Orso Ipato (Latin
Ursus) was the third traditional
Doge of VeniceThe Doge was the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice for over a thousand years. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was the shrewdest elder in the city...
(726–742) and the first historically known. Sometime in the early 8th century, he was elected to lead the Venetians and granted the title of
duxDux is Latin for leader and later for Duke.During the Roman Republic, dux could refer to anyone who commanded troops, including foreign leaders, but was not a formal military rank...
or duke, which has morphed in the Venetian dialect into
doge.
Orso himself came from
HeracleaHeraclea was an ancient city of Magna Graecia, situated in Lucania on the Gulf of Tarentum , but a short distance from the sea, and between the rivers Aciris and Siris , the site of which is located in the modern comune of Policoro, Province of Matera, Basilicata,...
. He was eventually recognised by the
Byzantine Emperor Leo III the IsaurianLeo III the Isaurian or the Syrian , was Byzantine emperor from 717 until his death in 741...
, who gave him the title
hypatos.
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Orso Ipato (Latin
Ursus) was the third traditional
Doge of VeniceThe Doge was the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice for over a thousand years. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was the shrewdest elder in the city...
(726–742) and the first historically known. Sometime in the early 8th century, he was elected to lead the Venetians and granted the title of
duxDux is Latin for leader and later for Duke.During the Roman Republic, dux could refer to anyone who commanded troops, including foreign leaders, but was not a formal military rank...
or duke, which has morphed in the Venetian dialect into
doge.
Orso himself came from
HeracleaHeraclea was an ancient city of Magna Graecia, situated in Lucania on the Gulf of Tarentum , but a short distance from the sea, and between the rivers Aciris and Siris , the site of which is located in the modern comune of Policoro, Province of Matera, Basilicata,...
. He was eventually recognised by the
Byzantine Emperor Leo III the IsaurianLeo III the Isaurian or the Syrian , was Byzantine emperor from 717 until his death in 741...
, who gave him the title
hypatos. His descendants surnamed themselves Ipato on the basis of this imperial honorific. The
OrseoloOrseolo, the name of a Venetian family, three members of which filled the office of doge.*Pietro I Orseolo acted as ambassador to the emperor Otto I before he was elected doge in August 976. Just previous to this event part of Venice had been burned down and Pietro began the rebuilding of St....
family was also descended from him. After Orso's violent death (assassinated perhaps at the instigation of
EutychiusEutychius was the last Exarch of Ravenna .The entire exarchate had risen in revolt at the imposition of iconoclasm in 727; the Lombards, the Papacy, and the Italian cities all moved to eliminate Byzantine authority. In response, Emperor Leo III sent Eutychius to take control of the situation...
,
Exarch of RavennaThe Exarchate of Ravenna or of Italy was a centre of Byzantine power in Italy, from the end of the 6th century to 751, when the last Exarch was put to death by the Lombards.-Introduction:...
), there was a brief interregnum before his son,
TeodatoTeodato Ipato was the doge of Venice after a brief interregnum following the death of his father, Orso Ipato, in 742...
, was elected as the second historical doge of Venice.
Sources
- Norwich, John Julius
John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich CVO — known as John Julius Norwich — is an English historian, travel writer and television personality.-Early life:...
. A History of Venice. Alfred A. KnopfAlfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
: New York, 1982.