In the year 695 Justinian II. was deposed and mutilated by Leontius, but he was to appear again as emperor ten years later when Sergius was dead and John VII. sat on the throne of Peter.  Pope John reigned but for three years, in which he was successfully bullied by Justinian.  He was then succeeded by Sisinnius, who reigned for a few months, and then by Constantine who ruled for seven years (708-715).  The archbishops of Ravenna had certainly not dared openly to side with the imperial party and the exarch during the revolution, but, with the restoration of Justinian, archbishop Felix (708-724) felt himself strong enough to oppose the pope when he categorically required of him an oath “to do nothing contrary to the unity of the Church and the safety of the empire.”  He had, however, chosen a bad time to set himself against his superior, who in the minds of all was the champion of Italy.

Justinian II. had by no means forgotten the injuries he had received at the hands of the Ravennati:  “ad Ravennam,” says Agnellus, “corda revolvens retorsit, et per noctem plurima volvens, infra se taliter agens; heu quid agam et contra Ravennam quae exordia sumam?” “What can I do against Ravenna?” What he did was this.  Theodore the patrician, one of his generals, was despatched with a fleet to Ravenna by way of Sicily.  He proceeded up the Adriatic and when far off he saw the great imperial city, he first, according to Agnellus, lamented its fate, “for she shall be levelled with the ground which lifted her head to the clouds;” and then having landed and been greeted with due ceremony, set his camp on the banks of the Po a few hundred yards outside the city walls.  There he invited all the chief men of the Ravennati to a banquet in the open air.  As two by two they entered his tent to be presented to their host they were bound and gagged and put aboard ship.  Thus all the nobles and Felix the archbishop were taken and the soldiers of Theodore entered Ravenna and burned their houses to the ground.

Theodore took his captives to Constantinople where they were all slain save Felix, who, however, was blinded.  Later he returned to Ravenna, was reconciled with the Holy See, and died archbishop in 725.

It would appear that all this happened when Theophylact (702-709) was exarch, though Theodore the patrician may have superseded him for a moment on his arrival.  The exarch in 710 was Joannes Rizocopus, and in that year pope Constantine visited Constantinople with the future pope Gregory II. in his train.  They met in Rome, the pope about to set sail, the exarch on his way to Ravenna, where he was apparently assassinated in a popular tumult, “the just reward of his wickedness.”  The people of Ravenna then elected a certain Giorgius as their captain, and all the neighbouring cities, Cervia, Forli, Forlimpopoli, and others, placed themselves under his government and turned upon the imperial troops.  We know very little of this revolution, what directly was