ABSTRACT
The bishop of Rome had his local church, but he was also metropolitan of suburbicarian Italy. The Latin west included more than the metropolitan structure. Because of the way the Empire was divided, the patriarchate of the bishop of Rome extended to Greek speaking areas: Illyrium and Greek areas of southern Italy and Sicily. The metropolitan structure as it existed in the West limited the exercise of patriarchal power. This power was strengthened in Africa by the primacy of the bishop of Carthage and a tradition of independence (whence the forbidding by the Council of Carthage of appeals to Rome). From other areas of the West, however, the pope received appeals and acted as arbitrator, and so had a judicial authority.
