Walker - 1967 - A geography of Italy

PART i: SOME GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
development of Italy which was to replace the Greek by the Italian as the middleman
o f Europe. The Campanian cities traded with Sicily, Africa and the Levant,
and missed few opportunities to enrich themselves whether at the expense of
Fig. 3. The Byzantine lands c. 600 are shaded; the variety of shading indicates to whom
the territories were lost
Christian or Infidel. In those troublous times, when slaves were considered a
normal article o f commerce, the margin between war and piracy, trade and
treachery, was a narrow one.^ After a brief period o f brilliance dtiring which she
* In 843, the Neapolitans helped the Muslims to reduce the Byzantine fortress of Messina.
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