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Cortona History
FROM THE FALL OF THE ROMAN
EMPIRE TO THE FORMATION OF A FREE COMUNE
The fall of the Roman Empire was followed
by the occupation of the Goths (476-553), which the Byzantines placed
an end to wht a war between the Generals of the Emperor Justinian,
Belisarius and Narsete, and the Goth King Teodato, Vitige, Totila
and Treaia. The Gothic War (535-553) brought about a significant
decrease in the Italic population: Cortona is reduced therefore
to a desert land and the Municipality disappears and perhaps even
the Diocese. Further devastation followed with the occupation of
the Longobards, in still in conflict with the Byzantines, especially
along the border of the Byzantine corridor which passed from Ravenna
to Rome. Cortona was not far from the border of that corridor and
was forced to bear the burden of abuse and devastation and the aftermath
of the conflicts between the Aryan Longobards and the orthodox Byzantines.
It is not had to imagine the state of misery and desolation into
which the city must have fell. It was Charlamagne who put an end
to the Longobard occupation in 774. Despite these tragic events,
there is a document from the year 970 which written in the diary
of Siegbert, a German man travelling in Italy, which tells of a
beautiful and ornate basilica he had seen constructed in the area
of the city over the tomb of the martyr Vincenzo. The remains of
this basilica are on private property however there are relics which
are conserved in the Etruscan Academy Museum which confirm the report
of the German diarist.
 In
the thirteenth century the first documents after the Dark Ages appear.
From these documents we gather that Cortona is a free city among
many others in Italy and that it is in the religious realm of the
Diocese of Arezzo. This meant that all religious matters depended
on the bishop of Arezzo who also had political power over Cortona
as the events in Arezzo at that time made the bishop the most important
political figure. In that time Arezzo, the bishopric, minted a coin
which had tthe likeness of its first bishop on one side, the martyr
Donato. The coin of Perugia also had a likeness of its first bishop,
the martyr Ercolano. Cortona which was not a bishopric, minted however
its own coin, on the front it had the likeness of a bishop with
a pointed cap and staff framed with the word "Vincentius"
and on the back a cross with the inscription "De Cortona".
Cortona is ruled by a Podestà, a Captain of the People, by
the Community Consul and the Chancellors of the Arts.
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