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HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS

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PAUL THE DEACON'

TRANSLATED BY

WILLIAM DUDLEY FOULKE, LL.D.

With Explanatory and Critical Notes, a Biography of the Author, and an Account of the Sources of the History

PUBLISHED BY

THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY.

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

PHILADELPHIA, IQO7

Sold by LONGMANS, GREEN & Co. 91 and 93 Fifth Avenue, New York

COPYRIGHT, 1906,

BY WILLIAM DUDLEY FOULKE.

5

PREFACE.

MOMMSEN declares that Paul the Deacon's history of Italy, from the foundation of Rome to the beginning of the time of the Carlovingians, is properly the step- ping-stone from the culture of the ancient to that of the modern world, marking the transition and connecting both together ; that the Langobards upon their immi- gration into Italy not only exchanged their own lan- guage for that of their new home, but also adopted the traditions and early history of Rome without, however, abandoning their own ; that it is in good part this fact which put the culture of the modern world upon the road on which it moves to-day ; that no one has felt this in a more living manner than Paul, and that no one has contributed so much through his writings to secure for the world the possession of Roman and Germanic tra- dition by an equal title as did this Benedictine monk when, after the overthrow of his ancestral kingdom, he wrote its history as part of the history of Italy.1

Whatever therefore were his limitations as an author, the writings of Paul the Deacon mark an epoch. They constitute the first step toward the making of modern history, and give him the right to be reckoned as a kind of humbler Herodotus of mediaeval times. And in fact, although he is for the most part a compiler and without

1 Neues Archiv., V, p. 53.

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iv PREFACE.

great originality, his work recalls in several ways the characteristics of the " Father of History." It contains a priceless treasure of legends and quaint tales, having their source, not indeed in Hellenic, Persian, Lydian or Egyptian traditions, but in sagas like those of the Norse- men, and it is written with a naive and picturesque charm that must commend it greatly to the lovers of literary curiosities. Paul has something of the gossipy nature of Herodotus, and although without gross super- stition, he has much of the simple credulity and fond- ness for the marvelous which add to the attractiveness, while they detract from the authority of the work of his great Greek predecessor. As a veracious historian, Paul is perhaps not much better nor worse than the average of the monastic chroniclers of the time, for although he is a man of extensive learning, and although he gives us everywhere proofs of his good faith, and even of his impartiality in respect to the struggles be- tween his own people and their enemies, he has not that critical judgment which the requirements of modern history demand.

Paul the Deacon was one of the best known authors of the Middle Ages. This is shown by the great num- ber of the manuscripts of his works which still exist, by the abundant use made of them by subsequent authors, and by the early editions that appeared shortly after the invention of printing and indeed all through the i6th and i /th centuries. ' But amid the more stirring events

1 Waitz (M. G. SS. Rer. Langob. , p. 28 et. seg.) gives a list of these manuscripts and editions.

PREFACE. V

of modern times his work became to a large extent over- laid and forgotten. Muratori published Paul's " History of the Langobards" in the first volume of his Italian series in 1723, but it remained for German scholarship to bring it again to the attention of the world and to subject it to critical treatment in the way its importance deserved. Dr. Bethmann during the early part of the last century began an investigation of Paul's works which extended over a great portion of his life.1 He ex- amined and compared a vast number of manuscripts, traveling for this purpose through various parts of Ger- many, Holland, Belgium, France and Italy, but died be- fore his edition of the " History of the Langobards " was given to the press. His work was completed by Waitz in 1876 in the " Monumenta Germanise" in an edi- tion in which one hundred and seven manuscripts are referred to and compared, and in which most of the sources of the history are referred to in appropriate foot-notes. In the same year Dahn published a pains- taking criticism of Paul's life and writings in his " Lango- bardische Studien." A complete discussion by Dr. R. Jacobi of the sources from which Paul derived his his- tory appeared in the following year, 1877, which for thoroughness and accuracy is a model of German scholar- ship Mommsen followed in 1879 with an able criti- cism of some of the most important features of Paul's work, published in the Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft fur altere deutsche Geschichtskunde, Vol. V., p. 53. Some of his views as to the sources from which Paul

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vi PREFACE.

had taken his history were contested by Waitz in a subse- quent number of the Archiv in the same year, as well as by Schmidt in his monograph " Zur Geschichte der Langobarden." Further investigations were made con- cerning the " Origo Gentis Langobardorum," one of Paul's sources, by Bruckner, Koegel, Kraus and others.

The " History of the Langobards " has been translated into German, French and Italian, but I was greatly sur- prised, when investigating some matters connected with the early history of Venice, in the Marcian library of that city, to find that no English version existed. Mr. Thomas Hodgkin, in Vols. V and VI of "Italy and Her Invaders," does indeed make liberal extracts, but the work is one which, from its importance, ought to be presented to English readers entire, hence this transla- tion. I have prefixed to it an account of Paul's life and writings, with a historical and literary estimate of his work, and the translation is accompanied by explanatory notes. Waitz's text has been used.1

In Appendix I there is a brief discussion concerning the ethnological status of the Langobards. In Appendix II an account is given of the sources from which Paul derived his history. Appendix III contains Paul's poems in honor of St. Benedict, which are found in the original text of Paul's history, but have no proper connection therewith and have therefore been placed in the Ap- pendix. They are altogether omitted in the German and

1 There is a more recent text by Giuseppi Vettach (Archeografo Triestino, 1898-99) based upon the Friulan MS. at Cividale. As this MS. is incomplete, it seemed better to follow Waitz's edition, which is an admirable one, and based upon all the MS.

PREFACE. vii

Italian translations I have consulted, perhaps from the difficulty of rendering them in any intelligible form. The second book of the " Dialogues of Gregory the Great," however, gives the key to their meaning. I am quite conscious that the verses into which they have been rendered are not poetry, but insist that in this respect, as in others, my version follows the original pretty closely. They are only inserted from a desire to make the translation complete.

I have endeavored everywhere to keep as near the text as the essential differences between the two lan- guages will allow.

I desire to acknowledge the courtesy of Thomas Hodgkin, from whose history, " Italy and Her Invaders," I have copied with his permission the three maps first used in this work.

RICHMOND, IND., Feb. 25, /pod.

X EXPLANATION OF REFERENCES.

p. 53, of the " Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft fur altere deutsche Geschichtskunde " (Hanover, 1879).

" Hartmann ' ' to the second volume of " Geschichte Italiens im Mittelalter," by Ludo Moritz Hartmann, being the 32d work of the series "Geschichte der europaischen Staaten," edited by Heeren, Ukert, Giesebrecht and Lamprecht (Gotha, 1903).

" Dahn " to " Paulus Diaconus," by Felix Dahn, Part I (Leip- sic, 1876).

"Hodgkin" to "Italy and her Invaders, " by Thomas Hodg- kin (Clarendon Press, 1895).

' ' Zeuss " to " Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstamme, ' ' by Kaspar Zeuss (Gottingen, 1904).

"Schmidt" to "Zur Geschichte der Langobarden, " by Dr. Ludwig Schmidt (Leipsic, 1885).

"Pabst" to " Geschichte des langobardischen Herzogthums" in Vol. II, p. 405, " Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte," (Gottingen, 1862.)

" Bruckner " to " Die Sprache der Langobarden," by Wilhelm Bruckner (Quellen und Forschungen, Fart 75, Strasburg, 1895).

" Koegel " to "Geschichte der deutschen Litteratur," by Ru- dolf Koegel, Vol. I, Part I (Strasburg, 1894).

"Wiese" to "Die aelteste Geschichte der Langobarden," by Robert Wiese (Jena, 1877).

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

MM

PREFACE iii

EXPLANATION OF REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES be

INTRODUCTION.

Life and Writings of Paul the Deacon, with a Historical and Literary Estimate of his Work xv

HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS. BOOK I.

Original abode and early migrations of that people before their invasion of Italy — [Descriptions of Germany] l — Strug- gles with the Wandals, Assipitti, Bulgarians, Heroli and Gepidae — [Account of Justinian's reign — Poems in honor of St. Benedict — See Appendix III.] I

BOOK II.

Relations of Narses with the Langobards and events leading to the immigration into Italy — Invasion and conquest by Alboin — [Account of Fortunatus — Description of the pro- vinces of Italy] — Murder of Alboin — Cleph — Interregnum and government by the dukes , 53

1 The episodes and collateral matters of the history are enclosed in brackets, (Xi)

Xli TABLE OF CONTENTS.

BOOK III.

[St. Hospitius] — History of the Interregnum — Forays into Gaul and invasions of Italy by the Franks — Reign of Authari — [Events in the Eastern Empire] — His wooing — His death — Agilulf succeeds him 94

BOOK IV.

Reigns of Agilulf, Adaloald, Arioald, Rothari, Radoald, Aripert, Perctarit, and Godepert — Accession of Grimoald — [Accounts concerning the empire, Gregory the Great, Benevento, the Hunnish invasion, and the author's ancestry] 151

BOOK V.

Reigns of Grimoald, Perctarit and Cunincpert, and rebellion of Alahis — [Events regarding the empire, Benevento, Spoleto and Friuli] 209

BOOK VI.

Conclusion of Cunincpert' s reign — Liutpert, Raginpert, Ari- pert II, Ansprand, Liutprand — [Events in Benevento, the empire, Spoleto, and among the Franks and Saracens] . 250

APPENDIX I. Ethnological Status of the Langobards 315

APPENDIX II.

Sources of Paul's History of the Langobards — (a) Prankish sources — Gregory of Tours — Fredegarius (?) — (b) Langobard sources — Origo Gentis Langobardorum — Secundus of Trent — (c) Roman sources — Eugippius, Gregory the Great, Marcus Casinensis, Venantius Fortunatus, Autpert, Life of Columban, Pliny, Justin, Cosmographer of Ravenna, Virgil,

TABLE OF CONTENTS. xiii

PAGB

Donatus, Victor, Festus, Isidore, Jordanes, Justinian, Liber Pontificalis, Bede, Lost Annals, Madrid Catalogue, Speier and Bamberg-Oxford Catalogues of the provinces of Italy. Index of Sources 318

APPENDIX III.

Poems in honor of St. Benedict — (Book I, ch. 26, of the History) 393

GENERAL INDEX 415

MAPS.

1. The Langobard Migrations from the First to the Sixth

Century 4I

2. The Campaign of the Langobards Dukes in Gaul . . .100

3. The Duchy of Tridentum 143

4. The Provinces of Italy according to Paul the Deacon . . 380

INTRODUCTION.

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF PAUL THE DEACON WITH

A HISTORICAL AND LITERARY ESTIMATE

OF HIS WORK.1

PAUL THE DEACON, sometimes called Paul Warne- fried from the name of his father, belonged to a dis- tinguished if not noble Langobard family2 whose orig- inal founder Leupchis came from Pannonia to Italy with king Alboin, settled in the plain of Friuli 3 not far from Cividale4 and left behind him at his death five sons who, while still young, were carried away into captivity on the occasion of the irruption of the Avars into the country about the year six hundred and ten.

1 The greater part of what is known of the life of Paul the Dea- con is set forth in an article by Dr. Ludwig Bethmann, published in the Archiv der Gesellschaft fur altere deutsche Geschichtkunde (Vol. X, p. 247, see p. 254). The sources from which the facts are taken are there given in great detail and with full analysis. The above account is mainly a condensed paraphrase of the most important portions of Bethmann' s article. Where I have taken any statement from another source, that fact is mentioned in a note.

JDahn, 3, 4.

* The epitaph of Paul declares that the ancestral estate lay upon the banks of the Timave (Waitz, p. 23).

*Dahn, 3, 8.

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xvi LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

Four remained permanently in bondage, but Lopichis, the fifth, when he had reached the age of manhood, resolved to escape, and after many adventures returned to Italy.1 There he found that his ancestral home was without a roof and full of briers and bushes, and that his inheritance was in the hands of strangers. With the help of relatives and friends he restored the house, yet he could not recover the rest of the father's property. He had a son Arichis, who was the father of Warne- fried, and Warnefried by his wife Theudelinda, had a daughter who retired at an early age into a cloister, and two sons, Arichis and Paul.

Paul was born in Friuli2 somewhere between the years 720 and 73O.i He was educated probably* at the court of king Ratchis who reigned from 744 to 749, or at the ducal court of his father Pemmo somewhat before that time.5 Paul speaks of Flavianus as his

'Paul's Hist. Langob., IV, 37 infra.

* It is probable but not certain that he was born in Cividale (Dahn, 8 ; Tamassia in Atti e Memorie del Congresso Storico in Cividale, 1899, p. 15).

8 Bethmann (p. 255) places it at 730, earlier commentators (id, note) say 720; Waitz (p. 13), 720 to 725; Hodgkin (p. 71), about 725. The precise date is unknown.

4 Uncertain however (Dahn, 9-10).

5 The place of his education is uncertain. Bethmann (p. 255) thinks it was in Pavia. Abel (p. x) thinks it more probable it was at the ducal court of Ratchis or his father Pemmo in Cividale. His writings show an intimate knowledge of the affairs of the ducal family of that city (Tamassia in Atti e Memorie del Congresso Storico in Cividale, 1899, p. 15).

PAUL THE DEACON. XVli

teacher x and the instruction he received must have been excellent, if it be judged by the wide scope of his at- tainments. Among other things he learned the Greek language.

At a later period we find evidences of his faithful at- tachment to Arichis, Duke of Benevento and his wife Adelperga, the daughter of Desiderius, the last Lango- bard king. In the spring or summer of 763, he wrote a poem in thirty-six trochaic lines giving the chronology of the different ages of the world and concluding with verses in honor of King Desiderius, of his son Adelchis and of the ducal pair. a It was written in the form of an acrostic and the initial letters of each verse spelled the words " Adelperga Pia." That this intercourse with the duke and duchess continued a long time appears from Paul's letter to Adelperga written several years later in which he speaks of his interest and participation in her studies. s He had recently given her to read the ten books of the Roman history of Eutropius, but as she complained that these were too short and contained nothing regarding the history of Christianity, Paul wrote for her one of his principal works, his " Roman History" in which he expanded Eutropius from other sources and in six additional books brought it down to the fall of the dominion of the Goths in Italy with the

1 Felix the grammarian, the uncle of Flavianus, was an intimate friend of king Cunincpert. See Book VI, Ch. 7 infra.

»Waitz, 13; Dahn, 76.

8 Dahn, 14 note. It seems probable that he was her instructor, perhaps at her father's court in Pavia (Atti e Memorie del Con- gresso Storico in Cividale, 1899, p. 18).

XVlil LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

intention of continuing it at a later time down to his own days. With a letter which is a beautiful memorial to the pious and cultured princess, he gave her this work some time between the years 766 and 774 T and the book (although of little importance to us now since its statements are taken almost wholly from other well- known sources) 2 became for nearly a thousand years a text-book of the history of the Empire of the West.

There has been attributed to Paul on doubtful author- ity,3 a hymn in praise of John the Baptist, the protect- ing saint of the Langobards, 4 which has become widely celebrated and is still sung on June 24th of each year by the whole Catholic church. From the first syllable of each of the verses of this hymn, tit, re, mi, fa, sol, la, Guido of Arezzo took the names for his notes, and the present system of musical solmisation had its origin here. It would seem from his writings that Paul had traveled considerably in Italy, for descriptions of things in Pavia, Bobbio, Monza, Asti, Rome and Benevento appear to be given from personal observation. These journeys (except the one to Rome) were probably taken before he became a monk.5 It is not known when or where Paul received his consecration. Charle-

1 Bethmann says between 766 and 781, but Mommsen (77 note) shows that this history was completed before 774, in which year Arichis exchanged his title of duke for that of prince. See also Dahn, 15.

JDahn, 16.

• See article by Capetti (Atti e Memorie del Congresso Storico in Cividale, 1899, p. 68).

*Dahn, 18, 19. & Dahn, 27, 28.

PAUL THE DEACON. XIX

magne calls him a deacon in his circular written after 782 ' regarding the collection of homilies, and he so speaks of himself in his homily upon St. Benedict. Elsewhere he calls himself merely Paul, but among others he goes by the name of Paul the Deacon. It is uncertain when and why he became a monk,2 but it was in all probability3 at the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, the most famous cloister of that time where his former patron, king Ratchis, was perhaps still living when Paul there took his vows. Only this is cer- tain, that he became a monk before his journey to France, therefore before 782. It was either before this journey or during his sojourn in that kingdom that he wrote two poems in honor of St. Benedict and one in honor of St. Scolastica.4 These poems, his sermon on St. Benedict and his letters show his devotion to the

1 Probably about 786, Dahn, 21.

8 It was very likely before he wrote this Roman history (Ta- massia in Atti e Memorie del Congresso Storico in Cividale, 1899, p. 1 8).

*Dahn, 23.

4 In the first of these poems Paul speaks of himself as "an exile, poor, helpless," which it is claimed' he would hardly have done after he had become one of the favorites of Charle- magne, and these expressions add weight to the contention of Dahn that he probably entered the cloister as a refuge after the fall of the Langobard monarchy in 774 (Dahn, 23-26). Ta- massia, however (Atti e Memorie del Congresso Storico in Civi- dale, 1899, pp. 21, 22), believes that his exile there mentioned refers to his involuntary detention at the court of Charlemagne, and that the favor he refers to in this distich is his return to his beloved monastery. The two poems to St. Benedict are given in Appendix III.

XX11 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

father, believe me you holy and venerable band, I am kept here for a while only by a feeling of pity, only by the injunctions of love, only by the demand of the soul, and what is still more than all this, by the quiet power of our lord, the king. But as soon as I am healed and the Lord through our gracious sovereign shall take away from my prisoners the night of sorrow and the yoke of misery, I will straightway, as soon as I can obtain leave from our gracious prince, return to you without delay, and neither money, nor property, nor treasures of gold, nor the love of any man shall keep me from your com- pany. I implore you therefore, sweetest father, and you, O dearest fathers and brothers, that our good father and teacher Benedict may procure it through his merit with Christ that I can return to you right soon. I trust indeed in our God, who never lets any one be cheated in good wishes, that he may restore me to you with fitting fruit for my toil ' according to the desire of my longing heart. I do not need to write to you to pray for our sovereigns2 and their army, since I know you are doing this unceasingly. Pray Christ also for the lord abbot,* by whose special kindness according to the royal grace I live here. Your number, my be- loved ones, is so great that if I wished to mention you

1 Probably this refers to the liberation of his brother, though the meaning is not clear (Dahn, 35 note).

1 Charlemagne and his sons, Pepin and Louis, who were conse- crated as kings at Easter, 781, in Rome.

1 Probably abbot of St. Vincent or St. Arnulf in Metz, says Beth- mann (p. 262, note). Dahn (p. 33) insists there is no evidence of this,

PAUL THE DEACON. Xxiii

all one by one, this whole page would not suffice for your names. Wherefore I greet you all in common and pray you not to forget me. But I ask you, my master and venerable abbot, to write me concerning your welfare and that of the brothers, and what fortunes the present year has brought, and at the same time to send the names of the brothers who have been released from earthly fetters and have gone to Christ. For I

hear that many of them have died, but especially ,

who, if it is really so, has taken with him no little part of my heart. Farewell, most holy father. Deign to remember your son."

" Now of the month of Janus the tenth full day was elapsing When this letter was sent from the shore of the glassy Mosel, Brothers and father dearest, infinite greetings I give you." l

Finally, the deliverance of the prisoners seems to have been obtained. A lively correspondence in verse be- tween Paul and the king is shown in poems which have come down to us containing hints of jests, enigmas and occurrences now lost. In one of these Paul thanked the king and praised heaven that had let him see the light after the darkness. In his answer " Paule sub umbroso," Charlemagne2 rejoices at this change in Paul's feelings, but declares that he has still left three questions unanswered, namely — whether he himself will bear heavy chains or lie in a hard dungeon, or go to the

1 The verses are omitted in the letter as given by Dahn (79-81). 1 In such correspondence the king was probably represented by some poet or grammarian of his court,

xxiv LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

Northmen and convert their king Sigfrid, " the impious lord of a pestiferous realm," and " touch his forehead with sanctifying water."1 Paul answers that as the Northmen know no Latin he will seem like a dumb beast to them and they no better to him than shaggy goats, but he has no fear, for if they know he comes with the name of Charlemagne protecting him, they will not dare lift a finger against him, and if Sigfrid refuses baptism Paul will drag him to the foot of Charlemagne's throne with his hands bound behind his back, nor will his gods Thonar and Waten (Thor and Wotan) be of any avail.* In another poem, " Cynthius occiduas," Paul relates to the king that a messenger was sent to him from the court the evening before with fiery arrows 3 from his old and dear friend Peter. Early in the morning he has- tened to the court for the contest, but the shortness of the time did not allow him to retort suitably.4 On the following morning, however, Peter would repent that he had treated his friend as an enemy. Evidently Peter of Pisa is meant, who appears to have been a kind of liter- ary fag for Charlemagne.* Peter writes on another oc- casion to Paul, " Lumine purpureo," that a riddle had been proposed to him which he did not know how to solve; what his weak arms could not do, Paul, who was

1 An embassy frcm Sigfrid seeking peace had ccme to Charle- magne in 782 (Dahn, 40-41).

*Hodgkin, V, 77. * Meaning letters.

*See Dahn's explanation (43).

5 Dahn I elievcs that Peter's letter was a challenge to some sort of a contest, perhaps of improvised verses (42, 43).

PAUL THE DEACON. XXV

" a great light upon the mountain," would accomplish. He, the mighty one in books who recently had been able to loose strong fetters (perhaps this refers to ob- taining the freedom of the prisoners1) might also solve this riddle. Paul afterwards determined (probably at the king's earnest desire) to remain at least a consider- able time in France. Charles expresses his great joy at this determination in a poem composed by Peter, " Nos dicamus,"2 and deems himself happy that the most learned of poets and seers, a Homer in Greek, a Virgil in poetry, a Philo in Hebrew, a Tertullus in the arts, a Horace in the metrical art, a Tibullus in expression — that this man will strike his roots in the soil of his affec- tion and no more turn his heart to his old home. He especially thanks Paul for the instruction in Greek which he is giving to so many, particularly the clergy who are soon to accompany his daughter Rotrud to Constanti- nople.3 Thus a glory will be raised up for France which he the king had never hoped for before. Paul in his answer " Sensi cujus,"4 modestly disclaims any right to these compliments. He knows very little, he says ; he cannot offer treasures to the king, but only his good will ; only the anchor of his love keeps him at court ; he

1 See Dahn, 44, however.

1Waitz (p. 17) gives this poem.

'Rotrud was betrothed in Rome on Easter 781 to the heir of the thrcne of Eyzantium (Dahn, 46, 47). She was then cnly nine years eld and her departure for Constantinople was to take place some years later. The match was broken off by Charlemagne in March, 787 (Dahn, 47, 48).

iWaitz, p. 1 8.

XXVI LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

does not seek foolish glory in the sciences ; if the clergy in Constantinople could not utter any more Greek than they had learned from him, they would stand there like dumb statues. Yet still, to show himself not quite un- skilled in languages, he subjoins the translation of a Greek epigram that he remembers from his school days. On another occasion Paul, in a poem to the king which is now lost, expressed the wish that God might still add fifteen years to the term of his life, the same as to Heze- kiah. Charles in his answer by the pen of his secretary Alcuin,1 wishes Paul a prolongation of life for fifteen hours and makes merry with him that he first wanted to cut off the neck of his enemy with a sword and now could hold neither shield nor sword on account of his fear and old age.

We see from these and other poems how the king himself took part in the verses, jokes, riddles and con- tests with which the learned circle at his court amused itself. Charlemagne well understood how to draw ser- vice from the many-sided learning of Paul. Upon the king's command, Paul wrote epitaphs to Queen Hilde- gard, to her daughters Adelheid and Hildegard, and to Pepin's daughters, Adelheid and Rotaidis with which the king (probably in 783)" caused their graves in St. Arnulf at Metz to be decorated. 3 About this time also Paul gave to Charlemagne an extract from the work of Pompeius Festus " On the Signification of Words," and Mommsen well observes (p. 97) that among the char-

1 Hodgkin, V, 77. * Dahn, 48, 49.

*Abel, p. xvi ; Waitz, p. 19.

PAUL THE DEACON. XXvii

acteristic traits of our remarkable scholar, it was not the least engaging that Paul took an interest, not merely in the Roman historians, but in the lexicon of the language and antiquities of Rome. A more important task was the collection and revision of the homilies of the fathers of the church which he made by order of the king, and which was possibly commenced about this time, * though not completed until after his return to Monte Cassino. Paul's collection has been in use for a thousand years in the whole Catholic church and it is easy to see what a profound influence he has had in this way not only upon the church but upon culture and literature.

It was after 783 2 that Paul wrote, upon the request of Angilram, Bishop of Metzs a history of the bishops of that diocese. In this work, which was written in the manner of the " Book of the Popes," he treats with special minuteness of detail of the family and ancestry of Charle- magne, and it is clear that his object is to justify the rise of the Carlovingians to the throne and to represent them as a legitimate sovereign house. Besides this work he

1 Bethmann (p. 265) considers that this collection was written A. D. 783. Dahn (pp. 52, 53) followed by Waitz (p. 20) infers from the poem written to Charlemagne (see same page) that it was not finished until after Paul's return to the monastery of Monte Cassino and that it must have been written between 786 and 797 (Dahn, 54).

'After the marriage of Charles with Fastrada, says Abel (p. xvn) but before she had borne him any children. See also Dahn, 49, 50.

8 Hist. Langob., infra VI, Ch. 16. Angilram died in 791 (Abel, p. xvn).

XXVI 11 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

composed a catalogue of the bishops in short verse. Most of the time that Paul was in France he prob- bably spent at Dietenhofen1 and Metz. Sometimes however he stayed for a while at other places, as in Poictiers in the cloister of St. Hilarius3 where, at the request of the abbot Aper, he composed an epitaph on the poet Venantius Fortunatus.' When Paul was at Charlemagne's court he was lodged in a hospitium not far from the palace and was entertained by the king.4

But the longing for his own cloister forced him, after a few years, to abandon France, and in the summer of 787 we find him again in Benevento. He either crossed the Alps with the king in December 786, or he had already left France before this expedition, It was at Rome and possibly on his way to Monte Cassino that he composed a short biography of Gregory the Great,* though the date of that work is not certainly known.6 On the 25th of August 787, shortly after his return to Benevento, his patron Arichis died. Paul celebrated his memory in a beautiful epitaph composed in distichs, a memorial which honors the faithful devotion of the poet as well as the prince.7

The respect and love which Paul enjoyed in the clois-

1 Hist. Langob., infra I, 5. » Hist. Langob., II, 13.

*/d.

* Hodgkin, V, p. 76.

1 Abel, xvn, Waitz, p. 22.

• It was some years before he wrcte the third book of his History of the Langobards (III, 24 infra).

'• This was written before the summer of 788 (Dahn, 55).

PAUL THE DEACON. XXIX

ter is testified by his pupil Hilderic in an epitaph which attributes to him piety, love, peaceableness, patience, simplicity, concord, in short, " every good quality at one and the same time." Charlemagne also repeatedly expresses his heartfelt affection and honor for the old man in the poems " Christe pater" and " Parvula rex Carolus." The king visited Monte Cassino in the spring of 787 and formed the project of improving monastic life in the Prankish kingdom from its example. Some- time after his return home T he asked the abbot Theu- dcmar to give him for this purpose a copy of the " Rule of the Order" from Benedict's original manuscript, and also to send him the monk Joseph whom he de- sired to place at the head of his own model cloister. The abbot assigned to our Paul the duty of answering the king in the name of the monastery. It is said that this became the occasion for a detailed explanation of the Rule, which Paul composed at the request of the abbot and monks.3 It was also after he returned to the cloister that he composed the sermons attributed to him, of which only four have been preserved,3 as well as the last and most important work of his life " The History of the Langobards." When he gave his Roman History to Adelperga he had the design of bringing it down at a later period to his own time.4 Other things had oc-

1 Perhaps in 792 (see Dahn, 62).

2 Dahn (62-63) disputes Paul's authorship of this work.

3 The MSS. are described by Bethmann, (302). Dahn (71) considers the sermons not sufficiently authenticated.

*Abel, p. xix.

XXX LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

curred in the meantime. The fall of the Langobard kingdom had made a great change. Now in the even- ing of a long and active life, from the sun-lit heights of the quiet monastery, he thought again of his old plan and carried it out in an altered form as the history of his own people into which he interwove what seemed appropriate in the history of the Prankish kingdom and the Eastern empire.1 But before its completion, death carried the old man away. The 1 3th day of April was the day of his death, but the year :s unknown.2 He was buried in the cloister near the chapter hall, and the monk of Salerno afterwards saw his epitaph, but at the present time every trace of his tomb has disappeared.

1 The connection between his Roman and Langobard histories is very close. The first is brought down to Totila's death in 552 and the i6th book closes with the statement that what remains to be said of the good fortune of the emperor Justinian is to be re- lated in a subsequent book. This subsequent book never ap- peared, but the " History of the Langobards " took its place. The events of Justinian's reign described in the Roman history, the Persian war, the conquest of Africa and the Gothic kingdom, are compressed into the smallest compass, while matters omitted in the Roman history are treated more in detail, e. g. , the con- quest of Amtalas, king of the Moors, the laws of Justinian, the building of St. Sophia and the general estimate of Justinian's character. The Gothic war is resumed at the point where the Roman history breaks off, that is — with the struggle between Narses and Buccellinus, A. D. 553, except that the account of the sending of auxiliary troops by the Langobards to Narses is pre- fixed to it, although this occurred during Totila's life (Mommsen, 77).

* It occurred probably between A. D. 790 and 800 (Hodgkin, V, 78).

PAUL THE DEACON. XXXI

Paul's life was the life of a man of learning.1 It was not given to him to develop great qualities. Quiet and modest, but honored and loved by all who lived with him, and dear to his royal and princely patrons, he found complete contentment in retirement and in his work as an instructor and author. No reproach has anywhere been made against him. No dishonorable trait appears in his work, or in his life. Everything which has been written to him or about him expresses only love and honor. Lofty flights were unknown to him; his fundamental traits were fidelity, devotion to his prince and love for his people. His religious ten- dency was of a practical and reasonable kind. He was disinclined to questions of dogmatic controversy and contemplative speculation. In his Life of St. Gregory he declares it unnecessary to relate miracles, since there is no need of them in order to judge of men.

Paul's culture belongs to the most comprehensive of his time. A Langobard by birth, he learned from childhood the language of his people, its laws, its cus- toms and its old historic legends, the rich fragments of which adorn his historical work. The Latin language, the ancient and Christian authors and whatever else be- longs to the culture of a churchman, he studied under one of the best teachers of the Langobard kingdom and perhaps (according to the statement of his pupil Hil- deric) under the encouragement of the king himself. But what particularly distinguished him, especially in France, was his knowledge of Greek, which was there very rare.

'Betfcmann, 273.

XXXli LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

His general learning was not inferior to his unusual knowledge of languages. The Bible, the fathers of the church, the current classics, Eutropius, Florus, Eusebius, Orosius, Prosper, Jordanes, Fortunatus, Gregory the Great, Gregory of Tours, Isidore Eugippius, the various lives of the popes, Marcus of Monte Cassino, Ambrosius, Autpert, Secundus of Trent, the old Langobard chron- icle, Rothari's book of laws, the lives of Columban, Arn- ulf, etc., are mentioned and used by him, and they will be far from all that he has read.

His many-sided learning is shown in his manner of writing which evinces a diligent reading of the classics and much training. His language on the whole is cor- rect, though barbarisms occur on account of the fact that the Latin language in the Middle Ages was by no means a dead one, but had a peculiar and inevitable development as a living tongue. These barbarisms are found in equal measure in all the writings of the time, not excepting Bede, Alcuin and Eginhard.1

1 After a thorough review of the manuscripts and their genealo- gies, Waitz (Neues Archiv I, p. 561), differing from Bethmann, at- tributes to Paul himself, and not merely to his copyists and tran- scribers, numerous departures from the ordinary rules of orthog- raphy and grammar. In addition to mere mistakes and varia- tions in spelling, e. g., doctor for ductor (Paul Hist. Langob., II, 9), and irregular verbal forms, accesscrant for acciderant(\\\, 5), sincbit (V, 8) erabamus (V, 40) vcllit for vellet (II, 4), inrucritfor inrueret (VI, 24); we find such expressions as minim dictum for dictu (IV, 2); the use of domiti as a genitive (VI, 16, 23); the omission of the final s in the genitive, e. g., superiori (IV, 16) ; caesarem used as vocative (III, 12) ; the forms juvenulus (V, 7), primis (I, 9) meaning "at first;" ad for a or ab, e. g.t ad

PAUL THE DEACON. XXxiii

Paul belongs in language and expression to the best

Sitavts (III, 7); adducunt for abducunt (IV, 37). Among the grammatical peculiarities are the interchange of genders, e. g. , praefato sinodo (VI, 4), ad qitod profectum (I, 4), fluviiim quod (IV, 45), montem quoddam (III, 34), illud ornatum (V, 13), ritunt imperiale (III, 12), alium consilium (VI, 36), talem votum (II, 27), multos pondus (III, 34).

The accusative is used for the ablative or other cases, e.g., manum for manu (VI, 32), gratiant for gratia (VI, 44), vitam ex- emptus est (VI, 56). ducatum expulit (VI, 57), adventum extetri- tusest(\V, 8), regnum potitus (VI, 35), /^^ <?j/ magnum thesau- rum (III, 11). The accusative absolute is used, <?. £-., vacatum interpretem (III, 2), "vocatum pontificem (III, 12), Unulfum ad- scitum (V, 2). The nominative also is thus used, Franci cum Saxonibus pugnantes, magna stranges facta est (IV, 31); ad cere- brum ictus prevenicus, hostis ab equo dejectus est (IV, 37). Some- times accusative and ablative are united, especially when two sub- stantives belong to the participle, e. g., ordinatis Iboret Aionem (I, 3), Adunatis gentibus Rugorumque partem (I, 19), Accepta obside sororem (V, 8); but also alone, facta pacem(\\\, 27), nemine scien- tem (IV, 40), relicto puerum (IV, 41), Cyrum ejecto (VI, 34), eum residence (VI, 37) — Also the nominative and ablative, extincto Mauricio ejus filius (IV, 36) — See also annum et mensibtts (IV, 44), eodemque volumen, eodem codicem (I, 25), eodem ostium (V, 3), eodem cubiculum (V, 2), eadem urbem (II, 13), eadem civitatem (VI, 13), eadem basilicam (III, 23), eadem provinciam (VI, 24), cuncta suppellectilem (VI, 57), in medio campum (IV, 37), regia dignitatem (\\\t 35), subito adventum (V, 9), ei pugnaturum (II, l), — We find also the use of improper cases after prepositions, in in- sulam communivit (VI, 19), Habitaverunt in Pannoniam (II, 7), in caelum apparuisse (IV, 1 5), inpalatium manere (V, 4), in silvam latens (V, 39), in medium civitatis concremari fecit (VI, 49), in reg- num gerebat principatum (VI, 23), in quam partem quiesceret (^ ', 34), cum victoriam (IV, 1 6), de ad-ventum (V, 8), de Unulfum (V, 3), de Brittaniam (VI, 37), a Fano civitatem (VI, 57), ab orientis partem (II, 16), Pro redemptionem (VI, 40), sub regulae jugum

XXXiv LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

of the early Middle Ages. ' He was not born to be a poet although single poems of his are not lacking in beauties and he manages with ease the different kinds of verse. He chooses in preference the old forms of versification, the hexameter, the elegiac, Sapphic, Alcaic, and Archilochian meters, but he also uses a

vivere (VI, 40). — For a subject placed in the accusative see Pan- noniam pertingat (II, 8), rex Uutprandum (VI, 58). Ablative forms are also improperly used, in Francia misit (IV, I), in Francia fugeret (VI, 35), in Alexandria direxit (VI, 36), in qua confugetat (III, 18), in basilica confugit (VI, 5 1), in gratia rcccptus (IV, 3), ad terra (III, 24), ad fine (I, 21), in partibus divisus (III, 24), ob detrimento (III, 17), per media (V, 3), apud filio (IV, 29), apud basilica (IV, 42). Sometimes the object stands in the abla- tive, qua gerebat (I, 15), qua gestabat (III, 30), sua farcira sus- pendit (IV, 37), prima se scribebat (IV, 36), manu tctigit (III, 30), occasions repperit (III, 18), eodem pcrcitssit (IV, 51), eodem poni fecit :(III, 34), bellogessisset(\V, 16), evaginato ense tencns (IV, 51). Once it stands in the dative, ducatui gubcrna-vit (VI, 3). Some- times the nominative appears with the infinitive, as Gambara pos- tulasse, Frea consilium dedisse — subjunxisse (I, 8), Peredeo di- rectus esse (II, 30). We find also the letter t added to the infin- itive, e.g., se vellet for se vclle (V, 4). From these instances Waitz infers that Paul's writing was greatly influenced by the cor- rupt Latin in vogue at the time. No doubt this is true, but prob- ably most of Paul's readers will attribute the larger portion of these errors in the early manuscripts to the carelessness of an original amanuensis or of ignorant transcribers, or to the mere oversight of the learned historian. The generally grammatical character of his verse would indicate that he had a good knowl- edge of what correct Latin ought to be.

1 Abel considers (p. xxi) that in this respect the History of the Langobards, which he left incomplete, is inferior to his remaining works.

- PAUL THE DEACON. XXXV

more modern form consisting of three lines, each com- posed of eight long and seven short syllables. From the affectations which gradually got the upper hand among the Christian poets he has kept himself quite free with two exceptions, the acrostic to Adelperga, composed after the model of Ennodius and Fortunatus, and the reciprocal distichs on St. Benedict1 and Scho- lastica, where the first part of the first line is repeated at the end of the second. Rhyme is not used by Paul. His hymn on the translation of St. Mercurius would be an exception, but for this very reason it ap- pears doubtful whether he was its author.

Paul's principal work was in history. He found this branch of knowledge cultivated in several directions. They include:

(1) The condensed Roman histories of the time with additions made by Christian authors to include Jewish and pre-Roman history as well as the history of the church.

(2) The consular lists to which historical observa- tions were added.

(3) The Annals, a development of Easter tablets, which were hung up in the churches in the effort to secure uniformity in celebrating church festivals.

(4) The Chronicles, an extension of the theory of the Annals to general chronology.

(5) Accounts of the " Six Ages of the World."

(6) Histories of particular German nations, Franks, Goths, Anglo-Saxons, etc.

1 See Append!:: III.

XXXvi LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

(7) Biographies, including Lives of the Saints and the Popes.1

Paul attempted only the first and the last two of these.

But what came at an early time into all these branches of historical writing, and showed in a surprising way the decadence of a spiritually creative life, was the ever-in- creasing compiling and copying. All the historians of the time copy from each other and from their predeces- sors, and give us next to nothing that is original. Paul could not withdraw himself from the spirit, or rather the lack of spirit of his age. He was also properly a com- piler. It was his nature to collect and transmit in more convenient form what was at hand, not to create any- thing new. Still, there is never with him a mere rough patching together. He selects and examines his sources, tries to bring their accounts into harmony, and in a gen- eral way he makes use of criticism, even though he is not always happy in this. Especially have his critical efforts, joined with his method of compilation, operated injuriously upon his chronology. To bind together the fragments of his different sources he inserts quite arbi- trarily the words " After some years " or " At this time " or " In these days" or " After these things," and often quite erroneously, so that phrases of this kind can never pass as authority, since they have their origin simply in a matter of style. Sometimes he throws into confusion the sequence of the narrative, even where he adheres to the words of his sources, so that quite a different chron-

1 Bethmann, 278 to 282.

PAUL THE DEACON. XXXvii

ology results. Other things he puts together very loosely without natural connection, and the fact that he puts them in a certain order does not show that they really occurred in that order.1

For chronology therefore he must be used with the greatest caution, and where he differs from other ancient sources, the probability is that the error is with him and not with them.* He is not lacking in other errors, but these are much oftener to be attributed to his sources than to himself. He has been reproached for credulity, and certainly scientific criticism is not his prominent

1 Bethmann, 283, 284. He had intended to write merely an ex- tension of his continuation of Eutropius. This would belong to universal history and would be written in chronological order, and when, in place of this, he later writes a history of his own people, he was still unwilling to give up his earlier point of view and he there- fore pursues his history in three threads interweaving in briefer fashion with his extended Langobard narrative, matters concern- ing the Eastern empire and the kingdom of the Franks (Mommsen, 56). This is by no means to the advantage of the narrative since the principal thread of the story is continually interrupted without any proper compensation to the writer in the matters which are thus interjected and which are generally copied almost word for word out of well-known sources. But as a mark of the tendency to fuse together Roman and Germanic traditions and history it is of the highest importance.

1 His chronological arrangement is based to a considerable ex- tent upon Bede's Chronicle since the years of the reigns of the emperors of the East, besides those of the Langobard kings form the principal support of the order of his narrative. In a very few cases he gives the indiction, and only once (in regard to Alboin'g invasion, A. D. 568) the year of our Lord (Jacobi, 3),

XXXVlii LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

characteristic. But what he relates of miracles and wonderful things is due in part to the times, and in part to the traditions of his people which he tells with affection, without everywhere wishing to vouch for their accuracy, as he sometimes lets us perceive. His love of truth, the first quality of a writer of history, is unques- tioned. He desires continually and everywhere to give us the facts. Where he fails it is never with knowledge and will.

His whole nature was without anger and prejudice. Partisan views, passionate judgments, the sacred rage of a Tacitus, an Ambrose or a Jeremiah, are not to be ex- pected from him, but rather impartiality and independ- ence of judgment. While his source, the official " Book of the Popes," speaks only evil of Liutprand, Paul praises him in the most decided way. On the other hand, all his love for his people does not prevent his doing full justice to Gregory the Great, and again, with all his reverence for Gregory, in the contest of the Pope with the church of Aquileia, he decidedly takes the part of the latter.1 Muratori accuses him unjustly of being a partisan of his own people. He undoubtedly loved his people. It was this love which induced him to write his history. It causes him to speak in particular detail of his own home, it prevents his becoming a partisan of the Catholics and the admirers of Gregory against the

1 It may well be, however, as Cipolla believes (Atti e Memorie del Congresso Storico in Cividale, 1899, p. 144) that Paul, not fully understanding the controversy, considered that Gregory was on the side of the church of Aquileia.

PAUL THE DEACON. XXXIX

Langobards, but it has not induced him to distort the truth, or to set forth in a partisan manner, nothing but the glory of his people, and if he sometimes omits things where his silence may seem partial, for example, the evil things that Procopius, the " Book of the Popes," and Gregory relate of the Langobards, this is not proof that he wanted to conceal them, since he often omits other important facts, and he relates on the other hand many things disadvantageous to the Langobards. Indeed, his judgment of his own people, as well as of individual Langobards, is sometimes severe. He shows a desire to please Charlemagne in the long di- gression concerning the forefathers and family of that king in his " History of the Bishops of Metz," but here too he does not depart from the truth ; and when he says Rome desired the presence of Charlemagne because it was then suffering from the oppression of the Lango- bards, this was true even in the mouth of a Langobard, and that he praises the conqueror of his people on ac- count of his mildness cannot well be called flattery. He shows the same feeling for truth and simplicity in his plain diction. There are no speeches according to the manner of the ancients and of Jordanes ; there are no great character-portraits depending more or less upon the coloring of the artist; there is no word- painting with the single exception of his lively descrip- tion of the plague in Book II, Ch. IV, and this he certainly did not derive from his imagination.4

1 The paraphrase from Bethmann (p. 286) ceases at this point. The remainder of the article is from the authorities given below.

xl LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

Mommsen z says, " Paul has hardly written down any statements which he himself did not consider true, but often he came to his conviction of their truth by means of conclusions which are contestable and doubtful, and which it is not always easy to follow." The " History of the Langobards " gives evidence of incompleteness and care- lessness in places,2 but Mommsen believes that, in general, Paul cannot be so much accused of thoughtlessness as of pondering too deeply over the use of his authorities and becoming deceived thereby, and he adds that we must take care not to receive as evidence his mere deductions, as, for example, where Paul finds in his authorities that the two contending kings, Odoacar and Fewa, both reigned over the Rugians, and reconciles this contradiction by attributing the sovereignty of Odoacar to a part only of that people.

Jacobi concludes his comprehensive and scholarly re- view of the sources of the " History of the Langobards " with the observation that a great part of Paul's state- ments are without value as sources of history, because they can be traced back to other sources which are still preserved ; that that which cannot be so traced has value only where we can accept the view that he has accu- rately followed his copy, as in the lost work of Secundus ; but that where we cannot determine from the form of the unknown source the manner in which it has been used, our knowledge of the way in which Paul is accus- tomed to work must admonish us to exercise the great- est caution ; that much that he relates is undoubtedly

'Pp. 102, 103. * Jacobi, 2.

PAUL THE DEACON. xli

traditional, but that in spite of this, Paul's " History of the Langobards," though hitherto prized beyond its value, must be reckoned as one of the more prominent sources of the Middle Ages on account of the consider- able number of original statements which it contains.1 Among the critics of Paul it is Jacobi who gives him the lowest rank, and this is doubtless due to the fact that his point of view considers Paul's work simply as a source of historical facts without reference to the literary char- acter or the general tendencies of that work.

Mommsen's view is a broader one. He says : a "It is difficult to judge of the spiritual gifts of those men who have worked upon the incunabula of history, as difficult as it is to form a correct judgment from the works of primitive sculptors and painters in regard to the artistic qualifications of the master. But without doubt Paul takes a peculiar literary position to this extent, that Roman culture had become incorporated in him to such a degree as is quite without another example in this epoch. He wrote indeed the Latin of his time, and while his verses, especially the hexameters and the dis- tichs, are relatively correct, he did not refrain from using in prose the unclassical forms then usual, for example, the accusative absolute (in place of the ab- lative absolute) and the participle turned into a sub- stantive quite separated from any context. But one who is acquainted in any degree with the halting and bungling writings that were composed at that time looks with astonishment upon his thoroughly clear and gener-

1 Jacobi, p. 87. J Pp. 54, 55, 56.

xlii LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

erally correct Latin, his reasonable structure of sen- tences, free from all affectation, and his skill in form and style. Quite apart from the substance of his nar- rative it is well to picture to ourselves how he has con- structed his historical work out of the most scattered sources into unity of form and with full mastery over the style of the whole. The ground-floor of his work is, as is well known, the condensed historical sketch of Eutropius, elegant in its way and taken from the Greek form. It is evident that Paul took Eutropius generally for his model, and this testifies in favor of his correct taste. . . . But it is remarkable in what tolerable fashion he has moulded together the pulpit style of Orosius, the anecdotes of the Books of Examples, the accounts of the Roman, Langobard and Prankish annals and histories (sometimes disjointed, sometimes running on in great detail), and the rude legends of the Langobard Origo, and has in a way tuned them up and tuned them down to the manner of Eutropius, going as far back as King lanus of Italy and down to King Liutprand. This involves such a knowledge and interest in classical liter- ature as does not occur again in the same breadth and fulness before the time of the Renaissance. . . This energy in Roman classical culture was united in Paul with an earnest national feeling which was rather in- creased than diminished upon the overthrow of the Langobard kingdom. He has written under these in- fluences, and even to-day his pages show the double marks of classical and national feeling."

PAUL THE DEACON'S HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

The region of the north, in proportion as it is removed from the heat of the sun and is chilled with snow and frost, is so much the more healthful to the bodies of men and fitted for the propagation of nations, just as, on the other hand, every southern region, the nearer it is to the heat of the sun, the more it abounds in diseases and is less fitted for the bringing up of the human race. From this it happens that such great multitudes of peoples spring up in the north, and that that entire region from the Tanais (Don) to the west1 (although single places in it are designated by their own names) yet the whole is not improperly called by the general name of Ger- many. 2 The Romans, however, when they occupied

1 Paul's designation of the whole region from the Don to the west, as Germany, which is wholly incorrect, appears, according to Mommsen (p. 61), to have come from his misinterpretation of the words of his authority, Isidore of Seville.

* Paul appears to deduce the name ' ' Germany ' ' from ger- minare to germinate. Cf. Isidore, Etym., XIV, 4, 2. This fanci- ful derivation is quite different from that given by Tacitus (Ger- mania, II), who derives it from the name of a single tribe after- wards called the Tungrians, who were the first to cross the Rhine, and drive out the Gauls,

2 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

those parts, called the two provinces beyond the Rhine, Upper and Lower Germany. x From this teeming Ger- many then, innumerable troops of captives are often led away and sold for gain to the people of the South. And for the reason that it brings forth so many human beings that it can scarcely nourish them, there have fre- quently emigrated from it many nations that have indeed become the scourge of portions of Asia, but especially of the parts of Europe which lie next to it. Every- where ruined cities throughout all Illyria and Gaul testify to this, but most of all in unhappy Italy which has felt the cruel rage of nearly all these nations. The Goths indeed, and the Wandals, the Rugii, Heroli, and Turci- lingi,2 and also other fierce and barbarous nations have come from Germany. In like manner also the race of

1 ' ' Beyond the Rhine ' ' means in this case on the left bank of the Rhine. The dividing line between Upper and Lower Ger- many ran a little below the junction of the Rhine with the Moselle. Mogontiacum (Mayence) was the capital of Upper Germany, and Vetera (Birten) near Wesel, of Lower Germany. (Mommsen's Geschichte des romischen Reichs, V, pp. 107-109). Although these two provinces included at various times more or less territory on the east side of that river, it was only a small part of Germany which was thus occupied by the Romans. Germania Magna, or Great Germany, east of the Rhine, remained inde- pendent.

2 The Rugii and Turcilingi were tribes first mentioned as inhab- iting the shores of the Baltic sea (Zeuss, 154-155). They were subsequently found in the army of Attila and afterwards dwelling on the Danube. The Heroli were a migratory people appearing at different times in various parts of Europe (Zeuss, 476). All three of these tribes were among the troops of Odoacar in Italy. As to the Heroli and Rugii see infra, chs. 19 and 20.

BOOK I. 3

Winnili, l that is, of Langobards, which afterwards ruled prosperously in Italy, deducing its origin from the Ger- man peoples, came from the island which is called Scadinavia, 2 although other causes of their emigration 3 are also alleged. 4

CHAPTER II.

Pliny the Second also makes mention of this island in the books which he composed concerning the nature of things. This island then, as those who have ex- amined it have related to us, is not so much placed in the sea as it is washed about by the sea waves which en- compass the land on account of the flatness of the shores.5 Since, therefore, the peoples established

1 The word means ' ' eager for battle ' ' according to Bruckner (322). According to Schmidt (37) it is related to the Gothic vinja, ' ' pasture. ' '

1 That Paul wrote Scadinavia and not Scandinavia see Momm- sen, 62, note i. In the Langobard Origo (see Appendix, II) the name is given as Scadan, Scandanan or Scadanan ; in the Chronicon Gothanum, it is Scatenauge (Mon. Germ. Hist. Leges IV, p. 642). Paul appears to have transformed this into Scadinavia from Pliny's Natural History (Book IV, ch. 27, p. 823, Delphin ed.).

3 Than over population (Jacobi, 1 2).

* The other causes of the emigration of the Winnili may be those suggested in the Chronicon Gothanum where the prophetess or sibyl Gambara "declared to them their migration." "Moved therefore not by necessity, nor hardness of heart, nor oppression of the poor, but that they should attain salvation from on high, she says that they are to go forth." (Monument, Germ. Hist. Leges, IV, 641.).

6 What Paul meant by this island is hard to decide (Jacobi, ll).

4 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

within the island had grown to so great a multitude that they could not now dwell together, they divided their whole troop into three parts, as is said, and determined by lot which part of them had to forsake their country and seek new abodes. x

Hammerstein (Bardengau, 51) has pointed out that in the Middle Ages the territory in the north of Germany, between the North and the Baltic seas, was included under the name of Scandinavia, and claims that Paul referred to the so-called Bardengau, a tract in Northern Germany, southeast of Hamburg. But the fact that Paul calls upon Pliny is a proof that he had no definite idea of Scadinavia, and notwithstanding the extensive movement of the tide upon the Elbe and the important changes on the coast, it can hardly be said of Bardengau that it was ' ' surrounded ' ' by sea waves. Bluhme (Die Gens Langobardonum und ihre Herkunft), without sufficient reason, identifies the northernmost part of the Cimbrian peninsula, the so-called Wendsyssel, with Scadinavia. (See Schmidt, 36).

Schmidt (38 to 42) reviews the classical authorities, Mela, Pliny and Ptolemy, as well as Jordanes, the Geographer of Ravenna, and the Song of Beowulf, and concludes that the word refers to the Scandinavian peninsula which was then considered an island; but he rejects the tradition that the Langobards actually migrated from Sweden to Germany, since he considers that they belonged to the West-German stock, which in all probability came from the south-east, while only North-Germans (that is, those races which were found settled in Scandinavia in historical times) appear to have come from that peninsula. It is probable, however, that the Langobards came from North-German stock (Bruckner, 25- 32), and while there can be no certainty whatever as to the place of their origin, it may well have been Scandinavia.

1 The choosing by lot of a part of the people for emigration in the case of a famine is a characteristic peculiar to German folk- tales (Schmidt, 42).

BOOK I. 5

CHAPTER III.

Therefore that section to which fate had assigned the abandonment of their native soil and the search for foreign fields, after two leaders had been appointed over them, to wit : Ibor and Aio,1 who were brothers, in the bloom of youthful vigor and more eminent than the rest, said farewell to their own people, as well as their country, and set out upon their way to seek for lands where they might dwell and establish their abodes. The mother of these leaders, Gambara by name,2 was a woman of the keenest ability and most prudent in counsel among her people, and they trusted not a little to her shrewdness in doubtful matters.

CHAPTER IV.

I do not think it is without advantage to put off for a little while the order of my narrative, and because my pen up to this time deals with Germany, to relate briefly a miracle which is there considered notable among all, as well as certain other matters. In the farthest bound- aries of Germany toward the west-north-west, on the shore of the ocean itself, a cave is seen under a project- ing rock, where for an unknown time seven men repose

1 Ibor and Aio were called by Prosper of Aquitaine, Iborea and Agio ; Saxo-Grammaticus calls them Ebbo and Aggo ; the popu- lar song of Gothland (Bethmann, 342), Ebbe and Aaghe (Wiese, 14).

1 The word gambar, according to Grimm (Deutsche Mythologie, I> 336), is the equivalent of strenuus.

6 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

wrapped in a long sleep,1 not only their bodies, but also their clothes being so uninjured, that from this fact alone, that they last without decay through the course of so many years, they are held in veneration among those ignorant and barbarous peoples. These then, so far as regards their dress, are perceived to be Romans. When a certain man, stirred by cupidity, wanted to strip one of them, straightway his arms withered, as is said, and his punishment so frightened the others that no one dared touch them further. The future will show for what useful purpose Divine Providence keeps them

1 This is the version by Paul of the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. The earliest version is that of Jacobus Sarugiensis, a bishop of Mesopotamia in the fifth or sixth century. Gregory of Tours was perhaps the first to introduce the legend into Europe. Mohammed put it into the Koran ; he made the sleepers prophesy his own coming and he gave them the dog Kratin also endowed with the gift of prophecy. The commonly accepted legend was, however, that the Seven Sleepers were natives of Ephesus, that the emperor Decius (A. D. 250), having come to that city, commanded that the Christians should be sought out and given their choice, either to worship the Roman deities or die ; that these seven men took refuge in a cave near the city; that the, entrance to -the cave was, by command of Decius, blocked up with stone; that they fell into a preternatural sleep, and that two hundred years later, under Theodosius II (A. D. 408-450), the cave was opened and the sleepers awoke. When one of them went to the city stealthily to buy provisions for the rest he found that the place was much changed, that his coins were no longer cur- rent, and that Christianity had been accepted by the rulers and the people. The original legend relates, however, that after awak- ening they died (Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, S. Baring- Gould, p. 93). It is not known from what source Paul derived his version of the story.

BOOK 1. 7

through so long a period. Perhaps those nations are to be saved some time by the preaching of these men, since they cannot be deemed to be other than Christians.

CHAPTER V.

The Scritobini, for thus that nation is called, are neighbors to this place. They are not without snow even in the summer time, and since they do not differ in nature from wild beasts themselves, they feed only upon the raw flesh of wild animals from whose shaggy skins also they fit garments for themselves.1 They deduce the etymology of their name2 according to their barbarous language from jumping. For by mak- ing use of leaps and bounds they pursue wild beasts very skillfully with a piece of wood bent in the like- ness of a bow. Among them there is an animal not very unlike a stag,3 from whose hide, while it was rough with hairs, I saw a coat fitted in the manner of a tunic down to the knees, such as the aforesaid Scritobini use, as has been related. In these places about the summer solstice, a very bright light is seen for some days, even in the night time, and the days are much longer there than elsewhere, just as, on the other hand, about the winter solstice, although the light of day is present, yet the sun is not seen there and the days are

1 What is said about the Scritobini (or Scridefinni) can be traced to one and the same source as the account of Thule given in Pro- copius' Gothic War, II, 15, or of Scandza in Jordanes' Gothic History, 3 ; see Zeuss,' 684.

1 Perhaps from schreiten, ' ' to stride, ' ' or some kindred word.

8 A reindeer (Waitz).

8 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

shorter than anywhere else and the nights too are longer, and this is because the further we turn from the sun the nearer the sun itself appears to the earth and the longer the shadows grow. In short, in Italy (as the ancients also have written) about the day of the birth of our Lord, human statures at twelve o'clock measure in shadow nine feet. But when I was stationed in Belgic Gaul in a place which is called Villa Totonis (Dieten- hofen, Thionville1) and measured the shadow of my stature, I found it nineteen and a half feet. Thus also on the contrary the nearer we come to the sun toward midday the shorter always appear the shadows, so much so that at the summer solstice when the sun looks down from the midst of heaven in Egypt and Jerusalem and the places situated in their neighborhood, no shadows may be seen. But in Arabia at this same time the sun at its highest point is seen on the northern side and the shadows on the other hand appear towards the south.

CHAPTER VI.

Not very far from this shore of which we have spoken, toward the western side, on which the ocean main lies open without end, is that very deep whirl- pool of waters which we call by its familiar name " the navel of the sea." This is said to suck in the waves and spew them forth again twice every day, as is proved to be done by the excessive swiftness with which the waves advance and recede along all those shores. A whirl- pool or maelstrom of this kind is called by the poet

1 On the Moselle, where Charlemagne held his court.

BOOK I. 0

Virgil " Charybdis," which he says in his poem T is in the Sicilian strait, speaking of it in this way :

Scylla the right hand besets, and the left, the relentless

Charybdis ; Thrice in the whirl of the deepest abyss it swallows the vast

waves

Headlong, and lifts them again in turn one after another Forth to the upper air, and lashes the stars with the billows.

Ships are alleged to be often violently and swiftly dragged in by this whirlpool (of which indeed we have spoken) with such speed that they seem to imitate the fall of arrows through the air, and sometimes they per- ish by a very dreadful end in that abyss. But often when they are upon the very point of being overwhelmed they are hurled back by the sudden masses of waves and driven away again with as great speed as they were at first drawn in. They say there is another whirlpool of this kind between the island of Britain and the prov- ince of Galicia,2 and with this fact the coasts of the Seine region and of Aquitaine agree, for they are filled twice a day with such sudden inundations that any one who may by chance be found only a little inward from the shore can hardly get away. You may see the rivers of these regions falling back with a very swift current toward their source, and the fresh waters of the streams turning salt through the spaces of many miles. The

VII, 420.

* In the northwestern part of Spain. Many manuscripts read "the province of Gaul." Evidently Paul's knowledge of the geography of these parts is most obscure.

,

.

'r.'

10 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

island of Evodia (Alderney) is almost thirty miles dis- tant from the coast of the Seine region, and in this island, as its inhabitants declare, is heard the noise of the waters as they sweep into this Charybdis. I have heard a certain high nobleman of the Gauls relating that a number of ships, shattered at first by a tempest, were afterwards devoured by this same Charybdis. And when one only out of all the men who had been in these ships, still breathing, swam over the waves, while the rest were dying, he came, swept by the force of the receding waters, up to the edge of that most frightful abyss. And when now he beheld yawning before him the deep chaos whose end he could not see, and half dead from very fear, expected to be hurled into it, sud- denly in a way that he could not have hoped he was cast upon a certain rock and sat him down. And now when all the waters that were to be swallowed had run down, the margins of that edge (of the abyss) had been left bare, and while he sat there with difficulty, trem- bling with fear and filled with foreboding amid so many distresses, nor could he hide at all from his sight the death that was a little while deferred, behold he suddenly sees, as it were, great mountains of water leaping up from the deep and the first ships which had been sucked in com- ing forth again ! And when one of these came near him he grasped it with what effort he could, and without delay, he was carried in swift flight toward the shore and escaped the fate of death, living afterwards to tell the story of his peril. Our own sea also, that is, the Adriatic, which spreads in like manner, though less vio- lently, through the coasts of Venetia and Istria, is be-

BOOK I. II

lieved to have little secret currents of this kind by which the receding waters are sucked in and vomited out again to dash upon the shores. These things having been thus examined, let us go back to the order of our nar- rative already begun.

CHAPTER VII.

The Winnili then, having departed from Scadinavia with their leaders Ibor and Aio, and coming into the region which is called Scoringa,1 settled there for some

'Scoringa, according to Miillenhoff's explanation in which Bluhme concurs, is " Shoreland " (see Schmidt, 43). Bluhme considers it identical with the later Bardengau, on the left bank of the lower Elbe where the town of Bardowick, twenty-four miles southeast of Hamburg, perpetuates the name of the Langobards even down to the present time. Hammerstein (Bardengau, 56) explains Scoringa as Schieringen near Bleckede in the same re- gion. Schmidt (43) believes that the settlement in Scoringa has a historical basis and certainly, if the name indicates the territory in question, it is the place where the Langobards are first found in authentic history. They are mentioned in connection with the campaigns undertaken by Tiberius against various German tribes during the reign of Augustus in the fifth and sixth year of the Christian era, in the effort to extend the frontiers of the Roman empire from the Rhine to the Elbe (Mommsen, Romische Geschichte, V, 33). The Langobards then dwelt in that re- gion which lies between the Weser and the lower Elbe. They were described by the court historian Velleius Paterculus (II, 106), who accompanied one of the expeditions as prefect of cavalry (Schmidt, 5), as "more fierce than ordinary German savagery," and he tells us that their power was broken by the legions of Tiberius. It would appear also from the combined testimony of Strabo (A. D. 20) and Tacitus (A, D. 117) that the

12 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

years. At that time Ambri and Assi, leaders of the

Langobards dwelt near the mouth of the Elbe shortly after the be- ginning of the Christian era, and were in frequent and close re- lations with the Hermunduri and Semnones, two great Suevic tribes dwelling higher up the stream. Strabo (see Hodgkin, V, 81) evidently means to assert that in his time the Hermunduri and Langobards had been driven from the left to the right bank. Ptolemy who wrote later (100-161) places them upon the left bank. Possibly both authors were right for different periods in their history (Hodgkin, V, 82).

The expedition of Tiberius was the high-water mark of Roman invasion on Teutonic soil, and when a Roman fleet, sailing up the Elbe, established communication with a Roman army upon the bank of that river, it might well be thought that the designs of Augustus were upon the point of accomplishment, and that the boundary of the empire was to be traced by connecting the Dan- ube with the Elbe. The dominions of Marobod, king of the Mar- comanni, who was then established in Bohemia, would break the continuity of this boundary, so the Romans proceeded to invade his territories. An insurrection, however, suddenly broke out in Illyricum and the presence of the Roman army was required in that region. So a hasty peace was concluded with Marobod, leav- ing him the possessions he already held. It required four suc- cessive campaigns and an enormous number of troops (Mommsen, Rom. Gesch., Vol. V, pp. 35-38) to suppress the revolt. While the Roman veterans were engaged in the Illyrian war, great num- bers of Germans led by Arminius, or Hermann, of the Cheruscan tribe rose in rebellion. In the ninth year of our era, Varus marched against them at the head of a force composed largely of new recruits. He was surprised and surrounded in the pathless recesses of the Teutoburg forest and his army of some twenty thousand men was annihilated (id., pp. 38-44). It is not known whether the Langobards were among the confederates who thus arrested the conquest of their country by the Roman army, although they dwelt not far from the scene of this historic battle.

BOOK I. 13

Wandals, were coercing all the neighboring provinces by

They were then considered, however, to belong to the Suevian stock and were subject, not far from this time, to the king of the Marcomanni, a Suevian race (id., p. 34; Tacitus Germania, 38-40; Annals, II, 45), and king Marobod took no part in this war on either side as he had made peace with the Romans.

The defeat of Varus was due largely to his own incompetency and it would not appear to have been irretrievable when the im- mense resources of the Roman empire are considered. Still no active offensive operations against the barbarians were undertaken until after the death of Augustus and the succession of Tiberius, A. D. 14, when in three campaigns, the great Germanicus thrice invaded Germany, took captive the wife and child of Arminius, defeated the barbarians in a sanguinary battle, and announced to Rome that in the next campaign the subjugation of Germany would be complete (Mommsen, id., pp. 44-50). But Tiberius per- mitted no further campaign to be undertaken. The losses suf- fered by the Romans on the sea as well as on land had been very severe, and whether he was influenced by this fact and by the dif- ficulty of keeping both Gaul and Germany in subjection if the legions were transferred from the Rhine to the Elbe, or whether he was actuated by jealousy of Germanicus, and feared the popu- larity the latter would acquire by the subjugation of all Germany, cannot now be decided, but he removed that distinguished com- mander from the scene of his past triumphs and his future hopes, sent him to the East on a new mission, left the army on the Rhine divided and without a general-in-chief, and adopted the policy of keeping that river as the permanent boundary of the empire (id., p. 50-54).

Thus the battle in the Teutoburg forest resulted in the mainte- nance of German independence and ultimately perhaps in the over- throw of the Roman empire itself by German barbarians. It marked the beginning of the turn of the tide in Roman conquest and Roman dominion, for although the empire afterwards grew in other directions yet behind the dike here erected, the forces grad-

14 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

war. Already elated by many victories they sent mes-

ually collected which were finally to overwhelm it when it became corrupted with decay.

When the legions of Varus were destroyed, the head of the Roman commander was sent to Marobod and his cooperation so- licited. He refused however to join the confederated German tribes, he sent the head to Rome for funeral honors, and con- tinued to maintain between the empire and the barbarians, the neutrality he had observed in former wars. This refusal to unite in the national aspirations for German independence, cost him his throne. " Not only the Cheruscans and their confederates " says Tacitus (Ann. II, 45) "who had been the ancient soldiery of Arminius, took arms, but the Semnones and Langobards, both Suevian nations, revolted to him from the sovereignty of Marobod . . . . The armies (Ch. 46) . . . . were stimulated by reasons ot" their own, the Cheruscans and the Langobards fought for their ancient honor or their newly acquired independence, and the others for in- creasing their dominion. ' ' This occurred in the seventeenth year of our era. Marobod was finally overthrown, and took refuge in exile with the Romans, and it was not long until Arminius, ac- cused of aspiring to despotic power, was assassinated by a noble of his own race (Mommsen, id. 54-56). After his death the in- ternal dissensions among the Cheruscans became so violent that the reigning family was swept away, and in the year 47 they asked the Romans to send them as their king the one surviving member of that family, Italicus, the nephew of Arminius, who was born at Rome where he had been educated as a Roman citizen. Accord- ingly Italicus, with the approval of the emperor Claudius, as- sumed the sovereignty of the Cheruscans. At first he was re- ceived with joy, but soon the cry was raised that with his advent the old liberties of Germany were departing and Roman power was becoming predominant. A struggle ensued, and he was ex- pelled from the country. Again, the Langobards appear upon the scene, with sufficient power as it seems to control the destiny of the tribe which, thirty-eight years before, had been the leader in

BOOK I. 15

sengers to the Winnili to tell them that they should either pay tribute to the Wandals T or make ready for the struggles of war. Then Ibor and Aio, with the approval of their mother Gambara, determine that it is better to maintain liberty by arms than to stain it by the payment of tribute. They send word to the Wandals by messengers that they will rather fight than be slaves. The Winnili were then all in the flower of their youth, but were very few in number since they had been only the third part of one island of no great size.2

the struggle for independence, for they restored him to the sovereignty of which he had been despoiled by his inconstant sub- jects (Tacitus Annals, XI, 16, 17). These events and other internal disturbances injured the Cheruscans so greatly that they soon disappeared from the field of political activity (Mommsen, id., 132).

During the generations that followed there was doubtless many a change in the power, the territories and even the names of the various tribes which inhabited Germania Magna, but for a long time peace was preserved along the frontiers which separated them from the Roman world (id., p. 133). It is somewhat re- markable that none of those events appear in the Langobard tradition as contained in the pages of Paul.

1 Hammerstein (Bardengau, 71) considers the Wends who were the eastern neighbors of the Langobards, to be the Wandals. Jacobi (13, n. i) thinks Paul is misled by the account of Jordanes of the struggles of the Vandals and the Goths.

2 Although it belongs to the legendary period of the Langobards, there may well be some truth in this statement of the refusal to pay tribute. Tacitus (Germania, 40) speaks of the slender num- ber of the Langobards and declares that they are renowned be- cause they are so few and, being surrounded by many powerful nations, protect themselves, not by submission but by the peril of battles.

1 6 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

CHAPTER VIII.

At this point, the men of old tell a silly story that the Wandals coming to Godan (Wotan) besought him for victory over the Winnili and that he answered that he would give the victory to those whom he saw first at sunrise; that then Gambara went to Frea (Freja) wife of Godan and asked for victory for the Winnili, and that Frea gave her counsel that the women of the Win- nili should take down their hair and arrange it upon the face like a beard, and that in the early morning they should be present with their husbands and in like man- ner station themselves to be seen by Godan from the quarter in which he had been wont to look through his window toward the east. And so it was done. And when Godan saw them at sunrise he said : " Wrho are these long-beards?" And then Frea induced him to give the victory to those to whom he had given the name.1 And thus Godan gave the victory to the Win-

1A still livelier description of this scene is given in the " Origo Gentis Langobardorum " (see Appendix II) from which Paul took the story. ' ' When it became bright and the sun was rising, Frea, Godan' s wife, turned the bed around where her husband was lying and put his face toward the east, and awakened him, and as he looked he saw the Winnili and their wives, how their hair hung about their faces. And he said: " Who are these long- beards?" Then spoke Frea to Godan: "My lord, thou hast given them the name, now give them also the victory." Momm- sen remarks (pp. 65, 66) that Paul has spoiled the instructive story why one does better to put his business in the hands of the wife than of the husband, or rather that he has misunderstood the account. The fable rests upon this, that Godan, according to the position of his bed, looked toward the west upon awakening,

BOOK I. 17

nili. These things are worthy of laughter and are to be held of no account.1 For victory is due, not to the power of men, but it is rather furnished from heaven.

CHAPTER IX.

It is certain, however, that the Langobards were after- wards so called on account of the length of their beards

and that the Wandals camped on the west side and the Winnili upon the east. The true-hearted god could then appropriately promise victory to his Wandal worshippers in the enigmatical sentence, that he would take the part of those upon whom his eyes should first fall on the morning of the day of the battle; but as his cunning wife turned his bed around, he and his favorites were entrapped thereby. This can be easily inferred from the Origo. It may be asked what the women's hair arranged like a beard has to do with Godan's promise. Evidently, the affair was so planned that the astonishment of the god should be noted when he looked upon these extraordinary long-beards in place of the Wandals he had supposed would be there; perhaps indeed his cunning wife thus drew from her husband an expression which put it beyond doubt that he actually let his glance fall in the morning upon the Winnili.

That the account in the Origo was a Latin translation of a Ger- man alliterative epic poem — see Appendix II.

1 Paul' s narrative of the origin of the name of Langobards gives the best example of the manner in which he has treated the legends which have come down to him. The transposition of the direct speech into the indirect, the introduction of the phrase "to preserve their liberty by arms, ' ' and similar classical phrases, the new style and historical character given to the story, speak for themselves ; but still the Langobard, in treating of the origin of the proud name could not disown his national character and even where ' ' the ridiculous story told by the ancients ' ' sets historical treatment at defiance, he still does not suppress it (Mommsen, 65).

1 8 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

untouched by the knife, whereas at first they had been called Winnili ; for according to their language "lang" means " long " and " bart " " beard." x Wotan indeed, whom by adding a letter they called Godan 2 is he who

1 This derivation comes from Isidore of Seville. He says, ' ' The Langobards were commonly so-called from their flowing and never fjJgJUHLJbPWds " (Etym., IX, 2, 94, Zeuss, 109). Schmidt, al- though he believes (p. 43) that the change of name was a histori- cal fact, rejects (44, note i) this definition, since he considers that the earlier name of the people was simply ' ' Bards, ' ' to which "lang" was afterwards prefixed. Another proposed derivation is from the Old High German word barta, an axe, the root which appears in "halbert" and "partizan" (Hodgkin, V, 84). An- other authority, Dr. Leonhard Schmitz (see Langobardiin Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography) argues for its deriva- tion from the root bord, which we have preserved in the word " sea-board," and he contends that the Langobards received their name from the long, flat meadows of the Elbe where they had their dwelling. As we adopt one or the other of these sugges- tions, the Langobards will have been the long-bearded men, the long-halbert-bearing men, or the long-shore-men. Hodgkin (V, 85) as well as Bruckner (p. 33) prefers the interpretation given in the text, ' ' Long-beards. ' ' Bruckner remarks that the name of the people stands in close relation to the worship of Wotan who bore the name of the "long-bearded" or " gray -bearded, " and that the Langobard name Ansegranus , " He with the Beard of the Gods," showed that the Langobards had this idea of their chief deity. He further shows that the long halbert or spear was not a characteristic weapon of the Langobards. He also (p. 30) con- siders Koegel's opinion (p. 109) that the Langobards adopted the worship of Wotan from the surrounding peoples after their migra- tion to the Danube is not admissible, since the neighboring Anglo- Saxons worshiped Wotan long before their migration to Britain as their highest God.

1 Or Guodan according to other MSS.

BOOK I. Ip

among the Romans is called Mercury, and he is worshiped by all the peoples of Germany as a god, though he is deemed to have existed, not about these times, but long before, and not in Germany, but in Greece.

CHAPTER X.

The Winnili therefore, who are also Langobards, hav- ing joined battle with the Wandals, struggle fiercely, since it is for the glory of freedom, and win the victory. And afterwards, having suffered in this same province of Scoringa, great privation from hunger, their minds were filled with dismay.

CHAPTER XI.

Departing from this place, while they were arrang- ing to pass over into Mauringa, " the Assipitti 2 block

1 Mauringa is mentioned by the Cosmographer of Ravenna (I, 1 1 ) as the land east of the Elbe. Maurungani appears to be another name of the great country of the Elbe which lies ' ' in front of the Danes, extends to Dacia and includes Baias, Baiohaim." Or perhaps Mauringa was merely the name of the maurland or moorland east of the Elbe (Zeuss, 472). In the Traveler's Song, which had its origin in the German home of the Angles about the end of the 6th century, a Suevian race in Holstein bears the name of Myrginge, and this song also mentions the Headhobards (per- haps identical with the Langobards) who fight with the Danes in Zealand (Schmidt, 34, 47). See also Waitz.

* Hodgkin (V, 92) conjectures that possibly the Assipitti are the Usipetes mentioned in Tacitus' Annals (I, 51). See Caesar B. G. IV, i, 4. Bluhme (see Hodgkin, V, 141) places them in the neighborhood of Asse, a wooded height near Wolfenbiittel. Such identifications of locality are highly fanciful,

2O HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

their way, denying to them by every means a passage through their territories. The Langobards moreover, when they beheld the great forces of their enemies, did not dare engage them on account of the smallness of their army, and while they were deciding what they ought to do, necessity at length hit upon a plan. They pretend that they have in their camps Cynocephali, that is, men with dogs' heads. They spread the rumor among the enemy that these men wage war obstinately, drink human blood and quaff their own gore if they cannot reach the foe. And to give faith to this as- sertion, the Langobards spread their tents wide and kindle a great many fires in their camps. The enemy being made credulous when these things are heard and seen, dare not now attempt the war they threatened.

CHAPTER XII.

They had, however, among them a very powerful man, to whose strength they trusted that they could obtain without doubt what they wanted. They offered him alone to fight for all. They charged the Langobards to send any one of their own they might wish, to go forth with him to single combat upon this condition, to wit ; that if their warrior should win the victory, the Lango- bards would depart the way they had come, but if he should be overthrown by the other, then they would not forbid the Langobards a passage through their own territories. And when the Langobards were in doubt what one of their own they should send against this most warlike man, a certain person of servile rank

BOOK I. 21

offered himself of his own will, and promised that he would engage the challenging enemy upon this condi- tion : that if he took the victory from the enemy, they would take away the stain of slavery from him and from his offspring. Why say more ? They joyfully promised to do what he had asked. Having engaged the enemy, he fought and conquered, and won for the Langobards the means of passage, and for himself and his descend- ants, as he had desired, the rights of liberty.

CHAPTER XIII.

Therefore the Langobards, coming at last into Mauringa, in order that they might increase the number of their warriors, confer liberty upon many whom they deliver from the yoke of bondage, and that the freedom of these may be regarded as established, they confirm it in their accustomed way by an arrow, uttering certain words of their country in confirma- tion of the fact.1 Then the Langobards went forth

1 Complete emancipation appears to have been granted only among the Franks and the Langobards (Schmidt, 47 note 3). This system of incorporating into the body of their warriors and freemen, the peoples whom they subjugated in their wanderings, made of the Langobards a composite race, and it may well be that their language as well as their institutions were greatly af- fected by this admixture of foreign stock (Hartmann, II, pp. 8, 9), and that their High-German characteristics are due to this fact. This system of emancipation also had an important effect in further- ing the union of the two races, Langobard and Roman, after the Italian conquest (Hartmann, II, 2, 15).

22 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

from Mauringa and came to Golanda,1 where, hav- ing remained some time, they are afterwards said to have possessed for some years Anthaib 2 and Ban- thaib,3 and in like manner Vurgundaib,4 which we

1 Schmidt thinks this was further east, perhaps on the right bank of the Oder (p. 49). He considers (see Hodgkin, V, 143) that the name is the equivalent of Gotland and means simply "good land." Golanda is generally considered, however, to be Gothland, and as the Langobards were found in Pannonia in the year 166 at the time of the war with Marcus Aurelius, and as the Goths emigrated to the Euxine probably about the middle of the second century, Hodgkin (V, 101) considers it probable that the Langobards at this time were hovering about the skirts of the Carpathians rather than that they had returned to Bardengau. The fact that when they were next heard from, they were occupy- ing Rugiland east of Noricum, on the north shore of the Danube, confirms this view. Zeuss takes an alternative reading for Golanda not well supported by manuscript authority, "Rugulanda," and suggests that it may be the coast opposite the isle of Rugen (Hodgkin, 141).

* Anthaib, according to the improbable conjecture of Zeuss, is the pagus or district of the Antae who, on the authority of Ptolemy and Jordanes were placed somewhere in the Ukraine in the coun- tries of the Dniester and Dnieper (Hodgkin, p. 141). Schmidt (p. 49) connects Anthaib through the Aenenas of the "Traveler's Song ' ' with Bavaria. These are mere guesses.

s Schmidt connects Banthaib with the Boii and Bohemia (49, 50).

* Zeuss connects Vurgundaib or Burgundaib with the Urugundi of Zosimus which he seems inclined to place in Red Russia between the Vistula and Bug. These names, he thinks, lead us in the direction of the Black Sea far into the eastern steppes and he connects this eastward march of the Langobards with their alleged combats with the Bulgarians (Hodgkin, V, p. 141). Bluhme in his monograph (Gens Langobardorum Bonn, 1868) thinks that Burgundaib was the territory evacuated by the Burgundians when

BOOK I. 23

can consider are names of districts or of some kinds of places.1

they moved westward to the Middle Rhine (Hodgkin, V, p. 142), and instead of the eastern migration he makes the Langobards wander westward toward the Rhine, following a passage of Ptolemy which places them near the Sigambri. He believes that this is confirmed by the Chronicon Gothanum which says that they stayed long at Patespruna or Paderborn and contends for a general migration of the tribe to Westphalia, shows the resem- blance in family names and legal customs between Westphalia and Bardengau. Schmidt opposes Bluhme's Westphalian theory which indeed appears to have slender support and he more plaus- ibly connects Burgundaib (p. 49) with the remnant of the Burgun- dians that remained in the lands east of the Elbe. Luttmersen (Die Spuren der Langobarden, Hanover, 1889) thinks that Bur- gundaib means "the valley of forts," and was perhaps in the re- gion of the Rauhes Alp in Wiirtemberg; he notes the fact that the Swiss in Thurgau and St. Gall called an old wall built by an un- known hand ' ' Langobardenmauer ' ' and he claims that the Lango- bards were members of the Alamannic confederacy which occupied Suabia. No historical evidence of this appears (Hodgkin, V, 145).

1 Names which have a termination ' ' aib ' ' are derived from the Old-High-German eiba (canton), the division of a state or population (Schmidt, 49).

The Latin word pagus a district, canton, was here used by Paul to designate these subdivisions instead of the word aldonus or aldones of the Origo from which Paul took this statement. This word aldonus comes from aldius or aldio the " half -free, " referring to the condition of serfdom or semi-slavery in which the people dwelt in these lands. Hodgkin thinks (V, 94) the Origo means that the Langobards were in a condition of de- pendence on some other nation, when they occupied these districts. It seems more probable that these districts were so called because their inhabitants were subjected by the Langobards to a condition of semi-servitude, tilling the land for the benefit of their masters as

24 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

CHAPTER XIV.

Meanwhile the leaders Ibor and Aio, who had con- ducted the Langobards from Scadinavia and had ruled them up to this time, being dead, the Langobards, now

was afterwards done with the Roman population of Italy (Schmidt, 50).

The migrations described by modern German scholars are mostly hypothetical. The fact is, it is idle to guess where were the different places mentioned by Paul or when the Langobards migrated from one to the other. That people however may well have taken part (Hodgkin, V, 88) in the movement of the German tribes southward which brought on the Marcommanic war under Marcus Aurelius, for in a history written by Peter the Patrician, Justinian's ambassador to Theodahad (Fragment, VI, p. 124 of the Bonn, ed.) we are informed that just before that war 6,000 Langobards and Obii having crossed the Danube to invade Pannonia were put to rout by the Roman cavalry under Vindex and the infantry under Candidus, whereupon the barbarians de- sisted from their invasion and sent as ambassadors to Aelius Bas- sus, who was then administering Pannonia, Vallomar, king of the Marcommani, and ten others, one for each tribe. Peace was made, and the barbarians returned home. These events occurred about A. D. 165. (Hodgkin, V, 88.) It is clear from this that the Langobards had left the Elbe for the Danube as allies or sub- jects of their old masters, the Marcommani. Where the home was to which they returned can hardly be determined. Hodgkin believes that they withdrew to some place not far distant from Pannonia, while Zeuss (p. 471), Wiese (p. 28) and Schmidt (35, 36) believe that they did not depart permanently from their orig- inal abodes on the Elbe until the second half of the fourth cen- tury so that according to this view they must have returned to these original abodes. It is evident that a considerable number of the Langobards must have lived a long time on the lower Elbe — the names and institutions which have survived in Bardengau

BOOK I. 25

unwilling to remain longer under mere chiefs (dukes) ordained a king for themselves like other nations. " Therefore Agelmund, * the son of Aio first reigned over them 3 tracing out of his pedigree the stock of the Gun- bear evidence of this. It is, however, highly probable that when the bulk of the nation migrated, a considerable part remained behind and afterwards became absorbed by the Saxon tribes in the neighborhood, while the emigrants alone retained the name of Langobards (Hartmann, II, part i, 5).

After the Marcommanic war, information from Greek or Roman writers as to the fortunes of the Langobards is entirely lacking and for a space of three hundred years their name disappears from history.

1 More likely the reason was that the unity of a single command was found necessary. Schmidt believes (p. 76) that the people like other German nations, were divided according to cantons, that the government in the oldest times was managed by a general assembly that selected the chiefs of the cantons who were prob- ably, as a rule, taken from the nobility and chosen for life. In peace they acted as judges in civil cases, and in war as leaders of the troops of the cantons. As commander-in-chief of the whole army, a leader or duke was chosen by the popular assembly, but only for the time of the war. Often two colleagues are found together, as Ibor and Aio. As a result of their long-continued wars during their wanderings, the kingly power was developed and the king became the representative of the nation in foreign

» affairs, in the making of treaties, etc. (p. 77). But the influence of the people upon the government did not fully disappear.

1 This name is found in a Danish song, and is written Hagel- mund (Wiese, 3).

8 Mommsen observes (68) that even those who recognize a gen- uine germ of history in -this legend must regard as fiction this connection of the leaders Ibor and Aio with the subsequent line of kings; that we have no indication regarding the duration of this

26 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

gingi which among them was esteemed particularly noble. He held the sovereignty of the Langobards, as is reported by our ancestors, for thirty years.

CHAPTER XV.

At this time a certain prostitute had brought forth seven little boys at a birth, and the mother, more cruel than all wild beasts, threw them into a fish-pond to be drowned. If this seems impossible to any, let him read over the histories of the ancients ' and he will find that one woman brought forth not only seven infants but even nine at one time. And it is sure that this occurred especially among the Egyptians. It happened therefore that when King Agelmund had stopped his horse and looked at the wretched infants, and had turned them hither and thither with the spear he carried in his hand, one of them put his hand on the royal spear and clutched it. The king moved by pity and marveling greatly at the act, pronounced that he would be a great man. And straightway he ordered him to be lifted from the fish- pond and commanded him to be brought to a nurse to be nourished with every care, and because he took him from

early leadership, and that it may as well have lasted centuries as decades. The events already described probably required at least a number of generations for their accomplishment. The words in the text, ' ' Ibor and Aio who had . . . ruled them up to this time," appears to have been inserted by Paul upon conjecture to make a continuous line of rulers and is plainly an error (Waitz).

lScc Pliny's Natural History, Book VII, ch. 3, on monstrous births.

BOOK I. 37

a fish-pond which in their language is called " lama " l he gave him the name Lamissio. 2 When he had grown up he became such a vigorous youth that he was also very fond of fighting, and after the death of Agelmund he directed the government of the kingdom. 3 They say that when the Langobards, pursuing their way with their king, came to a certain river and were forbidden by the Amazons4 to cross to the other side, this man fought with the strongest of them, swimming in the river, and killed her and won for himself the glory of great praise and a passage also for the Langobards. For it had

1 Lama is not a German but a Latin word, found in Festus and meaning a collection of water (Waitz). It lived on in the romance languages. DuCange introduces it from the statutes of Modena, and Dante used it (Inferno, Canto XX, line 79). It meant, how- ever, in Italian at this later period "a low plain." If Paul or his earlier authorities took it for Langobard this was because it was unknown to the Latin learning of that time, though it was a cur- rent peasant word in Northern Italy with which a discoverer of an- cient Langobard tales could appropriately connect the indigenous king's name (Mommsen, 68).

* This name is called Laiamicho or Lamicho in the Origo and the form used here by Paul seems to have been taken from the Edict of Rothari (Waitz).

8 This story of the origin of Lamissio is inconsistent with the statement in the Prologue of the Edict of Rothari and with the Madrid and La Cava manuscripts of the ' ' Origo Gentis Langobar- dorum ' ' which say that he was ' ' of the race of Gugingus ' ' (see Waitz, also Appendix II ; Mommsen, p. 68 ; Waitz, Neues Archiv, V, 423).

4 This appears to be a transformation into classical form of some ancient German legend of swan-maidens or water-sprites (Schmidt, 17, note).

28 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

been previously agreed between the two armies that if that Amazon should overcome Lamissio, the Langobards would withdraw from the river, but if she herself were conquered by Lamissio, as actually occurred, then the means of crossing the stream should be afforded to the Langobards. x It is clear, to be sure, that this kind of an assertion is little supported by truth, for it is known to all who are acquainted with ancient histories that the race of Amazons was destroyed long before these things could have occurred, unless perchance (because the places where these things are said to have been done were not well enough known to the writers of history and are scarcely mentioned by any of them), it might have been that a class of women of this kind dwelt there at that time, for I have heard it related by some that the race of these women exists up to the present day in the innermost parts of Germany.2

CHAPTER XVI.

Therefore after passing the river of which we have spoken, the Langobards, when they came to the lands beyond, sojourned there for some time. Meanwhile, since they suspected nothing hostile and were the less uneasy on account of their long repose, confidence,

1 Schmidt (p. 50) believes that the story of Lamissio is a fabu- lous expansion of the original myth of Skeaf. The germ of the myth is that a hero of unknown origin came from the water to the help of the land in time of need.

* Perhaps the Cvenas whom fable placed by the Baltic sea or gulf of Bothnia in " The Land of Women " (Zeuss, 686, 687).

BOOK I. 29

which is always the mother of calamities, prepared for them a disaster of no mean sort. At night, in short, when all were resting, relaxed by negligence, suddenly the Bulgarians, rushing upon them, slew many, wounded many more and so raged J through their camp that they killed Agelmund, the king himself, and carried away in captivity his only daughter.

CHAPTER XVII.

Nevertheless the Langobards, having recovered their strength after these disasters, made Lamissio, of whom we have spoken above, their king. And he, as he was in the glow of youth and quite ready for the struggles of war, desiring to avenge the slaughter of Agelmund, his foster-father, turned his arms against the Bulgarians. And presently, when the first battle began, the Langobards, turning their backs to the enemy, fled to their camp. Then king Lamissio seeing these things, began in a loud voice to cry out to the whole army that they should remember the infamies they had suffered and recall to view their disgrace ; how their enemies had murdered their king and had carried off in lamenta- tion as a captive, his daughter whom they had desired for their queen.2 Finally he urged them to defend themselves and theirs by arms, saying that it was better to lay down life in war than to submit as vile slaves to the taunts of their enemies. Crying aloud, he said

1 Read for dibachati, debacchati.

'Abel (p. 251) infers from this the right of succession to the throne in the female line.

30 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

these things and the like and now by threats, now by promises, strengthened their minds to endure the strug- gles of war ; moreover if he saw any one of servile con- dition fighting he endowed him with liberty, as well as rewards. At last inflamed by the urging and example of their chief who had been the first to spring to arms, they rush upon the foe, fight fiercely and overthrow their adversaries with great slaughter, and finally, taking victory from the victors, they avenge as well the death of their king as the insults to themselves. Then having taken possession of great booty from the spoils of their enemies, from that time on they become bolder in un- dertaking the toils of war.1

CHAPTER XVIII.

After these things Lamissio, the second who had reigned, died, and the third, Lethu, ascended the throne of the kingdom, and when he had reigned nearly forty years, he left Hildeoc his son, who was the fourth in number, as his successor in the kingly power. And when he also died, Gudeoc, as the fifth, received the royal authority.2

1 Schmidt (50) regards this struggle with the Bulgarians as hav- ing no authentic basis in history since the name of the Bulgarians does not occur elsewhere before the end of the fifth century.

1 Mommsen calls attention (p. 75) to the close relation of the Gothic and Langobard legends. The Goths wandered from the island of Scandza, where many nations dwell (Jordanes, Ch. 3), among them the Vinoviloth, who may be the \Vinnili. From there the Goths sailed upon three vessels under their king Bench

BOOK I. 31

CHAPTER XIX.

In these times the fuel of great enmities was con- sumed between Odoacar who was ruling in Italy now for some years,1 and Feletheus, who is also called Feva,2

to the mainland (Ch. 4, 17). The first people they encountered in battle were the Vandals (Ch. 4). Further on the Amazons were introduced, and Mommsen concludes (p. 76): "It may be that these Langobard and Gothic traditions are both fragments of a great legend of the origin of the whole German people or that the Gothic story-teller has stirred the Langobard to the making of similar fables. The stories of the Amazons are more favorable to the latter idea."

Hodgkin (V, 98) also notices the similarity of Langobard history to that of the Goths, as told by Jordanes. But Jordanes exhibits a pedigree showing fourteen generations before Theodoric, and thus reaching back very nearly to the Christian era, while Paul gives only five links of the chain before the time of Odoacar, the contemporary of Theodoric, and thus reaches back, at furth- est, only to the era of Constantine. This seems to show that the Langobards had preserved fewer records of the deeds of their fathers. Hodgkin (V, 99) adds that it is hopeless to get any possible scheme of Lombard chronology out of these early chap- ters of Paul; that his narrative would place the migration from Scandinavia about A. D. 320, whereas the Langobards were dwelling south of the Baltic at the birth of Christ; that he repre- sents Agelmund, whose place in the narrative makes it impossible to fix his date later than 350, as slain in battle by the Bulgarians, who first appeared in Europe about 479.

1 Here the tradition of the Langobards, as stated by Paul, begins again to correspond, at least in part, with known or probable his- torical facts.

1 The manuscripts of the ' ' Origo Gentis Langobardorum ' ' spell this Theuvane (M. G., Script. Rer. Langob., p. 3) which is re- quired by the meter if the word comes from an epic song (Bruck- ner, Zeitschrift fur Deutches Alterthum, Vol. 43, p. 56).

32 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

king of the Rugii. This Feletheus dwelt in those days on the further shore of the Danube, which the Danube itself separates from the territories of Noricum. In these territories of the Noricans at that time was the monastery of the blessed Severinus,1 who, endowed with the sanctity of every abstinence, was already renowned for his many virtues, and though he dwelt in these places up to the end of his life, now however, Neapolis (Naples) keeps his remains.2 He often admonished this Feletheus of whom we have spoken and his wife, whose name was Gisa, in saintly language that they should desist from iniquity, and when they spurned his pious words, he predicted a long while beforehand that that would occur which afterwards befel them. Odo- acar then, having collected together the nations which were subject to his sovereignty, that is the Turcilingi and the Heroli and the portion of the Rugii he already possessed 3 and also the peoples of Italy, came into Rugiland and fought with the Rugii, and sweeping them away in final defeat he destroyed also Feletheus their king, and after the whole province was devastated, he re-

1 At Eiferingen, at the foot of Mount Kalenberg, not far from Vienna (VVaitz).

1 St. Severinus was the apostle of Noricum. He was born either in Southern Italy or in Africa. After the death of Attila he trav- eled through the territory along the Danube preaching Christianity and converting many. He died A. D. 482, and his body was taken to Italy and finally buried at Naples (Waitz).

8 The statement that Rugians fought upon both sides was the result of Paul's effort to reconcile the accounts of two contradictory authorities (Mommsen, 103).

BOOK I. 33

turned to Italy and carried off with him an abundant multitude of captives. Then the Langobards, having moved out of their own territories,1 came into Rugiland,7 which is called in the Latin tongue the country of the Rugii, and because it was fertile in soil they remained in it a number of years.

CHAPTER XX.

Meanwhile, Gudeoc died, and Claffo, his son, suc- ceeded him. Claffo also having died, Tato, his son, rose as the seventh to the kingly power. The Langobards also departed from Rugiland, and dwelt in open fields, which are called " feld " in the barbarian tongue. 3 While they sojourned there for the space of three years, a war sprang up between Tato and Rodolf, king of the Heroli.4 Treaties formerly bound them together, and

1 Wiese (p. 33) believes that they were then dwelling in upper Silesia not far from the head waters of the Vistula.

•Bluhme considers this to be Moravia (Hodgkin, V, 142). It is more probably the region on the left bank of the Danube be- tween Linz and Vienna (Schmidt, 51).

3 The country between the Theiss and the Danube in Hungary as Schmidt (52) believes, quoting a passage from the Annals of Eginhard for the year 796: " Pippin having driven the Huns be- yond the Theiss, destroyed completely the royal residence which these people called the Ring, and the Langobards the Feld." Since Procopius, (B. G. II, 14) says that the Langobards were then tributary to the Heroli, Wiese believes (p. 35, 36) that they were compelled by the Heroli to give up their fertile Rugiland. The Langobards became Christianized, at least in part, about this time (Abel, 241; Schmidt, 51, 52).

*The Heroli were, says Zeuss (p. 476), the most migratory

34 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

the cause of the discord between them was this: the brother of king Rodolf had come to Tato for the pur- pose of concluding peace, and when, upon the comple- tion of his mission, he sought again his native country, it happened that his way passed in front of the house of the king's daughter, who was called Rumetruda. Looking upon the company of men and the noble escort, she asked who this might be who had such a mag- nificent train. And it was said to her that the brother of king Rodolf was returning to his native country, hav- ing accomplished his mission. The girl sent to invite him to deign to take a cup of wine. He with simple heart came as he had been invited, and because he was small in stature, the girl looked down upon him in con- temptuous pride and uttered against him mocking words. But he, overcome equally with shame and rage, answered back such words as brought still greater confusion upon the girl. Then she, inflamed by a woman's fury and unable to restrain the rage of her heart, sought to accom- plish a wicked deed she had conceived in her mind.

among all the German tribes and have wandered over nearly the whole of Europe. They appeared on the Dneister and Rhine ; they plundered in Greece and in Spain, and were found in Italy and in Scandinavia. Hodgkin believes that the tribe was split up into two divisions, one of which moved from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and the other eventually made its appearance on the Rhine. It was the eastern branch, which at the close of the 5th century was in Hungary on the eastern shore of the Danube, with which the Langobards had their struggle (Hodgkin, V, 104). The cus- toms of the tribe were barbarous. They engaged in human sac- rifices, put the sick and the aged to death, and it was the duty of a warrior's widow to die upon her husband's tomb (Hodgkin, 105).

BOOK I. 35

She feigned patience, put on a lively countenance, and stroking him down with merry words, she invited him to take a seat, and arranged that he should sit in such a place that he would have the window in the wall at his shoulders. She had covered this window with costly drapery as if in honor of her guest, but really, lest any suspicion should strike him, and the atrocious monster directed her own servants that when she should say, as if speaking to the cup-bearer, " Prepare the drink," they should stab him from behind with their lances. And it was done ; presently the cruel woman gave the sign, her wicked orders were accomplished, and he, pierced with wounds and falling to the earth, expired. When these things were announced to king Rodolf he bewailed his brother's cruel murder, and impatient in his rage, burned to avenge that brother's death. Breaking the treaty he had negotiated with Tato, he declared war against him.1 Why say more? The lines of battle on both sides come together in the open fields.

1 Procopius (B. G., II, 14 et seq.) gives a different account of the origin of this war. He states (Hodgkin, V, 106) that the warriors of the tribe having lived in peace for three years, chafed at this inaction and taunted Rodolf, calling him womanish and soft- hearted, until he determined to make war upon the Langobards. but gave no pretext for his attack. Three times the Langobards sent ambassadors to placate him, who offered to increase the tribute paid by their nation, but Rodolf drove them from his pres- ence. Procopius' reason for the war is more favorable to the Langobards than that given by Paul. But it is quite possible that a rude people such as they were, might consider it more disgrace- ful to admit that they had paid tribute and humbly besought justice than that they had themselves given just cause for war.

36 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

Rodolf sends his men into the fight, but. staying himself in camp, he plays at draughts, not at all wavering in his hope of victory. The Heroli were indeed at that time well trained in martial exercises, and already very famous from their many victories. And either to fight more freely or to show their contempt for a wound in- flicted by the enemy, they fought naked, covering only the shameful things of the body.1 Therefore, while the king himself in undoubting reliance on the power of these men, was safely playing at draughts, he ordered one of his followers to climb into a tree which happened to be by, that he might tell him more quickly of the victory of his troops, and he threatened to cut off the man's head if he announced that the ranks of the Heroli were fleeing. The man, when he saw that the line of the Heroli was bent, and that they were hard pressed by the Langobards, being often asked by the king what the Heroli were doing, answered that they were fighting excellently. And not daring to speak, he did not reveal the calamity he saw until all the troops had turned their backs upon the foe. At last, though late, breaking into voice he cried : " Woe to thee wretched Herolia who art punished by the anger of the Lord of Heaven." Moved by these words the king said : " Are my Heroli fleeing?" And he replied: "Not I, but thou, king-, thyself hast said this." Then, as is wont to happen in such circumstances, while the king and all, greatly alarmed, hesitated what to do, the Langobards came

1 Jordanis (ch. 49) says they fought light-armed. Procopius (Persian war, II, 25) speaks of their lack of defensive armor.

BOOK I. 37

upon them and they were violently cut to pieces. The king himself, acting bravely to no purpose, was also slain. While the army of the Heroli indeed was scat- tering hither and thither, so great was the anger of heaven upon them, that when they saw the green- growing flax of the fields, they thought it was water fit for swimming, and while they stretched out their arms as if to swim, they were cruelly smitten by the swords of the enemy.1 Then the Langobards, when the victory was won, divide among themselves the huge booty they had found in the camp. Tato indeed carried off the banner of Rodolf which they call Bandum, and his helmet which he had been accustomed to wear in war.2 And now from that time all the courage of the Heroli so decayed that thereafter they had no king over them

1 Procopius (B. G., II, 14) gives another account of the battle. He says the sky above the Langobards was covered with black clouds, while above the Heroli it was clear, an omen which por- tended ruin to the Heroli, since the war god was in the storm cloud (Wiese, 39). They disregarded it, however, and pressed on hoping to win by their superior numbers, but when they fought hand to hand, many of the Heroli were slain, including Rodolf himself, whereupon his forces fled in headlong haste and most of them were killed by the pursuing Langobards. The account of Procopius, a contemporary (490-565), is in the main more reliable than that of Paul, whose story is clearly of a legendary character. The place of the battle is uncertain. The date, too, is doubtful. Procopius places it at 494, but after a careful argument, Schmidt (53, 54) places it about 508.

* Bruckner sees in the superfluous phrase ' ' which he had been accustomed to wear in war, ' ' the marks of the translation of a German composite word used probably in some early Langobard song (Zeitschrift fur Deutsches Alterthum, vol. 43, part I, p. 55).

38 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

in any way.1 From this time on the Langobards, hav- ing become richer, and their army having been aug- mented from the various nations they had conquered, began to aspire to further wars, and to push forward upon every side the glory of their courage.

CHAPTER XXI.

But after these things Tato indeed did not long re- joice in the triumph of war, for Waccho, the son of his brother Zuchilo,8 attacked him and deprived him of his

1 It is not true that the Heroli never afterwards had a king (see next chapter). As to their subsequent history, Procopius says (B. G., II, 14) they first went to Rugiland, and driven thence by hunger, they entered Pannonia and became tributaries of the Gepidae, then they crossed the Danube, probably into upper Moesia and obtained permission of the Greek emperor to dwell there as his allies. This took place in the year 512 (Hodgkin, V, 1 1 2). They soon quarreled with the Romans and although under Justinian they came to profess Christianity they were guilty of many outrages. They killed their king Ochon, but finding the anarchy which followed unendurable, they sent to Thule (Scandinavia) for a royal prince to rule them (Hodgkin, 113), and Todasius set forth for that purpose with two hundred young men to the country where the Heroli were living. That fickle people had now obtained a king, Suartuas, from the em- peror Justinian, but they changed their minds again and deserted to Todasius, whereupon Suartuas escaped to Constantinople, and when Justinian determined to support him by force of arms, the Heroli joined the confederacy of the Gepidae (p. 1 16).

1 This is a misunderstanding by Paul of the words of the Origo from which his account is taken, which says : " And Waccho the son of Unichis killed king Tato, his uncle, together with Zuchilo. " (M. G. H. Script. Rer. Langob., p. 3.) See Appendix II.

BOOK I. 39

life. Tato's son Hildechis also fought ' against Waccho, but when Waccho prevailed and he was overcome, he fled to the Gepidae and remained there an exile up to the end of his life. For this reason the Gepidae from that time incurred enmities with the Langobards. At the same time Waccho fell upon the Suavi and subjected them to his authority.2 If any one may think that this is a lie and not the truth of the matter, let him read over the prologue of the edict which King Rothari com- posed 3 of the laws of the Langobards and he will find

1 Procopius (III, 35) makes Hildechis the son of Risulf, a cousin of Waccho (Hodgkin, V, 117, note 2). He states that Risulf would have been entitled to the throne upon Waccho' s death, but in order to get the crown for his own son, Waccho drove Risulf by means of a false accusation from the country; that Risulf fled with his two sons, one of whom was called Hildechis, to the Warni, by whom, at the instigation of Waccho, he was murdered; that Hildechis' brother died there of sickness and Hildechis escaped and was first received by a Slav people and afterwards by the Gepidae (Schmidt, 59).

* It is hard to see what people are designated by this name. The Suavi who dwelt in the southwestern part of Germany, now Suabia, are too far off. Hodgkin (p. 119) suggests a confusion between Suavia and Savia, the region of the Save. Schmidt (55) says, " There is ground to believe that this people is identical with the Suevi of Vannius who possessed the mountain land between the March and the Theiss." Other events in Waccho' s reign are mentioned by Procopius (II, 22), but omitted by Paul. For in- stance, in the year 539, Vitiges, the Ostrogoth, being hard pressed by Belisarius, sent ambassadors to Waccho offering large sums of money to become his ally, but Waccho refused because a treaty had been concluded between the Langobards and Byzantines.

3 Paul here refers to the famous " Origo Gentis Langobardorum " from which, or from a common original, Paul has taken much of

4O HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

this written in almost all the manuscripts as we have inserted it in this little history. And Waccho had three wives, that is. the first, Ranicunda, daughter of the king of the Turingi (Thuringians) ; then he married Aus- trigusa, the daughter of the king of the Gepidae, from whom he had two daughters; the name of one was Wisegarda, whom he bestowed in marriage upon Theu- depert, king of the Franks, and the second was called Walderada, who was united with Cusupald, another king of the Franks, and he, having her in hatred,1 gave her over in marriage to one of his followers called Garipald.2 And Waccho had for his third wife the daughter of the king of the Heroli,3 by name Salinga. From her a son was born to him, whom he called Waltari, and who upon the death of Waccho reigned as the eighth 4 king

his early Langobard history. See Appendix II. Paul appears to have considered the Origo as the Prologue to Rothari's Edict. The two were, however, different, though both were prefixed to the Edict in at least some of the MSS. Mommsen (58, note) thinks it probable that the Origo was not an official but a private work, prefixed to the Edict for the first time in the year 668. Rothari composed the Edict and not the Origo, though Paul seems to have considered him the author of the latter (Jacobi 5).

1 Gregory of Tours relates (IV, 9) that he repudiated her because he was accused by the clergy, probably on account of some ecclesiastical impediment.

1 Garipald was duke of the Bavarians (Greg. Tours, IV, 9 ; Waitz ; see infra III, 10, 30).

8 And yet Paul has just told us in the preceding chapter that at this time the Heroli had no king.

* An error in enumeration, Tato being mentioned as seventh and Waccho omitted (Waitz).

t- P. 41 J

BOOK I. 41

over the Langobards. All these were Lithingi; for thus among them a certain noble stock was called.

CHAPTER XXII.

Waltari, therefore, when he had held the sovereignty for seven years,1 departed from this life,3 and after him Audoin 3 was the ninth 4 who attained the kingly power (546-565), and he, not long afterwards, led the Lango- bards into Pannonia.5

CHAPTER XXIII.

THEN the Gepidae and the Langobards at last give birth to the strife which had been long since conceived and the two parties make ready for war. 6 When battle

1 Probably 539 to 546 or thereabouts. (Hartmann, II, I, 30.)

*Procopius says by disease (B. G., Ill, 35).

1 The same, probably, as the Anglo-Saxon and English ' 'Edwin ' ' (Hodgkin, V, 122, note i).

4 The race of Lethingi became extinct with Waltari. Audoin came from the race of Gausus (see Chronicon Gothanum, M. G., H. LL., IV, p. 644).

6 Justinian, says Procopius (B. G., Ill, 33), had given this and other lands to the Langobards together with great sums of money (Schmidt, 58). They appear to have been in fact subsi- dized as allies and confederates of the Roman Empire (Hartmann, II, i, 12), and it seems to have been at Justinian's instigation that Audoin married a Thuringian princess, the great-niece of Theod- eric, who after the overthrow of the Thuringians had fled to Italy, and later had been brought by Belisarius to the court of Constan- tinople (Hartmann, II, i, 14). The invasion of Pannonia probably occurred not far from 546 (id., p. 30).

6 Paul does not state the cause of this war. Schmidt believes (p. 58) that it was probably begun at the instigation of Justinian whose

42 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

was joined, while both lines fought bravely and neither yielded to the other, it happened that in the midst of struggle, Alboin, the son of Audoin, and Ttirismod, the son of Turisind encountered each other. And Alboin, striking the other with his sword, hurled him headlong from his horse to destruction. The Gepidae, seeing that the king's son was killed, through whom in great part the war had been set on foot, at once, in their discour- agement, start to flee. The Langobards, sharply fol- lowing them up, overthrow them and when a great num- ber had been killed they turn back to take off the spoils of the dead. When, after the victory had been won,

interest it was to break up the friendship of two peoples who threat- ened to become dangerous to his empire and that in addition to this, the desire of the Langobards to get the important city of Sir- mium, then held by the Gepidae cooperated, and above all, the hostile feeling which had been called out by contests for the throne. It must be remembered that the Heroli, enemies to the Lango- bards, had been received in the confederacy of the Gepidae and that Hildechis, the descendant of Tato, was harbored by the Gepid king Turisind, just as Ustrigotthus, Turisind's rival for the Gepid throne, and son of his predecessor, Elemund, had found refuge at the court of Audoin. Prior to this, both nations had sought the alliance of the emperor (Hodgkin, V, 122-126). Justinian decided to help the Langobards since they were weaker and less dangerous to him than the Gepidae, so a Roman army of about 10,000 cav- alry and 1 500 Heroli marched against the Gepidae. Upon the way they annihilated a division of 3,000 Heroli who were allied to the Gepidae, and the Gepidae made a separate peace with the Langobards (p. 129). Audoin demanded of Turisind, king of the Gepidae, the delivery of Hildechis, but the latter escaped and wandered about in different countries (Schmidt, 60).

A second war between the Langobards and Gepidae occurred

BOOK I. 43

the Langobards returned to their own abodes, they sug- gested to their king Audoin that Alboin, by whose valor they had won the victory in the fight, should become his table companion so that he who had been a comrade to his father in danger should also be a comrade at the feast. Audoin answered them that he could by no means do this lest he should break the usage of the nation. " You know," he said, " that it is not the custom among us that the son of the king should eat with his father unless he first receives his arms from the king of a for- eign nation."

about 549 (Procopius, IV, 18), when a desperate panic seized both armies at the beginning of a battle, whereupon the two kings con- cluded a two years' truce. At the end of this time hostilities began anew. Justinian took the side of the Langobards and sent troops into the field, one division of which, under command of Amala- frid, joined the Langobards, while the rest of the troops remained by command of the emperor in Ulpiana to quell certain disturb- ances (Schmidt, 60, 61). The Langobards pushed into the territory of the Gepidae and defeated their adversaries. The field of battle was probably near Sirmium. Procopius (B. G., IV, 25) puts this battle in the seventeenth year of the war (March, 551, to March, 552). Probably this is the same battle which Paul re- lates. The Gepidae now begged for peace which was accorded to them through the intervention of Justinian. As a condition the Langobards and the emperor demanded the delivery of Hildechis. But as the Gepidae were resolved not to violate the sanctity of a guest, and as the Langobards refused to deliver 'Ustrigotthus, neither of these were surrendered, but both perished by assassina- tion, not without the knowledge of the two kings (Schmidt, 62 ; Hodgkin, V, 134).

44 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

CHAPTER XXIV.

When he heard these things from his father, Alboin, taking only forty young men with him, journeyed to Turisind, king of the Gepidae with whom he had before waged war, and intimated the cause in which he had come. And the king, receiving him kindly, invited him to his table and placed him on his right hand where Turismod, his former son had been wont to sit. In the meantime, while the various dishes were made ready, Turisind, reflecting that his son had sat there only a little while before, and recalling to mind the death of his child and beholding his slayer present and sitting in his place, drawing deep sighs, could not contain himself, but at last his grief broke forth in utterance. " This place," he says, " is dear to me, but the person who sits in it is grievous enough to my sight." Then another son of the king who was present, aroused by his father's speech, began to provoke the Langobards with insults declaring (because they wore white bandages from their calves down) that they were like mares with white feet up to the legs, saying: " The mares that you take after have white fetlocks." x Then one of the Langobards thus answered these things: " Go to the field of Asfeld and there you can find by experience beyond a doubt how stoutly those you call mares succeed in kicking ; there the bones of your brother are scattered in the midst of the meadows like those of a vile beast." When they

1 Or hoofs. Fetilus for petilus. The white hoof of a horse was so called. Others make \\. foctidae , "evil smelling." See Gib- bon, ch. 45. Hodgkin, V, 136.

BOOK I. 45

heard these things, the Gepidae, unable to bear the tumult of their passions, are violently stirred in anger and strive to avenge the open insult. The Langobards on the other side, ready for the fray, all lay their hands on the hilts of their swords. The king leaping forth from the table thrust himself into their midst and restrained his people from anger and strife, threatening first to punish him who first engaged in fight, saying that it is a victory not pleasing to God when any one kills his guest in his own house. Thus at last the quarrel hav- ing been allayed, they now finished the banquet with joyful spirits. And Turisind, taking up the arms of Turismod his son, delivered them to Alboin and sent him back in peace and safety to his father's kingdom. Al- boin having returned to his father, was made from that time his table companion. And when he joyfully par- took with his father of the royal delicacies, he related in order all the things which had happened to him among the Gepidae in the palace of Turisind.2 Those who were present were astonished and applauded the bold- ness of Alboin nor did they less extol in their praises the most honorable behavior of Turisind.

CHAPTER XXV.

At this period the emperor Justinian was governing the Roman empire with good fortune. He was both prosperous in waging wars and admirable in civil mat- ters. For by Belisarius, the patrician, he vigorously subdued the Persians and by this same Belisarius he

1 Read Turisindi with many MSS. instead of Tttrismodi.

46 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

reduced to utter destruction the nation of the Wandals, captured their king Gelismer and restored all Africa to the Roman empire after ninety-six years. Again by the power of Belisarius he overcame the nation of the Goths in Italy and took captive Witichis their king. He subdued also the Moors who afterwards infested Africa together with their king Amtalas, by John the ex-con- sul, a man of wonderful courage. In like manner too, he subjugated other nations by right of war. For this reason, on account of his victories over them all, he deserved to have his surnames and to be called Alaman- nicus, Gothicus, Francicus, Germanicus, Anticus, Alani- cus, Wandalicus, and Africanus. He also arranged in wonderful brevity the laws of the Romans whose pro- lixity was very great and whose lack of harmony was injurious. For all the laws of the emperors which were certainly contained in many volumes he abridged into twelve books, and he ordered this volume called the Justinian Code. On the other hand, the laws of special magistrates or judges which were spread over almost two thousand books, he reduced to the number of fifty and called that work by the name of "Digests" or " Pandects." He also composed anew four books of ''Institutes" in which the texture of all laws is briefly described ; he also ordered that the new laws which he himself had ordained, when reduced to one volume, should be called In the same way the "New Code" (Novels). The same emperor also built within the city of Constantinople to Christ our Lord, who is the wis- dom of God the Father, a church which he called by the Greek name " Hagia Sophia," that is, " Divine Wisdom."

BOOK I. 47

The workmanship of this so far excels that of all other buildings that in all the regions of the earth its like cannot be found. This emperor in fact was Catholic in his faith, upright in his deeds, just in his judgments, and therefore, to him all things came together for good. In his time Cassiodorus was renowned in the city of Rome x for knowledge both human and divine. Among other things which he nobly wrote, he ex- pounded particularly in a most powerful way the ob- scure parts of the Psalms. He was in the first place a consul, then a senator, and at last a monk. At this time also Dionisius, an abbott established in the city of Rome, computed a reckoning of Easter time by a won- derful argumentation.2 Then also, at Constantinople, Priscian of Cassarea explored the depths of the gram- matical art, as I might say, and then also, Arator, a subdeacon of the Roman church, a wonderful poet, wrote the acts of the apostles in hexameter verses.

CHAPTER XXVI.

In these days also the most blessed father Benedict, first in a place called Sublacus (Subiaco), which is dis- tant forty miles 3 from the city of Rome, and afterwards

1 His work was done mostly at Ravenna and Viviers in Brut- tium (where he retired to a monastery). His fame was not con- fined to Rome but extended throughout Italy, and the entire Roman world.

* In his Cyclus Paschalis he also introduced the annunciation of the birth of Christ as the starting-point of chronology.

* A Roman mile is 142 yards less than the English statute mile.

48 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

in the stronghold of Cassinum (Monte Cassino '), which is called Arx, was renowned for his great life and his apostolic virtues. His biography, as is known, the blessed Pope Gregory composed in delightful language in his Dialogues. I also, according to my meager talent, have braided together in the following manner in honor of so great a father, each of his miracles by means of corresponding distichs in elegiac meter.2 . . . We have woven also in this manner a hymn in iambic Archi- lochian meter, containing each of the miracles of the same father.3 . . .

I may here briefly relate a thing that the blessed pope Gregory did not at all describe in his life of this most holy father. When, by divine admonition, he had come almost fifty miles from Sublacus to this place where his body reposes, three ravens, whom he was accustomed to feed, followed him, flying around him. And at every crossway, while he came hither, two angels appearing in the form of young men, showed him which way he ought to take. And in this place [Cassinum] a certain servant of God then had a dwelling, to whom a voice from heaven said :

Leave these sacred spots, another friend is at hand.

1 A famous monastery, 45 miles N. W. of Naples, the cradle ot the Benedictine order.

*The sixty-four distichs which follow are found in Appendix III, as they have no proper connection with the history. They had been written by Paul previously, and certain additions to them contained in other MSS. are published by Bethmann (331).

* These verses are also contained in Appendix III.

BOOK I. 49

And when he had come here, that is to the citadel of Cassinum he always restrained himself in great absti- nence, but especially at the time of Lent he remained shut up and removed from the noise of the world. I have taken all these things from the song of the poet Marcus, who coming hither to this same father, com- posed some verses in his praise, but to guard against too great prolixity, I have not described them in these books. It is certain, however, that this illustrious father came to this fertile place overlooking a rich valley, being called by heaven for this purpose, that there should be here a community of many monks, as has actually occurred under God's guidance. These things, which were not to be omitted, having been briefly told, let us return to the regular order of our history.

CHAPTER XXVII. *

Now Audoin, king of the Langobards, of whom we have spoken, had to wife Rodelinda, who bore him Alboin, a man fitted for wars and energetic in all things. Then Audoin died,1 and afterwards Alboin, the tenth king, entered- upon the government of his country according to the wishes of all, and since he had everywhere a name very illustrious and distinguished for power, Chlothar, the king of the Franks, joined to him in marriage his daughter Chlotsuinda. From her he begot one daughter only, Alpsuinda by name. Meanwhile Turisind, king of the Gepidae, died, and Cunimund succeeded him in the sovereignty. And he,

'Probably about 565 (Hodgkin, V, 137).

50 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

desiring to avenge the old injuries of the Gepidae, broke his treaty with the Langobards and chose war rather than peace.1 But Alboin entered into u perpetual treaty with the Avars, who were first called Huns, and afterwards Avars, from the name of their o\vn king.2 Then he set out for the war prepared by the Gepidae. When the latter were hastening against him in a differ- ent direction, the Avars, as they had agreed with Alboin, invaded their country. A sad messenger com- ing to Cunimund, announced to him that the Avars had entered his territories. Although cast down in spirit, and put into sore straits on both sides, still he urged his people to fight first with the Langobards, and that, if they should be able to overcome these, they should then drive the army of the Huns from their country. There- fore battle is joined and they fight with all their might. The Langobards become the victors, raging against the

1 Paul apparently confounds two wars in one. Alboin in the first overcomes Cunimund; then the emperor Justin prepares to aid the Gepidae and Alboin offers to make peace and to marry Rosemund. His offer is refused and in the second war Cunimund is killed (Waitz).

2 These were a horde of Asiatics who had entered Europe in the closing years of the reign of Justinian, had extorted large subsi- dies from him and had penetrated westward as far as Thuringia (Hodgkin, V, 137). Their chief bore the title of cagan or khan. The treaty made by Alboin with the khan Baian shows that the Avars drove a hard bargain with the Langobards. Baian con- sented to the alliance only on condition that the Langobards should give the Avars a tenth part of their livestock and that in the event of victory the Avars should receive one-half of the spoils and the whole of the lands of the Gepid.e (Schmidt, 63-64).

BOOK I. 51

Gepidae in such wrath that they reduce them to utter destruction, and out of an abundant multitude scarcely the messenger survives.1 In this battle Alboin killed Cunimund, and made out of his head, which he carried off, a drinking goblet. This kind of a gcblet is called among them " scala," 2 but in the Latin language " patera." And he led away as a captive,3 Cunimund's daughter, Rosemund by name, together with a great multitude of both sexes and every age, and because Chlotsuinda had died he married her, to his own injury, as afterwards appeared. Then the Langobards secured such great booty that they now attained the most ample

1 The destruction of the kingdom of the Gepidae occurred in 566 or 567 (Hartmann, II, i, 31).

2 Compare the Norse word skaal, skoal, German Schale. Hodg- kin, however, thinks it is related rather to the German Sch'ddel, our skull (V, 1 39).

3 It appears he first saw Rosemund when he went to the court of Turisind to get his arms (Schmidt, 62). On account of political considerations he had to marry Chlotsuinda, daughter of the Frankish king, Chlothar I, but when she died, he sued for the hand of Rosemund, and when it was refused, he forcibly carried her away into his kingdom (p. 63). Cunimund vainly demanded the return of his daughter, and was unwilling that she should marry the hated Langobard. War followed, in which at first the Lango- bards had the better, but finally they were defeated as the Gepidae had brought Justin II, who had succeeded Justinian, over to their side. The result was that Rosemund was set free. Then Alboin sought allies and found them in the Avars (id.). When Cunimund heard of this he again sought the aid of Justin and promised to cede Sirmium and other possessions to the empire in return for assistance. Justin delayed and remained neutral, but finally took Sirmium after the Gepidae were defeated (Schmidt, 64).

52 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

riches, but the race of the Gepidae were so diminished that from that time on they had no king. But all who were able to survive the war were either subjected to the Langobards or groan even up to the present time in bondage to a grievous mastery, since the Huns possess their country. But the name of Alboin was spread abroad far and wide, so illustrious, that even up to this time his noble bearing and glory, the good fortune of his wars and his courage are celebrated, not only among the Bavarians and the Saxons, but also among other men of the same tongue in their songs. It is also related by many up to the present time that a special kind of arms was made under him.

t

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

Now when the frequent victories of the Lango- bards were noised about in every direction, Narses, keeper of the imperial archives, who was then ruling over Italy and preparing for war against Totila, king of the Goths, inasmuch as he long before had the Lango- bards for allies, directed messengers to Alboin, asking that he should furnish him assistance to fight with the Goths. Then Alboin sent a chosen band of his Mo give support to the Romans against the Goths. They were transported into Italy by a bay2 of the Adriatic sea, and having joined the Romans, began the struggle with the Goths, and when these were reduced to utter de- struction, together with Totila, their king, the Lango- bards returned as victors, honored with many gifts, to their own country .3 During all the time the Lango-

1 This actually occurred under Audoin, not Alboin (Procopius, B. G., IV, 26). Twenty-five hundred Langobards were chosen and Audoin sent with them a retinue of three thousand other armed men (id.).

1 The dwellers in the lagoons at the northern extremity of the Adriatic transported the army along the shores, crossing the mouths of the rivers in small boats (id.).

'They were sent to Italy A. D. 554, returned A. D. 552 (Waitz). Their disorderly conduct and the outrages they com- mitted made them dangerous allies, and Narses took an early oc- casion to send them home (Procopius, B. G., IV, 33).

(53)

54 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

bards held Pannonia, they were the allies of the Roman state againt its rivals.

CHAPTER II.

In these times Narses also waged war against Duke Buccellinus, whom Theudepert,1 king of the Franks, when he entered Italy and returned to Gaul, had left behind with Amingus, another duke, to conquer the country. This Buccellinus, after devastating nearly all Italy with rapine, and after bestowing upon Theude-

1 Grandson of Clovis, the founder of the Prankish monarchy. Theudepert had invaded Italy in the year 539 (Muratori Ann., Ill, p. 388; Hodgkin, V, p. n), but the dysentery swept away a third of his army, and the clamor of his own subjects, as well as the representations of Belisarius, the general of Justinian, induced him to return home (Gibbon, ch. 41). When he departed from Italy he did not relinquish all he had won. The larger part of Venetia, a good deal of Liguria and the provinces of the Cottian Alps were retained (Hodgkin, V, 1 1).

Theudepert died in 548, leaving as his successor his feeble child Theudebald (p. 13). Five years later (A. D. 533), when the Goths in Italy were overthrown by Narses, those who still held out in the north besought the Prankish king for aid, and Buccel- linus (Butilin) and his brother Leutharius, leaders of the barbarous Alamanni, ravaged northern Italy (pp. 16-17), an^ then swept down toward the south. The armies of the two brothers kept together as far as Samnium, then they divided. Buccellinus rav- aged the west coast and Leutharius the east, down to the end of the peninsula (A. D. 554). Finally Leutharius determined to re- turn with his booty, but when he was about to cross the Alps a pestilence broke out in his army and he perished (pp. 33-36). Buccellinus was attacked by Narses near Capua, his army was destroyed and he was slain. This expedition of Buccellinus, therefore, occurred not under Theudepert but after his death.

BOOK II. 55

pert, his king, abundant gifts from the booty of the country, was arranging to winter in Campania, but was overcome at length in disastrous war by Narses at a place whose name is Tannetum,1 and was slain. And when Amingus attempted to bring aid to Widin, a count of the Goths rebelling against Narses, both were overcome by Narses. Widin being captured, was ban- ished to Constantinople, but Amingus, who had offered him assistance, perished by the sword of Narses. Also a third duke of the Franks, by name Leutharius, the brother of Buccellinus, when he desired to return to his country laden with great booty, died a natural death between Verona and Tridentum (Trent), near Lake Benacus (Lago di Garda).2

CHAPTER III.

Narses had also a struggle with Sinduald, king of the Brenti,3 a surviving descendant of the stock of the Heroli whom Odoacar, when he formerly came into Italy, had brought with him. Upon this man, who at first adhered to him faithfully, Narses conferred many benefits, but defeated him in war, captured him and

1 This battle occurred near Capua, on the banks of the river Casilinum, another name for the Vulturnus (Volturno) (Waitz ; Hodgkin, V, 36-44.) The name Tannetum cannot be positively identified.

* He died of the pestilence which had broken out in his army. See previous •note.

s Perhaps the same as those called Breones or Briones, dwelling in the Alps of Noricum or in the neighborhood of the Brenner in Tyrol (Waitz; Abel; see Zeuss, 484).

56 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

hung him from a lofty beam, when at last he insolently rebelled and sought to obtain the sovereignty.1 At this time also Narses, the patrician, by means of Dagisteus, the Master of Soldiers, a powerful and warlike man, got possession of all the territories of Italy.2 This Narses indeed was formerly keeper of the archives,3 and afterwards on account of the value of his high qualities, he earned the honor of the patriciate. For he was a very pious man, a Catholic in religion, generous to the poor, very zealous in restoring churches,4 and so much devoted to vigils and prayers that he obtained victory more by the supplications which he poured forth to God, than by the arms of war.

CHAPTER IV.

In the times of this man a very great pestilence broke out, particularly in the province of Liguria.5 For sud-

1 A. D. 565 (Hodgkin, V, 56).

2 Narses took the city of Rome largely through the agency of Dagisteus (Procopius, IV, 33), who thus became the means of the recovery of Italy (Waitz). The title " Master of Soldiers," (#/<?.<,'"- ister militum,} was given at the time of Constantine to important ministers of state, and there were then only eight of these in the whole empire (Hodgkin, VI, 539); in the time of Theoderic, the king alone (Hartmann, I, 99), and later, Belisarius, the general- in-chief of Justinian, held this important military office (id., p. 258). Afterwards however, the title became cheapened, the num- ber of magistri militum increased, and at last the rank became much the same as that of dux or duke (Hodgkin, VI, 540).

s Chartularius, see DuCange.

* After their desecration by the Arian Goths.

'Probably A. D. 566 (Hodg., V, 166, note 2).

BOOK II. 57

denly there appeared certain marks among the dwellings, doors, utensils, and clothes, which, if any one wished to wash away, became more and more apparent. After the lapse of a year indeed there began to appear in the groins of men and in other rather delicate x places, a swelling of the glands, after the manner of a nut or a date, presently followed by an unbearable fever, so that upon the third day the man died. But if any one should pass over the third day he had a hope of living. Everywhere there was grief and everywhere tears. For as common report had it that those who fled would avoid the plague, the dwellings were left deserted by their inhabitants, and the dogs only kept house. The flocks remained alone in the pastures with no shepherd at hand. You might see villas or fortified places lately filled with crowds of men, and on the next day, all had departed and everything was in utter silence. Sons fled, leaving the corpses of their parents unburied ; parents forgetful of their duty abandoned their children in raging fever. If by chance long-standing affection constrained any one to bury his near relative, he re- mained himself unburied, and while he was perform- ing the funeral rites he perished ; while he offered obsequies to the dead, his own corpse remained without obsequies. You might see the world brought back to its ancient silence : no voice in the field ; no whistling of shepherds ; no lying in wait of wild beasts among the cattle; no harm to domestic fowls. The crops, out- living the time of the harvest, awaited the reaper un-

1Read delicatioribus in place of deligatioribus.

58 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

touched ; the vineyard with its fallen leaves and its shining grapes remained undisturbed while, winter came on ; a trumpet as of warriors resounded through the hours of the night and day ; something like the murmur of an army was heard by many ; there were no foot- steps of passers by, no murderer was seen, yet the corpses of the dead were more than the eyes could dis- cern ; pastoral places had been turned into a sepulchre for men, and human habitations had become places of refuge for wild beasts. And these evils happened to the Romans only and within Italy alone, up to the boundaries of the nations of the Alamanni and the Bavarians. Meanwhile, the emperor Justinian departed from life and Justin the younger undertook the rule of the state at Constantinople. In these times also Narses the patrician, whose care was watching everything, at length seized Vitalis, bishop of the city of Altinum (Altino), who had fled many years before to the king- dom of the Franks — that is, to the city of Aguntum (Innichen)1 — and condemned him to exile in Sicily.

CHAPTER V.

Now the whole nation of the Goths having been destroyed or overthrown, as has been said, and those also of whom we have spoken * having been in like man- ner conquered, Narses, after he had acquired much gold and silver and riches of other kinds, incurred the great envy of the Romans although he had labored much

1 At the headwaters of the Drave in Tyrol (Waitz). 1 In ch. 2 and 3 supra.

BOOK II. 59

for them against their enemies, and they made insinua- tions against him to the emperor Justin J and his wife Sophia, in these words, saying, "It would be advantageous for the Romans to serve the Goths rather than the Greeks wherever the eunuch Narses rules and oppresses us with bondage, and of these things our most devout emperor is ignorant: Either free us from his hand or surely we will betray the city of Rome and ourselves to the heathens." 2 When Narses heard this he answered briefly these words : " If I have acted badly with the Romans it will go hard with me." Then the emperor was so greatly moved with anger against Narses that he straightway sent the prefect Longinus into Italy to take Narses' place. But Narses, when he knew these things, feared greatly, and so much was he alarmed, especially by the same empress Sophia, that he did not dare to return again to Constantinople. Among other things, because he was a eunuch, she is said to have sent him this message, that she would make him portion out to the girls in the women's chamber the daily tasks of wool.3 To these words Narses is said to have given this answer, that he would begin to weave her such a web as she could not lay down as long as she lived/

1 Read Justino for Justiniano. It was Justin II who was the husband of Sophia and to whom this complaint was made.

* The Arian Goths were so considered.

8 In Fredegarius (Epitome, iii, 65) it is said that the empress sent him a golden instrument used by women with which he might spin and told him that henceforth he might rule over wool-workers, not over nations.

4 Or, as Fredegarius has it (id.): " I will spin a thread of which

60 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

Therefore, greatly racked by hate and fear, he withdrew to Neapolis (Naples), a city of Campania, and soon sent messengers to the nation of the Langobards, urging them to abandon the barren fields of Pannonia and come and take possession of Italy, teeming with every sort of riches. At the same time he sends many kinds of fruits and samples of other things with which Italy is well sup- plied, whereby to attract their minds to come.1 The

neither the emperor Justin nor the empress shall be able to find the end" (Hodgkin, V, 62).

1 The charge that Narses in revenge for his recall (A. D. 566 or 567) invited the Langobards into Italy is subject to grave doubt. Paul's statement that he sent them the fruits and products of that country contains an obvious improbability, since their troops had served in Italy fifteen years before and they needed no informa- tion on that subject (Hodgkin, V, 62). Paul followed the pop- ular tradition, and tracing this back, we find that the account occurs in the so-called Fredegarius (A. D. 642 to 658), but with- out the statement concerning the fruits and other products of Italy. Bishop Isidore of Seville, whose chronicle came down to 615, tells us that Narses, terrified by the threats of Sophia, invited the Langobards from Pannonia and introduced them into Italy. The Copenhagen continuer of Prosper (about 625) copies from Isidore. The Liber Pontificalis (Life of John III, A. D. 579-590) says that Narses went to Campania and wrote to the Langobards to come and take possession of Italy (Hodgkin, V, 60, 61). This book was nearly contemporary and shows a popular belief that Narses was disloyal to the empire. Neither of the two best con- temporary authors, Marius of Avenches or Gregory of Tours, who died about 594, speak of Narses' invitation to the Langobards, though the former mentions his recall and both speak of the in- vasion of Alboin. The Annals of Ravenna are equally silent. While Narses' recall was probably due to the empress and fur- nished the Langobards with their opportunity, the statement that

BOOK II. 6 1

Langobards receive joyfully the glad tidings which they themselves had also been desiring, and they form high expectations of future advantages. In Italy terrible signs were continually seen at night, that is, fiery swords appeared in heaven gleaming with that blood which was afterwards shed.

CHAPTER VI.

But Alboin, being about to set out for Italy with the Langobards, asked aid from his old friends, the Saxons, that he might enter and take possession of so spa- cious a land with a larger number of followers. The Saxons came to him, more than 20,000 men, together with their wives and children, to proceed with him to Italy according to his desire. Hearing these things, Chlothar and Sigisbert, kings of the Franks, put the Suavi and other nations into the places from which these Saxons had come.1

he invited them is hardly sustained by sufficient evidence to establish the treason of that eminent commander, though it shows that after the invasion his agency was suspected (Hodgkin, V, 64, 65). Certain it is that when his body was brought to Con- stantinople, the emperor whom he is said to have betrayed, carried his bier and paid the last honors to his memory (Hartmann II, I, 24).

1 Hodgkin believes (V, 156 note) that the fact that the Suavi, whom he considers the same as the Alamanni, occupied the homes of these Saxons, indicates that they were located in southern Germany.

'••-.

''

62 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

CHAPTER VII.

Then Alboin bestowed his own abode, that is, Pan- nonia, upon his friends the Huns1 on this condition: that if at any time it should be necessary for the Langobards to return2 they should take back their own fields. Then the Langobards, having left Pannonia, hastened to take possession of Italy with their wives and children and all their goods. They dwelt in Pannonia forty-two years.3 They came out of it in the month of April in the first indiction * on the day after holy Easter,

1 That is the Avars (Waitz). See supra I, 27.

1 " At any time within two hundred years, ' ' adds the Chronicon Gothanum (M. G. Leges IV, 644), and it was also provided in the agreement that the Avars should aid the Langobards in Italy.

! This period is impossible since the Langobards entered Pan- nonia not far from 546, and left it in 568. Probably 22 should be substituted for 42 (Hartmann, II, i, 30).

4 The word " indiction " originally meant the declaration of the imposition of a tax. When Constantine the Great reorganized the Roman Empire he established a fiscal period of fifteen years for this imposition, beginning A. D. 313. Hence the word in chro- nology means the number attached to the year showing its place in a cycle of fifteen years, beginning A. D. 313. There were three kinds of indiction. The original Greek or Constantinopolitan indiction (here referred to) is reckoned from September ist of what we consider the previous year. To find the indiction. add three to the number of the year in the vulgar era and divide it by 1 5, the remainder is the indiction. If nothing is left over, it is the 1 5th indiction. The year when Alboin left Pannonia was A. D. 568. Adding 3 and dividing by 15 we have I remaining, and as the indiction began in September, 567, April of the year 568 was in the ist indiction, and the 2d indiction began in September of that year.

It will be observed that this date is given by Paul for Alboin's

BOOK II. 63

whose festival that year, according to the method of

departure from Pannonia, not for his actual entrance into Italy. Paul apparently takes this from the Origo (see Appendix II): "And Alboin, king of the Langobards, moved out of Pannonia in the month of April after Easter, in the first indiction. In the sec- ond indiction indeed (September, 568, to September, 569), they began to plunder in Italy, but in the third indiction he became master of Italy." A question has arisen whether the actual inva- sion of Italy occurred in 568 or 569. The edict of Rothari, of Nov., 643, states that it was published (M. G., LL., IV, p. i) in the 76th year after the arrival of the Langobards in the province of Italy. This indicates that the invasion must have occurred before Nov., 568. But a fragment of Secundus of June, 580, speaks of the Langobards as ' ' remaining in Italy 1 2 years since they entered it in the month of May in the second indiction." In these 12 years, according to a common method of computation at that time, the I2th year may not have been completed and Secundus' date for the invasion is clearly May, 569 (see M. G., Script. Rerum Lang, et Ital., p. 25, n. 3 a). Marius of Avenches says that in 569 Alboin " occupied " Italy, which Muratori thinks (Annals, A. D. 568) must have been a mistake in the copyist. The Annals of Ravenna (Agnello, a. c. 94) says that in the 2d in- diction (Sept. i, 568, to Sept. i, 569) Venetia was invaded and occupied by the Langobards. Pope Gregory I wrote June, 595 (Indie. 13, lib. V, 21) that the Romans had been threatened by the Langobards for 27 years, and in July, 603 (Indie. 6, lib. XIII, 38), for 35 years, but in computing this time the final year is not complete, so that the probable date of the invasion would be 569 (see Roviglio, infra, p. 12). Cipolla (Atti del R. Istituto Veneto, x, 1889-90, series 7, t. I, pp. 686-688) and Roviglio (Sopra Al- cuni Dati Cronologici, Reggio-Emilia, 1899 contend for 569; Crivellucci (Studii Storici, I, 478-497) and Hodgkin (V, 158) for 568. The authorities are very equally divided. Secundus, a contemporary and considered reliable, would perhaps be entitled to the greatest weight, were it not that the official statement in the Edict supports the year given by Paul.

64 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

calculation, fell upon the calends (the first) of April, when five hundred and sixty-eight years had already elapsed from the incarnation of our Lord.

CHAPTER VIII.

Therefore, when king Alboin with his whole army and a multitude of people of all kinds ' had come to the limits of Italy, he ascended a mountain which stands forth in those places, and from there as far as he could see, he gazed upon a portion of Italy. Therefore this mountain it is said, was called from that time on " King's Mountain."2 They say wild oxen graze upon it, and no wonder, since at this point it touches Pannonia, which is productive of these animals. In fine, a certain very truthful old man related to me that he had seen the hide of a wild ox killed on this mountain of such size that in it fifteen men, as he said, could lie one against the other.

CHAPTER IX. When Alboin without any hindrance had thence

1 Including no doubt inhabitants of Noricum and Pannonia, Slavs from the East, a strong contingent of Saxons, and many others belonging to different German races (Hartmann, II, i, p. 19).

J Rudolf Virchow said at the meeting of the German Anthropo- logical Society, Sept. 5, 1899 (see Correspondenz-blatt of that Society for 1898—99, p. 180) that he had taken a special journey to follow the course of the Langobards into Italy and was con- vinced that their irruption was by the road over the Predil pass, thence into the valley of the Isonzo, and that Monte Maggiore (north of Cividale) is the " King's Mountain " of Paul.

BOOK II. 65

entered the territories of Venetia, which is the first province of Italy — that is, the limits of the city or rather of the fortress of Forum Julii (Cividale)1 — he began to consider to whom he should especially commit the first of the provinces that he had taken. For indeed all Italy (which extends toward the south, or rather toward the southeast), is encompassed by the waves of the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas, yet from the west and north it is so shut in by the range of Alps that there is no entrance to it except through narrow passes and over the lofty summits of the mountains. Yet from the eastern side by which it is joined to Pan- nonia it has an approach which lies open more broadly and is quite level. When Albion therefore, as we have said, reflected whom he ought to make duke 2 in these places, he determined, as is related, to put over the city of Forum Julii and over its whole district,3 his nephew

1 See, however, Waitz, who thinks Colonia Julia Carnia, north of Osopus, is referred to.

1 As to the meaning of the word ' ' duke ' ' at this time see note to II, 32, infra.

The district or duchy of Friuli which Gisulf was to rule can- not be definitely bounded. It reached northward probably to the Carnic Alps, eastward to the Julian Alps, and southward to a line not far from the coast which was subject to the sea power of the Eastern Empire. Concordia was not won from the empire until about 615, and Opitergium in 642. To the west, Friuli was bounded by other Langobard territory, especially by the duchy of Ceneda from which it was separated by the Tagliamento or Livenza (Hodg., VI, 43, 44). The Bavarians dwelt northwest of the duchy, the Slavonians northeast, and behind them the Asiatic Avars (Hodgkin, VI, 44). Cividale was made the capital instead

66 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

Gisulf,1 who was his master of horse — whom they call in their own language "marpahis" 2 — a man suitable in every way. This Gisulf announced that he would not first undertake the government of this city and people unless Alboin would give him the " faras," that is, the families or stocks of the Langobards that he himself wished to choose. And this was done, and with the approval of the king he took to dwell with him the chief families of the Langobards he had desired.s And thus finally, he acquired the honor of a leader.4 He asked also from the king for herds of high-bred mares, and in this also he was heeded by the liberality of his chief.

CHAPTER X.

In these days in which the Langobards invaded Italy, the kingdom of the Franks, divided into four parts upon tht death of their king Chlotar, was ruled by his four sons. The first among these, Aripert (Charibert) had

of Aquileia which had been the chief city (Hodgkin, VI, 39). Friuli is the first mentioned of the four great dukedoms conspicu- ous by their size and power over all others during the period of the Langobards: Friuli, Trent, Spoleto, and Benevento. The two last were largely independent of the Langobard kingdom. Trent and Friuli never succeeded in achieving their independence al- though this was several times attempted (Hodg., VI, 23).

1 Bethmann believes that it was Grasulf, Gisulf s father (Waitz).

1 From mar, mare a horse and paizan to put on the bit, accord- ing to Grimm (Abel, Hodgkin, VI, 42; V, 161).

8 Indeed it was by faras or clans that Italy in general was first occupied by the Langobards (Hartmann II, i, 21).

* Read ductor instead of doctor.

BOOK II. 67

the seat of his kingdom at Paris ; x the second indeed, Gunthram held sway at the city of Aureliani (Orleans) ; the third, Hilperic (Chilperic) had his throne at Ses- sionae (Soissons), in the place of Chlotar, his father; the fourth, Sigisbert, ruled at the city of Mettis (Metz).2 At this time, too, the most holy Benedict as pope governed the Roman Church.3 Also the blessed patriarch Paul presided over the city of Aquileia and its people and, fearing the barbarity of the Langobards, fled from Aquileia to the island of Grado;4 and he car- ried away with him all the treasure of his church.5 In this year in the early winter as much snow fell in the plain as is wont to fall upon the summits of the Alps, and in the following summer there was such great fertility as no other age claims to remember. At this time too when they had learned of the death of king Chlotar, the Huns, who are also called Avars, attacked his son Sigisbert and the latter, coming up to meet them in Turingia, overcame them with great force near the river

1 Charibert in fact had died in 567, just before the Langobards invaded Italy (Hodgkin, V, 199).

'See infra, III, 10, note. The name is there spelled Sigispert.

8 This is erroneous. It was John III who was pope from 560 to 573 (Jacobi, 48). Benedict was pope 573-578. Paul was led into this error by a statement in the Liber Pontificalis from which he took the account, that at the time of Benedict, the Langobards invaded all Italy (Ed L. Duchesne, I, 308; Atti del Congresso in Cividale, 1899, p. 118, note.)

4 An island near Aquileia and close to the mainland but inac- cessible to the Langobards who had no boats.

6 It was Paulinus, not Paul who thus fled to Grado (Waitz).

I

68 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

Albis (Elbe) and gave peace to them when they sought it. Brunicheldis,1 coming from Spain, is joined in mar- riage to this Sigisbert, and from her he had a son by name Childepert. The Avars, fighting again with Sigis- bert in the same places as before, crushed the army of the Franks and obtained the victory.

CHAPTER XL

Narses indeed returned from Campania to Rome and there not long afterwards, departed from this life,2 and his body, placed in a leaden casket, was carried with all his riches to Constantinople.

CHAPTER XII.

When Alboin then came to the river Plavis (Piave), Felix the bishop of the church of Tarvisium (Treviso) came forth there to meet him, and the king, since he was very generous,3 granted to him at his request all the property of his church and confirmed the things asked for by a solemn document.4

CHAPTER XIII.

Because indeed, we have made mention of this Felix, we may also relate a few things concerning the vener-

1 Or Brunichildis, Brunihilde, as Paul variously spells it.

'About 573 or perhaps a year or two earlier (Hodg. , V, 65).

8 His generosity is also extolled in the song of Widsith (Hodg- kin, V, 176).

4 This has been questioned since the Langobards were then ignorant of writing, but it is not impossible (VVaitz).

BOOK II. 69

able and very wise man Fortunatus, who had declared that this Felix was his colleague. In short, this Fortu- natus of whom we speak was born in a place which is called Duplabilis, which place lies not far from the fortress of Ceneta (Ceneda) and the city of Tarvisium (Treviso) . He was, however, brought up and instructed at Ravenna and became very distinguished in the gram- matical, the rhetorical and also the metrical art. And since he suffered a very grievous disease of the eyes, and this Felix also, his colleague, in like manner suf- fered in his eyes, they both proceeded to the church of the blessed Paul and John, which is situated within that city, and in which an altar, built in honor of St. Martin the Confessor, has a window near by in which a lamp was set to give light. With the oil of this, these men, that is, Fortunatus and Felix, presently touched their suffering eyes. Instantly the disease was driven away, and they obtained the health they longed for. For this reason Fortunatus adored the blessed Martin so much that he abandoned his country a little before the Lango- bards invaded Italy, and set out for the sepulchre of that blessed man at Turones (Tours), and he relates that his way of proceeding thither, as he tells it himself in his songs, was by the streams of Tiliamentum (Taglia- mento) and Reuna (Ragogna), and by Osupus (Osopo) and the Julian Alps,1 and by the fortress of Aguntum (Innichen) and the rivers Drave and Byrrus (Rienz), and by Briones (the Brenner), and the city of

1 This part of the range is to-day called the Carnic Alps (Studii Storici, 1899, p. 405).

7O HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

Augusta (Augsburg), which the Virdo (Wertach) and Lecha (Lech) water. And after he had come to Tur- ones (Tours), according to his own vow, passing on through Pictavi (Poitiers), he dwelt there and wrote at that place of the doings of many saints, part in prose and part in metrical fashion, and lastly in the same city he was ordained, first as a presbyter and then as a bishop, and in the same place he reposes buried with befitting honor. Here he wrote the life of St. Martin in four books in heroic meter, and he composed many other things, most of all hymns for particular festivals and especially little verses to particular friends, being second to none of the poets in soft and fluent speech. At his grave, when I came thither for the purpose of prayer,1 upon the request of Aper the abbot of that place I composed this epitaph to be inscribed there :

Here in this soil Fortunatus lies buried, the first among prophets,

Born in Ausonian land, worthy of honor in deed, Famous in talent, quick to perceive and in speech ever gentle.

Many an eloquent page sings his melodious lay. Fresh from his holy lips, to show us the way to salvation,

Deeds of the saints we learn — fathers of primitive times. Happy art thou, O land of Gaul, with such jewels emblazoned,

Whose resplendent fire scatters the shadows of night ! Verses of commonplace song, in thy honor, O saint, have I written,

Lest thy fame lie hid, lost in the depths of the crowd. Render I pray a return, and ask through thy infinite merits

That the Eternal Judge mercy show also to me.

In a few words we have touched upon these things 1 Between the years 782-786 (Waitz).

BOOK II. 71

concerning so great a man, that his fellow citizens might not be wholly ignorant of his life; now let us return to the thread of our history.

CHAPTER XIV.

Then Alboin took Vincentia (Vicenza) and Verona and the remaining cities of Venetia, except Patavium (Padua), Mons Silicis (Monselice) and Mantua.1 For Venetia is composed not only of the few islands which we now call Venice, but its boundary stretches from the borders of Pannonia to the river Addua (Adda). This is proved in the books of annals in which Pergamus (Bergamo) is said to be a city of Venetia and in his- tories we thus read of lake Benacus (Lago di Garda) : " Benacus, a lake of Venetia from which the river Mincius (Mincio) flows." The Eneti, indeed (though a letter is added among the Latins), are called in Greek the " praiseworthy." Histria is also joined to Venetia and both are considered one province. Histria is named from the river Hister which, according to Roman history, is said to have been broader than it is now. The city of Aquileia was the capital of this Venetia, in place of which is now Forum Julii (Cividale), so called because Julius Caesar had established there a market for business.

CHAPTER XV. I do not think we are wandering from the subject if

1 Paul is probably in error in saying that Mantua was not taken by Alboin. It was indeed later taken by Agilulf, but this was after it had been recaptured by the Greeks during the reign of Authari (Pabst, p. 409, note).

/2 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

we also touch briefly upon other provinces of Italy.1 The second province is called Liguria from gathering, that is, collecting leguminous plants with which it is well supplied. In this are Mediolanum (Milan) and Ticinum, which is called by another name, Papia (Pavia). It ex- tends to the boundaries of the Gauls. Between it and Suavia (Suabia), that is, the country of the Alamanni, which is situated toward the north, two provinces, namely, the first Retia (Rhaetia) and the second Retia are placed among the Alps in which, strictly speaking, the Reti (Rhaetians) are known to dwell.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Cottian Alps are called the fifth province, which were thus named from king Cottius, who lived at the time of Nero. This (province) extends from Liguria toward the southeast2 to the Tyrrhenian sea; on the west indeed it is joined to the territories of the Gauls. In it are contained the cities of Aquis3 (Acqui) where there are hot springs, Dertona (Tortona), the monas- tery of Bobium (Bobbio), Genua (Genoa), and Saona (Savona). The sixth province is Tuscia (Tuscany) which is thus called from " tus " (frankincense) which its people were wont to burn superstitiously in the sacri- fices to their gods. This includes Aurelia toward the northwest and Umbria on the eastern side. In this province Rome was situated, which was formerly the

1A full account of these provinces is found near the end of Appendix II.

1 Read eurum in place of eorum. 8 Or Aquae Statiellae.

BOOK II. 73

capital of the whole world. In Umbria indeed, which is counted a portion of it, are Perusium (Perugia) and lake Clitorius (Lago di Bolsena) and Spoletium (Spoleto), and it is called Umbria because it remained above the furious rains (imbres) when long ago a watery scourge devastated the nations.

CHAPTER XVII.

Campania, the seventh province, stretches from the city of Rome to the Siler (Sele), a river of Lucania. In it the very rich cities of Capua, Neapolis (Naples) and Salernus (Salerno) are situated. It is called Cam- pania on account of the very fertile plain (campus) of Capua, but it is for the most part mountainous. Next the eighth province, Lucania, which received its name from a certain grove (lucus), begins at the river Siler and extends with Brittia (Bruttium1), which was thus called from the name of its former queen, along the coast of the Tyrrhenian sea like the two last named provinces, as far as the Sicilian strait, and it embraces the right horn of Italy. In it are placed the cities of Pestus (Paestum), Lainus (Lao), Cassianum (Cassano), Consentia (Cosenza), and Regium (Reggio).

CHAPTER XVIII.

Then the ninth province is reckoned in the Apen- nine Alps 2 which take their origin from the place where

1Now Calabria.

* This province described by Paul is wholly imaginary. The others are substantially accurate. See Appendix II near the end.

74 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

the Cottian Alps terminate. These Apennine Alps, stretching through the middle of Italy, separate Tuscia (Tuscany) from Emilia and Umbria from Flamminia. Here are the cities of Ferronianus (Frignano) and Montembellium (Monteveglio), Bobium (Bobbio) and Urbinum (Urbino), and also the town which is called Verona.1 The Apennine Alps were named from the Carthaginians (Poeni) — that is, from Hannibal and his army who had a passage through them when marching upon Rome.2 There are some who say that the Cottian and Apennine Alps are one province, but the history of Victor3 which called the Cottian Alps a province by itself refutes them. The tenth province Emilia, begin- ning from Liguria extends towards Ravenna between the Apennine Alps and the waters of the Padus (Po). It is adorned with wealthy cities, to wit, Placentia (Pia- cenza), Parma, Regium (Reggio),4 Bononia (Bologna), and the Forum of Cornelius, the fortress of which is called Imolas (Imola). There were also some who called Emilia and Valeria and Nursia one province, but the opinion of these cannot stand because Tuscia and Umbria are situated between Emilia and Valeria and Nursia.

1 Paul elsewhere shows that Frignano and Monteveglio were actually in Emilia, Bobbio in the Cottian Alps and Verona in Venetia (Mommsen, 87).

* It will be observed that most of Paul's derivations, though taken from earlier authorities, are highly fanciful.

3 Life of Nero by Sextus Aurelius Victor.

4 This was the ancient Regium Lepidi now Reggio d' Emilia, to distinguish it from Reggio in Calabria.

BOOK II. 75

CHAPTER XIX.

The eleventh of the provinces is Flamminia, which lies between the Apennine Alps and the Adriatic sea. In it are situated Ravenna, the most noble of cities, and five other towns which are called by a Greek name, the Pentapolis.1 Now it is agreed that Aurelia, Emilia and Flamminia are called by these names from the paved roads which come from the city of Rome and from the names of those by whom they were paved. After Flamminia comes the twelfth province, Picenus, having upon the south the Apennine mountains and on the other side the Adriatic sea. It extends to the river Piscaria.2 In it are the cities of Firmus (Fermo), As- culus (Ascoli), Pinnis (Penne), and Hadria, already fallen to ruin with old age, which has given its name to the Adriatic sea. When the inhabitants of this district hastened thither from the Sabines, a griffin (picus) sat upon their banner and from this cause it took the name Picenus.

CHAPTER XX.

Valeria, the thirteenth province, to which Nursia is attached, is situated between Umbria and Campania and Picenus, and it touches on the east the region of the Samnites. Its western part, which takes its beginning from the city of Rome, was formerly called Etruria from the Etruscan people. It contains the cities of

five cities are Rimini, Ancona, Fano, Pesaro and Sini- gaglia.

2 Mommsen (92) considers that this boundary is incorrect.

76 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

Tibur (Tivoli), Carsioli and Reate (Rieti), Furcona (Aquila), Amiternum (San Vettorino) and the region of the Marsians and their lake which is called Fucinus (Celano). I think that the territory of the Marsians should be reckoned within the province of Valeria, because it is not at all described by the ancients in the catalogue of the provinces of Italy, but if any one may prove by correct reasoning that this is a pro- vince by itself, his sensible opinion by all means should be accepted. The fourteenth province, Samnium, be- ginning from the Piscaria, lies between Campania, the Adriatic Sea and Apulia. In it are the cities of Theate (Chieti), Aufidena, Hisernia and Samnium, fallen to ruin by old age, from which the whole province is named, and that most wealthy Beneventum (Benevento) the capital of these provinces. Furthermore, the Sam- nites received their name formerly from the spears which they were wont to carry and which the Greeks called " saynia." '

CHAPTER XXI.

The fifteenth of the provinces is Apulia, and united with it is Calabria.9 In it is the Salentine territory. This has Samnium and Lucania on the west and south- west, but on the east it is bounded by the Adriatic Sea. It contains the tolerably rich cities of Luceria (Lucera), Sepontum (Siponto), Canusium (Canosa), Agerentia

1 Sdwm, more properly a javelin.

* Not the present Calabria but the southeastern extremity of the Adriatic shore of Italy.

BOOK II. 77

(Acerenza?), Brundisium (Brindisi), Tarentum (Tar- anto) and in the left horn of Italy which extends fifty miles, Ydrontum (Otranto), well adapted to commerce.1 Apulia is named from " destruction," 2 for more quickly there (than elsewhere) does the herbage of the land perish in the heat of the sun.

CHAPTER XXII.

The island of Sicily is reckoned the sixteenth pro- vince. This is washed by the Tyrrhenian sea and by the Ionian, and is so called from the proper name of the leader Siculus. Corsica is put down as the seventeenth, Sardinia as the eighteenth province. Both of these are girt by the waves of the Tyrrhenian sea. Corsica is named from the leader Corsus; Sardinia from Sardis (Serdis?) the son of Hercules.

CHAPTER XXIII.

It is certain, moreover,3 that the old writers of history called Liguria and part of Venetia, as well as Emilia and Flamminia, Cisalpine Gaul. Hence it is that Don- atus, the grammarian, in his explanation of Virgil, says that Mantua is in Gaul. Hence it is that we read in Roman history that Ariminum (Rimini) is situated in Gaul. Indeed, in the most ancient period, Brennus, king of the Gauls, who reigned at the city of Senonae

1 Mercimoniis. See DuCange.

2 'AiruAria from airoMivni to destroy.

3 Tamen — but here used in a copulative and not an adversative senie. See Crivellucci Studii Storici, 1899, p. 259.

78 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

(Sens), came with 300,000 Senonian Gauls to Italy and occupied it as far as Senogallia (Sinigaglia), which is named from the Senonian Gauls. And the reason why the Gauls came to Italy is represented to have been this: When they tasted the wine brought from that country, they were enticed by greed for this wine and passed over into Italy. While a hundred thousand of these were hastening along not far from the island of Delphi, they were killed by the swords of the Greeks. Another hundred thousand, having entered Galatia,1 were first called Gallogreci, but afterwards Galatians, and these are those to whom Paul, the teacher of the heathen, wrote his epistle. Also a hundred thousand of the Gauls who remained in Italy built Ticinum (Pavia), Mediolanum (Milan), Pergamus (Bergamo) and Brixia (Brescia), and gave to the region the name of Cisalpine Gaul, and they are the Senonian Gauls who formerly in- vaded the city of Romulus. For as we call what is beyond the Alps, Transalpine Gaul, so we name what is within the Alps on this side, Cisalpine Gaul.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Italy then, which contains these provinces received its name from Italus, the leader of the Siculi, who took possession of it in ancient times. Or it is denominated Italy on this account, because large oxen, that is, " itali," are found in it ; and the name comes from this, that by abbreviation "vitulus" (a calf) is " italus," one letter being added and another changed. Italy is also called

1 In Asia Minor.

BOOK II. 79

Ausonia from Ausonus, son of Ulysses. Originally indeed^ the region of Beneventum was called by this name but afterwards all Italy began to be called so. Italy is also called Latium on this account, because Saturn fleeing from Jupiter his son found a hiding place (latebra) within it. Since enough then has been said concerning the provinces and name of Italy, the events within which we are narrating, let us now return to the regular order of our history.

CHAPTER XXV.

Alboin then, came into Liguria at the beginning of the third indiction ' on the third day before the nones 2 of September, and entered Mediolanum during the times of the archbishop Honoratus. Then he took all the cities of Liguria except those which were situated upon the shores of the sea. The archbishop Honoratus in- deed, deserting Mediolanum, fled to the city of Genoa. The patriarch Paul 3 too, after administering his priestly office for twelve years, departed from this life and left the church to be managed by Probinus.

>A. D. 569, see Bk. II, ch. VII, note.

1 The nones was the gih day before the ides, both days being included, and the ides fell upon the 1 5th of March, May, July and October and upon the 1 3th of the remaining months. The nones therefore fell upon the yth of March, May, July and October and upon the 5th of other months. The 3rd day before the nones of September, reckoned backward from the 5th and including both days, would therefore be the 3rd of September, and this is the day given by Muratori in his Annals, Vol. 3, p. 479.

1 Of Aquileia.

80 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

CHAPTER XXVI.

The city of Ticinum (Pavia) at this time held out bravely, withstanding a siege more than three years, while the army of the Langobards remained close at hand on the western side. Meanwhile Alboin, after driving out the soldiers, took possession of every- thing as far as Tuscany except Rome and Ravenna and some other fortified places which were situated on the shore of the sea. The Romans had then no courage to resist because the pestilence which occurred at the time of Narses had destroyed very many in Liguria and Venetia, and after the year of plenty of which we spoke, a great famine attacked and devastated all Italy. It is certain that Alboin then brought with him to Italy many men from various peoples which either other kings or he himself had taken. Whence, even until to-day, we call the villages in which they dwell Gepidan, Bulgar- ian, Sarmatian, Pannonian, Suabian, Norican, or by other names of this kind.

CHAPTER XXVII.

The city of Ticinum indeed, after enduring the siege for three years and some months, at length sur- rendered to Alboin and to the Langobards besieging it. When Alboin entered it through the so-called gate of St. John from the eastern side of the city, his horse fell in the middle of the gateway, and could not be gotten up, although urged by kicks and afterwards struck by the blows of spears. Then one of those Langobards thus spoke to the king, saying: ''Remember sir king, what vow you have plighted. Break so grievous a vow

BOOK II. 8l

and you will enter the city, for truly there is a Christian people in this city." Alboin had vowed indeed that he would put all the people to the sword because they had been unwilling to surrender. After he broke this vow and promised mercy to the citizens, his horse straight- way rose and he entered the city and remained stead- fast in his promise, inflicting injury upon no one. Then all the people, gathering around him in the palace which king Theoderic had formerly built, began to feel re- lieved in mind, and after so many miseries were already confident in hope for the future.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

After this king had ruled in Italy three years and six months, he was slain by the treachery of his wife,1 and the cause of his murder was this: While he sat in merriment at a banquet at Verona longer than was proper, with the cup which he had made of the head of his father-in-law, king Cunimund, he ordered it to be given to the queen to drink wine, and he invited her to drink merrily with her father. Lest this should seem impossible to any one, I speak the truth in Christ. I saw king Ratchis holding this cup in his hand on a cer- tain festal day to show it to his guests. Then Rose- mund, when she heard the thing, conceived in her heart deep anguish she could not restrain, and straightway she burned to revenge the death of her father by the

Probably May 2$th or June 28th, A. D. 572, or possibly 573 (Hodg., V, 168, 181; Roviglio, Sopra Alcuni Dati Cronologici di Storia Langobardica. Reggio-Emilia, 1899, pp. 21 to 27).

82 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

murder of her husband, and presently she formed a plan with Helmechis who was the king's squire (scilpor) — that is, his armor-bearer — and his foster brother, to kill the king, and he persuaded the queen that she ought to admit to this plot Peredeo, who was a very strong man. As Peredeo would not give his consent to the queen when she advised so great a crime, she put herself at night in the bed of her dressing-maid with whom Peredeo was accustomed to have intercourse, and then Peredeo, coming in ignorance, lay with the queen. And when the wicked act was already accomplished and she asked him whom he thought her to be, and he named the name of his mistress that he thought she was, the queen added : " It is in no way as you think, but I am Rosemund," she says, " and surely now you have perpe- trated such a deed, Peredeo, that either you must kill Al- boin or he will slay you with his sword." Then he learned the evil thing he had done, and he who had been un- willing of his own accord, assented, when forced in such a way, to the murder of the king. Then Rosemund, while Alboin had given himself up to a noon-day sleep, ordered that there should be a great silence in the palace, and taking away all other arms, she bound his sword tightly to the head of the bed so it could not be taken away or unsheathed, and according to the advice of Peredeo, she, more cruel than any beast, let in Hel- mechis the murderer.1 Alboin suddenly aroused from

1 This reading of Paul seems to reverse the parts, making Pere- deo the adviser and Helmechis the actual murderer, and seems to indicate that Paul has misunderstood his authorities or confused them. The names are transposed in some of the manuscripts to

BOOK II. 83

sleep perceived the evil which threatened and reached his hand quickly for his sword, which, being tightly tied, he could not draw, yet he seized a foot-stool and defended himself with it for some time. But unfortun- ately alas ! this most warlike and very brave man being helpless against his enemy, was slain as if he were one of no account, and he who was most famous in war through the overthrow of so many enemies, perished by the scheme of one little woman. His body was buried with the great grief and lamentations of the Langobards under the steps of a certain flight of stairs which was ne^t to the palace. He was tall in stature and well fitted in his whole body for waging wars. In our own days Giselpert, who had been duke of Verona, opened his grave and took away his sword and any other of his ornaments found there. And for this reason he boasted with his accustomed vanity among ignorant men that he had seen Alboin.1

bring the sentence into harmony with what precedes. Agnellus ignores Peredeo altogether and assigns the whole responsibility for the murder to Helmechis, instigated by Rosemund (Hodgkin, V, 170). But after deducting what is undoubtedly legendary we have statements from contemporary sources essentially harmonious. The Annals of Ravenna (Exc. Sang. Agnell., ch. 96) says, "Al- boin was killed by his followers in his palace by command of his wife Rosemund." John Biclaro: "Alboin is killed at night at Verona by his followers by the doing of his wife. ' ' Marius: ' ' Al- boin was killed by his followers, that is by Hilmaegis with the rest, his wife agreeing to it." The Copenhagen Continuer of Prosper: " Alboin was killed at Verona by the treachery of his wife Rose- mund, the daughter of king Conimund, Elmigisilus aiding her" (Schmidt, p. 72).

1 Hodgkin (V, 175) notices a reference to Alboin in the so-called

84 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Helmechis then, upon the death of Alboin, attempted to usurp his kingdom, but he could not at all do this, because the Langobards, grieving greatly for the king's death, strove to make way with him. And straightway Rosemund sent word to Longinus, prefect of Ravenna, that he should quickly send a ship J to fetch them. Longinus, delighted by such a message, speedily sent a ship in which Helmechis with Rosemund his wife em- barked, fleeing at night. They took with them Albsu- inda, the daughter of the king, and all the treasure of the Langobards, and came swiftly to Ravenna.2 Then

Traveler's song or Widsith which was composed probably about the middle of the sixth century. Lines 139 to 147 say, "So was I in Eatule with Ealfwin, son of Eadwin, who of all mankind had to my thinking the lightest hand to win love, the most generous heart in the distribution of rings and bright bracelets. ' ' It seems pro- bable that Eatule means Italy ; Ealfwin, Alboin ; Eadwin, Audoin.

1 Probably to some point on the Po not far from Verona (Hodg. , V, 172, note i).

*As to Rosemund' s flight to Longinus, the Ravenna Annals (Agnello, ch. 96) show that Rosemund with a multitude of Gepidae and Langobards came to Ravenna in the month of August with all the royal treasure and was honorably received by Longinus the prefect. Marius says that Helmegis, with his wife and all the treasure and a part of the army, surrendered to the republic at Ravenna. John Biclaro says: that Alboin' s treasure with the queen came into the power of the republic and the Langobards remained without king and treasure. The Copenhagen Continuer of Prosper (p. 34) says she attempted to unite Helmigis to her- self in marriage and in the kingdom, but when she perceived that her treacherous usurpation displeased the Langobards, she fled with the royal treasure and her husband to Ravenna (Schmidt, 73).

BOOK. II. 85

the prefect Longinus began to urge Rosemund to kill Helmechis and to join him in wedlock. As she was ready for every kind of wickedness and as she de- sired to become mistress of the people of Ravenna, she gave her consent to the accomplishment of this great crime, and while Helmechis was bathing himself, she offered him, as he came out of the bath, a cup of poison which she said was for his health. But when he felt that he had drunk the cup of death, he compelled Rose- mund, having drawn his sword upon her, to drink what was left, and thus these most wicked murderers perished at one moment by the judgment of God Almighty.

CHAPTER XXX.

When they had thus been killed, the prefect Longi- nus sent Albsuinda with the treasures of the Langobards to Constantinople to the emperor. Some affirm that Peredeo also came to Ravenna in like manner with Helmechis and Rosemund, and was thence sent with Albsuinda to Constantinople, and there in a public show before the emperor killed a lion of astonishing size and, as they say, by command of the emperor, his eyes were torn out lest he should attempt anything in the imperial city because he was a strong man. After some time he prepared for himself two small knives, hid one in each of his sleeves, went to the palace and promised to say something serviceable to the emperor if he were admit- ted to him. The emperor sent him two patricians, familiars of the palace, to receive his words. When they came to Peredeo, he approached them quite closely as if about to tell them something unusually

86 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

secret, and he wounded both of them severely with the weapons he held concealed in each hand so that immedi- ately they fell to the ground and expired. And thus in no way unlike the mighty Sampson, he avenged his injuries, and for the loss of his two eyes he killed two men most useful to the emperor.

CHAPTER XXXI.

All the Langobards in Italy by common consent in- stalled as their king in the city of Ticinum, Cleph, a very noble man among them.1 Of many powerful men of the Romans some he destroyed by the sword and others he drove from Italy. When he had held the sovereignty with Masane, his wife one year and six months, he was slain with the sword by a servant of his train.2

CHAPTER XXXII.

After his death the Langobards had no king for ten years3 but were under dukes,4 and each one of the

1 " Of the race of Beleo " says the Origo. Marius of Avenches (Chron., 573, Roncalli, p. 413, see Pabst, 415, note 5) says he had been one of the dukes.

2 The precise dates are uncertain. Marius of Avenches says he was elected in the sixth indiction and slain in the seventh, hence both events took place between Sept. ist, 572, and Sept. ist, 574 (Roviglio, Sopra Alcuni Dati Cronologici, p. 28).

* The Origo Gentis Langobardorum, the Chronicon Gothanum, Fredegarius and the Copenhagen Continuer of Prosper all give twelve years as the period of this interregnum. A computation of the preceding and subsequent reigns appears to sustain Paul's statement (Roviglio, id., pp. 29-31) which, however, is not free from doubt.

* Duces. It is not certain what was the Langobard name for

BOOK II. 87

dukes held possession of his own city, Zaban of Ticinum (Pavia), Wallari of Bergamus (Bergamo), Alichis of Brexia (Brescia), Euin of Tridentum (Trent),1 Gisulf of Forum Julii (Cividale).2 But there were thirty other dukes besides these in their own cities.3 In these

these rulers. Some suggest (Hodgkin, V, 183, 184) Heretoga (the present German Herzog). The prefix and suffix art' which occurs frequently in Langobard names (e. g., Aripert, Arioald, Rothari) may have some connection with this dignity. The Latin word dux was appropriately applied, as it meant both a leader in the field and a commander of frontier troops and of a frontier dis- trict (Hartmann, II, I, 40). Schmidt (p. 78) insists that the division of Italy into dukedoms was nothing else than the ancient Langobard division of their territory into cantons, only these were now connected with the former city territories of the Romans.

1 Duke Euin (569-595) followed by Gaidoald in the latter year, and Alahis about 680 and 690, are the only three dukes of Trent mentioned in Paul's history (Hodg., VI, 23). The duchy of Trent probably ascended by the Central Valley of the Adige as far northward as the Mansio of Etina, the modern town of Neu- markt, and southward to a point near the present Austro-Italian frontier where the mountains begin to slope down to the Lom- bard plain (Hodg., VI, 26).

*The dukes of Friuli were Gisulf (living in 575), Grasulf II, Taso, Cacco, Ago, Lupus (about 662), Wechtari (between 662 and 671), Landari, Rodoald, Ansfrit (between 688 and 700), Ferdulf, Corvulus, Pemmo, Anselm, Peter and Ratgaud or Hrodgaud (775 t° 776) (Hodg., VI, 36).

8Pabst (437) gives the list of probable cities referred to: Friuli Parma Cremona

Ceneda Piacenza Como

Treviso Modena Lodi

Vicenza Brescello Vercelli

Verona Asti Tortona

88 HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS.

days many of the noble Romans were killed from

Trent Ivrea Alba Pompeia

Brescia Turin Acqui

Bergamo Mantua Lucca

Novara Altino Chiusi

MUan Mariana Perugia

Pavia Feltre Benevento

Reggio Belluno Spoleto (see p. 439).

This makes thirty-six cities instead of the thirty-five, and prob- ably Pabst included one or more not yet occupied by the Lango- bards (Hodgkin, V, 1 88). Pabst also gives a very complete ac- count of this office of duke. At first it was not hereditary (p. 414- 415) but was held for life (p. 432). Dukes were not selected on account of their noble birth (though nobles were frequently found among them), but on account of their military and administrative ability. The duke was not chosen by