“ The intervention of Pippin the Carolingian, who was called in by the popes to protect them against the Lombards and the Eastern emperors alike, made a revival of the exarchate impossible. It disappeared, and the small remnants of the imperial possessions on the mainland, Naples and Calabria, passed under the authority of the “ patricius ” of Sicily, and when Sicily was conquered by the Arabs in the 10th century were erected into the themes of Calabria and Langobardia. ”

“ Other cities of the exarchate were organized on the same model. Diehl is of opinion that the exercitus was formed of the ancient “ possessores,” or landowners and free townsmen, who were of a less rank than the ordo senatorius. The great landowners who were developing into feudal lords, and the smaller freemen who were becoming independent burghers, broke administration to pieces, and prepared the way ruin of the exarchate. ”

“ Sicily formed a separate government. Corsica and Sardinia belonged to the exarchate of Africa. The reorganization of the province of Italy into the ex arch ate was forced on the emperors by the Lombard invasion, which began in 568, and their permanent settlement. The Lombards thrust a wedge into Italy. Its base was in Venetia, and its point was advanced to the Tiber. From the early days of the conquest they spread to the south, and established the duchies of Spoletum and Beneventum in the modern kingdom of Naples. ”