ABSTRACT
The Neapolitan Duchy achieved autonomy from Constantinople differently from the areas of northern and central Byzantine Italy. When Emperor Leo III promulgated an edict against the worshiping of holy images, the Neapolitans did not follow the example of the Pentapolis and of the Venetian Lagoon troops, who rebelled against, and killed the exarch of Ravenna. Like other cities on the Campanian coast, Naples was never conquered by the Lombards. Her massive fortifications as well as the Lombards' lack of a fleet with which to blockade the flow of supplies by sea rendered vain all the enemies' attempts to take possession of her. The work known as the ‘Gesta episcoporum Neapolitanorum' has no title,26 prologue, or dedication; it is composed of three sections. The first part, which is anonymous, reports the biographies of the first thirty-nine bishops of Naples—from Aspren to Calvus—, was probably written at the end of the eighth century, and is much less detailed than the other sections.
