Apart from a number of scattered possessions in Dalmatia, and southern Gaul, the patrimonies were naturally for the most part situated in Italy and on the adjacent islands. Lands in Dalmatia and Illyricum were lost during the Avar and Slavic invasions. The most valuable and extensive possessions were those in Sicily, about Syracuse and Palermo. The revenues from these properties in Sicily and Lower Italy were estimated at three and one-half talents of gold in the eighth century, when Byzantine Emperor Leo the Isaurian confiscated them.