[4] Richard was the son of Count Bartholomew of Carinola, as attested by Peter the Deacon, who calls him Bartholomei de Caleno filius in his Chronicon Cassinense.
[8] As a sign of Gaeta's independence, between March or May 1113 and July 1114 he and Richard issued charters dated to the joint reign of the Byzantine emperors Alexios I (1081–1118) and John II (1092–1143).
[9] In 1115 Rangarda seized the tower and other possessions of the abbey at Suio in retaliation for the imprisonment of her second husband, Alexander, count of Sessa Aurunca.
[10] In March 1118, when the Emperor Henry V installed an antipope, Gregory VIII in Rome, the legitimate Pope Gelasius II fled to his home town of Gaeta.
This prompted Duke Richard to request aid from his lord and cousin, Prince Jordan II of Capua, who immediately invaded the Terra Sancti Benedicti, the lands of Montecassino.
Only the intervention of the pope, who confirmed Oderisius in his possession of Pico, and a payment of 300 pounds of gold by the abbot to the prince stopped Jordan from taking the castle back by force.
[19] The deposition of Oderisius II in 1126 caused a scramble among the enemies of Montecassino to seize territory from the Terra Sancti Benedicti.
In 1125, according to Peter the Deacon, he sacked the towns of Sant'Ambrogio, La Giuntura, Santo Stefano, San Giorgio and Sant'Apollinare.
On 4 February he was the first listed witness to the oath Robert swore to Abbot Seniorectus to respect the possessions of Montecassino within his domains.
[23] In March, crediting Richard and another baron, Rainald Lopinus, for the idea, Robert ceded 300 tarì in annual income from Casa Genzana to Montecassino.
[26] In 1140 some Gaetan ships made a raid on the Genoese coast, but that year the duke was compelled to do liege homage and swear an oath of fealty (legium hominium et ligiam fedelitatem) not only to King Roger, but also to his sons Duke Roger III of Apulia and the recently installed Prince Alfonso of Capua.