Southern Italy and the Eastern and Western empires, c.900–1050

Abstract

The Byzantine Empire ruled parts of southern Italy throughout the early Middle Ages, but this region was usually, and inevitably, quite low on the imperial government's scale of priorities. This situation changed during the mid-tenth century, and one factor causing this was the arrival in Italy of the Ottonian rulers of Germany (emperors after 962), who posed both an ideological and a military threat to Byzantine rule. Otto I and his son were far more concerned than is often credited with southern Italy, and both made significant attempts to invade the Byzantine provinces. However, while subsequently Western imperial interest in the region never disappeared, southern Italy became much less important for the German emperors during the eleventh century. Thus Byzantine Italy was if anything more secure on the eve of the Norman arrival in the south than it had been previously.