Apulia
Apulia is a region of Italy in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its southernmost portion, known as the Salento peninsula, forms a stiletto on the boot of Italy, the region comprises 19,345 square kilometers, and its population is about 4 million. It is bordered by the other Italian regions of Molise to the north, Campania to the west, across the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, it faces Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro, The Apulia region extends as far north as Monte Gargano. Puglias coastline is longer than any other mainland Italian region, in the north, the Gargano promontory extends out into the Adriatic, while in the south, the flat and dry Salento peninsula forms the heel of Italys boot. It is home to the Alta Murgia and Gargano National Parks, see also, History of Apulia Apulia is one of the richest archaeological regions in Italy. It was first colonized by Mycenaean Greeks, a number of castles were built in the area by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, including Castel del Monte, sometimes called the Crown of Apulia.
After 1282, when the island of Sicily was lost, Apulia was part of the Kingdom of Naples, as a result of the French–Spanish war of 1501–1504, Naples again came under the rule of Aragon and the Spanish Empire from 1504 to 1714. When Barbary pirates of North Africa sacked Vieste in 1554, they took an estimated 7,000 slaves, in 1861 the region became part of the Kingdom of Italy, with the new capital city at Turin. In the words of one historian, Turin was so far away that Otranto is today closer to seventeen foreign capitals than it is to Turin, the regions contribution to Italys gross value added was around 4. 6% in 2000, while its population was 7% of the total. The per capita GDP is low compared to the national average, in comparison with the country as a whole, the economy of Apulia is characterised by a greater emphasis on agriculture and services and a smaller part played by industry. In the last 20 years the base of the regions economy has changed radically. The majority of firms are financed by local capital.
In certain of these sectors – especially textiles, footwear, the region has a good network of roads but the railway network is somewhat inadequate, particularly in the south. Apulias 800 kilometers of coastline is studded with ports, which make this region an important terminal for transport and tourism to Greece, between 2007 and 2013 the economy of Apulia expanded more than that of the rest of southern Italy. Such growth, over decades, is a severe challenge to the hydrogeological system. Emigration from the depressed areas to northern Italy and the rest of Europe was very intense in the years between 1956 and 1971. Subsequently, the trend declined as economic conditions improved, to the point where there was net immigration in the years between 1982 and 1985, since 1986 the stagnation in employment has led to a new inversion of the trend, caused by a decrease in immigration. Since 1 June 2015, former judge and mayor of Bari Michele Emiliano of the Democratic Party has served as President, Apulia is divided into five administrative provinces and one metropolitan city, Cuisine plays an important role throughout Apulia
Salentino dialect
Salentino is a dialect of the Sicilian language spoken in the Salento region. Salentino is a dialect of the Sicilian language, the traditional areas where Salentino is spoken are the aforementioned province of Lecce, much of the southern part of the province of Brindisi, and the southern part of Taranto province. During the Middle Ages, the area was home to both Romance-based dialects - the precursors to the modern Salentino, Salentino vocabulary is a strong derivative of traditional Latin, with some reported French or Spanish influences. Indeed, in common with most other Italian languages, there are no agreed standards for spelling, grammar or pronunciation, with each locality and even generation having its own peculiarities
Hannibal
Hannibal Barca, was a Carthaginian general, considered one of the greatest military commanders in history. His father Hamilcar Barca was the leading Carthaginian commander during the First Punic War and his younger brothers were Mago and Hasdrubal, and he was brother-in-law to Hasdrubal the Fair. One of his most famous achievements was at the outbreak of the Second Punic War, when he marched an army which included war elephants from Iberia over the Pyrenees, Hannibal occupied much of Italy for 15 years but was unable to march on Rome. An enemy counter-invasion of North Africa forced him to return to Carthage, after the war, Hannibal successfully ran for the office of sufet. During this time, he lived at the Seleucid court, where he acted as advisor to Antiochus III the Great in his war against Rome. Antiochus met defeat at the Battle of Magnesia and was forced to accept Romes terms and his flight ended in the court of Bithynia, where he achieved an outstanding naval victory against a fleet from Pergamon.
He was afterwards betrayed to the Romans and committed suicide by poisoning himself, military historian Theodore Ayrault Dodge called Hannibal the father of strategy, because his greatest enemy, came to adopt elements of his military tactics in its own strategic arsenal. This praise has earned him a reputation in the modern world. The English form of the name is derived from the Latin, Greek historians rendered the name as Anníbas Bárkas. Hannibals name was recorded in Carthaginian sources as ḤNBʻL and its precise vocalization remains a matter of debate. Suggested readings include Ḥannibaʻl or Ḥannibaʻal, meaning grace of Baʻal, Baal is gracious, or Baal has been gracious, or Ḥannobaʻal, Barca was the surname of his aristocratic family, meaning shining or lightning. It is thus equivalent to the Arabic name Barq or the Hebrew name Barak or the ancient Greek epithet keraunos, in English, his clan are sometimes collectively known as the Barcids. As with Greek and Roman practice, patronymics were a part of Carthaginian nomenclature.
Hannibal was one of the sons of Hamilcar Barca, a Carthaginian leader and he was born in what is present day Tunisia. He had several sisters and two brothers and Mago and his brothers-in-law were Hasdrubal the Fair and the Numidian king Naravas. He was still a child when his sisters married, and his brothers-in-law were close associates during his fathers struggles in the Mercenary War, in light of Hamilcar Barcas cognomen, historians refer to Hamilcars family as the Barcids. However, there is debate as to whether the cognomen Barca was applied to Hamilcar alone or was hereditary within his family, if the latter and his brothers bore the name Barca. After Carthages defeat in the First Punic War, Hamilcar set out to improve his familys, with that in mind and supported by Gades, Hamilcar began the subjugation of the tribes of the Iberian Peninsula
Martyrs of Otranto
St. Antonio Primaldo and his companion martyrs, known as the Martyrs of Otranto, were 813 inhabitants of the Salentine city of Otranto in southern Italy who were killed on August 14,1480. The mass execution is often explained as taking place after the Otrantins refused to convert to Islam when the city fell to an Ottoman force under Gedik Ahmed Pasha, the Ottoman ambitions in Italy were ended. Had Otranto surrendered to the Turks, the history of Italy might have very different. But the heroism of the people of Otranto was more than a decisive stand. What made the sacrifice of Otranto so remarkable was the willingness to die for the rather than reject Christ. - Matthew Bunson The siege of Otranto -with the martyrdom of the inhabitants- was the last significant military attempt by a Muslim force to conquer southern Italy. The slaughter was remembered by Risorgimento historians as a milestone in European history, the contemporary Turkish historian Ibn Kemal indeed justified the slaughter on religious grounds.
Intimidation, a warning to other not to resist, may have entered the invaders calculations. They were beatified in 1771 and were canonised by Pope Francis on 12 May 2013 and they are the patron saints of the city of Otranto and the Archdiocese of Otranto. The city strongly resisted the Ottoman assaults, but the garrison was unable to resist the bombardment for long, the garrison and all the townsfolk thus abandoned the main part of the city on 29 July, retreating into the citadel whilst the Ottomans began bombarding the neighboring houses. According to an accounts of the story chronicled by Giovanni Laggetto, a second Turkish messenger sent to repeat the offer was slain with arrows and an Otranto guardsman flung the keys of the city into the sea. At this the Ottoman artillery resumed the bombardment, a messenger was dispatched to see if King Ferdinand of Naples could send assistance. As time went on Nearly seven-eights of Otrantos militia slipped over the city walls, the remaining fifty soldiers fought alongside the citizenry dumping boiling oil and water on Turks trying to scale the ramparts between the cannonades.
On 11 August, after a 15-day siege, Gedik Ahmed ordered the final assault, when the walls were breached the Turks began fighting their way through the town. Upon reaching the cathedral they found Archbishop Stefano Agricolo, fully vested, the archbishop was beheaded before the altar, his companions were sawn in half, and their accompanying priests were all murdered. After desecrating the Cathedral, they gathered the women and older children to be sold into Albanian slavery, men over fifteen years old, small children, and infants, were slain. According to some accounts, a total of 12,000 were killed and 5,000 enslaved. Eight hundred able-bodied men were told to convert to Islam or be slain, a tailor named Antonio Primaldi is said to have proclaimed Now it is time for us to fight to save our souls for the Lord
Robert Guiscard
Robert Guiscard was a Norman adventurer remembered for the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily. Robert was born into the Hauteville family in Normandy, went on to become Count of Apulia and Calabria and his sobriquet, in contemporary Latin Viscardus and Old French Viscart, is often rendered the Resourceful, the Cunning, the Wily, the Fox, or the Weasel. In Italian sources he is often Roberto il Guiscardo or Roberto dAltavilla, from 999 to 1042 the Normans in Italy, coming first as pilgrims, were mainly mercenaries serving at various times the Byzantines and a number of Lombard nobles. The first of the independent Norman Lords was Rainulf Drengot who established himself in the fortress of Aversa becoming Count of Aversa, in 1038 there arrived William Iron-Arm and Drogo, the two eldest sons of Tancred of Hauteville, a petty noble of the Cotentin in Normandy. The two joined in the revolt of the Lombards against Byzantine control of Apulia, by 1040 the Byzantines had lost most of that province.
Robert Guiscard was the son of Tancred of Hauteville and eldest by his second wife Fressenda. According to the Byzantine historian Anna Comnena, he left Normandy with only five mounted riders, upon arriving in Langobardia in 1047, he became the chief of a roving robber-band. He was a man of stature, surpassing even the biggest men, he had a ruddy complexion, fair hair, broad shoulders, eyes that all. In a well-built man one looks for breadth here and slimness there, in him all was admirably well-proportioned and elegant. Homer remarked of Achilles that when he shouted his hearers had the impression of a multitude in uproar, but Robert’s bellow, so they say, put tens of thousands to flight. Lands were scarce in Apulia at the time and the roving Guiscard could not expect any grant from Drogo, Guiscard soon joined Prince Pandulf IV of Capua in his ceaseless wars with Prince Guaimar IV of Salerno. The next year, Guiscard left Pandulf, according to Amatus of Montecassino because Pandulf reneged on a promise of a castle, Guiscard returned to his brother Drogo and asked to be granted a fief.
Drogo, who had just finished campaigning in Calabria, gave Guiscard command of the fortress of Scribla, dissatisfied with this position, Guiscard moved to the castle of San Marco Argentano. During his time in Calabria, Guiscard married his first wife, Alberada De Macon and she was the daughter of Reginald I, Count of Burgundy, known as Renaud I De Macon, Baron of Buonalbergo, and Girard of Buonalbergo, and his wife Alice of Normandy. The Lombards turned against their allies, and Pope Leo IX determined to expel the Norman freebooters. His army was defeated, however, at the Battle of Civitate sul Fortore in 1053 by the Normans, Humphrey commanded the centre against the popes Swabian troops. Early in the battle Count Richard of Aversa, commanding the right van, put the Lombards to flight and chased them down, Guiscard had come all the way from Calabria to command the left. Honored for his actions at Civitate, Guiscard succeeded Humphrey as count of Apulia in 1057, in company with Roger, his youngest brother, Guiscard carried on the conquest of Apulia and Calabria, while Richard conquered the principality of Capua
Mehmed the Conqueror
Mehmed II, commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror, was an Ottoman sultan who ruled first for a short time from August 1444 to September 1446, and from February 1451 to May 1481. At the age of 21, he conquered Constantinople and brought an end to the Eastern Roman Empire, Mehmed continued his conquests in Anatolia with its reunification and in Southeast Europe as far west as Bosnia. Mehmed is considered a hero in modern-day Turkey and parts of the wider Muslim world, among other things, Istanbuls Fatih district, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and Fatih Mosque are named after him. Mehmed II was born on 30 March 1432, in Edirne and his father was Sultan Murad II and his mother Hüma Valide Hatun, born in the town of Devrekani, Kastamonu. When Mehmed II was eleven years old he was sent to Amasya to govern and thus gain experience, Sultan Murad II sent a number of teachers for him to study under. This Islamic education had an impact in molding Mehmeds mindset. He was influenced in his practice of Islamic epistemology by practitioners of science - particularly by his mentor, Molla Gürani -, after Murad II made peace with the Karamanids in Anatolia in August 1444, he abdicated the throne to his 12-year-old son Mehmed II.
In Mehmed IIs first reign, he defeated the crusade led by János Hunyadi after the Hungarian incursions into his country broke the conditions of the truce Peace of Szeged. Cardinal Julian Cesarini, the representative of the pope, had convinced the king of Hungary that breaking the truce with Muslims was not a betrayal, at this time Mehmed II asked his father Murad II to reclaim the throne, but Murad II refused. Angry at his father, who had long retired to a contemplative life in southwestern Anatolia, Mehmed II wrote, If you are the Sultan, come. If I am the Sultan I hereby order you to come and it was only after receiving this letter that Murad II led the Ottoman army and won the Battle of Varna in 1444. When Mehmed II ascended the throne again in 1451 he devoted himself to strengthening the Ottoman navy, having completed his fortresses, Mehmed proceeded to levy a toll on ships passing within reach of their cannon. Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the companion and standard bearer of Muhammad, had died during the first Siege of Constantinople, as Mehmed IIs army approached Constantinople, Mehmeds sheikh Akshamsaddin discovered the tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari.
After the conquest, Mehmed built Eyüp Sultan Mosque at the site to emphasize the importance of the conquest to the Islamic world, in early April, the Siege of Constantinople began. At first, the walls held off the Turks, even though Mehmeds army used the new bombard designed by Orban. The harbor of the Golden Horn was blocked by a boom chain, thus the Byzantines stretched their troops over a longer portion of the walls. About a month later, Constantinople fell, on 29 May, after this conquest, Mehmed moved the Ottoman capital from Adrianople to Constantinople. The contemporary scholar George of Trebizond supported his claim, the claim was recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church, but not by the Catholic Church and most of, if not all, Western Europe
Hayreddin Barbarossa
Hayreddin Barbarossa, or Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha, born Khizr or Khidr, was an Ottoman admiral of the fleet who was born in the island of Lesbos and died in Constantinople, the Ottoman capital. Barbarossas naval victories secured Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean during the mid 16th century, Hayreddin was an honorary name given to him by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He became known as Barbarossa in Europe, a name he inherited from his elder brother Oruç Reis after Oruç was killed in a battle with the Spanish in Algeria. Oruç was known as Baba Oruç, which sounded like Barbarossa to the Europeans, and since Oruç did have a red beard, in a process of linguistic reborrowing, the nickname stuck back to Hayreddins native Turkish name, in the form Barbaros. His mother was a widow of a Greek Orthodox priest and his parents were married and had two daughters and four sons, Oruç, Khizr and Ilyas. Yakup took part in the Ottoman conquest of Lesbos in 1462 from the Genoese Gattilusio dynasty and he became an established potter and purchased a boat to trade his products.
The four sons helped their father with his business, but not much is known about the daughters, at first Oruç helped with the boat, while Khizr helped with pottery. All four brothers became seamen, engaged in affairs and international sea trade. The first brother to become involved in seamanship was Oruç, who was joined by his brother Ilyas, obtaining his own ship, Khizr began his career at sea. The brothers initially worked as sailors, but turned privateers in the Mediterranean to counteract the privateering of the Knights Hospitaller who were based in the island of Rhodes, Oruç and Ilyas operated in the Levant, between Anatolia and Egypt. Khizr operated in the Aegean Sea and based his operations mostly in Thessaloniki, the eldest, remained on Mytilene and was involved with the financial affairs of the family business. Oruç was a very successful seaman and he learned to speak Italian, French and Arabic in the early years of his career. While returning from an expedition in Tripoli, with his younger brother Ilyas.
Ilyas was killed in the fight, and Oruç was wounded and their fathers boat was captured, and Oruç was taken as a prisoner and detained in the Knights castle at Bodrum for nearly three years. Upon learning the location of his brother, Khizr went to Bodrum, on his way back to Lesbos, he stopped at Euboea and captured three galleons and another ship. After passing the winter in Cairo, he set sail from Alexandria and frequently operated along the coasts of Liguria, in 1503, Oruç managed to seize three more ships and made the island of Djerba his new base, thus moving his operations to the Western Mediterranean. They were granted this right with the condition of leaving one-third of their gains to the sultan, Oruç, in command of small galliots, captured two much larger Papal galleys near the island of Elba. Later, near Lipari, the two brothers captured a Sicilian warship, the Cavalleria, with 380 Spanish soldiers and 60 Spanish knights from Aragon on board, in 1505, they raided the coasts of Calabria
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea /ˌeɪdriˈætᵻk/ is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula and the Apennine Mountains from the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto to the northwest, the countries with coasts on the Adriatic are Albania and Herzegovina, Greece, Italy and Slovenia. The Adriatic contains over 1,300 islands, mostly located along its eastern, Croatian and it is divided into three basins, the northern being the shallowest and the southern being the deepest, with a maximum depth of 1,233 metres. The Otranto Sill, a ridge, is located at the border between the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. The prevailing currents flow counterclockwise from the Strait of Otranto, along the eastern coast, tidal movements in the Adriatic are slight, although larger amplitudes are known to occur occasionally. The Adriatics salinity is lower than the Mediterraneans because the Adriatic collects a third of the water flowing into the Mediterranean.
The surface water temperatures range from 30 °C in summer to 12 °C in winter. The Adriatic Sea sits on the Apulian or Adriatic Microplate, which separated from the African Plate in the Mesozoic era, the plates movement contributed to the formation of the surrounding mountain chains and Apennine tectonic uplift after its collision with the Eurasian plate. In the Late Oligocene, the Apennine Peninsula first formed, separating the Adriatic Basin from the rest of the Mediterranean, all types of sediment are found in the Adriatic, with the bulk of the material transported by the Po and other rivers on the western coast. The western coast is alluvial or terraced, while the eastern coast is indented with pronounced karstification. There are dozens of protected areas in the Adriatic, designed to protect the seas karst habitats. The sea is abundant in flora and fauna—more than 7,000 species are identified as native to the Adriatic, many of them endemic and threatened ones. The Adriatics shores are populated by more than 3.5 million people, the earliest settlements on the Adriatic shores were Etruscan and Greek.
By the 2nd century BC, the shores were under Romes control, following Italian unification, the Kingdom of Italy started an eastward expansion that lasted until the 20th century. Following World War I and the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, the former disintegrated during the 1990s, resulting in four new states on the Adriatic coast. Italy and Albania agreed on their maritime boundary in 1992, Fisheries and tourism are significant sources of income all along the Adriatic coast. Adriatic Croatias tourism industry has grown faster economically than the rest of the Adriatic Basins, maritime transport is a significant branch of the areas economy—there are 19 seaports in the Adriatic that each handle more than a million tonnes of cargo per year. The largest Adriatic seaport by annual cargo turnover is the Port of Trieste, in the southeast, the Adriatic Sea connects to the Ionian Sea at the 72-kilometre wide Strait of Otranto
Brindisi
Brindisi is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, the city has played an important role in trade and culture, due to its position on the Italian Peninsula. The city remains a port for trade with Greece and the Middle East. Brindisis most flourishing industries include agriculture, chemical works, and the generation of electricity, Brindisi is situated on a natural harbor, that penetrates deeply into the Adriatic coast of Apulia. Within the arms of the harbor islands are Pedagne, a tiny archipelago, currently not open. The entire municipality is part of the Brindisi Plain, characterized by agricultural uses of its land. It is located in the part of the Salento plains, about 40 kilometres from the Itria Valley. Not far from the city is the Natural Marine Reserve of the World Wide Fund for Nature of Torre Guaceto, the Ionian Sea is about 45 kilometres away. The development of agriculture, has caused an increase in the use of water resulting in an increase of indiscriminate use.
There are several traditions concerning its founders, one of them claims that it was founded by the legendary hero Diomedes, Brindisi was an Ancient Greek settlement predating the Roman expansion. The Latin name Brundisium comes from the Greek Brentesion meaning deers head, in 267 BC it was conquered by the Romans. Herodotus spoke of the Mycenaean origin for these populations, the necropolis of Tor Pisana returned Corinthian jars in the first half of the 7th century BC. The Brindisi Messapia certainly entertained strong business relationships with the side of the Adriatic. After the Punic Wars it became a center of Roman naval power. In the Social War it received Roman citizenship, and was made a port by Sulla. It suffered, from a siege conducted by Caesar in 49 BC and was attacked in 42 and 40 BC. The poet Pacuvius was born here about 220 BC, and here the famous poet Virgil died in 19 BC. Under the Romans, Brundisium – a large city in its day with some 100,000 inhabitants – was a port, the chief point of embarkation for Greece
Piri Reis
Ahmed Muhiddin Piri, better known as Piri Reis, was an Ottoman admiral and cartographer. He gained fame as a cartographer when a part of his first world map was discovered in 1929 at the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. His world map is the oldest known Turkish atlas showing the New World, Piri Reis map is centered on the Sahara at the latitude of the Tropic of Cancer. In 1528, Piri Reis drew a world map, of which a small fragment still survives. According to his text, he had drawn his maps using about 20 foreign charts. For many years, little was known about the identity of Piri Reis, the exact date of his birth is unknown. His fathers name was Hacı Mehmed Piri, the honorary and informal Islamic title Hadji in Piris and his fathers names indicate that they both had completed the Hajj by going to Mecca during the dedicated annual period. When his uncle Kemal Reis died in 1511, Piri returned to Gelibolu, by 1516, he was again at sea as a ship captain in the Ottoman fleet. He took part in the 1516–17 Ottoman conquest of Egypt, in 1524 he captained the ship that took the Ottoman Grand Vizier Pargalı İbrahim Pasha to Egypt.
In 1547, Piri had risen to the rank of Reis as the Commander of the Ottoman Fleet in the Indian Ocean and Admiral of the Fleet in Egypt, headquartered in Suez. On 26 February 1548 he recaptured Aden from the Portuguese, followed in 1552 by the sack of Muscat, which Portugal had occupied since 1507, and the strategically important island of Kish. Turning further east, Piri Reis attempted to capture the island of Hormuz in the Strait of Hormuz, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, unsuccessfully. When the Portuguese turned their attention to the Persian Gulf, Piri Reis occupied the Qatar peninsula to deprive the Portuguese of suitable bases on the Arabian coast and he returned to Egypt, an old man approaching the age of 90. When he refused to support the Ottoman Vali of Basra, Kubad Pasha, in campaign against the Portuguese in the northern Persian Gulf. Several warships and submarines of the Turkish Navy have been named after Piri Reis, Piri Reis is the author of the Kitāb-ı Baḥrīye, or Book of the Sea, one of the most famous cartographical works of the period.
The work was first published in 1521, and it was revised in 1524-1525 with additional information, the revised edition had a total of 434 pages containing 290 maps. Ptolemys Geographia had been translated in Turkish after an order of Mehmed II some decades before. Special emphasis is given to the discoveries in the New World by Christopher Columbus and those of Vasco da Gama and the other Portuguese seamen on their way to India, the second section is entirely composed of portolan charts and cruise guides
Arechis II of Benevento
Arechis II was Duke of Benevento, in Southern Italy, from 758 until his death. Arechis was the son of Duke Liutprand, whom he succeeded in 756, initially Arechis continued to use the title duke of Benevento. After the Lombard kingdom fell to Charlemagne in 774, probably as a gesture of independence, around 757 Arechis married Adelperga, a daughter of the north Italian Lombard king, Desiderius. Arichis thus established friendly relations with Desiderius, which lasted until the Lombard kingdom fell to the Franks in 774, the Beneventan couple produced five children, three boys and two girls. By eighth century standards and Arichis were notable patrons of culture, Adelperga commissioned the major Lombard writer Paul the Deacon to produce his Historia Romana, a textbook of Roman history which was widely used during the rest of the Middle Ages. Arichis arranged for the transfer of relics to the newly commissioned church of Santa Sofia in Benevento. This still survives, albeit heavily restored and it is decorated with rare eighth-century frescoes.
He put resources into building works at Salerno, including a new palace, Salerno became an increasingly important port and city from Arechiss reign onwards. Major south Italian monasteries, such as Montecassino and San Vincenzo al Volturno, Arechis was the duke when Charlemagne conquered the north Italian Lombard kingdom in 774 and made himself king of the Lombards. In the same year Arechis adopted the title of prince of Benevento and he issued a handful of laws. Both these acts were intended as a gesture of defiance against Charlemagne. Since Charlemagne now styled himself king of the Lombards, Arechis was effectively rejecting Charlemagnes right to this title, in 776, Arechis was probably involved in a Lombard conspiracy to throw off Frankish domination. Charlemagne successfully crushed this revolt, which was focused in Friuli. Arechis does not seem to have provided much support for the rebellion and Charlemagne was forced to hurry back north of the Alps. Once again, geographical distance had protected Arechis from the Franks, Arechiss Beneventan state continued to skirmish with and try to seize territory from the neighbouring Byzantine duchy of Naples.
At some point, perhaps in the mid-780s, Arechis reached an agreement with the duke of Naples set out in a document called a pactum and this sets out detailed provisions dealing with landholding and dispute settlement. It was perhaps intended to free Benevento to deal with the looming Frankish threat and this crystallised in 787, when Charlemagne advanced into south Italy and besieged Capua, another important town in the principality of Benevento. Arechis left Benevento itself and retreated to his new centre, the port of Salerno, under pressure, Arechis apparently submitted to Frankish suzerainty
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
