Docibilis I was the Hypatus of Gaeta from 867 until his death.

The sudden disappearance of the co-hypati Constantine

Constantine of Gaeta

Constantine was the first known Hypatus of Gaeta from 839 or thereabouts until he disappears from records abruptly in 866. From the abruptness of his disappearance, he is often supposed to have been desposed violently by his successor Docibilis I....

 and Marinus I

Marinus I of Gaeta

Marinus I was probably a Hypatus of Gaeta in association with his father from 839 or thereabouts until he disappears from records abruptly in 866. From the abruptness of his disappearance, he and his father are often supposed to have been disposed violently by their successor Docibilis I. Marinus...

 after 866 strongly suggests that perhaps Docibilis' assumption of power had been violent. He is first cited as a prefect

Prefect

Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....

urius and then as hypatus

Hypatus

Hýpatos and the variant apó hypátōn was a Byzantine court dignity, originally the Greek translation of Latin consul . The dignity arose from the honorary consulships awarded in the late Roman Empire, and survived until the early 12th century...

from 877, when he followed his predecessor's example and associated his son John

John I of Gaeta

John I was the second hypatus of Gaeta of his dynasty, a son of Dociblis I and Matrona, and perhaps the greatest of medieval Gaetan rulers....

 with him.

In his first years in office, he was faced with the Saracen

Saracen

Saracen was a term used by the ancient Romans to refer to a people who lived in desert areas in and around the Roman province of Arabia, and who were distinguished from Arabs. In Europe during the Middle Ages the term was expanded to include Arabs, and then all who professed the religion of Islam...

 menace and he fell into their hands. After being liberated by Amalfi

Amalfi

Amalfi is a town and comune in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno, c. 35 km southeast of Naples. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto , surrounded by dramatic cliffs and coastal scenery...

, he made peace with the Saracens and was excommunicated by Pope John VIII

Pope John VIII

Pope John VIII was pope from December 13, 872 to December 16, 882. He is often considered one of the ablest pontiffs of the ninth century and the last bright spot on the papacy until Leo IX two centuries later....

. In 876, the pope was down in the Mezzogiorno

Mezzogiorno

The Midday is a wide definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the southern half of the Italian state, encompassing the southern section of the continental Italian Peninsula and the two major islands of Sicily and Sardinia, in addition to a large number of minor islands...

 recruiting the princes of Capua

Capua

Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. Ancient Capua was situated where Santa Maria Capua Vetere is now...

 and Salerno

Salerno

Salerno is a city and comune in Campania and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea....

 for the war with the Moslems. Docibilis met the pope at Traetto, but could not come to terms. The pope then interfered in the Capuan succession on the death (879) of Landulf II

Landulf II of Capua

Landulf II was Bishop and Count of Capua. He was the youngest of four sons of Landulf I, gastald of Capua. As a young man, he entered the church. When his father died, his eldest brother, Lando, succeeded him....

 to impose Pandenulf

Pandenulf of Capua

Pandenulf was the Count of Capua, claiming that title from 862 and holding it successfully during the tumultuous civil war of 879 – 882. He was the son and successor of Pando, but was removed on his father's death by his uncle the bishop, Landulf II....

 over Lando

Lando III of Capua

Lando III was the count of Capua for two years and ten months from 882 to his death. He was a son of Landenulf, gastald of Teano, and grandson of Landulf I of Capua....

 in return for Pandenulf attacking Docibilis. Formia

Formia

Formia is a city and comune in the province of Latina, on the Mediterranean coast of Lazio . It is located halfway between Rome and Naples, and lies on the Roman-era Appian Way.-History:...

 was captured and Docibilis called up some Saracen mercenaries from Agropoli

Agropoli

Agropoli is a town and comune located in the Cilento area of the province of Salerno, Campania, Italy. It is situated at the start of the Cilento coast, on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Its population is 21.251.-Pre-medieval period:...

. He met the pope at Gaeta

Gaeta

Gaeta is a city and comune in the province of Latina, in Lazio, central Italy. Set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta, it is 120 km from Rome and 80 km from Naples....

 itself and made peace. Together they besieged the Saracen fortress on the Garigliano.

After the pope's death, he turned around and attacked Capua, according to Erchempert

Erchempert

Erchempert was a monk of Monte Cassino in the final quarter of the ninth century. He chronicled a history of Lombard Benevento, giving especially vivid account of the violence surrounding his monastic retreat in his own day. The work, Historia Langobardorum Beneventanorum, stops in the winter of...

, with Saracen mercenaries

Mercenary

A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...

 in 900 and 903. He then began to turn and form alliances with the Lombard

Lombards

The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...

 rulers, marrying his daughter Megalu to Rodgipert of Aquino and Euphemia to the prefect of Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

. Docibilis appears for the last time in 906 and may have died then, though it is only certain that his is dead by 914. His long career was the golden age

Golden Age

The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...

 of Gaeta in Dark Ages. He began construction on the great palace whose ruins still stand in the city and he spent profusely on churches and ecclesiastic endowments for the sake of his soul. He was a warrior-prince as well, whose quarrels with all his neighbours, Moslem and Christian, Lombard and Greek, ecclesiastic and secular, fill the chronicles of the age, especially Erchempert's. For this, it is likely that after 906, he was either dead or retired.

By his wife Matrona, he had two other sons besides John, Leo and Anatolio, whom he made duke of Terracina

Terracina

Terracina is a town and comune of the province of Latina - , Italy, 76 km SE of Rome by rail .-Ancient times:...

. He had two other daughters besides Megalu and Euphemia: Bona and Maria. John succeeded him and immediately associated his son and his father's namesake, Docibilis II

Docibilis II of Gaeta

Docibilis II was the ruler of Gaeta, in one capacity or another, from 906 until his death. He was the son of the hypatus John I, who made him co-ruler in 906 or thereabouts....

, in the dukeship. It is just possible that all three were associated together, but it cannot be proven.

Sources

• Caravale, Mario (ed). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani XL Di Fausto – Donadoni. Rome
  Rome
  Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
  
  , 1991.