Byzantium and the Adriatic (6t h—13th Century)

Abstract

The author describes on the base of written, archeological and other sources the policy of the Byzantine empire in the Adriatic and its basin: the renewal of byzantine power in Italy and Dalmatia under emperor Justinian Ist (6. Cent.), the struggle and the efforts of the Empire to maintain its thalassocracy, the gradual retreat of byzantine power to the South and the rise of Venice, the last ephemeral byzantine attempts in the 12th century to renevv its power in the region and the first collaps of the Empire during the 4th crusade which put an end to all byzantine pretensions to this area.