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Rh As long as there was an Exarch at Ravenna the Catapan in the South was subordinate to his authority. After the disappearance of the Exarchate the Catapan remained the supreme Imperial authority for all Italy. Under the Catapan were inferior governors of districts called Turmarchs.

The development of the cities of the Empire in Lower Italy was much the same as the later development of Italian cities in the North, nominally subject to the Western Empire. Just as Florence, Genoa, Pisa, and so on, became really self-governing republics; as in many cases this self-government of the cities ended in the hereditary rule of princes, although all the time they were supposed to belong to the Emperor's domains, so was it in the South. Here, too, the Greek cities soon governed themselves, giving only a nominal obedience to the Catapan and paying tribute, not very regularly, to Constantinople.

The chief Greek city in Italy was Naples. Under Constans II (641-668) Naples became a Duchy of the Empire (661). From that time it ruled itself. Its governor was the Duke of Naples, "Magister militum." He had a council of "Nobiliores." So it became an aristocratic republic, not unlike Venice. At first the dukes were nominated by the Exarch; then a hereditary line began. The Duke of Naples with his council ruled a fairly large stretch of country behind