Commanders and contingents
The Byzantine expeditionary force was under the command of the sakellarios John and the Lombard exile Adelchis. [9] John was a eunuch who had commanded the army against the Abbasid invasion of Asia Minor in 781. Adelchis, called Theodotos by Theophanes, had been co-king of the Lombards with his father Desiderius prior to Charlemagne's conquest of the kingdom in 774. He continued to be recognised as the legitimate king by the Byzantine government. Had the expedition been successful, he would have been restored to rule in Italy under a Byzantine protectorate.
Traditional golden
solidus of Benevento with Grimoald's effigy and Charlemagne's name (DOMS CAR RX = Lord King Charles)
Silver
denarius of Frankish type bearing the monograms of Grimoald and Charlemagne
Coins from the period of Grimoald III's submission to the Franks.
In the words of Theophanes, the purpose of the expedition was "to hold off Charles—if they could—and to detach some men from him." In addition to sending an expeditionary force, Irene ordered Theodore, the governor of Sicily, to provide support to the invasion. Theophanes says that Theodore was "with them" at the battle.
The Lombards were led by Duke Grimoald III of Benevento and Duke Hildeprand of Spoleto. A contingent of Franks under Winigis was sent, in the words of the Annals, "to oversee everything they [the Lombards] did". The Frankish force was probably small. The actual commander was Grimoald. He had been a hostage of Charlemagne for the good behaviour of his father, Arechis II. His elder brother Romuald and his father died suddenly within weeks of each other in 788. Charlemagne released Grimoald on the promise that Frankish overlordship would be recognized in Benevento, including on charters and coins.
Battle and aftermath
The Byzantines landed in Calabria and marched towards the border with the Duchy of Benevento. The main battle took place in Calabria, near the frontier. The Annals credits victory to the Franks and Lombards. Theophanes describes John as the commander "defeated by the Franks". He was captured in battle and "put to a cruel death". In a letter dated 790, Alcuin of York, Charlemagne's confidant, wrote to Colcu of Clonmacnoise that the Byzantines "fled to their ships" after their defeat, having lost 4,000 men killed and 1,000 captured. A substantial booty was also recovered. The ultimate fate of Adelchis is unknown. He disappears from the historical record after his defeat.
Following the battle, there is no recorded diplomatic contact between the two powers until Constantine VI sent the strategos of Sicily, Niketas, on an embassy to Aachen in 797. It probably dealt with the release of prisoners. One of these captives, not released at that time, was Sisinnios, elder brother of Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople. According the Annals, in 798, after Constantine's death, Irene negotiated his release.
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Irene of Athens, surname Sarantapechaena, was Byzantine empress consort to Emperor Leo IV from 775 to 780, regent during the childhood of their son Constantine VI from 780 until 790, co-ruler from 792 until 797, and finally empress regnant and sole ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire from 797 to 802. A member of the politically prominent Sarantapechos family, she was selected as Leo IV's bride for unknown reasons in 768. Even though her husband was an iconoclast, she harbored iconophile sympathies. During her rule as regent, she called the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, which condemned iconoclasm as heretical and brought an end to the first iconoclast period (730–787). Her public figure was very polarizing during her 5 year reign, as most saw it as wrong for a woman to rule solely. Her reign as such made her the first ever empress regnant, ruling in her own right, in Roman and Byzantine imperial history.
Desiderius, also known as Daufer or Dauferius, was king of the Lombards in northern Italy, ruling from 756 to 774. The Frankish king of renown, Charlemagne, married Desiderius's daughter and subsequently conquered his realm. Desiderius is remembered for this connection to Charlemagne and for being the last Lombard ruler to exercise regional kingship.
Constans II, also called "the Bearded", was the Byzantine emperor from 641 to 668. Constans was the last attested emperor to serve as consul, in 642, although the office continued to exist until the reign of Leo VI the Wise. His religious policy saw him steering a middle line in disputes between the Orthodoxy and Monothelitism by refusing to persecute either and prohibited discussion of the natures of Jesus Christ under the Type of Constans in 648. His reign coincided with Muslim invasions under, Umar, Uthman, and Mu'awiya I in the late 640s to 660s. Constans was the first emperor to visit Rome since the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and the last one to visit Rome while the Empire still held it.
Constantine V was Byzantine emperor from 741 to 775. His reign saw a consolidation of Byzantine security from external threats. As an able military leader, Constantine took advantage of civil war in the Muslim world to make limited offensives on the Arab frontier. With this eastern frontier secure, he undertook repeated campaigns against the Bulgars in the Balkans. His military activity, and policy of settling Christian populations from the Arab frontier in Thrace, made Byzantium's hold on its Balkan territories more secure. He was also responsible for important military and administrative innovations and reforms.
Constantine VI, sometimes called the Blind, was Byzantine emperor from 780 to 797. The only child of Emperor Leo IV, Constantine was named co-emperor with him at the age of five in 776 and succeeded him as sole Emperor in 780, aged nine. His mother Irene exercised control over him as regent until 790, assisted by her chief minister Staurakios. The regency ended when Constantine reached maturity, but Irene sought to remain an active participant in the government. After a brief interval of sole rule Constantine named his mother empress in 792, making her his official colleague.
The Duchy of Benevento was the southernmost Lombard duchy in the Italian Peninsula that was centred on Benevento, a city in Southern Italy. Lombard dukes ruled Benevento from 571 to 1077, when it was conquered by the Normans for four years before it was given to the Pope. Being cut off from the rest of the Lombard possessions by the papal Duchy of Rome, Benevento was practically independent from the start. Only during the reigns of Grimoald and the kings from Liutprand on was the duchy closely tied to the Kingdom of the Lombards. After the fall of the kingdom in 774, the duchy became the sole Lombard territory which continued to exist as a rump state, maintaining its de facto independence for nearly 300 years, although it was divided after 849. Benevento dwindled in size in the early 11th century, and was completely captured by the Norman Robert Guiscard in 1053.
Adalgis or Adelchis was an associate king of the Lombards from August 759, reigning with his father, Desiderius, until their deposition in June 774. He is also remembered today as the hero of the play Adelchi (1822) by Alessandro Manzoni.
Arechis II was a Duke of Benevento, in Southern Italy. He sought to expand the Beneventos' influence into areas of Italy that were still under Byzantine control, but he also had to defend against Charlemagne, who had conquered northern Italy.
Grimoald III was the Lombard Prince of Benevento from 788 until his own death. He was the second son of Arechis II and Adelperga. In 787, he and his elder brother Romoald were sent as hostages to Charlemagne who had descended the Italian peninsula as far as Salerno to receive the submission of Benevento. In return for peace, Arechis recognised Charlemagne's suzerainty and handed Grimoald over as a hostage.
Ermengard of Italy was Queen of Provence as the spouse of King Boso. She was the second and only surviving child of Emperor Louis II. In her early life, she was betrothed to Constantine, the junior Byzantine emperor, but whether the marriage actually occurred or not is still debated among historians. In 871, Ermengard and her family were taken hostage by Adelchis of Benevento but were later freed. In 876, Ermengard married Boso, a nobleman with connections to the Carolingian dynasty, and became queen upon his accession to the throne of Provence in 879. After her husband's death in 887, she served as regent of the kingdom during the minority of her son Louis the Blind.
Winigis, also spelled Winiges or Winichis, was the Duke of Spoleto from 789 to his death. He was sent by Charlemagne in 788 with Frankish troops to assist Dukes Hildeprand of Spoleto and Grimoald III of Benevento against a Byzantine invasion.
Adelperga was a Lombard noblewoman, Duchess of Benevento by marriage to Arechis II of Benevento. She acted as regent of Benevento for her son Grimoald in 787-788. She was the third of four daughters of Desiderius, King of the Lombards, and his wife Ansa. Her elder sister Desiderata was a wife of Charlemagne.
Liutperga (Liutpirc) (fl 750 - fl. 793) was a Duchess of Bavaria by marriage to Tassilo III, the last Agilolfing Duke of Bavaria. She was the daughter of Desiderius, King of the Lombards, and Ansa.
The Lombard coinage of Benevento, part of the more general Lombard coinage, is the set of coins minted between about 680 and the end of the ninth century in the duchy and principality of Benevento. Solidi and tremisses, both gold coins that imitated those of the Eastern Roman Empire, were first minted; later followed the issuance of coins in the names first of the dukes and then of the Benevento princes. Toward the end of the 8th century alongside the gold coins were minted silver coins, which gradually took the place of the earlier ones, as moreover happened in the rest of Western Europe. Silver became the prevalent coinage metal only from the mid-9th century.
The coinage of Adelchis, prince of Benevento, constitutes a special chapter in the Lombard coinage of Benevento and bears witness to the political changes that took place during his principality. The period in which Adelchis minted runs from 854, when he became prince of Benevento, to 878; his coinage is centered on the denier, a silver coinage that became widespread in Europe following Charlemagne's rise to power.
