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The city of Bari rose to dignity and wealth, as the metropolis of the new theme or province of Lombardy: the title of patrician, and afterwards the singular name of Catapan, was assigned to the supreme governor; and the policy both of the church and state was modelled in exact subordination to the throne of Constantinople.
A certain dependence upon the Greek Empire was recognised, for in Zara the strategos, the catapan, and the proconsul of Dalmatia appear even after the time of the Croatian kings. The Venetian doge had the title of King of Dalmatia given him by the Emperor of Constantinople about the end of the eleventh century in return for the help given by the fleet against the Normans.
The Bocchesi enrolled themselves voluntarily as sailors, and formed the finest portion of the personnel of the Venetian navy. Under the Byzantines the prior was first in the state, though there is mention of a Catapan in 1163. Till 1398 he was elected annually; after that time he bore office for a month.
Diocletian was the most celebrated. More than sixty Roman settlements are known. For about seventy years the country was ruled by the Goths. After the recovery of Italy by Belisarius and Narses it belonged to Byzantium from 537, and was ruled from Ravenna by a catapan at Salona.
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