remaining which the title of emperor could add to the Patrician of Rome." This decisive testimony by the highest authority on the subject shows conclusively that all the power of sovereignty resided in Charlemagne as the Patrician of Rome, and that this, therefore, is a proper head to be ranked with the other six that preceded it.[14] [Footnote 14: Commentators frequently identify the seventh head with the Exarchate of Ravenna. After the overthrow of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths in Italy by Belisarius, the general of Justinian, about the middle of the sixth century, the territory became subject to the emperor of the Eastern empire and was ruled by him through an Exarch whose place of residence was Ravenna. This Exarchate (sometimes called _Patriciate_) continued until about the middle of the eighth century, when it was terminated by Astolphus, king of the Lombards, who made Ravenna the capital of the Lombardic kingdom in 752. Three years later the Lombards were defeated by Pepin, who made the Holy See a present of the lands he conquered from them--the origin of the temporal power of the Popes. Pepin was succeeded by his son Charlemagne, who was appointed _Patrician_ of Rome, by the Pope, in 774. During the last half century that the Exarchate of Ravenna remained its existence was but little more than a name, the real power of government being usurped by the Papacy. It could hardly be considered an inconsistency were we to interpret the seventh head as signifying both the Patriciate of Ravenna and the Patriciate of Charlemagne that closely followed it; but in the present work I have restricted its application to the latter form because of its distinctive characteristic as constituting a supreme civil power entirely independent of the empire of the East, and because of its importance in the revival of the empire of the West.] This head, however, continued only "a short space"; and an eighth arose on Christmas, the first day of the year 800 (as time was then reckoned), when Charlemagne was crowned emperor of Rome, and thus revived the empire of the West. This eighth head, however, was "of the seven"; for it was the same as the sixth, both being Imperial--the first being in the Augustan line, and the other in the Carlovingian, and separated from each other by the seventh, or Patriciate. Considered one way, there were eight heads, but two of them were alike, hence only seven; for the eighth was of the seven. According to verse 11 it was under the eighth head that the beast subsisted at the time he was carrying the woman of this chapter, which exactly accords with the historical facts in the case; and the same was continued in a line of emperors reaching down to the time of the French Revolution.