Southern Italy in the tenth century
Graham A. Loud
The seventy years before 900 were an era of disorder and continued crisis in southern Italy. government the principality Benevento, which ruled over most south peninsula, was riven by succession disputes led to formal partition 849. Thus, from c. onwards political structures Italy remained, at least outwardly, more or less equilibrium. Indeed 956, when Constantinople able release sufficient troops for a major expedition Italy, first target that offensive apparently Naples. ecclesiastical changes after 970 part general overhaul administrative structure Byzantine expansion Greek population Calabria into heel both lay ecclesiastical. year 982 saw catastrophic eclipse Ottonian influence south.
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