page_title: Ancient Corsica
section_title: Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (AD 300 - 650)
hierarchical_section_title: Ancient Corsica / Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (AD 300 - 650)
caption_attribution_description: English: Pope Gregorius I dictating the gregorian chants
context_page_description: The history of Corsica in ancient times was characterised by contests for control of the island among various foreign powers. The successors of the neolithic cultures of the island were able to maintain their distinctive traditions even into Roman times, despite the successive interventions of Etruscans, Carthaginians or Phoenicians, and Greeks. A long period of Roman rule was followed by renewed conflict for control of the island by the Vandals, Byzantines and Saracens.
context_section_description: In the reform of the provinces by Diocletian at the beginning of Late Antiquity, Corsica's status was left unchanged. It was administered by a praeses and was assigned to the diocese of Italia Suburbicaria. As elsewhere in the Roman empire, tax pressure increased markedly in this period. As in many other parts of the empire, Corsica was subject to invasions and large-scale migrations, which led to the central government of the Western Roman Empire giving up the island. In 410, the Visigoths conquered the island. In 455 the Vandals under king Geiseric, used the island as a base for annual raids on the Italian mainland. Corsica was governed by Vandal officials, rather than Romans and was used by the Vandal kingdom, like the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, as a buffer zone, to protect Vandal North Africa from attacks from the north. In 500, the Ostrogoths conquered the island. In 536, Eastern Roman troops of Emperor Justinian, under the command of Cyril, a subordinate of Belisarius, regained the island, as well as Sardinia and the Balearics, in the course of a many year long operation in the western Mediterranean, whose ultimate goal was the reconquest of North Africa from the Vandals. There is no trace of imperial building work in Corsica, of the sort which took place elsewhere. In 575, the Lombards landed on the island and they established several strategically important coastal sites. The interior of the island, however, remained in Eastern Roman hands
  The tax pressure and the various invasions deeply harmed the island. One bond which held Corsica together was the Church, which was deeply embedded on the island. So it is not surprising that a new chapter in the history of the island was opened by the church. Pope Gregory I reclaimed the island during his pontificate (590-604), as a missionary area. In accordance with his command, the populace were further indoctrinated, the church organisation of the island was revised, and canon law was introduced. The long-vacant bishop's seat was permanently re-established and an administrative structure introduced, which even had some impact in the island's interior. Where the decaying Byzantine government intensified social conflict, the church proved a stabilising element and the bishops became the true leaders of the populace.
  In the early 7th century, the island faced a new problem with the Saracens, who ravaged the coasts of the island frequently. The Lombards also returned to the island, to fight against the Saracens. The conflict with the Saracens, which also drew in other significant powers that often laid claim to Corsica or a part thereof, dominated the fortunes of the island for several centuries. This period is almost unrecorded, except in the Chronicles of Giovanni della Grossa (1388-1464), which were written much later and are heavily infused with legends.
caption: Pope Gregory I dictates the Gregorian chant, which was said to have entered him from the Holy Spirit, to a scribe (Antiphonary of Hartker von St. Gallen c.1000).
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