At the same time, Paolo already seems to have almost given Venice a city, on a few islands in the lagoon. For it he uses the plural Venetiae, which however immediately after, while hinting that it is now this new second sense to prevail, also uses in reference to the province of Venice, a way, which is attested for the first time by Giordane (Deigine actibusque Getarum, XXIX, 149), to underline its composite nature. Another not so recent news recorded by Paolo: the takeover of Cividale in Aquileia as the capital of Venetia et Histria, which occurred following its destruction by Attila. King Alboin had then made Cividale the seat of the first Lombard duchy in Italy, at the same moment in which, to protect it from invasion, the patriarchal seat was transferred from Aquileia to Grado, on the eastern edge of the lagoon. But, between 606 and 607, the bishops of the now Lombardized mainland had elected another metropolitan (based first in Aquileia, then in Cormons, then in Cividale), adding a further reason for the separation, already in place for political reasons, between mainland Venetia and Venetia marittima. 2) Liguria. “The second province is called Liguria […] In it are Milan and Ticino also known as Pavia” (II, 15). Corresponds to Italy north-west, between the Alps, the Adda to the East and the Po to the South. 3rd century. 3-4) Retia prima and Retia secunda. La Rezia, located between the Alps, Lake Constance and the Danube and divided into two provinces by Diocletian, belonged to the diocese of Italy, not to Italy properly called. 5) Alpes Cottiae. “It extends from Liguria towards the south-east to the Tyrrhenian Sea and joins the territory of the Gauls to the west. In it there are Acqui […], Tortona and the monastery of Bobbio, and also the cities of Genoa and Savona “(II, 16). Note the mention of the monastery of Bobbio, founded by St. Colombano in 612.6) Tuscia.” It includes Aurelia to the west and Umbria to the east. In this province is located Rome, which was once the capital of the whole world. In Umbria […] there are Perugia, Lake Clitorio [River Clitunno] and Spoleto “(II, 16). It includes Tuscany, Lazio – up to Rome included – and part of Umbria and the present Marche. note that the Aurelia, from the homonymous road that went from Rome to Tortona and then to Arles, is also mentioned as a territory by Gregory the Great (Dialoghi, III, 17, 5-10) and that Paul mentions the Aurelia, the Emilia and the Flaminia as the provinces that ” whose portion to the North of the middle course of the Liri was part of the temporal dominion of the popes (Campagna). However, it gives prominence to Salerno, which had come out of anonymity due to the building interventions promoted by the duke, then prince, of Benevento, Arechi II, after 774.8) Lucania. “It starts from the Sele river and together with the Brizia [Brutii, the od. Calabria] […] reaches the Strait of Messina along the coasts of the Tyrrhenian Sea […], in it are the cities of Paestum, Laino, Cassano, Cosenza and Reggio “(II, 17). At the time of Paul, Paestum had already been abandoned; the mention of Laino and Cassano allo Ionio (prov. Cosenza) is perhaps due to the fact that they were two localities that rose to a certain importance within the Lombard duchy of Benevento.9) Alpes Appenninae. “They begin where the Cottian Alps end. These mountains [… on the other side the Adriatic Sea and reaches the Pescara river. Here are the cities of Fermo, Ascoli and Penne “(II, 19).13) Valeria, cui est Nursia adnexa.” It is located between Umbria, Campania and Piceno. To the east it reaches the Samnites region. Its western part, which starts from the city of Rome, was once called Etruria by the Etruscan people. It contains the cities of Tivoli, Carsoli, Rieti, Furconia and Amiterno and the region of the Marsi, with the lake called Fucino “(II, 20). Since ancient Etruria was all to the West of the Tiber, Paul’s error is a proof of the oblivion into which the Etruscan civilization had fallen.14) Samnium. “Located between Campania, the Adriatic Sea and Puglia, starting with Pescara. There are Chieti, Alfedena, Isernia, Sannio, now worn by time [… ] and the capital of these provinces itself, the splendid Benevento “(II, 20). Benevento is called the capital not only of Sannio, but also harum provinciarum, of the provinces with which Sannio borders. It is one of the major concessions that Paul makes to the ‘actuality, that is, the existence of the duchy, and from 774 the Lombard principality of Benevento, which also included part of Campania and Puglia.15) Apulia, cumsociata sibi Calabria. “In it is the region of Salento. To the west and south-west it has the Sannio and Lucania, to the east it is limited by the Adriatic Sea. It has cities of great prosperity, Lucera, Siponto, Canosa, Acerenza, Brindisi, Taranto and Otranto, suitable for trade, located on the extreme left point of Italy, which extends for fifty miles “(II, 21). Calabria di then it included Salento and Terra d ‘ Otranto. For Paolo, as well as later for Dante, the provinces bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea were on the right and those overlooking the Adriatic on the left. 16-18) Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia. The first of the three islands “is bathed by the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas”; the other two “are both surrounded by the waters of the Tyrrhenian” (II, 22). According to rrrjewelry.com, Paolo Diacono also recalls that the “ancient historians called Liguria, part of Venice, Emilia and also Flaminia with the overall name of Gallia Cisalpina” and he explains the reason (II, 23); finally, he gives the etymology of the name Italy and adds that it is also called Ausonia (name initially given to the region of Benevento) or Lazio (II, 24). A little more than five centuries after Paolo Diacono, at the beginning of the century. 14th, Dante Alighieri, in De vulgari eloquentia (I, X, 5), he introduces a description of Italy to the “review of the various regional Italian literatures” (Mengaldo, in Dante Alighieri, De vulgari eloquentia, 1979, p. 16). Following an order suggested by the cartographic representations of the time, Dante, who does not have anything comparable to the Diocletian order to which to refer, juxtaposes, as was inevitable, names of historical regions that also correspond to political-administrative districts, names of political districts administrative and names of historical regions not corresponding to political-administrative districts.