Venice started as a Byzantine duchy, ruled by a “dux”, but at some point, they started choosing their own dux — or doge. When, or even who, is not clear.
Was the first doge really the first? Did he even exist? And if he didn’t, why is he there? There are some serious questions about doge Paulicius (697·717) to be examined.
The account of the election of the first three doges of Venice (Pauluccio, Marcello and Orso), from the “Istoria Veneticorum” by John the Deacon.
The lagoon was settled in Antiquity, and in the 600s, there were numerous known towns, and several important cities. Venice, however, was not one of them.
The list of lagoon settlements before the year 1000, from the “Istoria Veneticorum” by John the Deacon.
Following the Lombard invasion and conquest of Venetia, a part of the Venetian population of the mainland cities fled or left for the settlements in the nearby lagoons.
The account of the Lombard conquest of the remaining parts of Byzantine Venetia in the 600s — from “Historia Langobardorum” by Paul the Deacon.
The invasion of the Lombards in 568 was only the first part of the Lombard conquest of the Byzantine province of Venetia.
A list of some of the main events of the Lombard conquest of Byzantine Venetia and other parts of Italy.
Excerpts related to “Venetia” and the “Veneti” from the “Naturalis Historia” by Pliny the Elder (1st century)
