Paolo Lucio Anafesto
reputed first doge of Venice
650 CE to 727 CE
Paoluccio or Paolo Lucio Anafesto (Latin Anafestus Paulucius or Paulicius) is the reputed first doge of Venice.
A noble of Eraclea, at this time the primary city of the region, he is elected in 697 as an official over the entire lagoon that surrounds Venice, both to put an end to the conflicts between the various tribunes who until now had governed the various parts, and to coordinate the defense against the Lombards and the Slavs who are encroaching on the settlements.
However, his existence is uncorroborated by any source before the 11th century though he is probably not entirely legendary.
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Venice emerges as an independent city-state in the first half of the eighth century.
Venetian authority becomes concentrated in the city-state’s first doge, whose title derives from the Latin “dux” ("leader").
Orso Ipato, the third traditional Doge of Venice, is the first historically known.
Elected leader of Venice around 726, will eventually be appointed Roman consul by Emperor Leo III.
According to John Julius Norwich (A History of Venice. Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1982), Paolo Lucio Anafesto, the reputed first doge of Venice, was actually Exarch Paul.
Moreover, Paul's magister militum had the same first name as Paoluccio's reputed successor, Marcellus Tegallianus, casting doubt on the authenticity of that doge as well.
As popular revolts against iconoclasm break out in the late 720s in Venice, ...