Ioannes 231

Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire
SexM
FloruitE VIII
Dates717 (c.) / 717 (c.)
PmbZ No.3423
Variant NamesIohannes
LocationsNaples (Campania) (officeplace);
Naples (Campania) (residence);
Naples (Campania);
Cumae (Campania)
TitlesDoux, Naples (Campania) (office)
Textual SourcesLiber Pontificalis, ed. L. Duchesne, Le liber pontificalis. Texte, introduction et commentaire, 2 vols. (Paris, 1886-92); re-issued with 3rd vol. by C. Vogel, (Paris, 1955-57) (chronicle);
Paulus Diaconus, Historia Gentis Langobardorum, ed. L. Bethmann and G. Waitz, MGH, Scr. Rer. Lang., pp. 12-187; also in MGH, Scr. Rer. Ger. 48, pp. 49-242 (history)

Ioannes 231 was dux of Naples; early in the pontificate of Gregorios 72 (Pope Gregory II), he was summoned by Gregory ("in monitione ducis Neapolitani et populi") to liberate the fortress of Cumae which had just been captured by the Lombards; helped by the subdeacon Theodimos 1, he made a stealthy attack by night and recovered the fort; he killed the Lombard leader and about three hundred of his followers and captured about five hundred more, whom he carried off to Naples: Lib. Pont. 91. 7 ("Iohannes dux"). The date was perhaps c. 717; the previous events in the narrative in the Lib. Pont. are dated to the fifteenth indiction, i.e. 716/717. The same incident is recorded in Paul. Diac. Hist., Lang. VI 40: "Cumanum castrum a Langobardis Beneventanis pervasum est; sed a duce Neapolitano noctu superveniente quidam ex Langobardis capti, quidam perempti sunt".

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