exarch

…appointed from Constantinople and called exarch from about 590. Exarchs were changed quite frequently, probably because military figures far from the center of the empire who developed a local following might revolt (as happened in 619 and 651) or else turn themselves into autonomous rulers. But the impermanence of the…

The exarchs did relatively little to defend Rome, which was largely cut off from Ravenna by the Lombard states; the papal city thus had to develop its own political institutions. In the late 6th century, responsibility for feeding the population of Rome and, by the 590s,…

…century a new official, the exarch, was introduced whose powers were almost viceregal. Economic conditions declined because of the increasing insecurity and also the notorious corruption and extortion of the administration, though whether this was worse in Africa than in other parts of the Byzantine Empire is impossible to say.…