 The subordinate military officials who were their representatives in the Venetian lagoons were called tribunes, and only in about AD 697 were the lagoons made a separate military command under a " ().Notwithstanding the election of the first , vassalic evidence such as honours and orders received by the doge from the Emperor implies that Venice was considered part of the Byzantine Empire even after the capture of Ravenna by the Lombards.Despite the (803), which recognised Venice as Byzantine territory, the influence of the Eastern Roman Emperor slowly faded away.