Teodato Ipato

Who is Teodato Ipato?

Teodato Ipato was the doge of Venice after a brief interregnum following the death of his father, Orso Ipato, in 742. His surname is in fact the Byzantine title hypatos. Teodato moved the capital of the Venetiae from Heraclea to Malamocco.

In 751, the Byzantine exarchate of Ravenna fell to the Lombards and Venice became the last Byzantine holdout in the north of Italy. In that same year, the Franks deposed their last Merovingian monarch, Childeric III, and elected the Carolingian Pepin the Short, a sworn ally of the pope and enemy of the Lombards. Venice became, at that point, a practically independent state. Teodato did not enjoy being at the head of it for long: he was deposed and blinded in 755 by Galla Gaulo, who usurped the ducal throne.