This chapter shows how the papacy emancipated itself and the Duchy of Rome from the East Roman Empire during the course of the late seventh and eighth centuries CE. This is a story that has often been told, for example by Tom Noble in his Republic of St. Peter – arguably one of the most influential books on papal history written in the twentieth century. 1 Despite this, much can still be said about the way the complicated relationship between East and West was inextricably bound up in the practices of representation and identity construction. In seeking to further elucidate these developments, this chapter will adopt an approach developed within postcolonial theory, the theory of Othering. Whilst some disciplines have been grappling with these ideas more or less since their inception, their application in the study of the early Middle Ages has only started relatively recently.