Duchy of Spoleto

The Duchy of Spoleto (Ducato di Spoleto, Ducatus Spolitanorum) was a Lombard territory founded about 570 in central Italy by the Lombard dux Faroald. Its capital was the city of Spoleto. The Lombards invaded northern Italy in 568 and began their conquest of the peninsula eventually establishing the Kingdom of the Lombards. Following the conquest of the north, the Lombards moved into central and southern Italy capturing the important hub of Spoleto in 570. In 572, the Lombards captured the northern city of Pavia after a siege of three years and established the first capital city of their new Kingdom. As time progressed, the captured territories were divided by the Lombard king among numerous dependent dukes. A decade of interregnum after the death of Alboin's successor (574), however, left the Lombard dukes (especially the southern ones) well settled in their new territories and quite independent of the Lombard kings at Pavia. By 575 or 576 Faroald had seized Nursia and Spoleto, establishing his duchy and sponsoring an Arian bishop. Within Spoleto, the Roman capitolium dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva had already been occupied by the bishop's cathedral (the see was founded in the 4th century) which incorporated the pagan structure (now the church of San Ansano). The Lombard dukes restored the fortifications of the high rocca, whose walls had been dismantled by Totila during the Gothic War. The dukes of Spoleto waged intermittent war with the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna, and Spoleto's territories fluctuated with the fortunes of the times over much of Umbria, Lazio, the Marche and the Abruzzi. Never as important as the Duchy of Benevento, Spoleto has a fairly obscure spot in Lombard history, nevertheless. Its second Duke Ariulf made frequent expeditions against the Byzantines (in 579–592 against Ravenna and in 592 against Rome). Ariulf was succeeded by Theudelapius, son of Faroald, whom the Catholic Encyclopedia credits with the first building of Spoleto's cathedral.

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