World Timelines - Italy - AD 476-800 Early medieval

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Map of Italy - AD 476-800 Early medieval


The Latin language in Italy after AD 476	The arrival of the Lombards	Byzantine Italy	The Ostrogothic kingdom

Events

AD 477

Odoacer, king of Rome, takes Sicily from the Vandals

AD 488

The eastern emperor Zeno sends Theodoric the Great and the Ostrogoths against Odoacer

AD 490

Siege of Ravenna

AD 493

Theodoric takes Ravenna and kills Odoacer

AD 526

Pope John I is imprisoned by Theoderic as a supporter of the eastern emperor and dies of neglect

AD 526

Death of Theodoric the Great; Amalasuntha becomes Queen Regent

AD 529

Benedict of Nursia, founder of western monasticism, establishes a monastery at Monte Cassino

AD 534

Threatened by conspiracies among the Gothic elite, Amalasuntha, negotiates with the emperor Justinian I for refuge

AD 535

Overthrow and murder of Amalasuntha by the Goths

AD 535

Justinian I's general Belisarius begins the conquest of Italy from the Ostrogoths, capturing Sicily

AD 536

Belisarius takes Naples and Rome

AD 540

The Franks attack the Ostrogoths and sack Milan

AD 540

Justinian’s armies under Belisarius take Ravenna, which becomes the Byzantine capital in Italy, and Milan

AD 541

Totila becomes king of the Ostrogoths and restores their power in northern Italy

AD 548

Narses is sent by Justinian to take command of the Byzantine army in Italy

AD 552

Totila killed at Battle of Taginae

AD 553

Final defeat of the Ostrogoths by Narses

AD 554

Narses drives the Ostrogoths' allies, the Franks and Alemanni, back across the Alps

AD 565

Death of emperor Justinian

AD 568

The Lombards under Alboin invade Italy

AD 570

The Lombards create the southern duchies of Spoleto and Benevento

AD 572

Pavia is captured by the Lombards and becomes their capital; Alboin is murdered at Verona in a Lombard plot

AD 584

After 10 years without a king and threatened by a Frankish-Byzantine alliance, the Lombards choose Authari as king

AD 584

Monte Cassino is sacked by the Lombards and the monks retreat to Rome

AD 588

Smaragdus, Byzantine exarch of Ravenna, recovers territory from the Lombards

AD 590

Gregory I the Great becomes pope

AD 592

Lombard dukes threaten Rome and Naples

AD 598

Gregory I negotiates a truce with Agilulf, king of the Lombards

AD 602

Agilulf takes Padua and Mantua from the exarchate of Ravenna

AD 604

Death of Gregory the Great

AD 609

Pope Boniface IV converts the Pantheon into a church

AD 610

The Avars invade Friuli

AD 619

Eleutherius, exarch of Ravenna, proclaims himself emperor but was killed by his own troops while advancing on Rome

AD 643

King Rothari completes the conquest of Genoa and all Byzantine Liguria

AD 653

Pope Martin I is arrested by the exarch and taken to Constantinople

AD 661

Emperor Constans II arrives in Sicily and attacks Benevento, but is repelled by King Grimoald

AD 668

Constans II establishes his court at Syracuse, but is assassinated

AD 668

Mezezius proclaims himself emperor in Syracuse, but is rapidly defeated by Constantine IV

AD 712

Lombards extend kingdom to Ravenna

AD 728

The Lombard king Liutprand makes the 'Donation of Sutri' to Pope Gregory II, consisting of fortified sites in Latium

AD 737

King Liutprand captures Ravenna

AD 740

Byzantine control of Ravenna is restored with help from the Venetians

AD 751

The Lombard King Aistulf captures Ravenna, now permanently lost to the western empire

AD 754

Pope Stephen II travels to Paris to ask the help of King Pepin the Short against the Lombards

AD 756

Pepin invades Italy and awards the territory between Rome and Ravenna to the pope in the 'Donation of Pepin', effectively creating the Papal States

AD 758

Desiderius, king of the Lombards, imposes his authority over Spoleto and Benevento

AD 771

Desiderius invades papal territory

AD 773

Charlemagne conquers the Lombard kingdom and is crowned king

AD 799

Pope Leo III is attacked and deposed by the Roman nobility, fleeing to Charlemagne

AD 800

Charlemagne restores Leo III and is crowned emperor in Rome

Italy

AD 476-800 Early medieval

In the 5th century AD, Italy was the last stronghold of the Western Roman Empire. The capital was at Ravenna but Rome was the home of the Senate which was still influential. It was also the seat of the bishop of Rome (later known as the Pope), the head of the Catholic Church.

In 476, the last western emperor was deposed by Odoacer, a Germanic general who declared himself king. Encouraged by the eastern Byzantine emperor, Zeno (reigned 474-91), Ostrogoths invaded Italy from the Balkans in 489. Their leader Theoderic seized the throne. Theoderic (493-526) provided security and worked with the Roman civil administration. Another eastern emperor, Justinian, decided to reconquer the western provinces. In the following 'Gothic wars' (535-54), Italy was devastated and the Ostrogoths disappeared from the historical record.

A senior Byzantine official (exarch) and the eastern imperial army ruled most of Italy until 568, when the Lombards, from Pannonia (modern Hungary south of the River Danube), conquered much of Italy. In the south, small semi-independent dukedoms and the island of Sicily owed allegiance to different rulers. The Lombard kingdom was finally overcome in 774 by the greatest power in Europe, the Franks, led by Charlemagne. In 800, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo I.

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