ABSTRACT
The strategic importance of the area was attested to by the number of castles built there by the Normans, the Byzantines, and the Longobards. Roseto appears to have been an important defensive base for the regional leader of the Byzantine army, Captain Bogiano. The Byzantines were able to savor their triumph for only a little over half a century when the Normans resumed the war, ultimately defeated the Byzantines, and went on to unify the entire area of southern Italy and Sicily under Robert II, who died in 1085. Roseto suffered severely, and may have been uninhabited for a time during the reign of Charles I, who was constantly at war with Peter III of Aragon and others. The revolution of 1848 touched Italy, as it did most of the rest of Europe, with a revolt against Bourbon rule which in Roseto was led by the six Capobianco brothers.
