Since the open outbreak of the quarrel about the images, (as described previously under the history of Leo the Isaurian and more fully under the papacy), however, he showed himself inimical first to the extension of the emperor’s possessions in Italy, and in pursuance of the same policy, to Rome as well, which nominally at least was still under imperial rule.
The sides taken in the conflicts which followed, although varying from time to time, may be given briefly as follows: On one side Liutprand against East Rome—the lawful emperor and he never being on friendly terms; on the other the pope—an unequivocal enemy to the emperor ever since the image quarrel, but none the less no sincere ally of the Lombard king, whose ever-extending power he worked in every way to counteract, whilst keeping on the alert lest his machinations to this end should advance the Byzantine interests. He also, when occasion offered, called in the aid of the Beneventine and Spoletine dukes.
The conflict was initiated by Liutprand at a time highly favourable to his main desire which, there can be no doubt, was that all Italy should be united into one kingdom under a Lombard king,—namely in the year 726, when by his energetic attack upon the iconodules in his own territory, the emperor had raised about him an atmosphere of bitterness and insurrection, had especially made a lasting enemy of the bishop in Rome who was regarded by western Europe as the head of the Christian church and was by no means in a position to combat the rebellions in his Italian provinces, or to keep his unwilling vassals under his empire. All these circumstances combined to help Liutprand in his enterprise—the extension of his own power at the cost of that of the empire. No one could have understood better how to turn the mistakes made in Rome and Constantinople to account.
Coat of Mail of a King in the Eighth Century
About 726 the Lombards possessed themselves of the fortified town of Narnia (Narni), which at that time belonged to Eastern Rome. After that Liutprand himself marched at the head of the united forces of his kingdom (generali motione facta) upon Ravenna, the centre of the Byzantine power in Italy. After a siege lasting many days he succeeded at least in taking Classis, the port of Ravenna, which he destroyed, after sacking it with great profit to himself.
[728-741 A.D.]
The emperor, instead of yielding to Gregory II, at least in appearance, and so securing his assistance in resisting the encroachments made by Liutprand, still further widened the gulf between the pope and himself by his stubborn and ungracious demeanour. The consequences were not slow to follow. Even if the many attempts against his life and position described in the biography of the pope are rather imaginary (and due to the dread felt in Rome of Leo III) than attacks which actually occurred, they nevertheless give us the right idea of the temper in Rome at that time; there is no doubt that the appointment of a new pope favoured by the emperor and who might be removed to Constantinople, was contemplated in Italy. The fact of a later successful understanding between the two, such as Gregorovius[aa] and Schlosser[bb] would have us accept, has no authenticated probability. In 728-729 Liutprand and Eutychius were still acting in concert against the pope and his friends; and the imperial edict of 728, wherein “all images of angels, saints, and martyrs were proscribed under penalties” shows no inclination towards reconciliation. Whether the Lombards, who defended the pope at the Ponte Salario against the forces of Eutychius and the exarch Paulus, which were approaching to depose him from the papal chair, acted under instructions from Liutprand, or from Transamund II, duke of Spoleto, or on their own initiative, we cannot discover from the Vita Gregorii,[z] which contains the record.
Accordingly whilst a state of great confusion and warfare prevailed both in the east and west of Italy, as well as in the district surrounding Naples, Liutprand continued his victorious career.