EXARCH (ἑξαρχός, a chief person or leader), a title that has been conferred at different periods on certain chief officers or governors, both in secular and ecclesiastical matters. Of these, the most important were the exarchs of Ravenna. The first of these was appointed by Justinian, emperor of the East, as governor of the middle part of Italy, which was made a province of the Eastern empire after Narces had entirely subdued the Goths and their allies in Italy, A.D. 552–554. Ravenna, with the whole exarchate,
was conquered by Astolphus, king of the Lombards, in the year 752; but three years later it was taken by Pepin, king of the Franks, who bestowed it on the pope (Stephen III.),—since which time Ravenna and its territory have remained united to the papal dominions.