Talk:Principality of Salerno

Revert of 23 March 2010
I re-added the comment about Salerno being a vassal of Byzantium because it was: in 888 Guaimar I went to Constantinople to render homage and receive back his lands from the emperor with the title of patrikios. The comment about German settlement is just not clear: perhaps "Germanic" was meant, but then it is still unclear who is and who is not Germanic. Are we that sure that no Germanic settlers have ever made their home in Calabria or Sicily? Finally, I reverted to the other map because it is more clear and more accurate. The older map refers to "the German nation", which is bizarre for the early middle ages. —Srnec (talk) 02:19, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, Srnec, but I disagree with you. Here are the reasons:
 * First, the Sheperd map is an academic map and not one made by a "wikipedia fan" (with all due respect for his work...). I believe scholars must be preferred (see: Sheperd maps).
 * Second, Salerno was never a vassal of Byzantium. Guaimar I went to Costantinopole in order to get an alliance against Arab raiders. He obtained a simple "honor title as allied" (un titolo onorifico a suggello di un’alleanza (hope you understand Italian or get a google translator), please see: ). May be you confuse Salerno with Benevento and what happened with the Principality of Benevento, that was really under byzantine control for a few years.

Here it is the "Title" of Guaimar I from the Byzantine Emperor:

In nomine domini dei salbatori ihesu cristi. declaro ego wuaimarius princeps et imperialis patricius, quia concessum est mihi a sanctissimis et piissimis imperatoribus leone et alexandro per berbum et firmissimum preceptum bulla aurea sigillatum integram sortem benebentane probincie, sicut divisum est inter sichenolfum et radelchisum principem, ut liceret me exinde facere omnia, quod voluero, sicut antecessores mei omnes principes fecerunt......Quod bero preceptum concessionis ex iussione suprascripte potestatis scripsit ego ursus notarius. Actum salerno de anno vicesimo tertio, et de anno septimo principatus domni waimarii principis filio meus, de mense augustus secunda indictio. (Codex Diplomaticus Cavensis. p 139-140)
 * Third, German people (in this case:Longobards) settled south of Benevento only in the Principality of Salerno. Gots before them raided Calabria and Sicily, but never settled to live in; Normans settled individually (and/or as members of a norman family) even in Sicily, but never as an ethnic group. The map is a section of a Sheperd map Europe and Byzantine Empire around 1000 of the renowned Perry-Castaneda map collection, in which it is written: "Holy Empire of the German Nation" (or Holy Roman Empire).

I hope all problems are solved now, and consequently I revert.--BdLM (talk) 18:29, 23 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Nope. There was no Principality of Salerno when the Lombards settled southern Italy, so the statement hardly makes sense. Nor is your cited source scholarly enough to support it. And how do we know that the greatest extent of the Beneventan duchy did not extend further south than the greatest extent of the Salernitan principality? I don't like the statement because it is not clear. The 'Germanicity' of the Lombards is irrelevant. If the important thing is that Salerno represents the most southerly region of Lombard government and culture, then let's just say that.
 * The "academic" map is aesthetically unappealing, harder to read and outdated. Can you spot an error in the "wikipedia fan" map? If not, what's your beef? Think of the reader who knows nothing about the subject.
 * Here is what the Dizionario has to say about Guaimar I's submission to Byzantium:
 * "Per G. si trattava infatti di sottostare al riconoscimento dell'autorità bizantina, come si rileva chiaramente da un documento ben più tardo, dell'899 (Codex diplomaticus Casinensis, I, n. 111, pp. 139 s.), e dunque successivo già di qualche anno alla missione diplomatica dell'887. Nel documento, fatto redigere da G. in favore del florido monastero di S. Massimo di Salerno, eretto anni prima da suo padre, veniva esplicitamente dichiarato che l'autorità e gli onori del princeps salernitano erano tali per concessione dell'Impero orientale. La protezione bizantina si concretizzò ben presto in un praesidium di truppe orientali, secondo l'ambigua informazione reperibile nel Chronicon Salernitanum: "[Graeci] dies noctisque [Salernum] custodiebant" (p. 542). Ma l'uso del verbo "custodire", in quel particolare contesto storico e narrativo, può dar adito a dubbi sul suo effettivo significato poiché, oltre che con il valore di mera "custodia" della città, è possibile si debba invece intendere come un più inquietante "tenere a bada". Solo supposizioni, certo, che tuttavia sono da tenere presenti qualora si consideri la comprensibile insofferenza di una Salerno orgogliosamente longobarda (Delogu, 1977)."
 * This is the author's interpretation of the charter you quoted. You can find references to vassalage to Byzantium in GoogleBooks as well, but I won't post them here. And you should have allowed this discussion to occur before re-reverting. The status quo should be respected until your controversial edits are clearly accepted or rejected. Srnec (talk) 22:48, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Srnec, I was born in Salerno and 1) I can assure you that I have plenty of books about my city that can confirm what I wrote. 2) Guaimar I never accepted to be under Byzantium, even because there was no reason at all. He just wanted an alliance to face the Arabs who had invaded Agropoli (a small city 50 Kms south of Salerno) and accepted some Greek troops for this reason. Let me put this way: Great Britain "accepted" US troops inside the British isles during WWII in order to get defended from Germany, but nobody dreams to say that GB was a "vassal" of the USA because of this. It is a stupid example, but gives an idea of what happened with Guaimar I and the Byzatine emperor. 3) There are plenty of books about the Principality of Benevento and no one states that it extended farther south than the Principality of Salerno. Allow me to suggest you this book about the topic: Salerno longobarda. Topografia e struttura del potere of Arcangelo Amarotta, ed. Lavegliacarlone. Napoli, 2004 4) The "academic" map is aesthetically unappealing? Well, at least it is serious....and for me it is appealing more than the one from the wiki "fan", that looks a bit like a high school homework :) Anyway, let's solve this little problem creating a new map, as I have suggested. Cheers.--BdLM (talk) 04:45, 24 March 2010 (UTC)


 * The statement about German settlement is false. Perhaps it's just bad English, but it's not my job to guess at what it is trying to say.
 * Guaimar accepted Byzantine authority. I don't care how you want to say it, but neither he nor his Byzantine overlords regarded their relationship as a mere "military alliance". Hence the historian's reference to custodia and autorità. The stationing of American troops in Britain has nothing to do with custodia and autorità.
 * The academic map is in fact altered by a "Wikipedia fan": it has been cut out from a fuller map so that parts of words and phrases have been cut off and a red oval and red lettering (right at the edge of the image) added. It is a scan, with all the imperfections you'd expect. The "fan map" is clearly marked and labelled. It is serious. Is it too colorful? Until an error in it has been pointed out, it deserves to stay, as a superior version of the "academic" map. Srnec (talk) 04:37, 30 September 2010 (UTC)
 * The map of Srnec has huge mistakes. For example Salerno is placed where the river Sele reaches the sea (40 kms to the south of Salerno!), and the area where it is located the city is painted in pink (like if it were a Byzantine area!). Even the Marquesate of Verona is too much stretched to the east (reaching areas near Lubiana, that were never part of this Marquesate). IMHO the map should be corrected or...be erased!! B.D. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.215.160.118 (talk) 22:11, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Principality of Salerno map
I suggest to make a new map of the Principality of Salerno, with clear borders and centered only in southern continental Italy.--BdLM (talk) 18:29, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

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