Lombards/History

Lombards
The Lombards (Latin Langobardi, from which the alternative name Longobards found in older English texts), were a Germanic group that entered the late Roman Empire. They were known to the Romans from as early as AD 98, however, when the historian Tacitus mentioned them in his Germania. They were initially settled in Pannonia by the Emperor Justinian. In 568 they invaded Italy under their king Alboin, but were unsuccessful at conquering any city with walls. They broke off sieges of most cities they tried to take and settled for what they could find in the countryside. After the death of Alboin and his immediate successor, the Lombards failed to choose a king for more than 10 years, and the various regions were ruled by dukes. When they entered Italy the Lombards were partly still pagan, partly Arian Christians, and hence got along very badly with the Roman Catholic Church. They were not converted to orthodox Christianity until after the year 600. The last Lombard to rule as king of the Lombards was Desiderius, who ruled until 774, when Charlemagne not only conquered the Lombard kingdom, but in an utterly novel decision took the title "King of the Lombards" as well. Before then the Germanic kingdoms had frequently conquered each other, but none had adopted the title of King of another people. Charlemagne took part of the Lombard territory to create the Papal States. The Lombardy region in Italy, which includes the city of Milan, is a reminder of the presence of the Langobards. Much of our knowledge of the mythological and semi-mythological early history of the Lombard people comes from Paul the Deacon's History of the Lombards (Historia Langobardorum) written in the late 8th century. By the title of this work the name of Longobards was commonly turned into Langobards. Despite a frequently supposed derivation from "long beards" effectively, the name is generally considered coming from "long halberds": apart from the fact that Romans already had named Barbarians many peoples with long beards (and that name was in fact in regular use for some peoples of those origins), the distinctive element - the one that justified the name - was the original weapon, still unknown at those times in Italy. A Lombard law code survives from around the same period. Historic Kings of the Lombards • Tato (???) • Wacho ( died 539) • Waltari (539 - 546) • Audoin (546 - 565) • Alboin (565) - 572) • Cleph (572 - 574) (Ten year interregnum) • Authari (584 - 590) • Agilulf (591 - c. 616) • Adaloald (c.616 - c.626) • Arioald (c.626 - 636) • Rothari (636 - 652) • Rodoald (652 - 653) • Aripert (653 - 661) • Perctarit and Godepert (661 - 662) • Grimuald (662 - 671) • Perctarit (671 - 688) (restored from exile) • Cunincpert (688 - 700) (co-king from 680) • Alahis (689) • Liutpert (701) • Raginpert (701) • Aripert (701 - 712) • Ansprand (712) • Liutprand (712 - 744) • Hildeprand (744) • Ratchis (744 - 749) • Aistulf (749 - 756) • Desiderius (756 - 774)

Although Rome had fallen to the barbarian onslaught, it was not the entire end. As the empire broke down after the 3rd century CE, the disintegration of Imperial authority meant that the various German tribes of the north had free reign and many of them would fight for Rome as much as they themselves would invade, forming new nations as they went. The most long-lived and most successful of these new Germanic kingdoms was the so-called Lombard "Kingdoms" with northern "Langobardia Majora" centred around present-day Pavia and forming the region of present-day Lombardy, and "Langobardia Minora" based around the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. Langobardia Majora was eventually assimilated into the Frankish "Kingdom of Italy" of the 8th century, but the southern kingdoms would hold out well until the Middle Ages.

In many of these new nations which split up old Europe and Italy, the idea of Rome somehow managed to live on. The first was that the Lombard invaders wished to control the nation as effectively as possible, and so attempted to retain a cultural continuity by adopting Roman cultre. This was aided by the adoption of a new reigion — Christianity. Christianity, with its promised comforts in the afterlife in spite of the world's excesses, and its Latinised rituals soon attracted a new audience even as the invaders slowly formed a new Germano-Roman society. Italy of the 7th century constituted mostly an agrarian which would swear allegiance to the Church, the sole institution to favour a peaceful existence which neither the expansionist Byzantines nor the warlike Lombards would ever think of promising to their subjects. The ecclesiastic administration, which had always till then used with great liberality what it was given for the protection of the poor and incapacitated, easily filled in the new administrative roles that Italians simply did not want to see given to Byzantines or Lombards. In many places Roman basilicae were converted to churches, and local landowners and aristocracy themselves, tired of Imperial excesses, re-aligned themselves to the invaders.