neapolis, and remained culturally Greek long after Rome absorbed it, which is part of why it stayed loyal to Constantinople when the Lombards took most of Italy in the late sixth century. The duchy was established around 661 with a governor appointed from Byzantium, but distance did its usual work: by 840 the dukes were hereditary and effectively sovereign, acknowledging imperial authority when convenient and ignoring it otherwise. Survival depended on playing the Lombard principalities, the papacy, the Byzantines and, controversially, Muslim fleets against one another - Naples allied with Arab forces more than once, and was excommunicated for it. Its merchants traded across the Mediterranean and its coinage circulated widely. The duchy also kept Greek learning circulating in the west, and translations made there carried texts into Latin Europe. Independence ended in 1137 when Duke Sergius VII submitted to Roger II of Sicily, folding the city into the Norman kingdom that became the Kingdom of Naples. The catacombs and early churches survive from the Byzantine period. The Greek language persisted in the region for centuries afterwards. The duchy also controlled Amalfi and Gaeta before both broke away. Its dukes bore the Byzantine title of patrician. Naples minted its own coinage into the twelfth century. The city's Greek street grid survives beneath the historic centre. San Gennaro's cult dates from this era. Its dukes were among the last rulers in the Latin west to date documents by the reigning Byzantine emperor, a habit they kept long after obeying him.

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