The Byzantine Empire lost the Exarchate of Ravenna in 751. The Lombard king Aistulf captured Ravenna, ending the main Byzantine administrative and military presence in northern and central Italy.
The exarchate was created around 584 after the Lombard invasion weakened Byzantine control of Italy. Its exarch, based in Ravenna, combined civil and military authority and governed the empire’s remaining Italian territories. Over time, however, local duchies became more autonomous, while conflicts between Constantinople and the papacy further reduced imperial power.
The fall of Ravenna did not mean that every Byzantine possession in Italy vanished immediately. Byzantine control survived in parts of southern Italy, including areas around Naples, Calabria, and Apulia, which were later reorganized under different administrations. The year 751 specifically marks the Lombard conquest of Ravenna and the collapse of the exarchate as a political institution.
A common mix-up is 752, when the Lombards conquered the Pentapolis, another northeastern Italian territory. That event followed Ravenna’s fall but is not the standard date for the exarchate’s end.