atlas will show. Then, under Constans II (641-668), there was a new administrative division of the Empire. According to this, the old provinces of Calabria, Apulia, and Bruttii (the toe of Italy) were united as "Calabria." Soon after 671 Romuald, Duke of Beneventum, seized the greater part of this land, leaving the Empire not much more than Bruttii. So this remained as Calabria. It is so still. In this way the name Calabria has changed from the heel of Italy to the toe.[1]
Even before the conquests of Basil II the old Theme of Italy had become the two Themes of Lombardy (capital Barium) and Calabria (capital Rhegium).[2] The Theme of Lombardy (not to be confused with the Lombardy of the North)[3] remained as a memory of the long Lombard occupation of that province. Besides these Themes three cities, Naples, Caieta, and Amalfi, were outlying imperial territory.
After Barium had been conquered back from the Saracens, Basil II fixed this city as the centre of the whole government in Italy. Here the Catapan[4] ruled in his master's name.
- ↑ The present Calabria was first "Calabria Bruttia," then simply "Calabria." The story of this change of name is told at length by M. Schipa, "La Migrazione del nome Calabria" in the Archivio storico per le provincie napoletane, Naples, 1895, p. 23 seq.
- ↑ This is so from the time of Nikephoros Phokas (963-969). The Theme of Lombardy kept the name Italy. Its inhabitants were mostly Latins (including the Lombards). Distinct from "Italy" was Calabria, including Sicily, where the people were mostly Greek. So we hear of "Italy and Calabria" (e.g., in the "Life of St Neilos," 45 (P.G. cxx, col. 85). At first each Theme was governed by an Imperial Strategos. Then, from the end of the tenth century, the Catapan governs both. See Gustave Schlumberger, "Un Empereur byzantin au dixième siècle, Nicéphore Phocas" (Paris, 1890), p. 591 seq. The frontispiece of his other work, "L'Épopée byzantine à la fin du dixième siècle" (Paris, 3 vols., 1896-1905), is a map of the Empire, showing the Themes of Lombardy and Calabria.
- ↑ The Greeks distinguished between Λομβαρδία (the old Northern kingdom of Lombardy) and Λογγιβαρδία (their Theme in the South); see Freeman, "Historical Geography of Europe" (3rd edition by J. B. Bury, Longmans, 1903), p. 371, note. Nilos Doxopatres (p. 93) calls the Southern Theme ἡ Λομβαρδία καὶ ἡ νῦν λεγομένη Λογγιβαρδία (ed. Parthey, p. 270).
- ↑ The title Catapan (Catapanus) is a curious one, which has caused some discussion. Formerly it was said that it meant κατὰ πᾶν ("for all"). So Rodotà, "Rito greco in Italia," i, 32. It seems, however, to be ὁ κατ’ ἐπάνω ("the one above") (J. Gay, "L'Italie mérid. et L'Emp. byz.," p. 348). William of Apulia (c. 1085) defines the name, "Quod Catapan Græci, nos 'iuxta' dicimus 'omne'" ("Histor. Poema de rebus Norman."; Muratori, "Rerum Ital. Script.," v, 254, B.). This office came to an end at the Norman Conquest. The last Catapan was Exaugustus, expelled from Bari by the Normans
