Atenulf I (died 910), called
the Great (Latin
magnus), was the
prince of Capua from
7 January 887 and
of Benevento from 899, when he conquered that principality. He also used the title
princeps gentis Langobardorum: "prince of the Lombard people," an echo of the title used by the earliest prince of Benevento following the collapse of Lombard cohesion in 774.
The son of
Landenulf,
gastald of
Teano, Atenulf, through his influence and conquests, succeeded in vindicating his
Lombard family's pretensions to princely status,
à la those of Benevento and
Salerno. From the 879, Capua had been contested between several candidates, but, by 887, Atenulf had removed his brothers and cousins from contention and become sole prince with the assistance of the
hypatus Athanasius of Naples. In the next year (888), he was at war with Athanasius over "Liburnia." They fought an indecisive battle at S. Carzio on the
Clanio.
Atenulf then turned his attention to Benevento, which had recently been under
Byzantine and then
Spoletan control. He conquered it from the once-deposed Prince
Radelchis II in 899 and was acclaimed prince in Santa Sofia in Benevento in January 900. He was opposed by the one-time
regent of Benevento, the
Bishop Peter, whom he exiled to Salerno. Having united most of the Lombard
Mezzogiorno, he directed his aggression towards the
Saracens of the
Garigliano.
Atenulf allied with
Amalfi and
Gregory IV of Naples and attacked and defeated the Saracens in 903. He made himself a vassal of the Byzantines in order to receive military assistance, but got none. He spent the rest of his life preparing for major second expedition. He died before its fruition, though it resulted in the famous and successful
Battle of Garigliano in 915. For his successes against the Moslems, he was the dedicatee of a poem of
Eugenio Vulgario. Atenulf was succeeded by his son
Landulf I, whom he had associated in the princeship in 901. Atenulf declared the two principalites of Capua and Benevento inseparable and instituted the principle of co-rule between sons and brothers which was to guide the principality until its division in 981.
Sources
- Caravale, Mario (ed). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani: IV Arconati – Bacaredda. Rome, 1962.
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Category:910 deathsCategory:LombardsAtenulf 1Atenulf 1Category:9th-century Italian peopleCategory:10th-century Italian peopleCategory:10th-century rulers in Europegl:Atenulfo I de Capuait:Atenolfo I di Capuaru:Атенульф I (князь Капуи)uk:Атенульф I (князь Беневентський)
