Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries.

Abstract

This study explores the land, political structures and cultures of southern Italy in the two centuries before the Norman conquests. This was a pan-Mediterranean society, where the Roman past and Lombard-Germanic culture met and Islamic civilization, creating a rich and unusual mix. Although earlier scholarship has divided the area into distinct and Lombard spheres, Kreutz contends that this model is inadequate. While there was nominal political dominance of specific cities or regions, Kreutz argues that actual control was often weak or illusory. A supposedly Byzantine city like Amalfi was likely to have closer ties to the Lombard principality of Salerno than either had to any outside power. Moreover, Kreutz shows sociocultural trends washing across southern Italy with little regard for political boundaries. Drawing on a wide range of sources, this study places particular emphasis on the independent states of Benevento, Capua and Salerno, Naples and Amalfi. The text demonstrates how the economic and political developments within these states - and throughout southern Italy - would later prove significant for the Norman regime.