Mlanges de l'Ecole franaise de

Rome. Moyen-Age

Was there a Byzantine model of settlement in Italy ?

Thomas Brown, Neil Christie

Abstract
Thomas S. Brown et Neil J. Christie, Was there a Byzantine model of settlement in Italy?, p. 377-399.

This paper analyses the results of recent research concerning settlement in Byzantine Italy between the 6th and 8th centuries
A.D., concentrating on the well-documented provinces of northern and central Italy. It develops themes first proposed in 1978 by
Brown who stressed the role of insecurity and the militarisation of society in promoting seulement change in the imperial
territories, in particular through the creation of castra. Besides examining the origin and nature of these castra, and their position
in current thinking on the later process of incastellamento, comment is also made on the effects of Byzantine rule on the cities of
Italy, assessing levels of continuity and change.
The paper is divided into two halves : in the first part the regions of Venetia and the Exarchate are surveyed from a primarily
documentary viewpoint in the second half archaeological data provide physical image of settlement change in Liguria and
central Italy The combina tion of these various sources of evidence allow important conclusions to be drawn regarding the
character of Byzantine rule and settlement in Italy

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

Brown Thomas, Christie Neil. Was there a Byzantine model of settlement in Italy ?. In: Mlanges de l'Ecole franaise de Rome.
Moyen-Age, tome 101, n2. 1989. pp. 377-399;

doi : 10.3406/mefr.1989.3052

http://www.persee.fr/doc/mefr_1123-9883_1989_num_101_2_3052

Document gnr le 12/06/2016

 THOMAS S. BROWN ET NEIL J. CHRISTIE

WAS THERE A BYZANTINE MODEL

OF SETTLEMENT IN ITALY ?

It is pleasing to record the considerable advances which have been

made in our knowledge of Byzantine Italy over the last twenty years,
advances in which members of the cole Franaise have played a
distinguished part. This progress has extended to both periods of Byzantine
involvement in the peninsula (that of the sixth to eighth centuries and
that of the ninth to eleventh) and to a wide range of fields of enquiry,
including archaeology, palaeography, and social and economic history.
Perhaps the most gratifying result of this work is that, whereas in the
days of Hartmann and Diehl Byzantine Italy was studied in " splendid
isolation", we now possess a more balanced appreciation of the distinctive
contribution of Byzantine rule to the social and cultural development of
Italy, the similarities and differences between the imperial and Lombard
areas, and the particular relations which this distant province had with
the rest of the Empire. Thus in the Settimana dedicated to Bisanzio e
l'Italia held at Spoleto in April 1986 a nuanced and complex picture
emerged of the political, social and cultural life of Byzantine Italy1.

1 Among the many works which have marked significant improvements on

the classic studies of Ch. Diehl, tudes sur l'administration byzantine de l'Exarchat
de Ravenne, Paris, 1888, and L. M. Hartmann, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der
byzantinischen Verwaltung in Italien 540-750, Leipzig, 1889, are those of A. GuiL-
Lou, most notably his Rgionalisme et indpendance dans l'empire byzantin au VIIe
sicle: l'exemple de l'exarchat et de la Pentapole d'Italie, Rome, 1969, and the
papers collected in Studies in Byzantine Italy, London, 1970, and Culture et socit
en Italie byzantine, London, 1978. Other valuable contributions have been made
by B. Bavant, notably his Le duch byzantin de Rome. Origine, dure et extension
gographique, in MEFRM, 91, 1979, p. 41-88, and by V. von Falkenhausen, e.g. her
synthesis / Bizantini in Italia, in G. Cavallo et al., / Bizantini in Italia, Milan, 1982.
For extensive references to the burgeoning literature on Byzantine Italy see T. S.
Brown, Gentlemen and Officers. Imperial administration and aristocratic power in
Byzantine Italy, 554-800 A.D., London, 1984. Cfr. also Id., The interplay between
Roman and Byzantine traditions in the Exarchate of Ravenna, and the other papers

MEFRM - 101 - 1989 - 2, p. 377-399.

378 THOMAS S. BROWN ET NEIL J. CHRISTIE

This remarkable "take-off" has prompted us to undertake a brief

survey of the problem of settlement as it evolved in the period of imperial
rule between the Gothic War and the fall of Ravenna in the mid-eighth
century. In so doing we propose to develop some of the themes which
Brown put forward in a provisional paper entitled " Settlement and
Military Policy in Byzantine Italy", in which was stressed the importance of
insecurity and the general militarisation of government and society as
factors in the changing pattern of settlement2. The distinctive
character of settlement in Byzantine Italy was seen as lying in the political and
social as well as military importance of castra, erected or restored by the
state as an act of deliberate military policy. The possible relevance of
analogous developments in the East was pointed out, although the closest
parallels were seen as being with seventh to ninth century Anatolia rather
than with sixth century Africa or late Roman limitanei arrangements, as
postulated by Diehl, Hartmann and others.
We believe that the broad theses outlined in that paper remain valid,
although we would emphasise that they were intended as a working
hypothesis and that considerable allowance has to be made for regional
variations. We would also underline that Byzantine military policy was
always pragmatic and often ad hoc in its responses to particular threats
and to the constant problem of lack of resources. Extensive use was
made of existing institutions, buildings and materials, and, although Italy
in the mid-sixth century started with an administrative regime and
professional military system similar to those of the East, its later
development was never a simple matter of borrowings - partly because Italy's
links with Constantinople became increasingly limited after AD 600, and
partly because Italy's experience of chronic insecurity and pressure from
determined invaders took place before the analogous threats which
Anatolia faced from Persian and later Arab invaders. There are insights to
be gained from comparative studies with the Byzantine Eastern frontiers,
but these parallels are the result not of any strategic master-plan but
rather of broadly similar conditions with a common tradition of strong
public authority and a common ability to marshal communal resources
for military ends3. We believe, however, that the time is not yet ripe for

in Bisanzio, Roma e l'Italia nell'alto medioevo. XXXIV Settimana di studio del

Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo (Spoleto 1986), Spoleto, 1988.
2 In H. Blake, T. Potter & D. Whitehouse, eds., Papers in Italian Archaeology
I (British Archaeological Reports S-41), Oxford, 1978, p. 323-338.
3 For additions and modifications to Brown's original thesis see Brown,
Gentlemen and Officers, especially p. 42-5, 101-8, and N. Christie, Settlement and
 WAS THERE A BYZANTINE MODEL OF SETTLEMENT IN ITALY? 379

a detailed comparative study of this nature; the lack of documentary

material in the East is a serious obstacle, and archaeological and
topographical studies of the complex changes in settlement in the very diverse
areas of Anatolia are few in number - although a valuable start has been
made with the surveys of Cappadocia undertaken by the Tabula Imperii
Byzantini, the excavation of fortresses such as Kiitahya and the studies of
individual cities by Foss and others4.
Here we propose to assess whether changes in the settlement pattern
were affected by the specific character of Byzantine rule, and to do this
we intend to concentrate on areas where particular types of evidence are
relatively abundant. In the first half of this paper Brown will discuss the
Exarchate and Pentapolis, which have preserved a fair amount of literary
and documentary material, and in the second half Christie will consider
Liguria and Northern Lazio, which have seen extensive programmes of
archaeological research. In so doing we hope to arrive at certain
conclusions valid for the Byzantine territories of northern and central Italy,
where both the state administration and the social structure were
relatively uniform. We do not intend to cover the South, where literary and
archaeological evidence is limited for the early period, and where
political boundaries remained fluid between the sixth and eighth centuries.
Although we shall both allude to the fortunes of cities, much of what we
say concerns castra, and will therefore be of relevance to the considerable
recent interest in the process of incastellamento5.
At this point certain initial provisos may be helpful. In some re-

Defence in Byzantine and Longobard Northern and Central Italy, unpublished Ph. D
thesis, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1985. For studies on the East see J. F.
Haldon & H. Kennedy, The Arab-Byzantine frontier in the eighth and ninth
centuries : military organisation and society in the borderlands, in Zbornik Radova Vizan-
toloskog Instituta, 19, 1980, p. 79-116, P. Freeman & D. Kennedy eds. The Defence of
the Roman and Byzantine East, Oxford, 1986, and R.-J. Lilie, Die byzantinische
Reaktion auf die Ausbreitung der Araber, Munich, 1976.
4 Tabula Imperii Byzantini, I. Hellas und Thessalia, by J. Kder & F. Hild,
Vienna, 1976; C. Foss, Survey of Medieval Castles of Anatolia, I : Kiitahya, Oxford,
1985; Id., Byzantine and Turkish Sardis, Cambridge, Mass., 1976; Id., Ephesus after
Antiquity, Cambridge, Mass., 1979; Id. & D. Winfield, Byzantine Fortifications. An
Introduction, Pretoria, 1987. G. Ravegnani, Castelli e citt fortificate nel VI secolo,
Ravenna, 1983 is a disappointing attempt to confront eastern and western evidence
for the sixth century.
5 The problem and the bibliography are usefully surveyed by C. Wickham, //
problema dell'incastellamento nell'Italia centrale. L'esempio di San Vincenzo al Vol-
turno, Florence, 1985, nb. p. 53-94.
380 THOMAS S. BROWN ET NEIL J. CHRISTIE

spects the model employed by most historians of the Germanic areas of

Italy, whereby castra are defined as fortified nucleated settlements
established as residences for peasant communities, cannot easily be applied to
Byzantine Italy. Fasoli has rightly observed that "l'Italia era piena di
castelli ", and even in the Germanic areas the term covers a variety of
fortifications, including smaller, purely military posts and aristocratic
residences (Adelsburgen)6. In Byzantine territories the term kastron was
widely applied to sizable fortified urban sites; it is applied thus in the
geographical list of George of Cyprus, and is synonymous with city in
Asia Minor in the middle Byzantine period7. It is also noteworthy that
the term caestar used of towns in contemporary Anglo-Saxon England is
not a survival from the Roman period but a borrowing from the usage of
Byzantine Italy8.
Even in the case of non-Byzantine areas of Italy it can be argued that
excessive attention has been paid to the "classical" process of
incastellamento, following the deserved impact of Toubert's studies of Lazio and
Monte Cassino, and Settia's work on the Val Padana9. Here the
research of Wickham, particularly his // problema dell'incastellamento
nell'Italia centrale, provides a salutary counterweight 10. Wickham
rightly emphasises the wide variety of factors involved in any settlement shift,
as opposed to the essentially monocausal interpretation of other scholars.

6 G. Fasoli, Castelli e signorie rurali, in Agricoltura e mondo rurale in

Occidente nell'alto medioevo, XIII Settimana di Studio del Centro italiano di studi
sull'alto medioevo, Spoleto, 1965, p. 533.
7 George of Cyprus, Opuscule gographique, ed. E. Honigmann, Le Synekdmos
d'Hierokls, Brussels, 1935.
8 Cfr. M. Biddle, Towns, in D. Wilson, ed., The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon
England, London, 1976, p. 104, arguing for a late Roman origin. However, the
widespread use of the Anglo-Saxon term from the seventh century, when England
had close links with Rome and other Italian centres, suggests the possibility that
the usage reflected the widespread contemporary application of the term cas-
trum/kastron to all cities in the Byzantine world.
9 P. Toubert, Les structures du Latium mdival, Rome, 1973; Id., Les
destines d'un thme historiographique : castelli et peuplement dans l'Italie mdivale,
paper IV in his Histoire du Haut Moyen ge et de l'Italie mdivale, London, 1987;
A. Settia, Incastellamento e decastellamento nell'Italia padana fra X e XI secolo, in
Bollettino storico-bibliografico subalpino, 74 (1), 1976, p. 5-26; Id., Castelli e villaggi
nell'Italia padana. Popolamento, potere e sicurezza fra IX e XIII secolo, Naples, 1984;
Id., Lo sviluppo degli abitati rurali in alta Italia: villaggi, castelli e borghi dall'alto
medioevo al basso medioevo, in Medioevo rurale, ed. V. Fumagalli & G. Rossetti,
Bologna, 1980, p. 157-199.
10 Wickham, // problema (cited at . 5), p. 53-94.
 WAS THERE A BYZANTINE MODEL OF SETTLEMENT IN ITALY ? 381

He points out that incastellamento did not always represent a break with
earlier settlement patterns and that some castra were established on
existing sites. He also demonstrates that other factors besides seignorial
initiative, such as collective peasant activity, could promote incastellamento,
and he makes a valuable distinction between incastellamento and
accentramento (the nucleation or concentration of population).
All these observations have a relevance to Byzantine Italy. Another
point worth making is that historians have tended to see incastellamento
as a phenomenon of the tenth century and later. In many cases this is
valid, because it fits into a context of Magyar and Saracen invasions, the
disintegration of the Carolingian state, and economic and demographic
recovery11. It has to be said, however, that this is in part a reflection of
the evidence, since in most areas of Italy archive material only becomes
abundant from the tenth century.
In Byzantine Italy, however, there is considerable evidence of change
in settlement patterns at an earlier stage made through public initiative in
response to security and military considerations. In some cases castra
were set up as purely military outposts, but in many cases they became
refuges or residences for larger population groups. Just as in Anatolia
we see peasants being relocated in fortified settlements in order to
protect a valuable fiscal resource from capture by Arab invaders12, two
illuminating letters of Pope Gregory the Great point to the settlement of
civilians in newly-established castra, Gallipoli in Apulia and Squillace in
Calabria13. In 1978 Brown tentatively applied the term "strategic hamlets"
(derived from a policy applied in the Vietnam War) to certain
promontory sites in the Ager Faliscus area of South Etruria in which finds of
Forum Ware pottery suggested settlement dating from the eighth
century 14. This hypothesis has been taken up over-enthusiastically by some
archaeologists who see these sites as defensive positions in the frontier

11 Cfr. G. Fasoli, Le incursioni ungare in Europa nel secolo X, Florence, 1945;

V. FuMAGALLi, // Regno d'Italia, Storia d'Italia UTET, ed. G. Galasso, voi. II, Turin,
1977.
12 De velitatione bellica, ed. C. Hase, Leo Diaconus, Bonn, 1828, p. 236, and cfr.
J. Howard-Johnston, Studies in the Organization of the Byzantine Army in the Tenth
and Eleventh centuries, unpubl. Oxford D. Phil thesis 1971, p. 211.
13 Castrum Callipolitanum : Gregory, I, Registrum, IX 206, ed. P. Ewald &
L. M. Hartmann, MGH Epistolae, Berlin, 1899, II, p. 194. Castrum Scillacinum :
ibid., VIII 32, ed. cit. II, p. 33. Discussed in Brown, Settlement, p. 328 and Id.,
Gentlemen, p. 105-6.
14 Id., Settlement, p. 329-330. The South Etruria survey is synthesized by
T. Potter, The Changing Landscape of South Etruria, London, 1979, nb. p. 138-155.
382 THOMAS S. BROWN ET NEIL J. CHRISTIE

zone of the Duchy of Rome15. As will be explained shortly, there are

serious chronological and geographical difficulties with this view. At
this point it has to be reaffirmed that, firstly, strategic considerations are
only one of many causes of early nucleated settlement; secondly, certain
of these promontory sites could be " passive " refuges rather than " active "
garrison centres, in which civilian peasants were settled as an act of
deliberate state policy; and thirdly, the setting-up of these castra could
date to the eighth rather than the sixth century. Both renewed Lombard
pressure and bitter in-fighting between powerful locally-based aristocrats
and officials provide plausible contexts for such foundations in the eighth
century. The essential point is that official public policy is likely to have
played a key role in the foundation of castra at any time in the Byzantine
period, although such settlements could only prosper in the long term if
their location proved compatible with seignorial and economic interests.
Venetia - The area which perhaps saw the most dramatic settlement
change in the Byzantine period was the province of Venetia, where
inland centres were abandoned in response to Lombard pressure and
new centres set up on the coast and on islands in the lagoons, such as
Grado, lesolo, Eraclea/Cittanova, Torcello and Malamocco16.
Unfortunately there is little documentation to enable us to place these changes in
perspective, and the problems posed by the appreciably later Venetian
chronicle tradition are well-known17; nonetheless, useful information
should come from current and future excavations like Eraclea to add to
information already gained from Torcello18. Two conclusions seem
likely to emerge : firstly, that " new " settlements often developed on existing
late Roman sites (as at Grado and lesolo), and that a major factor in
settlement patterns was the location of new military and administrative cen-

15 As D. Whitehouse & T. Potter, The Byzantine frontier in South Etruria, in

Antiquity, 55, 1981, p. 206-210.
16 General surveys include A. Carile & G. Fedalto, Le origini di Venezia,
Bologna, 1978, and G. Ortalli in P. Delogu et al, Storia d'Italia UTET, I, Turin,
1976. Cfr. also G. Schmiedt, Citt scomparse e citt di nuova formazione in Italia in
relazione al sistema di communicazione, in Topografia urbanistica e vita cittadina
nell'alto medioevo in Occidente, XXI Settimana di studio, Spoleto, 1974, p. 503-607.
17 G. Fasoli, / fondamenti della storiografia veneziana, in La storiografia
veneziana fino al secolo XVI, ed. A. Pertusi, Florence, 1970, p. 11-44.
18 Eraclea : P. Tozzi, La scoperta di una citt scomparsa : Eraclea Veneta, in
Athenaeum, 62, 1984, p. 252-9, and cfr. Schmiedt, Citt, p. 526-7. Torcello : L. Lecie-
jewicz, E. Tabaczynska & S. Tabaczynski, Torcello - Scavi 1961-2 (Istituto nazionale
di archeologia e storia dell'arte, Monografie III), Roma 1977; and cfr. Schmiedt,
Citt, p. 527-530.
 WAS THERE A BYZANTINE MODEL OF SETTLEMENT IN ITALY? 383

trs (as at Eraclea, the residence of the magister militum in the seventh
century)19. However, changes in the Veneto were probably not typical
of Byzantine Italy as a whole, because distinctive hydrographie changes
played a role, the local economy was less dependent on agriculture, and
the changes were more sudden and complete than elsewhere; a close
analogy is the occupation of islands in Greece as refuges in response to
Avar and Slav invasions20.
The Exarchate and Pentapolis - More representative - and always
the most prosperous and important of the Byzantine possessions in Italy
- were the provinces of the Exarchate and Pentapolis. For a long time
this area was surprisingly neglected by scholars : politically it was seen
as a distinct "aberration" in Italian historical development, while from
the economic viewpoint it was uncritically inserted into a supposed
general pattern derived largely from Lombard Italy. Our knowledge of this
area, however, has been transformed over the last twenty years, and
here one can single out the work of Guillou on Byzantine influences and
the growth of separatism, Vasina's studies of the organisation of pievi,
and Pasquali's surveys of the agrarian history of individual areas21.
Equally significant are the conference held in 1981 on the Institutions
and Society of the Early Medieval Marches and the recent edition of the
Codex Bavarus by Vasina and Rabotti together with an ancillary volume
of Ricerche e studi by a number of scholars22. So far archaeological

19 Historical context of Eraclea : T. S. Brown, A. Bryer & D. Winfield, Cities

of Heraclius, in Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 4, 1978, p. 30-8, and A. Pertu-
si, L'iscrizione torcellana dei tempi di Eraclio, in Zbornik Radova Vizantoloskog
Instituta, 8 (2), 1964, p. 315-339.
20 C. Delano Smith, Coastal sedimentation, lagoons and ports in Italy, in
H. Blake et al., Papers (cited at n. 2), p. 25-32 ; S. Hood, Isles of refuge in the early
Byzantine period, in Annual of the British School at Athens, 65, 1970, p. 37-45.
21 On neglect and distortion in the historiography of the Exarchate cfr.
Brown, The Interplay (cited at n. 1). For the studies of Guillou see n. 1. The work
of A. Vasina includes Romagna medievale, Ravenna, 1970, Le pievi dell'area
ravennate prima e dopo il Mille, in Le istituzioni ecclesiastiche della "societas christiana "
dei secoli XI-XII. Diocesi, pievi e parrochie, Milan, 1977, p. 607-627, Aspetti e
problemi di storia plebana nelle Marche (secc. IX-XIV), in Studia Picena, 45, 1978, p. 1-
50, Circoscrizioni civili ed ecclesiastiche nel medioevo, in Cultura popolare
nel 'Emilia Romagna, Milan, 1982, p. 186-203, Pievi urbane in Romagna prima e dopo il
Mille, in Felix Ravenna, 126-130, 1984-85, p. 481-506. Many of the studies of G.
Pasquali are collected in his Agricoltura e societ rurale in Romagna nel medioevo,
Bologna, 1984.
22 Istituzioni e societ nell'alto medioevo marchigiano, in Atti e memorie della
Deputazione di storia patria per le Marche, 86, 1981 ; Breviarium Ecclesiae Ravenna-
384 THOMAS S. BROWN ET NEIL J. CHRISTIE

investigation of this region has been limited, although the excavations at

Comacchio, Ferrara, Imola and of course Ravenna and Classe have
proved valuable23. Certain broad conclusions can be derived from this
research :
Firstly, the Roman network of cities remained largely intact in this
period, with a few exceptions such as Claterna24. A dozen bishoprics
survive in Emilia-Romagna throughout the early medieval period
(compared with a mere four in Western Emilia)25. In the Pentapolis most
cities survived, in sharp contrast with their near-total disappearance
from the Lombard area south of Numana26. The reason lies in their
continued importance as the administrative and ecclesiastical centres of
the surrounding territoria, their role as residences for the military and
landowning elite, and their function as centres for estate management
and the collection of produce from lands belonging to secular aristocrats
and the archbishop of Ravenna. In addition, there was a lack of compet-

tis (Codice Bavaro). Secoli VII-X, ed. G. Rabotti & A. Vasina (Fonti per la storia
d'Italia, 110), Rome, 1985, A. Vasina et al., Ricerche e studi sul "Breviarium eccle-
siae Ravennatis" (Codice Bavaro), Rome, 1985.
23 Comacchio : S. Patitucci Uggeri, Testimonianze archeologiche del "Castrum
Comiaclum". Relazione preliminare degli scavi 1975, in Archeologia medievale, 3,
1976, p. 283-291. Ferrara: F. Bocchi, Note di storia urbanistica ferrarese nell'alto
medioevo, Ferrara, 1974; S. Patitucci Uggeri, // "castrum Ferrariae", in
Insediamenti nel Ferrarese. Dall'et romana alla fondazione della cattedrale, Florence, 1976,
p. 153-8. Argenta : S. Gelichi, La pieve di S. Giorgio di Argenta (Ferrara). Relazione
della prima campagna di scavo 1982, in Corso di cultura sull'arte ravennate e
bizantina, 30, 1983, p. 292-309. Imola : M. G. Maioli, La campagna di scavo 1979 a "Villa
Clelia" (Imola). Relazione preliminare, in Studi romagnoli, 29, 1978 (pubi. 1982),
p. 329-346. For a general survey see S. Patitucci Uggeri, Aspetti dell'insediamento
nell'area lagunare a nord di Ravenna tra tardoantico e altomedioevo, in Corso di
cultura sull'arte ravennate e bizantina, 30, 1983, p. 391-412. Excavation reports from
Ravenna and the immediate area appear regularly in the Corsi and in Felix
Ravenna. N.b., nowever, G. Bermond Montanari, ed., Ravenna e il suo porto : venti anni
di ricerche archeologiche tra Ravenna e Classe, Imola, 1983.
24 G. Fasoli, Profilo storico dall'VIII al XV secolo, in A. Berselli, ed., Storia
dell'Emilia Romagna, I, Bologna, 1975, p. 366.
25 F. Bocchi, Le citt emiliane nel medioevo, in Berselli, Storia, p. 405-433 ;
V. Fumagalli, L'agricoltura durante il Medio Evo. La conquista del suolo, in ibid.,
p. 465, 470.
26 . Alfieri, L'insediamento urbano sul litorale delle Marche durante
l'antichit e il medioevo, in Thmes de recherches sur les villes antiques d'Occident, ed. P. M.
Duval & E. Frzouls, Paris, 1977, p. 88-96; Id., Le Marche e la fine del mondo
antico, in Istituzione e societ (cited at . 22), p. 9-34.
 WAS THERE A BYZANTINE MODEL OF SETTLEMENT IN ITALY? 385

ing administrative and economic foci such as large curies and rural
abbeys27.
Secondly, there seems to have been broad continuity in Roman
settlement patterns in the countryside. Settlement remained generally
dispersed, Roman toponyms remained common (but not universal), traces of
centuriation remain evident in certain areas (except where affected by
changes in the course of rivers), and the Roman fundus continued to be
the most commonly used territorial measurement and reference point,
though ceasing to denote an actual working unit28.
Despite this broad degree of continuity, there were changes in the
forms of organisation. Most Roman villae recorded earlier in the area
disappear, units of cultivation were small, often the smallholdings of
leaseholders (here we believe Carile is mistaken to see such plots as official
beni militari29) and extensive clearances took place from about the eighth
century30.
The agrarian picture of the Exarchate and Pentapolis offers a
number of significant divergences from the Lombard pattern. Large
bipartite estates (curies) are very rare. As Fumagalli first pointed out, peasant
rents were significantly lower. Ecclesiastical sub-divisions associated
with plbes (local baptismal churches) played a major administrative role
from the late eighth century in contrast with the secular territories
centred around curies and castelli in the Lombard area31.

27 V. Fumagalli, Introduzione del feudalismo e sviluppo dell'economia curtense

nell'Italia settentrionale, in Structures fodales et fodalisme dans l'Occident
mditerranen (Xe-XIIIe sicles), Rome, 1980, p. 321; Id., // regno Italico, p. 298; Id.,
L'agricoltura (cited at . 25), p. 470.
28 A. Castagneto, Continuit e discontinuit nella terminologia e nella realt
organizzativa : "fundus " e "casale " nei documenti ravennati altomedievali, in
Medioevo rurale. Sulle tracce della civilt contadina, ed. V. Fumagalli & G. Rossetti,
Bologna, n.d., p. 202-219; Id., L'organizzazione del territorio rurale nel medioevo.
Circoscrizioni ecclesiastiche e civili nella "Longobardia " e nella "Romania ", Turin,
1979.
29 A. Carile, Continuit e mutamento nei ceti dirigenti dell'Esarcato fra VII e IX
secolo, in Istituzioni e societ (cited at . 22), p. 115-143.
30 G. Fasoli, Le abbazie di Nonantola e di Pomposa, in La bonifica benedettina,
Rome, 1963, p. 97-105; G. Pasquali, Agricoltura e societ (cited at . 21), p. 33-60 and
passim. On the related ecological changes occurring cfr. A. Veggiani, Le
trasformazioni dell'ambiente naturale del Ravennate negli ultimi millenni, in Studi
romagnoli, 24, 1973, p. 3-23.
31 Lack of curtes : . Andreolli & M. Montanari, L'azienda curtense in Italia.
Propriet della terra e lavoro contadino nei secoli VIII-XI, Bologna, 1983, p. 161-175 ;
Pasquali, Agricoltura e societ, p. 232-5. Lower rents : V. Fumagalli, Coloni e signo-
386 THOMAS S. BROWN ET NEIL J. CHRISTIE

The reasons for the persistence of an essentially Roman settlement

pattern lie in the existence of a relatively strong public administration in
the hands first of imperial officials and later of the archbishops of
Ravenna. In addition, settlement remained generally dispersed because of
the relative social and economic complexity of the Byzantine territories
and the proximity of active and important cities as centres of attraction
for economic activity and as residences for landowners32.
Where does incastellamento fit into this picture? In general it has
been seen as a late and limited development in Romagna and the
northern Marches. Pasquali wrote of "un certo ritardo dell'incastellamento
nella 'Romania'", dating the phenomenon to the eleventh century
onwards 33. In terms of the traditional interpretation of castra as centres of
settlement erected by lords for purposes of control of peasants and
economic development this view is acceptable : our ample documentation
attests a proliferation of castelli in the later period when seignorial
families obtained increased power at the expense of the archbischops of
Ravenna and their traditional tenants34.
Certain qualifications should be made to this picture, however. A
remarkably large number of castra appear to be of early origin : in the
Ferrarese, for example, only eight castra are recorded before the twelfth
century, but at least four (Ferrara, Comacchio, Voghenza and Argenta)
were inhabited in the Byzantine period35. For the Romagna proper,

nell'Italia superiore dall'VIII al X secolo, in Studi medievali, serie 3a, 10, 1, 1971,
p. 436-8, and Id., La tipologia dei contratti di affitto con coltivatori al confine tra
Longobardia e Romania (secoli IX-X), in Studi romagnoli, 25, 1974, p. 205-214.
Pievi : a vast literature has accumulated over recent years ; as well as the studies of
Vasina (cited at n. 21) we can note A. Cherubini, Le antiche pievi della diocesi di
Jesi, in Studia Picena, 47, 1981, p. 20-157 and D. Balboni, Masse e pievi ferraresi nei
secoli X-XII. Contributo alle ricerche sulla storia della diocesi di Ferrara, in Ravenna-
tensia, 3, 1972, p. 425-462.
32 Brown, Gentlemen and Officers, passim, and cfr. G. Fasoli, // dominio degli
arcivescovi di Ravenna fra l'VIII e l'XI secolo, in / poteri dei vescovi in Italia e in
Germania nel medioevo, ed. C.-G. Mor & H. Schmiedingen, Bologna, 1970, p. 87-140.
On the continued importance of cities see the studies cited in n. 25, and M. Tavoni,
Le citt romagnole conquistano la loro autonomia, in Berselli, ed., Storia
del 'Emil a Romagna, p. 435-460.
33 Pasquali, Agricoltura e societ, p. 153-9, 184-209.
34 Cfr. C. Curradi, / conti Guidi nel secolo X, in Studi romagnoli, 28, 1977,
p. 17-64; A. Castagneto, Enti ecclesiastici, Canossa, Estensi, famiglie signorili e vas-
salatiche a Verona e a Ferrara, in Structures fodales (cited at . 27), p. 396-7.
35 G. Pasquali, Pievi, massi e castelli nel Ferrarese nei secoli IX-XI, in his
Agricoltura e societ, p. 204-9.
 WAS THERE A BYZANTINE MODEL OF SETTLEMENT IN ITALY? 387

examination of the gazetteer compiled by Fontana in Rocche e Castelli di

Romagna shows over forty castra first recorded in the tenth century or
before (omitting fortified cities and settlements in the Tuscan, i.e.
Lombard, sphere of influence)36. Early castra are recorded by Agnellus and
Paul the Deacon and in the Liber Pontificalis, for example along the
frontier north and west of Bologna37. Other Emilian castra appear in the
early seventh century geography of George of Cyprus, in which certain
strongholds can probably be identified with castra recorded in later
Ravenna documents38. Furthermore, some of the pievi of the Ravenna
church recorded from around 800 onwards are associated with nearby
castra (for example Castrocaro and Castelnuovo)39, while documents refer
to a number of " former " or " destroyed " castra in the tenth century, like
Antugnano, near Cesena, in 983 *>.
The identification of such early castra is admittedly bedevilled by the
continuing lack of reliable editions of most of the documents from
Ravenna, by local scholars' uncritical acceptance of unreliable later
chronicle traditions, and by a lack of careful topographic studies. Nevertheless,
some tentative conclusions can be suggested. Certain of these sites have
earlier Late Roman or Gothic origins, as revealed by excavation or by

36 G. Fontana, ed., Rocche e castelli di Romagna, I, Bologna, 1970, II, Bologna,

1971 ; cfr. also F. Mancini & W. Vichi, Castelli, rocche e torri di Romagna, Bologna,
1959. However, these general studies are not exhaustive and often references to
documents are uncritical or chronologically inaccurate.
37 Discussed in Diehl, Etudes (cited in n. 1), p. 51-9, and Guillou,
Rgionalisme, p. 56-8. Cfr. also A. Carile, Dal V all' Vili secolo, in Berselli, ed., Storia
dell'Emilia Romagna, p. 349-350.
38 The most exhaustive recent study of George of Cyprus (text cited n. 7) is
P. M. Conti, L'Italia bizantina nella "Descriptio orbis Romani " di Giorgio Ciprio, in
Memorie dell'Accademia lunigianese di scienze "G. Capellini", 40, 1970. However,
many of the author's identifications do not appear convincing, and his approach
represents an attempt to impose an artificial neatness on a text which is clearly
disorganized and corrupt. Two possible Emilian castra are castrum Novi - Monte
di Castelnuovo near Mendola (n. 629) and castrum Tebano - Monte Castellacelo di
Tebani (. 625).
39 Vasina, Le pievi (cited at . 21), p. 618, 624. In the Marche there was
usual y some distance between the plebs and associated castrum : Id., Aspetti, p. 27.
Castrocaro : A. Vasina, Note sulla storia dei castelli romagnoli e sull'insediamento di
Castrocaro nel medioevo, in Studi romagnoli, 32, 1981, p. 175-89.
40 Antugnano : V. Federici, ed., Regesto di S. Apollinare Nuovo. Regesta charta-
rum Italiae, 3, Rome, 1907, p. 23, no. 8; and cfr. Settia, Incastellamento, p. 23. For
a castrum founded in Rovigo, Id., Castelli, p. 91.
388 THOMAS S. BROWN ET NEIL J. CHRISTIE

their occurrence in earlier texts (e.g. Galeata and S. Leo)41. In general,

the castra founded by the Byzantines lie along the defensive lines of the
lower Po or the Panaro or in the valleys and foothills of the Appennines.
In the interior of the Exarchate defence-in-depth and local administration
seem to have been based on Roman urban centres, with one or two
exceptions such as Bagnacavallo42.
It is also clear that the character of Byzantine castra could be very
diverse. Some were merely small garrison posts and remained of little or
no settlement importance, while others developed into villages or the
centres of important seignorial families from the tenth century. A few, such
as Argenta, Comacchio and Ferrara, grew into major population centres,
partly because they were administrative centres from the start and partly
because they were well positioned to take advantage of clearance
operations and trading opportunities43.
One can conclude from the Exarchate and Pentapolis that the term
castrum could be applied in the Byzantine period to a fortified site of any
size and that new foundations, while generally confined to frontier areas,
could become major foci of settlement. When the Byzantines founded
new sites, as good Rhomaioi they liked to regard them as cities : one
thinks of Cittanova (Eraclea) in Venetia and Civitas Nova (Novigrad) in
Istria44. A number of questions remain, however. To what extent did
castra become centres for later agrarian clearance and exploitation?

41 Galeata : U. Monneret de Villard, Sul palazzo di Teoderico a Galeata, in

Rendiconti della Accademia dei Lincei, s. 8, 7, 1952, p. 26-32; Vita S. Hilar, ed. Acta
Sanctorum, 2nd ed., Paris-Rome, 1866, p. 471-4. S. Leo : Procopius, De bello Gothi-
co, II, 11.3, ed. J. Haury, rev. G. Wirth, Leipzig, 1963, p. 190; on its later history see
C. Curradi & M. Mazzotti, Carte del Montefeltro nell'alto medioevo (723-999), Ur-
bania, 1981.
42 Bagnacavallo : A. Vasina, La Romagna estense : genesi e sviluppo dal
medioevo all'et moderna, in Studi romagnoli, 21, 1970, p. 52; G. Pasquali, Insediamenti
rurali, paesaggio agrario e toponomastica fondarla nella circoscrizione plebana di
S. Pietro in Silvis di Bagnacavallo (sec. X-XII), in Agricoltura e societ, p. 61-83.
43 In generai cfr. Pasquali, Agricoltura e societ, p. 184-209. Argenta : A. Vasi-
na, Aspetti e momenti di storia argentana, Argenta, 1979; Id., Romagna medievale,
p. 75-106; Gelichi, La pieve (cited at . 23). Comacchio: Patitucci Uggeri,
Testimonianze (cited at . 23); . , Le strutture ecclesiastiche del Comacchiese
nell'alto medioevo, in Analecta Pomposiana, 4, 1978, p. 9-67. Ferrara : Bocchi, Note
(cited at . 23); . Alfieri, G. Bovini & G. Mansuelli, eds., Insediamenti nel
Ferrarese. Dall'et romana alla fondazione della cattedrale, Florence, 1976.
44 Eraclea : cfr. nn. 18 and 19. Novigrad was recorded in 804 as the centre of
state lands and the residence of a cancellarius : Guillou, Rgionalisme, p. 186-7,
194-5.
 WAS THERE A BYZANTINE MODEL OF SETTLEMENT IN ITALY? 389

What was their precise relationship with pievi, the main centres of
ecclesiastical and administrative organisation from c. 800? How much
control over them was exercised by the Ravenna see, the main inheritor of
the public powers of the imperial administration? Continued historical,
archaeological and topographical research will hopefully resolve these
questions.

Before discussing Liguria and the Duchy of Rome, note must first be
made both of the nature of the archaeological evidence which provides
our main source of information regarding Byzantine settlement in these
provinces, and above all of factors impeding the assimilation of these
data.
Early investigations regarding Byzantine settlement and defence in
Italy contained two basic flaws : firstly, in the general absence of
standing remains, Italy was considered in the light of evidence from Africa;
and secondly, historians like Hartmann and Schneider were at pains to
identify Byzantine origins to castra, rarely considering earlier origins
except where documentation allowed. This view has largely persisted,
despite the fact that Italy patently lacks the evidence of Byzantine Africa
as described in Procopius' De aedificiis, and as scrutinised by Diehl and
more recently Pringle45.
The extensive structural evidence in Africa, supplemented by the
comparative wealth of building inscriptions, resulted chiefly from the
rapidity of the conquest over the Vandals and the immediate
consolidation of the province against the Moors : clearly funds had been reserved
for the extensive restoration and refortification of decayed towns and
forts here. In contrast, Justinian badly neglected the logistics for a
decisive conquest of Ostrogothic Italy, and well before the close of the war
resources had become so exhausted that an overhauling of Italy on the
scale of Africa or the East was impossible. Although it is certains that
Justinian sought to embellish at least Rome and Ravenna with
magnificent churches, it is unlikely that funds stretched to more extensive works.

4S For Byzantine origins to castra see Hartmann, Untersuchungen, p. 52f, and

F. Schneider, Die Entstehung von Burg und Landgemeinde in Italien, Berlin, 1924.
For Byzantine Africa see in particular Ch. Diehl, L'Afrique byzantine, Paris, 1896;
D. Pringle, The Defence of Byzantine Africa from Justinian to the Arab Conquest
{British Archaeological Report, International series, 5-99), Oxford, 1981.

MEFRM 1989, 2. 26
390 THOMAS S. BROWN ET NEIL J. CHRISTIE

Recent studies indeed argue that Procopius greatly exaggerates

Justinian's contributions to building work in the East : we can assume that his
contribution in Italy was even more superficial46. Furthermore, Italy
has few fortifications structurally comparable to African examples, and
even the powerful circuit at Terracina and the bastion at Ardea have
recently been brought into question47. Archaeology has demonstrated
that the Byzantines relied heavily on existing fortifications : excavations
of castra like Castelseprio and Invillino in the sub-Alpine zones showed
only a fleeting glimpse of Byzantine occupation, with the origin of such
forts extending back into late Roman times and not to a building
programme initiated by Narses, as Hartmann once claimed. The few
excavated examples of Byzantine castra belong to the period after 568 and
demonstrate a wide variety of construction techniques, drawing heavily
on local resources, and having little in common with forts in Africa48.
Although the broad outline of settlement change consequent to the
Lombard invasion is visible in the documentary record, archaeology is
helping - through systematic excavation and regional field-surveys - to
demonstrate the great diversity in settlement types, defensive responses,
and economic conditions. Yet even these data remain necessarily crude,
in how the turmoil of the sixth to eighth centuries is closely reflected in
the nature of the available archaeological evidence.

46 Justinian's contribution in the East is scrutinised in B. Croke & J. Crow,

Procopius and Dar, in Journal of Roman Studies, LXXIII, 1983, p. 143-159.
Indicative of the severe financial shortages in Italy is the considerable delay before
Narses restored the Ponte Salaria at Rome in 565 - twelve years after victory at
Mons Lactarius : CIL, VI, 1199.
47 Terracina and Ardea are seen as Byzantine by A. W. Lawrence, Early
medieval fortifications near Rome, in Papers of the British School at Rome, XXXII, 1964,
p. 89-90 ; G. Schmiedt, Le fortificazioni altomedievali in Italia viste dall'aerea, in the
XV Settimana di studio, Spoleto, 1968, p. 864. Recent studies, however, see Terra-
cina's circuit as late Roman in date : cfr. N. Christie & A. Rushworth, The Town
Walls of Terracina, in Journal of Roman Archaeology, I, 1988, p. 73-88 while Ardea's
" Byzantine " bastion (first noted by A. W. Lawrence in an addendum to A. Boe-
THIUS, Le fortificazioni di Ardea, in Opuscula Romana, IV, 1962, p. 29-45) may in
fact be twelfth or even fourteenth century in date : C. Morselli & E. Torturici,
Ardea, Forma Italiae, Regio I, vol. XVI, Florence, 1982, p. 53-62.
48 Cfr. Brown, Settlement, p. 323f . Castelseprio : M. Dabrowska, L. Lecieje-
wicz, E. Tabackzynska, S. Tabaczynski, Castelseprio : Scavi diagnostici 1962-63, in
Sibrium, XIV, 1978-79, p. 1-138. Invillino: G. Fingerlin, J. Garbsch & J. Werner,
Gli scavi nel castello longobardo di Ibligo-Invillino (Friuli), in Aquileia nostra,
XXXIX, 1968, p. 57-136. Narses' string of castra in the Alps were identified by
Hartmann, Untersuchungen, p. 54.
 WAS THERE A BYZANTINE MODEL OF SETTLEMENT IN ITALY? 391

Most significant is the absence of a closely dated ceramic sequence

between the disappearance of African Red-Slipped Ware (ARS) from Italy
by A.D. 625-650 and the appearance of sparse-glazed ware in the ninth-
tenth centuries : no recognisable f inewares exist, and few eastern imports
appear to have reached Italy. Even the glazed ceramic known as Forum
Ware, found principally in Rome and in South Etruria, is unlikely to
predate the mid-eighth century. Coarse wares persist, but become
increasingly local in character and manufacture, to an extent that they have
occasionally been confused with prehistoric wares. For example, Mannoni has
shown that in eastern Liguria the principal type-fossil is the so-called "
ceramica vacuolare", characterised by numerous macroscopic holes;
although first appearing with products of late Roman tradition, its
production continued until the mid-seventh century49. It is important to note
that a high percentage of finds in this period show a persistence in late
Roman forms, which caused early excavations to date levels too early.
This is indeed the case with the glazed wares of Northern Italy in
particular, where glazed vessels continue into sixth or seventh century contexts
despite minimal evidence for actual production after the fifth century50.
Equally problematic is the poor survival of secular structures of
Byzantine date. Most towns have witnessed continuous occupation, and
in the case of many castra and upland sites this phase often marked the
initial step in a long line of site evolution. It is only in the few cases where
this process failed to occur (whether due to destruction, abandonment,
decay or replacement) that detailed excavations have been possible (for
instance at Castelseprio, Luni, Torcello). These have revealed the fragility
and impoverished nature of post-Roman settlement, a situation which
further reduces their rate of survival. Nonetheless, systematic excavation in
urban centres like Ventimiglia and Verona proves that such traces can
indeed be recovered; we can only guess at the irreparable loss caused by
earlier excavations which had the basic aim of uncovering Roman levels51.

49 T. Mannoni, La ceramica medievale a Genova e nella Liguria, in Studi

genuensi, 7, 1968-69 (pubi. 1975), p. 24-5. For the breakdown in the supplies of
f inewares from North Africa see J. Hayes, Late Roman Pottery, London, 1972,
p. 414-427, and, most recently C. Panella, Le merci : produzioni, itinerari e destini,
in A. Giardina, ed., Societ romana e impero tardo antico HI : le merci, gli
insediamenti, Rome, 1986, p. 431-459.
50 Cfr. H. Blake, Ceramica paleo-italiana, in Faenza, LXVII, 1981, p. 20-54.
51 As a useful summary of this situation in Italian archaeology see the articles
collected in Archeologia medievale, , 1983, in particular that by B. Ward-Perkins,
La citt altomedievale, p. 111-124.
392 THOMAS S. BROWN ET NEIL J. CHRISTIE

Liguria - Liguria offers an important example as regards the value of

archaeology. This Byzantine province, isolated from the rest of imperial
Italy, resisted the Lombards until its conquest by Rothari in 643.
Although relevant historical sources are scarce and record merely its
capture and its principal centres, nonetheless, these have provided the
springboard for extensive archaeological research, guided principally by
Formentini and Lamboglia : this has involved excavations in the major
coastal centres, above all Ventimiglia, Albenga and Luni, which formed
the backbone to the province, whose survival rested heavily on Byzantine
maritime control and on seaborne links with Rome. This strong naval
aspect is in fact reflected in the evidence for continued importation of
ARS to the rivieras until at least 625 and perhaps beyond 650 until the
African production centres finally broke down52.
For many towns the Byzantine occupation appears to be one of
transition : although Lamboglia first argued that the intense militarisation of
Byzantine Liguria - accelerated by the region's isolation - led to the
abandonment of exposed Roman coastal towns in favour of neighbouring
defensive sites, excavations now suggest that this transfer was a
piecemeal, gradual process of nucleation, and that in many lowland locations
some form of settlement persisted. Certainly, at Ventimiglia the finding
of sculptural elements of an eighth or ninth century church and of late
repairs to houses in the Roman insulae demonstrates significant survival
downhill. The same applies to Vado, whose population was seen as reoc-
cupying the defensive port promontory at Savona. It is likely that these
defensive points initially formed the official military nuclei of the towns,
but rapidly attracted the remaining population53.

52 Fundamental for any study of Byzantine Liguria is U. Formentini, Genova

nel basso Impero e nell'alto medioevo, Milan, 1941, and likewise . Lamboglia,
Topografia storica della Ingaunia nella antichit (Collana delta Liguria occidentale
II, n. 4), Albenga, 1933, p. 97-114. An excellent bibliography appears in G. Balbis,
La Liguria bizantina : una presenza del passato, in Nuova Rivista storica, LXIII,
1979, p. 149-186. Various sites and their excavations are discussed in Archeologia
in Liguria. Scavi e scoperte 1967-75, Genoa, 1976, and Archeologia in Liguria II.
Scavi e scoperte 1976-81, Genoa, 1984.
53 The effects of militarisation on settlement in Byzantine Liguria were first
examined archaeologically by N. Lamboglia, Topografia, p. 97f . Excavations at
Ventimiglia : N. Lamboglia, Gli scavi di Albintimilium e la cronologia della ceramica
romana, Bordighera, 1950; Archeologia in Liguria II, p. 213-7 (with references to
earlier excavation reports here). Savona and Vado : . Lamboglia, Gli scavi nella
fortezza del Priamr negli anni 1969-1971, in Miscellanea di storia savonese, 26,
1978, p. 9-19; Id., Prime conclusioni sugli scavi di Vada Sabatia, in Rivista Inganna e
 WAS THERE A BYZANTINE MODEL OF SETTLEMENT IN ITALY? 393

In contrast, other centres maintained their Roman locations : at Al-

benga this situation was primarily due to the replacement of the part-
demolished republican circuit by town walls built by Constantius in
e. 41554. Luni likewise kept its Roman confines, and was only
abandoned in favour of Sarzana in 1201. Its role as the focus of Ligurian
defence against the Lombards of Tuscany gives the excavations here
special significance. Most important is the evidence from the Forum : this
monumental zone fell into disrepair after the third century, was stripped
of its paving by c. 400 and allowed to be covered by a layer of soil up to
30 cm deep. Only in the Byzantine era was it brought back into use, this
time for scattered habitations : two complete houses were excavated
which partly reused Roman features but otherwise consisted of dry-stone
wall footings or simple timber sides with internal partitions, and beaten
earth or clay floors. Similar dry- or clay-bonded stone houses are also
known at Ventimiglia, Castrum Pertice, and a number of sites beyond the
Po. Such structures are complemented by the presence at Luni of a
series of wells, and cess-and rubbish-pits. These houses stand in marked
contrast to the sophistication of the Cathedral of S. Maria, which
contained in this era rich floral mosaics of probable African influence, and
under the Lombards featured fine sculpted elements55.
The inland defence of Liguria was provided by fortifications drawn
up south of the Appenninic watershed guarding passes and
communication lines. This system has been best examined in the Lunigiana, where
Formentini and Conti have reconstructed the organisation of the fines
Surianensis, based on the castrum of Filattiera. Significantly, recent
excavations here show that the Byzantine fortress lay not on the hill of
S. Giorgio, whose tower was first seen as Byzantine by Formentini, but
rather on Castelvecchio, the seat of a protostoric castellaro : here was
located a "campo trincerato" with double-ditch, cobblestone rampart and

Intemelia, n.s. X, 1955, n. 2, p. 39-41 ; C. Varaldo, Archeologia medievale a Savona.

Dieci anni di ricerche al Priatnr, in Bollettino ligustico, XXVII, 1975, p. 65-78. Cfr.
also Schmiedt, Citt, p. 563-570.
54 N. Lamboglia, La topografia e stratigrafia di Albingaunum dopo gli scavi
1955-1956, in Rivista di studi liguri, XXXVI, 1970, p. 23-62.
55 For Luni, see the excavation reports Aa.Vv. (ed. A. Frova), Scavi di Luni.
Relazione preliminare delle campagne di scavo 1970-1971, Rome, 1973 and Scavi di
Luni IL Relazione delle campagne di scavo 1972-1974, Rome, 1977. The generai
results are summarised in B. Ward-Perkins, Luni, the decline and abandonment of
a Roman town, in Blake et al., Papers (cited at . 2). Forum houses : Id., Two
Byzantine houses at Luni, in Papers of the British School at Rome, XLIX, 1981,
p. 36-48.
394 THOMAS S. BROWN ET NEIL J. CHRISTIE

palisade, but containing no identifiable stone structures and few finds56.

Many other reused castellari can be seen as Byzantine military
adaptations, although only Monte Castellaro (Zignago) has been properly
excavated : here a castellum was identified, consisting of a dry-set circuit wall
enclosing two terraces and a square tower; finds were minimal, and the
pottery, lacking the ARS so well attested along the coast, consisted chiefly
of "ceramica vacuolare". Such sites again demonstrate the ad hoc
nature of the Byzantine defences57.
Although most urban sites persisted, many defensive positions
adopted by the Byzantines were not engulfed in medieval works.
Presumably the strategy involved in their original adoption was abandoned
with the Lombard conquest, when Liguria ceased to oppose an enemy
province 58
Although a few rural settlements extending from the fourth into the
sixth century have been identified, no seventh to tenth century sites are
known in Liguria, and a period of upland shift is assumed, formalised by
the foundation of castelli principally from the eleventh century59.
Duchy of Perugia - The primary function of the duchy of Perugia was
the defence of the via Amerina, the land corridor linking Rome and
Ravenna. The long struggle for control of this passage and the presence of
Lombard duchies to either side ensured a high level of militarisation and
the requirement of a constant military presence, based in heavily-fortified
road-centres. From Procopius' descriptions it is clear that these castra
underlie the medieval towns and overlie the Etruscan oppida : there is,
however, minimal physical trace of the Byzantine occupation.
Bullough's studies of the diocesal confines of Umbria attest the
widespread decay of towns near the borders, particularly in Lombardie terri-

56 Fines Surianensis : U. Formentini, Scavi e ricerche sul limes bizantino, in

Archivio storico per le province parmensi, n.s. XXX, 1930, p. 39-67; P.M. Conti,
Ricerche sull'organizzazione sociale e giuridica della Lunigiana nord-occidentale
nell'alto medioevo, in Memorie dell'Accademia lunigianese di scienze "G. Capellini", 31,
1960, p. 3-165; Id., Luni nell'alto medioevo, Luni 1967. Excavations at Filattiera :
D. Cabona, T. Mannoni & O. Pizzolo, Gli scavi nel complesso medievale di Filattiera,
2 : la collina di Castelvecchio, in Archeologia medievale XI, 1984, p. 243-7.
57 I. F. Cabona, A. Gardini & T. Mannoni, Zignago 1 : gli insediamenti e il
territorio, in Archeologia medievale, V, 1978, p. 273-374.
58 On castelli in Liguria and the process of incastellamento here, cfr. T.
Mannoni, L'esperienza ligure nello studio archeologico dei castelli medievali, in Castelli :
storia e archeologia (Congress at Cuneo, 1978), Turin, 1984, p. 189-204.
59 T. Mannoni, Insediamenti poveri nella Liguria di et romana e bizantina, in
Rivista di studi liguri, XLIX, 1983, p. 254-264, nb. p. 261-4.
 WAS THERE A BYZANTINE MODEL OF SETTLEMENT IN ITALY? 395

tory : for example, the late Roman dioceses of Terni, Bevagna and Spello
were incorporated into the Spoleto diocese, while Plestia, Tadino and
Nocera Umbra were later amalgamated60. This decay is also discernable
in Pope Gregory the Great's rearrangements of imperial bishoprics : the
bishop of Volsinii, though named in the Rome Synods, no longer resided
at Bolsena, but rather at Orvieto; similarly, the seat of Ferentium was
transferred to Bomarzo whose bishop in 649 was denominated Ferentopo-
lymartius, and only in 680 Polymartiensis. The Greek-Latin mixture of
the name suggests either a Byzantine foundation, or a renaming of a
garrison site61.
These moves occurred for a variety of motives, whether
depopulation, exposure to attack, weak defensive capabilities, or enforced
abandonment. In some cases, new castra like Bagnoregio attracted sufficient
population to request the provision of a bishop. This should demonstrate
official policy in border territories, whereby the threatened population
was encouraged (if encouragement was needed) to transfer to local
garrison centres. Often this transfer consolidated an earlier trend of gradual
movement away from the open countryside and from exposed towns :
such appears the case with Bolsena, and indeed with Falerii Novi, whose
fortified location beside the via Amerina was abandoned in favour of the
former oppidum of Falerii Veteres (Civit Castellana)62.
Duchy of Rome - A similar settlement pattern is discernible in the
border territories of the Duchy of Rome, where there is notable reoccu-
pation of Etruscan oppida locations. This is especially apparent in the
Viterbese, on the west flank of the Duchy, where military fortresses were
raised on the tufa spurs of San Giovenale and Luni sul Mignone to
supplement road-centres like Bieda and Norchia which were revitalised in
this epoch.
Nonetheless, the results of the South Etruria Survey demonstrate
that the period of Byzantine rule and of Byzantine-Lombard conflict did
not wholly overturn the classical patterns of settlement. This is best
illustrated in the marked contrast between the modes of settlement in the

60 D. Bullough, La via Flaminia nella storia dell'Umbria (600-1100), in Atti del

III Convegno di studi umbri (Gubbio 1965), 1966, p. 211-233.
61 A useful summary of the policy of Gregory the Great appears in J.
Richards, Consul of God: The Life and Times of Gregory the Great, London, 1980, nb.
chapter 6. Ferentopoly martins : cfr. Bavant (cited at n. 1), p. 80-1 ; and Schneider,
Entstehung (cited at n. 45), p. 30, 32.
62 Bagnoregio: Gregory I, Registrum X, 13. Falerii Veteres: Schmiedt, Citt,
p. 589.
396 THOMAS S. BROWN ET NEIL J. CHRISTIE

Ager Faliscus, the northernmost zone surveyed, and the Ager Veientanus
to the south. In the Ager Faliscus a transfer from exposed villas to
defensive promontories probably took place between the early seventh
and eighth centuries : occupation of the latter sites is first documented by
the presence of Forum Ware, a distinctive green-glazed ceramic
produced at Rome63.
Recently Potter and Whitehouse proposed, on the basis of White-
house's revised chronology for Forum Ware, that these promontory
settlements operated as "strategic hamlets" in the frontier zone of the Rome
Duchy from the later sixth century64. There are a number of faults with
this hypothesis. Firstly, in the light of recent excavations, Forum Ware
should date from the mid-eighth century, as Whitehouse himself
original y argued. Secondly, excavations in the promontory sites of Castel Por-
ciano, Mazzano Romano and Ponte Nepesino revealed Forum Ware alone
in the earliest levels; indeed, the finding of ARS at some villas argues
against a major disruption of the Roman settlement mode at this time.
Thirdly, and most importantly, the region did not properly form a "
frontier zone " : the Ager Faliscus certainly saw much devastation in the 580s
and 590s when the Lombards directly threatened Rome and deprived her
of her northern communications, but this is equally valid for the Ager
Veientanus, then as indeed in the Gothic War. The region did not lie in
direct contact with the northern confine of the Duchy in the late sixth
century, but rather was buffered by a number of castra and their territo-
ria. To the south, this buffer, and the immediate proximity of the Rome
garrison, gave even greater protection to the Ager Veientanus, where in
general open classical farming persisted beyond the rise of the domuscul-
tae, breaking up only after the Arab invasions, if not later65.

63 South Etruria survey : cfr. Potter, The Changing Landscape (cited at n. 14)
nb. p. 138f.
64 Whitehouse & Potter, The Byzantine frontier (cited at n. 15), p. 206-210.
65 For the controversy over the dating of Forum Ware : D. Whitehouse, in
J. Hurst et al., Red-painted and glazed pottery in Western Europe from the eighth to
the twelfth century, in Medieval Archaeology, XIII, 1969, p. 93-147; Idem, The
medieval pottery from Santa Cornelia, in Papers of the British School at Rome, XL VIII,
1980, p. 125-156; with his revised dating, Idem, Forum Ware Again, in Medieval
Ceramics, 4, 1980, p. 13-6. New dating evidence, however, has come from the
Crypta Balbi excavations in Rome : Archeologia urbana a Roma : il progetto della
Crypta Balbi. 3. Il giardino del Conservatorio di S. Caterina della Rosa, Florence,
1985, nb. p. 206-224. For Forum Ware and castelli : T. Potter, Recenti ricerche in
Etruria meridionale : problemi della trasizione dal tardo antico all'alto medioevo, in
Archeologia medievale, II, 1975, p. 215-236; D. Whitehouse, Sedi medievali nella
 WAS THERE A BYZANTINE MODEL OF SETTLEMENT IN ITALY? 397

However, documented Lombard encroachments upon the Duchy in

the 720s (in particular the loss of the territory of Sutri, and of the Narni-
Otricoli sector) brought the Sutri-Nepi-Civita Castellana zone under
intense pressure (leading to the dispute over Gallese, Rome's military aid to
Spoleto, and Liutprand's offensives in 738-9) and will have greatly
disturbed settlement in the Ager Faliscus66. Although we should assume
some use (unidentified archaeologically) of some of the promontories in
the seventh century, perhaps as refuges, it is likely that the eighth
century insecurity prompted occupation of most promontory sites and that
in some cases military functions were assigned to them by Rome (for
example, in defence of possible penetration routes such as the river
Treia). This idea was first proposed by Brown, who termed such sites
"strategic hamlets". Potter and Whitehouse have wrongly applied this to
all early nucleations in South Etruria, ignoring Brown's proviso that the
model is more applicable to sites close to access routes than elsewhere,
and that some peasants preferred to seek refuge in sites away from a
military presence67. Significant in this respect is the secluded siting of
many promontories below the level of the surrounding countryside and
away from major roads, and their late designation as castelli. However,
a clear example of a "strategic hamlet" is Ponte Nepesino, which
guarded a river-crossing of the via Amerina south of Nepi, and where
excavations uncovered Forum Ware in its earliest levels, thus
recommending eighth century occupation. Such road-guards undoubtedly
played a vital role in the border defence68.
Although it seems clear that the early emergence of nucleated, defen-

Campagna romana, in Quaderni storici, 24, 1973, p. 861-876; and, most recently,
N. Christie, Forum Ware, the Duchy of Rome and incastellamento : problems in
interpretation, in Archeologia medievale, XIV, 1987, p. 451-466.
66 Lombard expansion : 0. Bertolini, Roma di fronte a Bisanzio e ai
Longobardi, in Storia di Roma, vol. IX, Bologna, 1947, nb. p. 435f ; Id., Le relazioni politiche
di Roma con i ducati di Spoleto e di Benevento nel periodo del dominio longobardo,
in Atti del I Congresso internazionale di studi longobardi, Spoleto, 1951, p. 37-49;
Bavavant, Le duch byzantin (cited at . 1), p. 7 If.
67 Brown, Settlement, p. 329-330.
68 Ponte Nepesino : F. Cameron et al., // Castello di Ponte Nepesino e il confine
settentrionale del ducato di Roma, in Archeologia medievale, XI, 1984, p. 63-147.
Excavations have also occurred at Castel Porziano : M. Mallett, D. Whitehouse,
Costei Porziano : an abandoned medieval village of the Roman Campagna, in Papers
of the British School at Rome, XXXV, 1967, p. 113-146; and at Mazzano Romano :
T. Potter, Excavations in the medieval centre of Mazzano Romano, in PBSR, XL,
1972, p. 135-145.
398 THOMAS S. BROWN ET NEIL J. CHRISTIE

sive sites in the Ager Faliscus came in response to insecurity provoked by

Lombard aggression, the absence of adequate documentary and
archaeological evidence prevents us from identifying the exact nature of these
early nucleations : we cannot be certain how many were strongholds
directly designed to counter the Lombard threat, how many arose in the
eighth century as units in the power-struggle between the papal
bureaucracy and the landed military aristocracy represented by local
commanders like duke Toto of Nepi who controlled key positions in the territorial
administration of the Duchy of Rome69, or indeed how many formed
natural refuges for peasants. Whatever the case, we may argue that these
early nucleations owed far more to matters of security and defence than
those castelli created by the process of incastellamento, which in the
tenth and eleventh centuries radically altered the nature of settlement in
the Ager Veientanus. The degree to which this pattern of settlement
change is applicable to other Byzantine territories will only emerge with
further systematic historical and archaeological research.

The following conclusions can be derived from our studies :

1 . Although there are certain parallels with imperial practice in
Africa and the East, the system of military fortifications and state-directed
settlement in Byzantine Italy was for the most part a pragmatic, ad hoc
response to local conditions and needs rather than the result of direct
borrowings or a common master-plan.
2. As a result of this practical approach and a general lack of
resources, Byzantine techniques and choice of sites show a high level of
continuity with the Late Roman period, and also differ little from
medieval practice.
3. Official policy and Byzantine military tactics were important
factors in the location and foundation of a wide variety of castra, ranging
from small garrison posts to major settlement and refuge centres.
4. Patterns of settlement in many areas of Byzantine Italy,
particularly on the frontiers, were certainly affected by defensive
considerations; however, full allowance must always be made for regional varia-

69 Brown, Gentlemen, p. 205-220; Christie, Forum Ware (cited at n. 65),

p. 461-3.
 WAS THERE A BYZANTINE MODEL OF SETTLEMENT IN ITALY ? 399

tions, local political developments and non-military economic and social

pressures.
5. In general, a complex pattern of urban life continued, despite
some contraction compared with the Roman period and changes such as
the rise of the military element at the expense of civilian institutions and
social groups. Here we believe that the contrast lies less with Lombard
areas as a whole than with insecure frontier areas and those regions
where official administration was relatively weak.
6. We do not consider that there was a specific " Byzantine model of
settlement" in the sense of the setting up of rigid lines of fortifications or
the importation of "ready-made" institutions such as beni militari. Yet
the general insecurity of the period created by the threat of Lombard
incursions, which was as serious in the eighth century as in the late sixth,
and, more importantly, the existence of a professional military elite and a
strong centralized administration helped create a pattern quite distinct
from Lombard Italy. While in some cases the Byzantine presence helped
preserve Roman structures, in others it led to the creation of new
settlement centres which were the result of state initiative and remained under
public rather than private authority. In Byzantine Italy both change and
continuity could represent sides of the same coin, namely a strong
administration intervening in settlement policy for reasons of defence and
taxation.

Thomas S. Brown
Neil J. Christie