Exarchs of Ravenna

The Exarchate of Ravenna was an ad hoc organisation of the Byzantine dominions in Italy, established c.584, in the face of the Lombard invasion and gradual conquest of much of the Italian peninsula.

The list of the exarchs of Byzantine Ravenna is very uncertain, as the sources are scarce, and not without contradictions. Also note that some served two separate periods.

Praetorian prefects of Italy

Before the creation of the Exarchate of Ravenna as the formal organisation of Byzantine Italy, the province was governed by Pretorian Prefects, of which the last were:

• Narses (553–568) under Justinian.
• Longinus (568–?) under Justine II.

The last testimony we have of Longinus is from 575, but nothing is known of the length of his tenure, or when he died.

List of exarchs

Subheadings refer to the Byzantine emperor at the time.

Maurice

• Decius (584–585)
• Smaragdus (585–589)
• Romanus (589–596)
• Callinicus or Gallinicus (596–c. 603)

Phocas

• Smaragdus (603–608)

Heraclius

• John I (608–616)
• Eleutherius (616–619)
• …
• Isaac (625–643)

Constans II

• Theodore I Calliopas (643–645)
• Plato (645–649)
• Olympius (649–652)
• Theodore I Calliopas (653–c. 666)

Constantine IV

• Gregorios (c. 666)
• …
• Theodore II (678–687)

Justinian II

• John II Platyn (687–702)
• Theophylactus (702–710)
• John III Rizocopus (710–711)
• …

Leo III the Isaurian

• Scholasticus (713–723)
• Paulus (723 to 726–727)

Constantine V

• Eutychius (726–727 to 751)

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• The Istoria Veneticorum by John the Deacon
  • The settlements of the lagoons
  • The first doges

• The Liber Pontificalis
  • Gregory II (715–731)
  • Zachary (741–752)

• Liber pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis
  • John VI (726–744)

• The Chronicon Altinate
  • The first doges

• The Chronica per extensum descripta by Andrea Dandolo
  • The first doges