ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Byzantine identity in southern Italy, a region that has been described as a mosaic of identities. Here local Greek-speakers, imperial appointees from Constantinople, Lombard rulers, and Arabs all rubbed shoulders and played one another off against each other for advancement. Further narrowing the frame, this chapter examines the identities and agency of individuals in Byzantine southern Italy such as Prince Guaimar of Salerno, Prince Radelchis II of Benevento, and the Byzantine naval commander Euphemios. Individual identity in the region is not easily reduced to one or two factors, and connections between those factors cannot be assumed. It is important to keep generalizations of group identity in constant conversation with the realities of individual actions in the region.
