Paolo Lucio Anafesto ( la, Paulucius Anafestus) was, according to tradition, the first

Doge of Venice The Doge of Venice ( ; vec, Doxe de Venexia ; it, Doge di Venezia ; all derived from Latin ', "military leader"), sometimes translated as Duke (compare the Italian '), was the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice between 726 ...

, serving from 697 to 717. He is known for repelling

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

attacks.

Biography

A noble of

Eraclea Eraclea () is a small city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, northern Italy. It is located on the Adriatic coast between the towns of Caorle and Jesolo. History From its founding until 742 AD, the Republic of Venic ...

, then the primary city of the region, he was elected in 697 as an official over the entire

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into '' coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons ...

that surrounded Venice. His job was to both put an end to the conflicts between the various

tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on th ...

s who until then had governed the differing parts and to coordinate the defense against the

Lombards The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...

and the

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

who were encroaching on their settlements. However, Anafesto's existence is uncorroborated by any source before the 11th century. He also repelled

attacks and raids onto his kingdom.

History

According to

John Julius Norwich John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich, (15 September 1929 – 1 June 2018), known as John Julius Norwich, was an English popular historian, travel writer, and television personality. Background Norwich was born at the Alfred House Nursing ...

, Paolo Lucio Anafesto was actually Exarch Paul. Moreover, Paul's ''

magister militum (Latin for "master of soldiers", plural ) was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, ...

'' had the same first name as Paoluccio's reputed successor, Marcellus Tegallianus, casting doubt on the authenticity of that doge as well.Norwich, p.13

Notes

Sources

* Norwich, John Julius, ''A History of Venice''.

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, 1982. *Anonymous, ''Archivo Storico Italiano, Tomo VIII: Cronaca Altinate''. Florence, Italy, 1845. {{DEFAULTSORT:Anafesto, Paolo Lucio 7th-century Doges of Venice 8th-century Doges of Venice 717 deaths