Paolo Lucio Anafesto or Anafestus Paulucius was the first doge of Venice. A noble of Heraclea, then the primary city of the region, he was elected in 697 as an official over the entire lagoon that surrounded Venice, both to put an end to the conflicts between the various tribunes who until then had governed the various parts, and to coordinate the defence against the Lombards and the Slavs who were encroaching on the settlements.

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