Sergius II was Duke of Naples from 870 to 877.
He continued the policies of his father, Gregory III, and grandfather, Sergius I. He maintained good relations with the Franks or the Byzantines only as it suited Neapolitan interests.
Gregory III, eldest son of Sergius I of Naples and Drusa, was the duke of Naples as co-regent with his father from 850 and as successor to his father from his father's death in 864 to his own some six years later. He was recorded as a man of learning, fluent in both Greek and Latin.
Sergius I was the first duke of Naples of his dynasty, often dubbed the "Sergi," which ruled over Naples for almost three centuries from his accession in 840 until the death of his namesake Sergius VII in 1137.
The Franks were a collection of Germanic peoples, whose name was first mentioned in 3rd century Roman sources, associated with tribes on the Lower and Middle Rhine, on the edge of the Roman Empire. Later the term was associated with later Romanized Germanic dynasties within the collapsing Roman Empire, who eventually commanded the whole region between the rivers Loire and Rhine. They then imposed power over many other post-Roman kingdoms and Germanic peoples, and still later they were given recognition by the Catholic Church as successors to the old rulers of the Western Roman Empire.
He was briefly prefect of Amalfi for thirteen days in 866, following the prefect Maurus.
Medieval Amalfi was ruled, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, by a series of dukes, sometimes called dogi, corresponding with the republic of Venice, a maritime rival throughout the Middle Ages. Before the title of Duke of Amalfi was formally established in 957, various patricians governed the territory. Amalfi established itself as one of the earliest maritime trading powers renowned throughout the Mediterranean, competing with northern European cities.
In January 870, his father fell seriously ill and left him the government. Gregory died in March. It is written that Sergius made Naples "into another Palermo, another Africa," by his friendly relations with the Aghlabids. [1] For this, he earned the excommunication of Pope John VIII. He also earned the opposition of his uncle, Bishop Athanasius I and exiled him to an island. Sergius was blinded and deposed by his brother Athanasius II, Bishop of Naples, who delivered him to Rome. His son Gregory IV eventually succeeded to the ducal throne.
Palermo is a city of Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is located in the northwest of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent, being behind Asia in both categories. At about 30.3 million km2 including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states (countries), nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. The majority of the continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Aghlabids were an Arab dynasty of emirs from the Najdi tribe of Banu Tamim, who ruled Ifriqiya, nominally on behalf of the Abbasid Caliph, for about a century, until overthrown by the new power of the Fatimids.
Athanasius of Alexandria, also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor or, primarily in the Coptic Orthodox Church, Athanasius the Apostolic, was the 20th bishop of Alexandria. His intermittent episcopacy spanned 45 years, of which over 17 encompassed five exiles, when he was replaced on the order of four different Roman emperors. Athanasius was a Christian theologian, a Church Father, the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian leader of the fourth century.
The First Council of Constantinople was a council of Christian bishops convened in Constantinople in AD 381 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I. This second ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom, except for the Western Church, confirmed the Nicene Creed, expanding the doctrine thereof to produce the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, and dealt with sundry other matters. It met from May to July 381 in the Church of Hagia Irene and was affirmed as ecumenical in 451 at the Council of Chalcedon.
Pope Sergius III was Pope from 29 January 904 to his death in 911. He was pope during a period of feudal violence and disorder in central Italy, when warring aristocratic factions sought to use the material and military resources of the Papacy. Because Sergius III had reputedly ordered the murder of his two immediate predecessors, Leo V and Christopher, and allegedly fathered an illegitimate son who later became pope, his pontificate has been variously described as "dismal and disgraceful", and "efficient and ruthless".
Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius, better known as Saint Sidonius Apollinaris, was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is "the single most important surviving author from fifth-century Gaul" according to Eric Goldberg. He was one of four Gallo-Roman aristocrats of the fifth- to sixth-century whose letters survive in quantity; the others are Ruricius bishop of Limoges, Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus, bishop of Vienne and Magnus Felix Ennodius of Arles, bishop of Ticinum. All of them were linked in the tightly bound aristocratic Gallo-Roman network that provided the bishops of Catholic Gaul. His feast day is 21 August.
The Duchy of Naples began as a Byzantine province that was constituted in the seventh century, in the reduced coastal lands that the Lombards had not conquered during their invasion of Italy in the sixth century. It was governed by a military commander (dux), and rapidly became a de facto independent state, lasting more than five centuries during the Early and High Middle Ages. The modern city of Naples remains a significant region of Italy, today.
Sergius VII was the thirty-ninth and last duke of Naples. He succeeded his father John VI on the Neapolitan throne in 1122 at a time when Roger II of Sicily was rising rapidly in power. When Roger succeeded as duke of Apulia in 1127 and was crowned king in 1130, the fate of Naples hinged on Sergius' relations with the Sicilian court.
The Dukes of Naples were the military commanders of the ducatus Neapolitanus, a Byzantine outpost in Italy, one of the few remaining after the conquest of the Lombards. In 661, Emperor Constans II, highly interested in south Italian affairs, appointed a Neapolitan named Basil dux or magister militum. Thereafter a line of dukes, often largely independent and dynastic from the mid-ninth century, ruled until the coming of the Normans, a new menace they could not weather. The thirty-ninth and last duke, Sergius VII, surrendered his city to King Roger II of Sicily in 1137.
Gregory IV was the firstborn son of Duke Sergius II of Naples and successor of his paternal uncle, Bishop Athanasius, in 898, when he was elected dux, or magister militum, unanimously by the aristocracy. His other paternal uncle, Stephen, succeeded Athanasius as bishop. According to the Chronicon ducum et principum Beneventi, Salerni, et Capuae et ducum Neapolis, he reigned for sixteen years and eight months.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Capua is an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Italy, but its archbishop no longer holds metropolitan rank and has no ecclesiastical province. Its see is in Capua, in Campania near Naples. Since 1979, it is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Napoli in Naples, i.e. no longer has its own ecclesiastical province nor metropolitan status. In 2013 in the Archdiocese of Capua there was one priest for every 2,345 Catholics.
Lando II, called Cyruttu, was the count of Capua briefly for six months in 861. He was the eldest son and successor of Lando I.
Athanasius was the Bishop and Duke of Naples from 878 to his death. He was the son of Gregory III and brother of Sergius II, whom he blinded and deposed in order to seize the throne while he was already bishop.
Saint Athanasius I (c.832–872) was the bishop of Naples from 850 to his death. This Athanasius should not be confused with his nephew, Athanasius II.
John II was the duke of Amalfi from 1029 to 1069 with multiple interruptions. He was the son of Sergius II and Maria, sister of Pandulf IV of Capua. He was the last significant duke of Amalfi before the Norman conquest of 1073.
Stephen II was the duke of Naples during an important transitional period in its history, from 755 to his death. He was styled as eminentissimus consul and was the leader of the local aristocracy when he was appointed by the patrician of Sicily. By the end of his reign, through a rupture with the Byzantine Empire, Naples was practically independent. After his abdication, Naples experienced a period of crisis until the election of Sergius I in 840.
The Principality of Capua was a Lombard state centred on Capua in Southern Italy, usually de facto independent, but under the varying suzerainty of Western and Eastern Roman Empires. It was originally a gastaldate, then a county, within the principality of Salerno.
Caesar the Brave was the admiral of the fleet of the Duchy of Naples during the reigns of his father, Sergius I, and brother, Gregory III.
Pandenulf was the Count of Capua, claiming that title from 862 and holding it successfully during the tumultuous civil war of 879 – 882. He was the son and successor of Pando, but was removed on his father's death by his uncle the bishop, Landulf II.
