Tyrrhenian duchies

Tyrrhenian duchies
661–1137
Map of southern Italy, showing the Tyrrhenian duchies, c. 1000
StatusDuchy
CapitalNaples, then Amalfi and Gaeta
Common languagesLatin
Byzantine Greek
Duke 
• 661–666
Basil (first)
• 1123–1137
Sergius VII (last)
Historical eraMiddle Ages
• Established
661
• Sergius I make the duchy hereditary
850
• Annexation to the Kingdom of Sicily in the hands of Roger II of Sicily
1137
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Byzantine Empire
Kingdom of Sicily
Today part ofItaly

The Tyrrhenian Duchies are civil and military administrative divisions from the second half of the first millennium, originally dependent on the Byzantine Empire and governed by a military governor (dux). As in other Byzantine territories in Italy, the local nobility succeeded in transforming these duchies into autonomous states, only formally dependent on Constantinople. The principal of these states, which lasted more than five centuries, is the Duchy of Naples.