Longobardia (, also variously Λογγιβαρδία,
Longibardia and Λαγουβαρδία,
Lagoubardia), was a
Byzantine term for the territories controlled by the
Lombards in
Italy. In the 9th-10th centuries, it was also the name of a Byzantine province (
thema) in southeastern Italy.
The term was traditionally used for the Lombard possessions, with the chronicler
Theophanes the Confessor distinguishing between "Great Longobardia" (Μεγάλη Λογγοβαρδία, in
Latin Langobardia major), namely the
Lombard kingdom in northern Italy, and "Longobardia" (in Latin
Longobardia minor), which comprised southern Italy, with the Lombard duchies of
Spoleto,
Salerno and
Capua, the Byzantine possessions, and the city-states (
Naples,
Gaeta and
Amalfi) under Byzantine suzerainty.
In its strictest and most technical sense, the name referred to the Byzantine
thema which encompassed the modern
Italian region of
Apulia and parts of
Basilicata, with
Bari as its capital. Its exact origin and evolution are not entirely clear. Its establishment, perhaps first as a subordinate
tourma of the
thema of
Cephalenia dates to ca. 876, when Bari was recovered by the Byzantines, who used it as a base to re-establish their control over southern Italy, lost in previous centuries to Lombards and Arabs. In ca. 893, it appears that it was administered jointly with other European
themata of the Empire. A distinct
strategos, whose presence would imply the province's elevation to a full
thema, is only attested from 911 on.
[Kazhdan (1991), p. 1250] In 938 and 965 it also appears united with the
thema of
Calabria, although the duration of this arrangement is unclear. At any rate, after ca. 965, the two
themata were permanently united into the new
Catepanate of Italy, with the
catepan's seat again at Bari.