Book contents
- Byzantium, Venice and the Medieval Adriatic
- British School at Athens Studies in Greek Antiquity
- Byzantium, Venice and the Medieval Adriatic
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Citation, Transliteration, Names, Titles and Dates
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1 The Adriatic Sea 500–1100
- 2 Thinking of Linking
- 3 A Winter Sea?
- 4 The Origins of Venice
- 5 The Northern Adriatic Area between the Eighth and the Ninth Century
- 6 Provincia Iadrensis
- 7 Ravenna and Other Early Rivals of Venice
- 8 Byzantine Apulia
- 9 From One Coast to Another and Beyond
- 10 Icons in the Adriatic before the Sack of Constantinople in 1204
- 11 The Rise of the Adriatic in the Age of the Crusades
- 12 Venice in the Twelfth Century
- 13 Venice, the Ionian Sea and the Southern Adriatic after the Fourth Crusade
- 14 Sea Power and the Evolution of Venetian Crusading
- 15 Reassessing the Venetian Presence in the Late Medieval Eastern Adriatic
- 16 ‘Strangers in the City?’
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
3 - A Winter Sea?
Exchange and Power at the Ebbing of the Adriatic Connection 600–800
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 March 2021
Edited by
Book contents
- Byzantium, Venice and the Medieval Adriatic
- British School at Athens Studies in Greek Antiquity
- Byzantium, Venice and the Medieval Adriatic
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Citation, Transliteration, Names, Titles and Dates
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1 The Adriatic Sea 500–1100
- 2 Thinking of Linking
- 3 A Winter Sea?
- 4 The Origins of Venice
- 5 The Northern Adriatic Area between the Eighth and the Ninth Century
- 6 Provincia Iadrensis
- 7 Ravenna and Other Early Rivals of Venice
- 8 Byzantine Apulia
- 9 From One Coast to Another and Beyond
- 10 Icons in the Adriatic before the Sack of Constantinople in 1204
- 11 The Rise of the Adriatic in the Age of the Crusades
- 12 Venice in the Twelfth Century
- 13 Venice, the Ionian Sea and the Southern Adriatic after the Fourth Crusade
- 14 Sea Power and the Evolution of Venetian Crusading
- 15 Reassessing the Venetian Presence in the Late Medieval Eastern Adriatic
- 16 ‘Strangers in the City?’
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
The article explores the role of the Adriatic seaborne exchange in the crucial seventh and eighth centuries. Against the backdrop of the historical narrative, which saw the year 700 as the low point of Adriatic exchange, the author proposes an alternative picture, mostly relying on the recent excavation in Comacchio, together with a reassessment of literary evidence. The article suggests that 700 represented an adjustment in the relations between the Byzantine fringes of the Adriatic and the imperial centre rather than a rupture in seaborne communication. Although relying on imperial identities and conceptions of authority, local aristocracies became growingly independent and increasingly defiant toward the authority of Constantinople. In the eight century, episodes such as the 727 rebellions or the 751 conquest of Ravenna, progressively worsened the relationship between the Adriatic towns and Constantinople until the final break. This was the premise to the rise of Venice and the other Adriatic towns.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Byzantium, Venice and the Medieval AdriaticSpheres of Maritime Power and Influence, c. 700-1453, pp. 83 - 97Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
References
Agathias of Myrina. Historiae, in Keydell, R. (ed.), Agathiae Myrinaei Historiarum libri quinque, Corpus fontium historiae Byzantinae 2 (Berlin, 1967).Google Scholar
Agnellus of Ravenna. Liber pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis, in Deliyannis, D. (ed.), Corpus Christianorum continuatio mediaevalis, vol. 199 (Turnhout, 2006).Google Scholar
Ahistulphi leges, in Bluhme, W. (ed.), MGH Leges nationum Germanicarum, vol. 4 (Hanover, 1868), 478–85.Google Scholar
Annales regni Francorum, in Kurze, F. (ed.), MGH Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, vol. 6 (Hanover, 1895).Google Scholar
Augenti, A. and Cirelli, E. 2012. ‘From suburb to port: The rise (and fall) of Classe as a centre of trade and redistribution’, in Keay, S. (ed.), Rome, Portus and the Mediterranean (London and Rome), 205–21.Google Scholar
Bavant, B. 2004. ‘L’Illyricum’, in Morrisson, C. (ed.), Le monde byzantine, vol. 1, L’Empire romain d’Orient (330–641) (Paris), 307–51.Google Scholar
Borri, F. 2005. ‘Duces e magistri militum nell’Italia esarcale (VI–VIII secolo)’, Reti medievali 6/2, 19–64.Google Scholar
Borri, F. 2009. ‘La Dalmazia altomedievale tra discontinuità e racconto storico (secc. VII–VIII)’, Studi veneziani n.s. 58, 15–51.Google Scholar
Brandes, W. 2002. Finanzverwaltung in Krisenzeit: Untersuchungen zur byzantinischen Administration im 6.–9. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt).Google Scholar
Brandes, W. 2005. ‘Pejorative Phantomnamen im 8. Jahrhundert: Ein Beitrag zur Quellenkritik des Theophanes’, in Hoffmann, L.M. and Monchizadeh, A. (eds.), Zwischen Polis, Provinz und Peripherie: Beiträge zur byzantinischen Geschichte und Kultur (Wiesbaden), 93–125.Google Scholar
Brown, T.S. 1979. ‘The Church of Ravenna and the imperial administration in the seventh century’, The English Historical Review 94, 1–28.Google Scholar
Brown, T.S. 1992. ‘Otranto in Medieval history’, in Michaelides, D. and Wilkinson, D. (eds.), Excavations at Otranto, vol. 1, The Excavation (Lecce), 27–39.Google Scholar
Brubaker, L. and Haldon, J. 2011. Byzantium in the Iconoclastic Era, c.680–850: A History (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Budak, N. 2018. ‘One more Renaissance? Dalmatia and the revival of European economy’, in Ančić, M., Vedriš, T. and Shepard, J. (eds.), Imperial Spheres and the Adriatic: Byzantium, the Carolingians and the Treaty of Aachen (New York and London), 174–91.Google Scholar
Codex Carolinus, in Gundlach, W. (ed.), MGH Epistolae, vol. 3 (Berlin, 1892), 469–657.Google Scholar
Conant, J. 2012. Staying Roman: Conquest and Identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 439–700 (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Constantine IV. Sacra ad Donum, in Riedinger, R. (ed.), Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum II, vol. 1 (Berlin, 1990), 2–10.Google Scholar
Constantine Porphyrogennetos. De administrando imperio, in Moravcsik, G. and Jenkins, R.J.H. (eds.), Constantine Porphyrogenitus. De administrando imperio (Washington, DC, 1967).Google Scholar
Cosentino, S. 2006. ‘Politica e fiscalità nell’Italia bizantina (secc. VI–VIII)’, in Augenti, A. (ed.), Le città italiane tra la tarda Antichità e l’alto Medioevo. Atti del Convegno, Ravenna, 26–28 febbraio 2004 (Florence), 37–53.Google Scholar
Cosentino, S. 2008a. ‘Constans II and the Byzantine navy’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 100/2, 577–603.Google Scholar
Cosentino, S. 2008b. Storia dell’Italia bizantina (VI–XI secolo): Da Giustiniano ai Normanni (Bologna).Google Scholar
Cosentino, S. 2012. ‘Potere e autorità nell’esarcato in età post-bizantina’, in Martin, J.-M., Peters-Custot, A. and Prigent, V. (eds.), L’héritage byzantin en Italie (VIIIe–XIIe siècle), vol. 2, Les cadres juridiques et sociaux et les institutions publiques, Collection de l’École française de Rome 461 (Rome), 279–95.Google Scholar
De Min, M. 2003. ‘Edilizia ecclesiale e domestica altomedievale nel territorio lagunare: Nuovi dati conoscitivi da indagini archeologiche nel cantiere di restauro a Torcello’, in Lenzi, F. (ed.), L’archeologia dell’Adriatico dalla Preistoria al Medioevo, Atti del Convegno internazionale, Ravenna, 7–9 giugno 2001 (Florence), 600–15.Google Scholar
Delogu, P. 2012. ‘Questioni di mare e di costa’, in Gelichi, S. and Hodges, R. (eds.), From One Sea to Another: Trading Places in the European and Mediterranean Early Middle Ages. Proceedings of the International Conference, Comacchio, 27th–29th March 2009 (Turnhout), 459–66.Google Scholar
Diplomata Karolinorum, in Dopsch, A., Lechner, J. and Tangl, M. (eds.), MGH Diplomata, vol. 1 (Hanover, 1906).Google Scholar
Dzino, D. 2010. Becoming Slav, Becoming Croat: Identity Transformations in Post-Roman and Early Medieval Dalmatia (Leiden and Boston).Google Scholar
Epistolae Austrasicae, in Malaspina, E. (ed.), Il liber epistolarum della cancelleria Austrasica (sec. V–VI) (Rome, 2001).Google Scholar
Epistolae Langobardicae collectae, in Gundlach, W. (ed.), MGH Epistolae, vol. 3 (Berlin, 1892), 691–718.Google Scholar
Falkenhausen, V. von 2007. ‘Tra Occidente e Oriente: Otranto in epoca bizantina’, in Houben, H. (ed.), Otranto nel Medioevo tra Bisanzio e l’Occidente (Galatina), 13–60.Google Scholar
Gasparri, S. 2011. ‘Anno 713: La leggenda di Paulicio e le origini di Venezia’, in Israel, U. (ed.), Venezia: I giorni della storia (Rome), 27–45.Google Scholar
Gasparri, S. 2015. ‘Un placito carolingio e la storia di Comacchio’, in Jégou, L., Joye, S., Lienhard, T. and Schneider, J. (eds.), Faire lien: Aristocratie, réseaux et échanges compétitifs. Mélanges en l’honneur de Régine Le Jan (Paris), 179–89.Google Scholar
Gasparri, S. 2017a. Voci dai secoli oscuri. Un percorso nelle fonti dell’alto Medioevo (Rome).Google Scholar
Gasparri, S. 2017b, ‘The first dukes and the origins of Venice’, in Gasparri, S. and Gelichi, S. (eds.), Venice and Its Neighbors from the 8th to 11th Century: Through Renovation and Continuity (Leiden and Boston), 5–26.Google Scholar
Gelichi, S., Calaon, D., Grandi, E. and Negrelli, C. 2012. ‘The history of a forgotten town: Comacchio and its archaeology’, in Gelichi, S. and Hodges, R. (eds.), From One Sea to Another: Trading Places in the European and Mediterranean Early Middle Ages. Proceedings of the International Conference, Comacchio, 27th–29th March 2009 (Turnhout), 169–205.Google Scholar
Gkoutzioukostas, A. 2012–13. ‘The prefect of Illyricum and the prefect of Thessaloniki’, Βυζαντιακά 30, 45–80.Google Scholar
Gregory the Great. Epistolae, in Ewald, P. and Hartmann, L.M. (eds.), MGH Epistolae, vols. 1–2 (Berlin, 1891–9).Google Scholar
Gutteridge, A. 2003. ‘Cultural geographies and “the ambition of Latin Europe”: The city of Durrës and its fortifications c.400–c.1500’, Archeologia medievale 30, 19–65.Google Scholar
Haldon, J. 1999. Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World: 565–1204 (London).Google Scholar
Haldon, J. 2016. The Empire That Would Not Die: The Paradox of Eastern Roman Survival, 640–740 (Cambridge, Mass.).Google Scholar
Hartmann, L.M. (ed.) 1904. Zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte Italiens im frühen Mittelalter (Gotha).Google Scholar
Haywood, J. 1991. Dark Ages Naval Power: A Reassessment of Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Seafaring Activity (London and New York).Google Scholar
Herren, M. (ed.) 2011. The Cosmography of Aethicus Ister: Edition, Translation, and Commentary (Turnhout).Google Scholar
Herrin, J. 1992. ‘Constantinople, Rome and the Franks in the seventh and eighth centuries’, in Shepard, J. and Franklin, S. (eds.), Byzantine Diplomacy, Papers from the Twenty-Fourth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Cambridge, March 1990, Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies Publications 1 (Aldershot), 91–107.Google Scholar
Horden, P. and Purcell, N. 2000. The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History (Oxford and Malden).Google Scholar
John of Biclaro. Chronicon, in Campos, J. (ed.), Juan de Bíclaro, obispo de Gerona; Su vida y su obra. Edición crítica (Madrid, 1960).Google Scholar
Jones, A.H.M., Martindale, J.R. and Morris, J. (eds.) 1992. The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. 3, A.D. 527–641 (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Justinian II. Sacra ad Cononem, in Riedinger, R. (ed.), Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum II, vol. 2 (Berlin, 1992), 886.Google Scholar
Kingsley, S. 2009. ‘Mapping trade by shipwrecks’, in Mundell Mango, M. (ed.), Byzantine Trade 4th–12th centuries: The Archaeology of Local, Regional and International Exchange. Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies Publications 14 (Aldershot), 31–6.Google Scholar
Leontios. Vita Ioannis, in Festugière, A.J. and Rydén, L. (eds.), Léontios de Néapolis: Vie de Syméon le Fou et Vie de Jean de Chypre (Paris, 1974), 251–681.Google Scholar
Liber pontificalis, in Duchesne, L. (ed.), Le Liber pontificalis: Texte, introduction et commentaire, vol. 1 (Paris, 1886).Google Scholar
Lilie, R.-J., Ludwig, C., Pratsch, T., Rochow, I. and Zielke, B. (eds.) 1999–2002. Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit (641–867), 6 vols. (Berlin).Google Scholar
Margetić, L. 1997. ‘Marcellinus scolasticus e proconsul Dalmatiae’, Atti. Centro di ricerche storiche Rovigno 27, 471–81.Google Scholar
McCormick, M. 2001. Origins of the European Economy: Communication and Commerce ad 300–900 (Cambridge).Google Scholar
McCormick, M. 2012. ‘Comparing and connecting: Comacchio and the early medieval trading towns’, in Gelichi, S. and Hodges, R. (eds.), From One Sea to Another: Trading Places in the European and Mediterranean Early Middle Ages. Proceedings of the International Conference, Comacchio, 27th–29th March 2009 (Turnhout), 477–502.Google Scholar
McGeer, E., Nesbitt, J. and Oikonomides, N. (eds.) 2005. Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, vol. 5, The East (Continued), Constantinople and Environs, Unknown Locations, Addenda, Uncertain Readings (Washington, DC).Google Scholar
Menander Protector. Historia, in Blockley, R.C. (ed.), The History of Menander the Guardsman: Introductory Essay, Text, Translation and Historiographical Notes (Liverpool, 1985).Google Scholar
Miracula s. Demetrii, in Lemerle, P. (ed.), Le plus anciens recueils des miracles de saint Démétrius et la pénétration des Slaves dans les Balkans, 2 vols. (Paris, 1979–81).Google Scholar
Negrelli, C. 2012. ‘Towards a definition of Early Medieval pottery: Amphorae and other vessels in the northern Adriatic between the 7th and the 8th centuries’, in Gelichi, S. and Hodges, R. (eds.), From One Sea to Another: Trading Places in the European and Mediterranean Early Middle Ages. Proceedings of the International Conference, Comacchio, 27th–29th March 2009 (Turnhout), 393–415.Google Scholar
Origo gentis Langobardorum, in Waitz, G. (ed.), MGH Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum (Hanover, 1878), 1–6.Google Scholar
Pactum Hlotharii I, in Boretius, A. and Krause, V. (eds.), MGH Capitularia regum Francorum, vol. 2 (Hanover, 1897).Google Scholar
Paul the Deacon. Historia Langobardorum, in Bethmann, L. and Waitz, G. (eds.), MGH Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI–IX (Hanover, 1878), 12–187.Google Scholar
Pillon, M. 2005. ‘Armée et défense de l’Illyricum byzantin de Justinien à Héraclius (527–641): De la réorganisation justinienne à l’émergence des “Armées de Cité”’, Erytheia 26, 7–85.Google Scholar
Placitum Risani, in Krahwinkler, H. (ed.), In loco qui dicitur Rizano: Die Versammlung in Rižana/Risano bei Koper/Capodistria im Jahre 804 (Koper, 2004).Google Scholar
Prigent, V. 2008. ‘Notes sur l’évolution de l’administration byzantine en Adriatique (VIIIe–IXe siècle)’, Mélanges de l’École française de Rome. Moyen Âge 120/2 = Les destinées de l’Illyricum méridional pendant le haut Moyen Âge, 393–417.Google Scholar
Radić Rossi, I. (ed.) 2006. Archeologia subacquea in Croazia: Studi e ricerche (Venice).Google Scholar
Saguì, L. 2002. ‘Roma, i centri privilegiati e la lunga durata della tarda Antichità: Dati archeologici dal deposito di VII secolo nell’esedra della Crypta Balbi’, Archeologia medievale 29, 7–42.Google Scholar
Stein, E. 1925. ‘Untersuchungen zur spätrömischen Verwaltungsgeschichte’, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 74/4, 347–94.Google Scholar
Stein, E. 1949. Histoire du Bas-Empire, vol. 2, De la disparition de l’Empire d’Occident à la mort de Justinien (476–565) (Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam).Google Scholar
Šeparović, T. 2008. ‘Coin finds of Emperor Constantine V Copronymus in southern Croatia’, in Wołoszyn, M. (ed.), Byzantine Coins in Central Europe between the 5th and the 10th Century (Krakow), 553–60.Google Scholar
Wickham, C. 2005. Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400–800 (Oxford).Google Scholar
Wickham, C. 2012. ‘Comacchio and the central Mediterranean’, in Gelichi, S. and Hodges, R. (eds.), From One Sea to Another: Trading Places in the European and Mediterranean Early Middle Ages. Proceedings of the International Conference, Comacchio, 27th–29th March 2009 (Turnhout), 503–10.Google Scholar
Wood, I. 2000. ‘Aethicus Ister: An exercise in difference’, in Pohl, W. and Reimitz, H. (eds.), Grenze und Differenz im frühen Mittelalter (Vienna), 197–208.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, C. 2005. ‘Learning from the enemy and more: Studies in “dark centuries” Byzantium’, Millennium 2, 79–136.Google Scholar
Živković, T. 2008. ‘The strategos Paul and the archontes of the westerners’, Βυζαντινά σύμμεικτα 15, 161–76.Google Scholar