The Byzantine corridor ( Latin Provincia Castellorum ; Italian: Il Corridoio Bizantino ) is the name of a narrow long strip of possessions of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) empire that the Lombards invading the Apennines could not capture for a long time. The Byzantine corridor existed in the years 570-750. Administratively, its northeastern part included the Ravenna exarchate , and the southwestern Roman duchy . After capturing the corridor by the langbards around 750, most of it was incorporated into the emerging Papal State with its center in Rome , which lasted until the mid-19th century.
History
The relations of the Lombard kings and dukes with Byzantium had a conflicting character throughout their more than two hundred year history. Having invaded Italy, the Lombards enjoyed the apathy of the local population and quickly took control of most of the internal, mostly agricultural, regions of the peninsula and Padania . The Byzantine fleet , however, continued to maintain control over the coastal regions for a long time, as well as the largest cities (Rome, Naples, Ravenna, Genoa) and the country's roads (among which were the Flaminian road and the Amerian road ), where ancient traditions were most pronounced . The resistance of the Byzantines was the strongest along the diagonal of Rome - Ravenna , which led to the split of the Kingdom of Lombard into two large separate regions - the northern ( Greater Langobardia ) and southern ( Lesser Langobardia ) [1] . Both terms were introduced by Theophanes the Confessor .
Fortifications
The Byzantine corridor as a whole took shape around 570, when the Lombards realized that they could not take the strip of the mountainous territory of the land " pentapolis " with the castles of Lazio , Umbria ( Todi , Perugia and Gubbio ) located along the mountainous and inaccessible Ameria road . The more even and low Flaminian road was already for the most part in the hands of the Lombards. On the Adriatic coast, the Byzantines supported the so-called marine pentapole, consisting of five well-fortified cities. The strategic importance of the corridor was recognized by both the Byzantines themselves and the Lombards , whose kingdom he divided into two parts. After 728, the Lombards resumed attacks on the corridor fortresses. The fall of Ravenna in 731 , and then, finally, in 751 meant the end of Byzantine control in the region.