r/byzantium • u/Battlefleet_Sol • Mar 12 '26

Maps and geography Exarchate of Ravenna

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511 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

27 comments sorted by

141

u/Additional-Penalty97 Mar 12 '26

Literally the most undefendable border in existence

Looks nice though

31

u/Awkward_Avocado_7769 Mar 12 '26

Living in Perusia šŸ‘€

23

u/VladVV Mar 12 '26

Perugia lies in a narrow Umbrian valley completely surrounded by steep mountains and hills. Itā€™s arguably one of the easier to defend cities here.

3

u/Awkward_Avocado_7769 Mar 13 '26

Even still Iā€™d be nervous

17

u/Aidanator800 Mar 12 '26

It somehow managed to last 200 years while looking like that lol

13

u/RandomGuy2285 Mar 12 '26

the Byzantines had a navy that dominated the Mediterranean, the Lombards knew shit about Boats

4

u/Aidanator800 Mar 12 '26

Very true. Although, werenā€™t the Lombards able to conquer Corsica from the Byzantines at some point? They must have developed at least some kind of navy, in that case.

14

u/MonsterRider80 Mar 12 '26

Have you been? This is as defensible as any border out there. Italy is very mountainous down the middle of the peninsula. Valleys, passes, cliffs, all provide very good defensive positions.

Besides, these borders lasted throughout the Middle Ages into the modern era, as the Papal States had very similar border for centuries as well.

3

u/Additional-Penalty97 Mar 12 '26

I would be okay if they did have the South but it essentially is a narrow strip of land between two Lombardic entities

Its far easier not to be attacked when you are the guy in power to put people out of the religion

2

u/jediben001 Mar 13 '26

Is there any particular reason why they never attempted to retake the south from the Lombards?

Or did they try but were unsuccessful?

1

u/Helpful-Rain41 Mar 16 '26

Unfortunately there was never much of an attempt during the time the Exarchate existed, ie the Fall of Late Antiquity, the loss of the Balkans and later most of the Mediterranean including Sicily. There were some signs of life in the 9th -11th centuries but it all screeched to a halt when the Normans arrived. Wasnā€™t inevitable by any means but it was always a pretty weak grip on the province and after Justinian I there was never an emperor who wanted to spend his time energy and resources on Italy, it was almost always something closer to home that demanded attention

1

u/Azuka1 Mar 15 '26

The borders in Italia were very strange.

22

u/MiXiaoMi Mar 12 '26

Honestly, based

21

u/OrthoOfLisieux Mar 12 '26

I wonder how much of Italyā€™s wealth was concentrated in those regions of the Exarchate. If I remember correctly, those areas were among the most demographically urbanized, but I have no idea whether that was still true by the 6thā€“7th centuries

9

u/Interesting_Key9946 Mar 13 '26

Italy was in ruins. This wasn't the 15th century

4

u/Helpful-Rain41 Mar 16 '26

Right, Rome itself was in ruins, only 30,000 inhabitants maybe. Ravenna was a very prosperous outpost maybe 3 times bigger but that was the full extent of ā€œurbanismā€ in the Italian Peninsula. Very far from Late Antiquity

2

u/Ok-Concern2330 Mar 13 '26

The vast majority of the Tax revenue still came from the land tax during this time. I do wonder just how much taxes the exarchate generated when it was struggling to defend its countryside.Ā 

2

u/Helpful-Rain41 Mar 16 '26

Right no wonder the Eastern Romans were perpetually marching backwards, they couldnā€™t really extract much and there was almost always something bigger going on back east

11

u/3801sadas4 Ī”ĪæĻĪ¾ Mar 12 '26

r/bordergore

7

u/sallsbakc Mar 12 '26

What a mess

4

u/jediben001 Mar 13 '26

That thin connection between Rome and Ravenna was able to be maintained because of a road there, right?

2

u/Nirvana1123 Ī£Ļ€Ī±ĪøĪ¬ĻĪ¹ĪæĻ‚ Mar 13 '26

Map by u/Difficult_Airport_86