No More Learning

They furnish information concerning several kings
whose names do not occur in any known document, and who must
probably be regarded as usurpers, rebels, or unsuccessful candidates for
the throne, such as Tutila or Tudila of Iliberis and Merida, and Tajita
of Acci, who are supposed to belong to the period between Recared I
and Sisenand, and Suniefred or Cuniefred, who possibly belongs to the
time of Receswinth or Wamba.
C. MED. II. VOI. II. CH. VI. 13


## p. 194 (#226) ############################################

194
CHAPTER VII.
ITALY UNDER THE LOMBARDS.
The Lombards are mentioned first at the time of Augustus and
Tiberius by Velleius Paterculus and Strabo, and a hundred years later
by Tacitus. Their first residence was the Bardengau on the left bank
of the lower Elbe, and here they were conquered by Tiberius at the
time before the battle in the Teutoburgian forest, when the Romans
still intended to subdue the whole of Germany. After the deliverance
of the inner part of Germany by Arminius, the Lombards were ruled by
Marbod, who went over to Arminius and later on brought back to his
compatriots Italicus, the son of Arminius, whom the Cherusci had fetched
from Rome and then driven away again. They are generally described as
a small tribe, the fiercest of all German tribes, and only their bravery
enabled them to hold their position between their stronger neighbours.
On the whole their habits seem to have been the same as those of all
other Germans at the time of Tacitus; some of their laws of a later
period shew a certain resemblance to those of their former neighbours by
the North Sea. As with all Germans, their kingdom is no original insti-
tution, and whatever tradition tells about it is only fabulous. It is the
smallness of their tribe which accounts for their principal quality—the
tendency to assimilate the allied or subdued individuals and tribes.
Roman influence seems to have touched them only in the slightest
degree during the first five centuries of our era. At the time of their
wanderings they began to shew differences from their neighbours.
We know nothing about the way the Lombard wanderings took,
though tradition says a good deal about them. The extensive farming
they practised, consisting more in cattle-breeding than agriculture, and
the loose organisation of the tribe made it easy for them to leave their
dwelling-places. Perhaps here, as is so often the case, the first motive
was need of land, a natural result of the increase of population, while
at the same time so small a tribe had no possibility of enlarging its
boundaries. A division of Lombards invaded Pannonia with the
Marcomanni about the year 165, but were repulsed by the Romans and
obliged to return. They did not again reach the old Roman frontier,
the Danube, till 300 years later, under a certain king Godeoch,


## p. 195 (#227) ############################################

487-568]
The Lombards
195
who occupied the desolated Kugiland after the destruction of their
empire by Odovacar in the year 487. Meanwhile during the
troubles of their wanderings and continual wars the institution of a
constant commander-in-chief in form of kingship seems to have taken
the place of the Tacitean duke who was invested for every single war
From Rugiland they wandered into the land which was called "Feld"
(in Hungary) but were subdued by the Heruli and forced to pay
tribute. At that time they were probably landlords, leaving the land
to subjected half-freemen (aldiones) for culture; we may suppose that
they were at that time strongly influenced by their neighbours, the
Bavarians, and it was then that they adopted Christianity in its Arian
form. But not very long afterwards, during the Franco-Ostrogothic
war in Gaul, the Lombards, under the reign of their king Tato of
the family of Leth, shook off the yoke of the Heruli, who were
allied with Theodoric, succeeded in beating them completely in a battle
somewhere in the Hungarian plain, and entirely destroyed their realm.
The Lombards now had the Gepidae on the south and the Danube on
the west. Tato's nephew and successor, King Vacho, who had married
one daughter to a Frankish king and another to Garibald, duke of
Bavaria, considered himself friend and ally of the Roman Emperor.
When after the death of the last "Lethingian" king his guardian
Audoin had mounted the throne, the Lombards crossed the Danube
and, while the Ostrogothic land was in great confusion, occupied the
south-west of Hungary, and also Noricum, the south of Styria, both
belonging in name to the Roman Empire, but left to them for settlement
by Justinian. In this way they were loosely federated with the Empire,
which paid them subsidies, but was nevertheless troubled by their raids.
They assisted Narses in his decisive expedition to Italy, bringing him
2500 warriors with 3000 armed followers, but the Byzantine soon sent
them back after the deciding battle, seeing how dangerous they were to
friend and foe through their fierceness and want of discipline. Meanwhile
the Lombards and Gepidae, stirred up by the Roman Emperor, were en-
gaged in constant battles and struggles. After Audoin's death his son and
successor Alboin, well known to fable, concluded a league with the Avars,
engaging himself to pay the tenth part of all cattle for their help in war
and, in case of victory, to give up the land of the Gepidae to the Avars.
The latter made their invasion from the north-east, the Lombards
from the north-west. In the decisive battle Kunimund, king of the
Gepidae, was slain by Alboin's hand, the king's daughter taken prisoner
and made queen by Alboin. Part of the Gepidae took flight, another
part surrendered to the Lombards; their realm existed no more, their
land and the few who stayed behind fell under the government of the
Avars, who were now the Lombards1 most dangerous neighbours. But
the Lombards renewed their confederacy with them, and left to
them the land they had themselves occupied till then, intending to
ch. vii. 13—2



## p. 196 (#228) ############################################

196 AlboirCs Invasion [563-572
conquer for themselves a better and richer land in Italy, which many
of them already knew. At the command of Alboin they assembled on
1 April 568, with family, goods and chattels, with a mixed multitude
of all the subjugated races already assimilated by their people. With
a great number of allies—20,000 Saxons among others—and grouped in
tribes (fara) they crossed the Alps under the guidance of Alboin.
About the same time Narses was recalled by Justinian's successor: hence
arose a rumour, reporting that the commander had committed treason,
by calling the Lombards; and this became the saga of Narses.
In spite of the well-organised defensive system which Narses had
established, the Romans seem to have been surprised and made no
attempt at defence. The Lombards threw down the Friulian limes
with its castles and, marching into the Venetian plain, took Cividale
(Forum Julii), the first important place that fell into their hands, and
afterwards the residence of the ducal dynasty of the Gisulfings; they
also destroyed the town of Aquileia, whose patriarch fled to Grado,
the later New-Aquileia, with his treasure, part of the population and
of the soldiers. But the imperialists succeeded in holding out in
Padua, Monselice and Mantua, thereby defending the line of the
Po, while Vicenza and Verona fell into Alboin's hands, so that the
important limes of Tridentum, which bordered on Bavaria in the north,
was separated from the bulk of the imperial army. On 4 September
569, Alboin entered Milan; the archbishop Honoratus fled to Genoa,
which for two generations remained the asylum of the bishops of Milan.
Ticinum (Pavia) alone offered resistance for a time and could only be
taken after a long siege, during which and afterwards other Lombard
troops scoured the country up to the Alps and took possession of the
land except a few fortifications. Undoubtedly the Lombard bands had
as little idea of systematic attack as the imperialists of systematic
defence: and it seems the latter judged the Lombard invasions to be
like other barbarian invasions, which soon passed away. Alboin himself
seems to have dated his reign in Italy from the time of his occupation
of Milan.
Alboin did not long enjoy his fame. Revolted by her husband's
insolence, who forced her to drink from a cup made of her father
Kunirnund's skull, Rosamund conspired with Alboin's foster-brother
Helmechis and a powerful man called Peredeo; the barbarian hero-
king was murdered in his bed (in spring 572). But as Rosamund
could not realise her plan of taking possession of the throne with
Helmechis, against the Lombards' opposition, the two fled to Ravenna,
taking the royal treasure with them. Here the queen wanted to
get rid of her accomplice and marry Longinus, praefect of Italy;
but Helmechis forced her to finish the poison she had given him. So
the praefect could only deliver Alboin's daughter and the treasure to
Constantinople. This is what the saga related, and we can neither



## p. 197 (#229) ############################################


574]
Settlement of the Lombards
197
confirm nor contradict its details. The duke Cleph of the family of Beleos
was now made king by the Lombards at Pavia, but was murdered after
one and a half years' reign (574). Lombard bands spread further in
middle and southern Italy, but so small was the need of a single leader
that they chose no more kings, but every one of the dukes, 35 in number,
reigned independently in his own district.
These dukes, called duces by our authorities, but whose Lombard
titles we do not know, are not to be confounded with the duces in the
Tacitean sense. We must picture them as leaders of a military division
chosen by the king from among the nobles. Their position changed
naturally, when the Lombard people was no longer on march, but the
same clans were garrisoned permanently in the same town, as the saga of
Gisulf s appointment in Friuli exemplifies, and occupied permanently the
same district, living on its produce. These districts generally coincided
with the Roman division in civitates, and a walled town formed the
centre. Probably these towns were at first used as victualling stations,
managed in a more or less regular manner, sometimes perhaps by
imposing payment of a third on the peasants of the district. But this
could only be considered a transition state, preparing the way for
definite settlement. The fierce Lombards had not come as federates or
friends like the Goths, but as enemies, and treated the Romans jure
belli.
The Roman freeman—the curialis who owned a moderate property
in the town or the great landowner in the country—had fled, or had
been killed or enslaved, and only the great mass of working people, the
cokmi and the agricultural slaves, had been left on the soil, though
many had perished during the terrors of war. When the Lombards
began to settle, they divided the land, with all its bondmen, as far
as it had not been entirely devastated, between the free Lombards,
who thereby took the place of the Roman landlords. The coloni were
considered as aldiones, as half-freemen, and paid tribute and did socage
service for the Lombards as they had done for the Romans before. Of
course the possessions of the Catholic Church, which was the Church of
the Roman State, fell under the same lot of division. The dukes claimed
for themselves all the public land with its traditional duties as well, but
every free Lombard warrior was entitled to part of the booty, and there-
fore became also a landowner. In this way the local division in all those
parts which had not been totally devastated, and which were ploughed
again after a time, suffered no change. The culture was much the same,
with the one difference that the Lombards, having brought great herds
of cattle, especially swine, from Pannonia, attached more importance
within the manor to stock-management and cattle-breeding than the
Romans had done. The towns and municipal settlements were likewise
unchanged, because the Lombards, who had known stone buildings only
upon Roman soil, accommodated themselves to the conditions of a


## p. 198 (#230) ############################################


198
Spoleto and Benevento
[574-579
higher culture. It is certain that regard was paid to the connexion
between the fara (clan) in every settlement, but on the other hand it
was just the manorial and municipal settlement which entirely destroyed
the connexion within the fara, so that the rest of the original clan-
organisation soon disappeared. Two of the duchies were somewhat
different in origin and organisation from those of the north of Italy, the
"great duchies" of Spoleto and Benevento. They did not go back to
the time of conquest in common, but were founded by independent
enterprises of Lombard bands, who had severed from the great mass
under command of their chiefs and invaded the land on their own
account. They were much larger in extent than one civitas, so that here
the civitas forms a subdivision of the duchy.
In the year 575 or 576 the patrician Baduarius, son-in-law to the
Emperor Justin, and his army were entirely beaten by the Lombards.
They approached Ravenna, the duke Faroald even occupied for a time
Classis, its port, destroyed the Petra Pertusa, which defended the Via
Flaminia, and thereby forced the passage of the Apennines. Faroald
occupied Nursia, Spoleto and other towns and installed an Arian bishop in
Spoleto, which was now the centre of his duchy. Another duke, Zotto,
who with his partly heathen bands inundated the province of Samnium
and spread terror all around, settled down in Benevento. The connexion
between Ravenna and Rome was interrupted at times; even Rome was
besieged in the year 579, but the Lombards were obliged to give up the
siege as well as that of Naples two years later, because Roman walls, kept
in good condition and provided with a sufficient number of defenders,
were impregnable to them. During the next years the two dukedoms
took a still wider range, limited only by Rome with its surroundings
and by Byzantine seaport-towns, which could not be taken from the
land side. During the kingless time Benevento and Spoleto grew so
strong that they were able to keep up their independence.
In the north of Italy too the incoherent government of the dukes
did not permit any uniform action. Even in Alboin's time various
troops had detached themselves and pillaged in Gaul, but upon the whole
these adventurers had no success against Mummolus, commander-in-chief
of the Burgundian king Guntram. The Saxons, who did not want to
assimilate with the Lombards and intended to make their way home
through the land of the Franks, were likewise beaten in the following
years.
But these bands had shewn the way into the neighbouring kingdom
to the dukes of North Italy. Some of these marched into the upper
valley of the Rhone and were beaten by the Burgundians near Bex (574)
and no better did they fare next year, as they were repulsed by
Mummolus, after having laid waste the land between the Rhone, the Isere
and the Alps. At this time Susa and Aosta, the most important passage
over the West Alps, seem to have fallen into the hands of the Franks,
^


## p. 199 (#231) ############################################

684] Authari 199
and on the other side, a Frankish duke, Chramnichis, advanced from
Austrasia into the dukedom of Trent, but was, after a short success, totally
defeated with his troops by the duke Evin near Salurn. These conflicts
took a dangerous aspect when the Emperor Maurice sent subsidies
(50,000 golidi) to the young king Childebert of Austrasia in order to drive
out the Lombards.
In 584 King Childebert conducted an army against Italy, and so weak
had the want of monarchical leading rendered the Lombard dukes that
they dared not offer resistance, and sent presents in token of submission.
Besides this their force of resistance had been weakened by the treason
of some of their fellow-countrymen who were not ashamed of joining
the imperialists against their own people. The imperial policy was to
combat barbarians with barbarians, and to spend abundant means for
this purpose. In this manner they had won over the duke Drocton
of Brexillum, a Lombard duke of Suevic family, who succeeded in
expelling Faroald from Classis, and other deserters were found as well.
Standing in danger of losing all their booty by dispersing their forces,
the dukes of West Italy at last resolved to unite again under a king's
leading.
They elected Authari the son of Cleph (584), and conceded to him
(as we hear), in order to give material foundation to the new kingdom,
half of their own lands, which were later administered by royal gantaldi.
The dukedom had, in consequence of the settlements during the last
ten years, become quite a different thing from what it had been at the
time of Alboin, and also the new kingdom was obliged to represent
not only the leading power of the army as before but also territorial
power.
The king's attempt to strengthen the new central power against the
forces of disunion, grown strong during the last period, now formed the
most important part of the Lombard State's politics, as it was the king's
task to form a really united State. He was no longer satisfied with the
dignity of a barbarian chieftain, but aspired to reign lawfully within
the territory of the Roman Empire. We see this from the fact that
Authari first took up the name Flavius, which all his successors kept,
though he was not acknowledged by the Empire, as for instance Theodoric
had been.
The Lombards wanted this territory to comprise all Italy, and a
legend illustrating the fact tells us that Authari rode into the sea at the
south point of Italy, and touched a solitary column, projecting out of
the waves, with his spear and called out: "This is to be the boundary
of the Lombard realm"; but in reality Authari's task was of a more
modest character and limited to the north of Italy. A new attack of
the Austrasians failed in consequence of the leaders' disagreements, and as
the Exarch Smaragdus felt too weak to offer resistance to the Lombards
without their help, Authari managed to conclude an armistice for three


## p. 200 (#232) ############################################

200 Theodelinda [588-590
years, the first that was concluded between the Lombards and the
Empire. Authari seems to have availed himself of this opportunity
partly to restore order in North Italy and partly to ensure his boundary
in the north, and above all to destroy the Franco-Byzantine league,
which threatened the existence of his realm. He therefore betrothed
himself to Childebert's sister, but the engagement was soon broken by
the Franks when the Frankish imperial and catholic party of Brunhild
got the ascendant. Authari however married Theodelinda (588 ? ), the
Catholic daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibal, who, by her mother,
belonged to the old Lombard royal family of the Lethings. The other
daughter was married to the mighty duke Evin of Tridentum, and her
brother Gundoald was made duke of Asti by Authari. When the
Franks, by this time, repeated their invasion of Italy under the leading
of a few dukes, they were entirely beaten after a hot battle. Childeberfs
revenge was prevented by AutharTs negotiations with him (589) and by
his offer to become even a dependent confederate and pay tribute.
Meanwhile, after the armistice had ended, Authari had succeeded in
removing the last remnants of imperial power on the northern boundaries
of Italy, and had probably also obtained his acknowledgment by the
duke of Friuli. Nevertheless his position was much impaired when a
new exarch, Roman us, appeared in Ravenna with reinforcements,
regained Altinum, Modena and Mantua, and induced the Lombard
dukes of the Emilia, as well as the duke of Friuli, to join the imperialists.
The negotiations were broken off, and imperialists and Franks planned
to destroy the Lombard power by a systematic and simultaneous attack
from north and south, and had even agreed already on the distribution of
the booty. Twenty Frankish dukes broke forth from the Alps in two
divisions, one marching against Milan, the other under the duke Chedinus
against Verona, after having broken through the fortification of the
frontier and devastated the land all around (summer 590); but no
important conflicts took place, because the Lombards retired into their
fortifications, fearing the enemy's overwhelming numbers. The exarch
came to meet the Franks at Mantua, and intended to march in a line
parallel to them against Pavia, to which Authari had drawn back; but
this plan was not put into practice, it is said, in consequence of misunder-
standings.
The Frankish dukes tried to secure their moveable booty, and Duke
Chedinus is said to have concluded an armistice for ten months; but
epidemics and famine caused great losses on their way back. After
these efforts, which had brought no real success to them, the Franks
ceased to invade Italy for more than a century and a half. Authari
lived to manage the negotiations for peace which led to a lasting
friendship between the Franks and Lombards later on, though only on
condition of paying tribute to the Franks—a burden which was, as it
seems, not for a long time thrown off by the Lombards. The northern


## p. 201 (#233) ############################################

590-605] Agilulf 201
boundary, at all events, was secured, and the Lombards were only
threatened from one side, by the imperials. But Authari did not live
to see the definite treaty of peace; he is said to have been poisoned
and died (5 Sept. 590). The result of his active life was the establish-
ment of a kingdom and the Lombard State, though many difficulties
still awaited the Lombards from within and without.
Two months after Authari's death, Agilulf, duke of Turin, obtained
the crown and married his predecessor's widow, Theodelinda. In May
591 an assembly of Lombards at Milan acknowledged him solemnly, but
a number of North Italian dukes had then to be subdued in repeated
battles; also Piacenza and Parma were again subjected, and in the
latter town the king's son-in-law was established as duke, as the king
generally claimed the right to nominate the dukes himself. He ensured
the northern boundary by an agreement with the Avars which became
a defensive and offensive alliance later on. The time had now come
for a systematic attack on the imperialists. The newly-nominated
duke of Benevento, Arichis, who had consolidated his duchy by gaining
nearly all the territories in South Italy with the exception of a few
towns on the coast, had the especial task of marching against Naples and
threatening Rome from the south, while Ariulf of Spoleto had already
destroyed the land communication between Rome and Ravenna in
April 592, and even appeared before Rome in the summer, afterwards
turning to the north and taking the castles on the upper Tiber. To
be sure, the exarch succeeded in regaining them during the time he
was free of Agilulf; but in 593 the king himself advanced southward,
occupied Perusia and appeared before Rome. The siege ended in a
treaty with Pope Gregory who only wished for peace, but it was
not acknowledged by the exarch after the king had marched off;
the war did not cease, and the Lombards made constant progress.
It was only after the Exarch Romanus' death (596) that, by the pope's
urging, the transactions were renewed seriously; it is true that the new
exarch, Callinicus, carried on the war in North Italy, but he concluded an
armistice of a year in autumn 598 on the basis of the status quo and
engaged himself to pay 500 pounds in gold to the Lombard king. The
armistice was renewed for the time from spring 600-601 but, when the
war was taken up again, the exarch succeeded in making prisoners of
the duke of Parma and his wife, Agilulf s daughter; but the Lombard
king took Padua, devastated Istria with Slav and Avar troops, con-
quered the fortified town of Monselice, enforced peace on the rebellious
dukes of Friuli and Tridentum and occupied in 603 Cremona and
Mantua. The central position of the imperialists at Ravenna appeared to
be endangered after the subjugation of all the north of Italy, and the
Exarch Smaragdus, who was again sent to Italy after the fall of the
Emperor Maurice, hastily concluded a new armistice till 605, and
surrendered the king's daughter. Then Agilulf crossed the Apennines



## p. 202 (#234) ############################################

202 Theodelinda and Adaloald [605-628
once more, occupied Balneum Regis and Orvieto, but in November 605
the imperialists obtained a new armistice at the price of paying a tribute
of 12,000 solidi. From that time till Agilulf s death and even afterwards,
this armistice was continually prolonged. It is true that a definite state
of peace, which would have naturally led to a legal partition of the
Italian soil, was not effected, though Agilulfs ambassador Stablicianus
seems to have entered into negotiations on this subject in Constantinople.
Agilulf died in 616 after 25 years of a warlike reign, in which he had
expanded and strengthened his empire and obliged the Romans to pay
tribute.
To Agilulf his son Adaloald (a minor) followed in name, but
Theodelinda exercised the ruling influence on government in his place.
While Authari had never allowed Lombard children Catholic baptism,
a Catholic chapel had been conceded to Theodelinda at Monza and
Adaloald himself was already baptised as a Catholic, though by a
schismatic, and Theodelinda, who exchanged occasional letters with
Pope Gregory, was schismatic in relation to the Three Chapters. In this
way Agilulf had not tolerated the organisation of the Roman Church
within the reach of his power, but the schismatic bishop of Aquileia and
his schismatic suffragans had taken refuge with the Lombards. Agilulf
had also given deserted land in the Apennines at the confluence of the
torrent Bobbio and the Trebbia to the Irish monk Columba (Columbanus)
who had fled from Gaul, and differed dogmatically from Rome. He also
gave permission to lay the foundations of a monastery at Bobbio, but the
monks soon turned to orthodoxy after Columbanus1 death, and even got
a privilege in 628, by which they were exempted from the power of the
neighbouring bishop of Tortona. In contrast to the national chiefs, who
were still Arian, the government favoured the Catholics or at least the
schismatics, and in consequence Roman influence made rapid progress
in the Lombard kingdom, favoured partly by the social influence
of the Roman subjects, partly by the intercourse with the Roman
neighbours, which the long armistices had so well prepared. Neverthe-
less the peace was once more broken at the beginning of AdaloakTs
reign between the Exarch Eleutherius and the Lombards under the
commander Sundrarius, who owed his training to Agilulf, but this
war was ended by another armistice, the exarch consenting to pay
a tribute of 500 pounds in gold. In the following years the Roman
influence on the king was so great that he was generally said to be
either mad or bewitched. Perhaps it was the national party among the
Lombards which raised upon the buckler Arioald, the duke of Turin,
the husband of AdaloaWs sister Gundeberga, and after several combats
dethroned King Adaloald, who was then said to have been removed by
poison (626). Arioald reigned ten years too, without much change in
the course of Lombard politics. He came in conflict with his Catholic
wife, who was released from prison by the intervention of the Franks


## p. 203 (#235) ############################################

626-652]
Duchy of Friuli
203
and allowed Catholic service in a church of John the Baptist at
Pavia.
The alliance which Agilulf had formed with the Avars was dissolved.
They invaded Italy and killed Gisulf, duke of Friuli, with nearly the
whole of his army; his widow perfidiously surrendered Cividale which
was entirely burnt down and the open country was devastated, the
Lombards offering resistance only in the fortified castles at the frontier,
till the Avars turned back to Pannonia after their raid. No help was
to be expected for Friuli at that time from the weak kingdom; but at
last Gisulfs sons escaped from the Avars, and the two eldest, Taso
and Cacco, took the reins of government into their hands. While the
power of the Avars was decreasing, the young dukes in alliance with
Bavarians and Alemans fought successfully against the Slavs, and during
Arioald's reign penetrated victoriously into the valleys of the Alps
perhaps as far as Windisch-Matrei and the valley of the Gail, and
obliged the Slavs to pay tribute. But, following the intention of
Arioald, it is said, the exarch quietly removed Taso and Cacco, and their
uncle Grasulf was nominated duke of Friuli while the two younger sons
of Gisulf, Radoald and Grimoald, appealed to the protection of the
mighty duke Arichis of Benevento.
After Arioald's death the nobles in the kingdom elected the duke
Rothari of Brescia, an ardent Anan, who was connected with the former
dynasty by his marriage with the widowed queen Gundeberga. Never-
theless his policy (unlike that of his predecessors in the last twenty years)
was decidedly hostile to the Romans, though he tolerated the gradual
establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in the Lombard kingdom. He
sought to keep order in all internal matters and to raise the king's authority
over the nobles, and to this purpose war against the imperials, which had
rested during two decades, was taken up again, in order to strengthen the
king's royal domain by new conquests. He passed the Apennines and
conquered the coast between Luna and the Frankish boundary; he did not
instal dukes here but kept the conquered land under direct royal adminis-
tration, so that the greatest part of the west of Italy was royal. He
destroyed Oderzo in the east, the last remnant of Roman power on the
Venetian mainland, and slew the imperials in a bloody battle on the borders
of the Scultenna not far from the central seat of Roman dominion; he
concluded a suspension of hostilities shortly before his death (652). His
son Rodoald followed him, but was killed after a few months' reign.
More famous even than by his victorious enterprises and by the
saga that attaches itself to the name of "King Rother," Rothari was the
first legislator of the Lombards. Up to that time, the Lombards, like
all barbarian nations, had been ruled by customary laws, handed down
to them verbally by their ancestors. Rothari ordered them to be written
down, published as Edictus after having consulted his nobles, and con-
firmed according to Lombard custom by an assembly of warriors at Pavia




## p. 204 (#236) ############################################

204
Rothari
[643-662

(22 Nov. 643). Of course it was a territorial law, for only the Lombard,
who alone was " fulc-free,11 was subject to Lombard law in the Lombard
State, and the fact of its being written down shewed clearly enough that
the Lombard State placed itself in the same line with the respublica (the
Empire) and the other acknowledged States as perfectly equal to them.
When Rothari declares the law should protect the poor against the oppres-
sions of the mighty, we can find therein part of the means he employed
to keep order in internal matters. The kingdom was not only protected
by some of the laws of the Edictus but also shewed its power by the
fact of issuing legal regulations for the whole country, which, if not
at once, were at all events after a short time accepted irrevocably from
Benevento to Cividale. Its matter is essentially German law, but in
the supplements which Rothari's successors added, we can trace alien
influence; and, moreover, the form is naturally influenced by Roman
patterns. Comparative science of law has proved that Lombard law
had the greatest likeness to Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, and Scandinavian law
—a proof that the Lombards preserved their law unchanged in essential
matters since their departure from the lower Elbe. The Edictus is
systematically arranged, and treats of crimes against king, state or
man, especially compensations for bodily injuries, law of inheritance
and family right, and manumission, then obligations and real estate,
crimes against property, oath and bail. It can well be called the best
juridical codification of barbarian law.
The successor of Rotharfs son was Aripert, the son of that duke
Gundoald of Asti, who had come from Bavaria with his sister Theo-
delinda. During the nine years of his reign he, as a Catholic, carried on
the traditions of Theodelinda, in opposition to Rothari. He built a
Catholic church at Pavia and favoured the Catholic hierarchy, although
the assertion of a poem which celebrates the merits of his dynasty
about the year 700, that "the good and pious king11 abolished the
Arian heresy, is probably exaggerated. The bishop of Pavia was
converted to Catholicism. A change of policy took place only after his
death (661), when his two young sons Godepert in Pavia and Perctarit
in Milan, to whom he had left the government, fell out, and Godepert
claimed the help of the mighty duke Grimoald of Benevento against
his brother. After the death of Arichis, and of his son Ajo, who
had perished in a battle against Slav pirates near Sipontum (662), the
two sons of Gisulf of Friuli, Radoald and Grimoald, attained the
dignity of dukedom consecutively, and energetically maintained their
power in several battles against the imperialists. Grimoald, duke of
Benevento since 657, now marched into North Italy by the east
side of the Apennines against the centre of the Lombard realm, while
his subordinate, the count of Capua, marched through Spoleto and
Tuscia and joined the duke by Piacenza. Assisted by the treachery of
the duke Garibald of Turin, Grimoald seized the reins of government


## p. 205 (#237) ############################################


662-671]
Grimoald
205
himself after having killed King Godepert with his sword; Perctarit
had fled from Milan to the Avars and his wife and young son Cuninc-
pert had been sent into exile to Benevento. Grimoald now married
Aripert's daughter, who was already betrothed to him, and legitimated
his power by a later election at Pavia; for the purpose of gaining
firm support he bestowed royal domains in upper Italy on several
of his faithful followers of Benevento. He was the first Lombard
king who united the king's royal domain in the north with Bene-
vento under his actual government.
Mighty as he was, Grimoald had a long struggle for the preservation
of his royal power. Perctarit came back, and seemed to submit himself,
but was soon obliged to fly to the Franks, after the discovery of a
conspiracy between his followers and some disaffected dukes. The inter-
vention of a Frankish army in favour of the banished dynasty had no
success; by stratagem Grimoald contrived to attack them suddenly near
Asti and slew them. In the year 663 the Emperor Constans had landed
at Tarentum, in order to obtain a new base for his heavily oppressed
empire by conquests in the West, and the expulsion of the Lombards was
naturally the first condition for this enterprise. The Emperor occupied
Luceria with superior forces, assaulted Acerenza without success, and
then besieged Grimoald's young son Romuald at Benevento. The latter
pledged his sister Gisa in token of submission after having offered resistance
bravely; but Grimoald had already reached the river Sangro with a
relieving army, though many Lombards had left him, and young Romuald
did not fulfil his pledge; the Emperor gave up his siege and moved on
to his own city of Naples. This imperial army was said to have been
defeated twice: at all events Constans gave up war against the Lombards
for a time and after a short visit to Rome went on to Sicily, where he was
murdered. Romuald then occupied Tarentum, Brundusium and all the
rest of the imperial dominion on the Adriatic coast of South Italy, with
the exception of Hydruntum ; and Grimoald, after having installed Tran-
samund, a duke of his choice, in Spoleto, again devoted himself to his most
urgent tasks in North Italy, where he found in rebellion the duke Lupus
of Friuli, whom he had left in his place at Pavia. Evidently menaced
by other rebellions as well, the king himself appealed to the Khagan of
the Avars, for help against the duke; Lupus perished in the battle, but
the Avars now prepared to occupy Friuli as conquered land.
But, in
spite of the insufficiency of his military forces, Grimoald induced them to
depart, and set up Wechthari, a powerful soldier and the terror of the
Slavs, as duke of Friuli in place of Arnefrit, the son of Lupus, who had
tried to regain his father's inheritance by help of the Slavs, but had
been beaten and killed near Nimis. Grimoald took away Forli from
the imperials and razed to the ground Oderzo, where his brothers had
once been murdered: then he made peace with the Franks, so that
Perctarit did not feel safe any longer in his asylum, and prepared to fly


## p. 206 (#238) ############################################

206 The Bavarian Dynasty [671-698
to England. At this time the mighty king Grimoald died, after
having made sure the limits of his realm, and broken the dukes1 power,
in the ninth year of his reign (671). His eldest son Romuald took his
place in the dukedom of Benevento, while the young boy Gari bald, his
son by Aripert's daughter, inherited the royal crown.
By this time Perctarit returned from his exile and dethroned his
nephew Garibald with the help of his numerous followers; he and his
dynasty now held the throne for more than 40 years consecutively. He
made his son Cunincpert co-regent (680) and entered into friendly terms
with Romuald of Benevento, whose son, the younger Grimoald, married
Perctarit's daughter. In the south as well as in the north-west
Catholicism gained exclusive power, and in Benevento and Pavia many
foundations of cloisters spoke of a growing piety, shewn especially by the
two princesses. Numerous Lombard bishops had already assisted at the
Roman synod of 680; on the other hand the Three Chapters Schism
lasted on in Austrasia, on the east border of the Adda, in contrast to
Neustria westwards, where royalty had taken root more decidedly. The
duke Alahis of Tridentum, who had extended his territory northward in
the direction of the Bavarians, was too strong for Perctarit and even
added the dukedom of Brescia to his own. After Perctarit's death he
also occupied Pavia, drove King Cunincpert to a refuge on an isle in the
Lake of Como and acted as king, acknowledged by the greater part of the
north of Italy. But passing for a heretic and acting recklessly against
the Church, he made an enemy of the hierarchy, and Cunincpert was soon
able to return to Pavia, protected by their adherents. Between Neustria
and Austria on the field of Coronate a battle was fought between them;
Alahis fell, and a great part of his followers perished in the flood of the
Adda. This was at once a victory of kingdom over dukedom, and
orthodoxy over the Three Chapters Schism. An insurrection in Friuli
was also subdued; at a synod that had been convoked at the king's
request in Pavia (698? ) even those bishops of Austrasia who were still
schismatic acknowledged the fifth and sixth oecumenical councils, and
thus the unity of Catholic faith was established in Lombard Italy. The
only lasting effect of this schism was the division of the patriarchate of
Aquileia between the bishops of Grado and of Old-Aquileia, following
the civil boundaries between Lombards and Romans. Even before the
Roman Church triumphed throughout the whole Lombard realm, after
the Emperor Constans1 attempt to reconquer what he had lost had failed,
and the Bavarian dynasty's traditional policy of peace had replaced
Grimoald's belligerent policy—even at that time definite peace had
been made between the Empire and the Lombards, thereby placing the
Lombard State amid the States which were officially acknowledged by the
respublica. The acknowledgment of the status quo, the limits, which
had been fixed by a hundred years of war, formed the basis of peace;
and the Lombards renounced any further policy of conquest. This peace


## p. 207 (#239) ############################################

671-712] Roman Influence 207
seems to have been concluded between 678-681 at Constantinople, and
from that time the Lombard bishops, when the pope confirmed their
nomination at Rome, swore to provide that "peace, which God loves,
be maintained in eternity between the Respublka and us, that is, the
Lombard people. 11
Roman influence affected the Lombards in different ways. Inter-
course with the half-free Roman subjects had always been a strong force
since the beginning of the settlement; the schismatics coming from the
Roman Empire had found reception even at a very early period, as had
the merchants during the times of armistice, who maintained friendly
relations and profited by the great Lombard market; but when definite
peace had been made, lasting relations and safe intercourse with the new
allies were possible, so that free Romans and above all Catholic clergy
established themselves in the lands of their new friends and allies, who
also acknowledged their right to be tried by Roman law. Intermarriage
must have frequently happened at a very early period, and was furthered by
Lombard laws, which considered the freedman and free as equal, so that
marriages with freedmen or freedwomen were allowed and very common;
after the definite peace even unions between Lombards and women of the
Roman Empire were not a rare thing either. As the Lombards were in
a small minority, even in their own territory, intermarriage naturally
had a marked effect. The adaptation of the reigning people to the
Roman culture they had found led the same way. Thus they came to
the knowledge of new forms of culture and luxury, which could only be
satisfied in the Roman manner, partly by the industry of Roman subjects,
partly by booty made in war, and since the peace also by regular imports.
Trade and art are of Roman stamp, although the workmanship is decayed
and accommodates itself somewhat to barbarian taste. It was only in
Italy that the Lombards learnt to erect stone buildings, to construct
larger ships and use weapons of metal; their clothing changed similarly
and they gradually accepted the vulgar Latin language, especially because
all the terms of their new culture belonged to that language, the only
written language used, not only for written law, but all other documents
which were drawn up by Roman ecclesiastics and notaries following
Roman formulae. As their importance grew, the written word gained
supremacy in all matters of law. The oldest stories of Lombard history
and tradition are also written in Latin, and whatever there was of science,
in connexion with the Roman Church, was of course Latin. So the
lasting peace, and especially the peace with the Catholic Church, essentially
accelerated the process of assimilation in this sphere as well as in all others.
Constitutional development, as well as culture, was conditioned by the
fact and manner of settlement. The territorial State develops a central-
ising kingship in combat with centrifugal forces, and hides the original
basis of German freedom. The sept or clan had already lost every
economical foundation by the settlement, and we find no traces of the


## p. 208 (#240) ############################################

208 Government [671-712
centena among the Lombards. Politically the sept recedes as well, but
in matters of right it is only gradually superseded by the State. Rothari's
legislation endeavours to restrain the feud-right to the sept; high
penalties are fixed for the purpose of making the injured choose these
instead of feud; guiltless acts are not to lead to feud. The members of
the sept intervene as assistants at an oath, as combatants for a woman's
right at an ordeal; and the mundium of an unmarried woman is due to
the members of the sept if she has no nearer family relations. In contrast
to these poor remnants of the sept's power, which once had been so great,
family-connexion is very powerful, so that even by a disposal a last will
was allowed only very late and quite exceptionally. The national
assembly, that is the assembly of arimanni, still existed, and this as
well as the kingship expressed the Lombard unity; but this assembly
also was naturally entirely changed by the territorial State, having lost
its organic foundations in the septs, and as an assembly comprising all
or nearly all warriors was quite impossible considering the territorial
extension of the State. In reality it consisted only in the army that was
just ready for military operations, the king's attendants and the dukes
and nobles present, and, whereas the nobles were actually often sum-
moned to the preparatory council, the assembly of warriors had no
possibility of influencing current state affairs and only served to
heighten solemnities at a king's election or law-giving. The other
element of unity, which had probably been born only in the time of
wanderings—the kingship—predominated more and more in comparison;
it seems to have been attached to one family at a very early period,
and up to the eighth century connexion with the Lethingians was kept up
at least by the feminine line; but besides this inherited right, general
German custom demanded election, raising upon the buckler, and a solemn
act of fealty from the fideles. On the other hand, the territorial State and
Roman influence soon decided the extent of the king's power, though he
called himself rex gentis Langobardorum. This influence expresses itself
not only in the addition of the Roman name of Flavius and the Roman
name of honour, vir exceUentissimus, but also in the assertion of the
king's nearly unlimited power, which is already expressed in Rothari's
Edict: "we believe that the hearts of the kings are in the hands of
God. " The king has not only the arriere-ban, and all rights in connexion
with it. As supreme justice and protector of peace, he has his own
peace secured by a high penalty, intercedes wherever all other forces
give way, is the Lombard State's supreme guardian in a certain sense,
and being the State's only representative, no difference is made between
his own rights and those of the State. His alone is the right of coinage,
since the Lombards—before Rothari even—had learnt the art and use
of coining from the Romans; and that the duke of Benevento coined as
well as the king only shews how independent he kept himself of the
Lombard State.


## p. 209 (#241) ############################################

671-712]
Government
209
Opposed to the centralising kingdom is the particular power of the
dukes, their different positions varying of course from the mmmus dux
gentis Langobardorum down to the duke of a small provincial town in
North Italy. But on the whole the dukes endeavoured to found their
power on inherited rights, and to exercise in their own territory the
same authority which belonged to the king in the whole State, whereas
the king claimed for himself the right of nominating the dukes and treated
them as his officials. But the foundation of the king's royal domain
was especially intended to counterbalance the power of the dukes; the
larger this royal domain, the greater was the power of the State.
Except those duchies which were in the hands of the royal family, this
royal domain is said to have been partly formed by the half of all ducal
property, which was given up to Cleph—though this cession can only
relate to the dukes of a part of northern Italy—and partly by the
conquest of new land, which was not left to the dukes. The whole
royal domain has its own royal administration, lying in the hands of
the gastcUdi who are partly royal stewards, partly the king's repre-
sentatives with competence in matters of arriere-ban and judgment, but
being only the king's officials they have, in contrast to the dukes, no
independent jurisdiction. In Benevento and Spoleto, where immediate
royal power does not reach, the gastaldi are officials of the duke in the
district of a civitas. Subordinated to these indices, that is the dukes
and gastaldi who generally reside in walled towns and whose office
consists in a whole iudiciaria, stand the adores (sculdahis, centenarius,
locopositus) out of town, and these are assisted by saltarii, decani, etc.
Change of social structure caused a change of power in the Lombard
State. Although differences in distribution of the land had always
been made in correspondence with a family's rank, and although the
wergeld was not uniform but varied by habit and secundum qualitatem
personae, every Lombard was not only warrior but also landlord and lord
of the manor. This ruling nation stood in contrast only to those who
had no political rights, the coloni and aldii and massarii (unfree farmers
on holdings), as well as the likewise unfree ministeriales of the Sal-land
and the unfree agricultural assistant labourers; the Lombards only were
taken into account politically as well as economically. But this distribu-
tion having been made but once, gave no security whatever for a lasting
condition; the natural increase of population and the accidental im-
poverishment of Lombard families, as well as manumissions to complete
freedom, created a class of Lombards without land. Part of them
worked as tenants, that is small tenants, who took holdings on lease for
29 years, remaining legally free, but losing in social standard (libellarii);
another part may have become merchants, trade developing on account
of the definite peace, and so commercial capital stood alongside of land
rent. This new state of economic affairs expressed itself also in military
service which was varied according to property as early as the eighth
C. MED. H. VOL. II. CH. VII.
14



## p. 210 (#242) ############################################

210 Society [671-712
century, commercial capital being placed on a par with landed property.
A law of 750 dictates cavalry service with coat of mail and horse and com-
plete equipment to all who possess at least seven casae massariae; the
landlord of at least 40 iugera has to follow with one horse, lance and
shield; those who possess still less, with shield and bow; a part of the
poor was obliged to do socage service in the fields at home. This economic
development rendered it possible for the king to form for himself a
power independent of its former limitations within the State, creating a
central organisation of power by investing the free poor with landed
property out of his royal domain. The king, that is the State, at this
time of natural economy owed his income to landed property and
payments in kind, for instance the different munera (augariae and operae)
to preserve public streets and buildings, and different duties, market
duties, port duties, which were raised by royal adores and were of
entirely Roman origin. The royal property was naturally increased by
every new conquest, and the coloni and slaves paying duties were used
as if they were private property; or the king took possession of the
land which had been public before the conquest, and let it to the neigh-
bouring hordes for pasture.
The royal court lived on the income from the landed property,
but this court was composed of followers who stood in a special
relation of fealty to the king, the Gasindi, who on that account were
greatly honoured, and had a higher wergeld than the other free Lombards.
The king entrusted them with all sorts of commissions and delegations,
chose all court officers from them, especially to the royal marshal
(marpahis), the majordomus (stolesaz), the treasurer (vesterarius), the
sword-bearer (spatharius), the chancellor (referendarius). In this manner
a special court-nobility developed itself through the king's favour, stand-
ing in contrast and competition with the Lombaid nobility. But it was
also the custom that such Gasindi were endowed with land by the king,
so that the king's landed estate provided for this new nobility not only
indirectly by keeping up the royal household, but also directly. This
new institution was only rendered possible by the fact that a considerable
part of the population, when the original conditions of the Lombard
settlement were changed, was obliged to seek a new existence, and
found it by the king's favour. On the other hand the king's possessions
diminished continually by these donations, so that for him and his
adherents it was necessary periodically to gain new land; and this was
generally only possible through new conquests, and so the peaceful period
of the Bavarian dynasty was followed by a belligerent period.
After Cunincpert's death (700), his young son Liutpert reigned under
the wise Ansprand's guardianship. Raginpert, duke of Turin, son of
Godepert and nephew of Perctarit, claimed the throne and defeated
Ansprand near Novara, eight months after Cunincpert's death. When
he died, shortly afterwards, his son and co-regent Aripert (II), after a



## p. 211 (#243) ############################################


700-738] The Fall of the Bavarian Dynasty
211
second battle, took prisoner Liutpert, who had again advanced against
Pavia, and sent the duke Rothari of Bergamo, who aspired to the throne,
into exile to Turin, where he was killed after a few days. Now Ansprand
was also obliged to leave his refuge on Lake Como and fly to the duke
Teutpert of Bavaria. Liutpert was killed, Ansprand's eldest son blinded,
his wife and daughter mutilated, and only his youngest son Liutprand
spared. So the family of Godepert ruined the race of Perctarit.
But no change of policy took place. King Aripert II was peaceable and
friendly towards the Romans, and even gave back to the pope the
patrimony in the Cottian Alps. He was dethroned in winter 712,
when Ansprand came back to Italy, after nine years of exile, with a
Bavarian army. Aripert fled to Pavia and was drowned when trying to
swim through the Ticino, burdened with all his treasures. Ansprand
was acknowledged as king but only reigned for three months; but on his
death-bed he was told that the Lombards had raised his son Liutprand
upon the buckler and thereby legitimated his own usurpation as well.
He died 13 June 712.
Though Liutprand did not reverse the Lombard State's development
during the last hundred and fifty years, he favoured Roman influence with-
in his realm in every way. He left no doubt concerning his orthodoxy and
attachment to the Roman faith, while nobody surpassed his generosity
towards churches and monasteries, but he still followed the glorious
traditions of the victorious kings which had been interrupted after
Grimoald, and strictly kept in view his aim of uniting Italy under the
Lombard kingdom, although he chose various ways of approaching
it in the course of his reign. For this reason he was opposed by the
Roman Empire and the dukes of Spoleto and Benevento, who had been
nearly independent during the Bavarian dynasty's reign. Mixed up in
quarrels about the Bavarian throne through his affinity with the dukes
of Bavaria, he advanced the Lombard boundaries to Mais near Meran;
for the rest the northern frontier was well defended by his friendship
with the Frankish Charles Martel, whose son Pepin he had adopted by
shaving of the hair according to an old custom, and to whom he had
even brought help against the Saracens in Provence (737-738). In
domestic politics be continued his predecessor's legislation, endeavoured
to protect his subjects against denial of legal help, and intervened with
great energy in administration and jurisdiction by the royal court of
justice in Pavia and by special missi. His aim was naturally to replace
the loose structure of the Lombard State by a series of officials ruled by
the king, and one of his most efficient means was to give the preference
to the Gamndi, and another was to instal relations and other Jideles in
all duchies and bishoprics. His ideal of kingship, which is evident
in his laws, already shews a great difference from that of the former
Lombard kings and is strongly influenced by Roman and ecclesiastical
interpretations.
oh. vii. 14—2


## p. 212 (#244) ############################################


212
Liutprand
[727-732

The time was favourable for an aggressive policy, because Roman
Italy, led by the pope, rose in rebellion against the Emperor. Common
hostility against the Emperor formed a link between Liutprand and
Pope Gregory II for a while, but the pope soon came to see clearly that
the king near him was more dangerous than the distant Emperor. As a
token of friendship Liutprand, following the pope's admonition, restored
to him his confiscated patrimony in the Cottian Alps. For the moment
peace was only endangered by the duke Romuald II of Benevento, who
attacked the castle of Cumae by surprise; but after the duke of Naples,
aided by the pope's militia, had regained the place and killed the garrison,
the pope even paid Romuald the indemnification which he had offered for
a peaceable evacuation, and thereby won his friendship. Meanwhile the
duke Faroald of Spoleto began to move as well; Narni was taken,
Liutprand occupied Classis, the port of Ravenna, and carried booty and
prisoners away. He gained other successes at the cost of the respublica;
the frontier castles surrendered to him and so he was able to extend the
Lombard boundary to Bologna; Osimo in Pentapolis went over to him as
well. Then he turned southwards, and attacked the castle of Sutri by
surprise (728); this was too much for the pope; the king approached too
nearly his own sphere of action. After Liutprand had been in possession
of the castle for one hundred and seventy days, the pope insisted on his
"restoring and donating" it to the apostles Peter and Paul. Meanwhile
the dukes of Spoleto and Benevento had entered into a league with the
pope and defended the frontier of the ducatus Romae against the troops
of the Emperor. The new exarch Eutychius, who had landed at Naples,
did not succeed in making the two dukes desert the league with the
pope; his entreaties had no effect on Liutprand till he offered a very
important service to the king, placing his own troops at the king's
disposal against the independent dukes, so as to take them in the rear
and force them to render homage to the king and send hostages in token
of their fidelity. The king repaid this service by leading the exarch to
Rome, and as the pope could not think of resistance, he again submitted
to the Emperor. But the Lombard troops did not enter the imperial
town and Liutprand paid homage to the graves of the Principes apo-
stolorum whom he had never intended to combat (729). So the Italian
revolution brought double success to Liutprand: territorial acquisition
of land in the north and the two dukes' formal submission in the south;
and at the same time he had appeared as principal arbiter in these
differences on Italian soil.
Liutprand's next care was to make the two duchies' formal dependency
real and effective. When difficulties arose after the death of Romuald II
of Benevento (731-782), on account of the succession, he marched on
Benevento, carried away the young duke Gisulf for education, and
installed his own nephew Gregorius, relying upon his own sovereign
power. Nearly at the same time, after a breach of the league with the


## p. 213 (#245) ############################################

732-740]
Liutprand
213
exarch, a plot of the Roman dtix of Perusia against Bologna miscarried,
and a Lombard army led by Hildeprand, another nephew of Liutprand,
occupied the impregnable town of Ravenna, the centre of the imperial
administration. But the exarch succeeded in regaining the capital by
a sudden attack and making Hildeprand prisoner, with help of the navy
of the lagoons, against which the Lombards were helpless. Soon after
this misfortune Liutprand seems to have concluded an armistice, on
account of which Hildeprand was sent back. Then Liutprand fell ill at
Pavia (735), Hildeprand was proclaimed king by the Lombards, and
Liutprand acknowledged him as co-regent after his recovery. New
difficulties arose in Friuli, where the duke Pemmo had covered the
Lombard name with fame in different combats with the Slavs and
displayed great splendour in his princely court at Cividale; he got
entangled in a quarrel with the king's favourite Calistus, whom Liut-
prand had made patriarch of Aquileia, because the latter wanted to
remove his residence from the small town of Cormons to Cividale, and
had taken by force the bishop's palace, which the dukes had resigned to
the fugitive bishop of Julia Carnica. Liutprand interceded in the
patriarch's favour, dismissed the duke Pemmo and set up in his place his
son Ratchis, who proved himself the king's faithful subject. No king
had ever reigned so powerfully.
But now the time had come when Liutprand thought it necessary
to deal the death-blow to the Roman Empire in Italy, as soon as the
independence of the duke in middle Italy was broken. This duke,
Transamund of Spoleto, had taken the Roman castle Gallese and might
have been of great use to the king in barring the communication between
Ravenna and Rome, but he preferred to deliver up the castle to the pope
Gregory III, engaging himself never to carry arms against him any more.
But Liutprand, crossing the Pentapolis, arrived at Spoleto in June 739,
and appointed a new duke Hilderich, while Transamund fled to Rome.
The king demanded in vain the rebel's delivery before the walls of Rome,
took away the castles of Ameria, Horta, Polimartium, and Bleda from
the ducatus Romae, but then returned to North Italy. Meanwhile a
Roman party in Benevento set up one Godescalc in the duchy in place
of the deceased duke Gregorius, without regard to the king's claims. In
the following year (740) Liutprand and Hildeprand attacked Ravenna
and laid the exarchate under contribution, and at the same time Lom-
bard hordes breaking out of the castles devastated the Campagna. The
pope sent an embassy, praying the king to give back these border forts, and
also claimed the help of the Lombard bishops by a circular letter. At
the same time the army of the ducatus Romae, aided by Benevento,
reinstated in Spoleto the duke Transamund, who was accepted with open
arms by his own people (Dec. 740). But even now Transamund did not
dare to attack the king and win back to the Romans the four castles, as
the pope had wished. Pope Zachary, who had followed Gregory at the



## p. 214 (#246) ############################################

214
Liutprand
[741-744

end of 741, gave up his predecessor's Spoletan policy in consequence,
and offered to the king the help of the Roman army against Spoleto,
on condition of his promise to restore the four castles. Attacked on
two sides (742) Transamund surrendered to the king; then the latter
advanced against Benevento, and as Godescalc abandoned his own
country and was surrendered before he reached the ship destined to
bring him to Constantinople, the king gave back his ancestral duchy to
Gisulf who had by now grown up and was faithfully devoted to him.
But after he had brought all difficulties in South Italy to an end the
pope himself overtook him on his way back in his camp at Terni,
reminding him of his promise. The Catholic king received the pope
with all customary marks of reverence, and gave him the desired charter
concerning the restoration of the four towns. After this several nobles
escorted the pope on his return journey, and handed over to him the
keys of the surrendered towns, and the parts of the patrimony which had
been conquered were also restored to him. In exchange for this the
pope concluded an armistice with the king for twenty years in the name
of the ducatus Romae. In this way the king meant to eliminate one
enemy, in order to concentrate all his forces against the other part of
the Roman dominion. After having appointed his nephew Agiprand
duke of Spoleto, he crossed the Apennines and sent his army against
Ravenna at the beginning of the following year (743). The exarch
and the archbishop of Ravenna in their desperation begged for the
pope's intervention, and the latter actually came to meet the king at
Pavia, by way of Ravenna. The king condescended to conclude an
armistice, occupying the castles of Caesena and part of the territory of
Ravenna meanwhile as a pledge, until the embassy he sent to Constanti-
nople should have concluded a definite peace. We do not know Liut-
prand's real motives for giving up the attack; but it seems possible
that changes of foreign politics, especially with the Franks, as well as
sympathy with the Romans within the Lombard realm, nourished by
the bishops, joined with personal motives to cause his compliance.
Though he had not attained his aim when he died at the beginning of
the year 744, he had brought the Lombard State's power to a height
which it had never before attained.
Liutprand's former co-regent Hildeprand followed him on the throne,
but was not acknowledged everywhere. Transamund returned to Spoleto.
Ratchis of Friuli was proclaimed king and Hildeprand dethroned after
eight months' monarchy. The imperialists greeted the elevation of
Ratchis with joy, and the new king actually concluded peace with Rome
for twenty years. In Spoleto he asserted his authority, and Transamund
was replaced by a new duke, Lupus. We may judge by the severity of
his orders concerning passports, and by his rules against riot that Ratchis
was prepared to meet dangers from within and without, and so he tried
to increase his party by ample distributions of land to the Church, and
N


## p. 215 (#247) ############################################

749-753 J Ratc/tis. Aistulf 215
to the Romans, the countrymen of his wife Tassia. He evidently strove
to lessen the disparity between Romans and Lombards. Nevertheless
he saw himself compelled to invade the imperial Pentapolis and besiege
Perusia. But when he desisted from this blockade upon the pope's
personal intervention, the Lombards gave vent to their indignation over
their king's romanising policy. The nobles raised Aistulf, the king's
brave and fierce brother, upon the buckler at Milan (June 749); Ratchis
was forced to abdicate, went to St Peter's on pilgrimage, was accepted as
a monk by the pope, and retired to Monte Cassino.
Aistulf immediately took up again with the greatest energy Ljut-
prand's conquering policy. The donations which Ratchis had made
before Aistulfs elevation were annulled, intercourse with Romans was
forbidden, commerce with a foreign country keenly watched, the frontier
well guarded, and military duty regulated on the basis of the new social
structure. The important towns of Comacchio and Ferrara were occupied
and the Lombard king gave forth a charter as early as 7 July 751 in the
palace of Ravenna, which the last exarch, Eutychius, was said to have
surrendered. The north of Italy was now entirely in the hands of the
Lombards, except the district of the Lagoons and the towns of Istria.
Aistulf turned to central Italy, where Duke Lupus had died, and took
into his own hands the government of Spoleto, the key-city of Rome.
His next assault was of course directed to Rome. He stood before the
walls of Rome in June 752 and received a papal embassy; it is alleged
that he promised peace for forty years but broke the armistice after
four months. His conditions were very hard: tribute paid by the
inhabitants of the ducatus Rornae and acknowledgment of his sovereignty.
He ordered the abbots of Monte Cassino and St Vincenzo, who had
appeared as the pope's envoys before him, to follow his commands as
Lombard subjects, and return to their monasteries without entering
Rome. The Emperor's embassy, which was conducted to Ravenna by
the pope's brother, only so far succeeded that Aistulf sent an envoy to
Constantinople with proposals that seemed unacceptable, at least to the
pope. But the two envoys returned to Italy without having effected
their object, while the Lombards had taken the castle of Ceccano, which
belonged to the Church. Now Pope Stephen obtained a safe conduct
and at the Emperor's command marched himself to Aistulfs court at
Pavia (autumn 753). The king sent to meet him with orders not
to venture a word about restoring the conquered territory. But the
pope was not to be deterred, and fervently entreated the king to fulfil
the conditions contained in a letter which an imperial envoy had
brought. But it was in vain. Then the Frankish ambassadors, who
had accompanied the pope, intervened and required Aistulf to let the
pope go to Gaul. When the pope, at his next audience, declared
that it was actually his intention to cross the Alps, Aistulf, it is said,
roared with rage like a wild beast. But after vain endeavours to change


## p. 216 (#248) ############################################

216 The Frankish Intervention [753-756
the pope's resolution, he was obliged to dismiss him, not daring to detain
him by force and expose himself to immediate conflict with the Franks.
The pope left Pavia on 5 November. The new Frankish king Pepin was
clearly resolved upon interfering in Italy, and Aistulf saw himself face
to face with a new situation immediately before reaching the aim he had
longed for so fervently.
But all links had not yet been broken off. Pepin sent embassies
over the Alps three times in order to induce Aistulf to yield, but in
vain. The public feeling among the Frankish nobles was by no means
favourable to war, and Aistulf, wishing to profit thereby, sent to Gaul
Pepin's brother and former co-regent Carloman, who was now monk in
Monte Cassino. While the Frankish army was already advancing, the
pope once more sent a letter full of entreaties to Aistulf, and Pepin
offered 12,000 solidi as recompense for the disputed territories; Aistulf
refused with threats and brought the whole of his forces, and the military
material he had stored up for his enterprise against Rome, to Susa at
the foot of Mont Cenis, awaiting the Franks' attack. He was too
impatient however to hold out behind the fortified clusae, and attacked
the Frankish vanguard by surprise; but not being able to deploy his
superior forces in the narrow vale, he was thrown back and was himself
very nearly killed; then he concentrated the rest of his army in the
fortified city of Pavia, where the main army of the Franks appeared
after a few days. But as the Franks shrank from a long siege and the
Frankish nobles, who had kept up friendly relations with the Lombards
dating perhaps from the time of Charles Martel, tried to mediate,
peace was made, Aistulf confirmed the treaty by oath, promising to
surrender those territories of Italy he had occupied illegally and to
acknowledge formally the Frankish king's sovereignty. He sent forty
hostages and made lavish presents to the king and the nobles as recom-
pense for the expenses of war (autumn 754). The pope returned to
Rome, accompanied by the Frankish ambassador Fulrad, and Pepin
retired over the Alps. But Aistulf did not think of keeping his oath.
Of all the towns he only surrendered Narni, and seeing that Pepin did
not interfere again, he resolved to put an end to the quarrel by a master
stroke. On 1 Jan. 756 a Lombard army again encamped before Rome
on the right bank of the Tiber, Aistulf rapidly approached from Spoleto
and the Beneventans from the south. With terrible threats, he re-
quired the pope's surrender while his bands plundered the Campagna.
Pepin's envoy, the abbot Warnehar, fought against the Lombards in
full harness and then informed his prince of what he had seen. But
Rome's strong walls saved her again; Aistulf gave up the siege after
five months and returned to Pavia (5 April) to await a new attack
from Pepin when winter was over and the melting snow rendered the
passage possible.
The Lombards were once more dispersed by the Franks near the


## p. 217 (#249) ############################################

756-763] Desiderius 217
clusae of Mont Cenis, and Aistulf again took refuge behind the walls
of Pavia. Shut up in this fortress, he again entreated forgiveness
and peace of Pepin by the nobles1 intervention. The latter granted
the rebel life and realm, which he had forfeited.