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60 the city. But the authority of the Emperor at Constantinople was acknowledged, at least in theory, till 1138, when the Normans added Naples to their kingdom.

The case of Amalfi was much the same. Here there were Imperial "Prefects"; in 958 these Prefects become hereditary dukes, and reign till the Norman conquest in 1073. In the tenth and eleventh centuries Amalfi was a mighty power. Its fleet sailed all over the Mediterranean; it became a kind of emporium where the merchandise of Italy, Sicily, and Africa was bartered. The Amalfitans obtained special privileges at Constantinople; they had a large colony there.

Caieta was another famous Greek city. It had "Consuls" since the early part of the ninth century, and it also became, practically, a self-governing republic.

In these and the other Greek Imperial cities there were councils, the "Boni homines", who settled their internal affairs. The Code of Justinian was their law, though it was often crossed by the Lombard customs. They dated their acts by the reign of the Great Basileus at Constantinople. They were, at any rate, supposed to send him tribute and to consider the views of the Catapan on any important matter. But the Empire was conscious that it had but a loose hold on its Italian Themes. Its policy was to leave the Italian cities alone as much as possible, to keep them in good temper by showering titles and honours on their chief citizens, and to be content with nominal recognition and such occasional tribute as could be raised without exciting bad feeling. The Catapan had a difficult place to fill; he would need to be a person of considerable tact — but that is naturally a Greek quality. The titles given by the Emperor to various leaders of the South Italian cities are curious. At Salernum the governor was the ; there was a of Bruttii, a "Patritius" at Amalfi, a Protoscriba of the Salentini. I have seen the title "Protonobilissimus" for one of these people.