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{{Short description|Historical ethnic group of the Italian Peninsula of Germanic origin}} |
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[[Image:Iron Crown.JPG|thumb|320px|right|The [[Iron Crown of Lombardy]], used for the coronation of the [[kings of Italy]] until 1946]] |
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{{Distinguish|text=the modern inhabitants of the region of [[Lombardy]] in Italy or the [[Lombard language]]}} |
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{{EngvarB|date=June 2022}} |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}} |
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[[File:Italien zur Langobardenzeit.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Lombard possessions in Italy: the Lombard Kingdom ''([[Neustria (Lombard)|Neustria]], [[Austria (Lombard)|Austria]] and [[Duchy of Tuscia|Tuscia]])'' and the Lombard Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento]] |
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The '''Lombards''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɒ|m|b|ər|d|z|,_|-|b|ɑːr|d|z|,_|ˈ|l|ʌ|m|-}})<ref>{{cite dictionary|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lombard |title=Lombard |dictionary=[[Collins English Dictionary]]}}</ref> or '''Longobards''' ({{langx|la|Longobardi}}) were a [[Germanic peoples|Germanic people]]<ref> |
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The '''Lombards''' or '''Langobards''' ({{lang-la|Langobardī}}), were a [[Germanic tribe]] who from 568 to 774 ruled a [[Lombard Kingdom|Kingdom]] in [[Italy]]. |
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* {{harvnb|Christie|1995|p=}}. "The Lombards, also known as the Longobards, were a Germanic tribe whose fabled origins lay in the barbarian realm of Scandinavia." |
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* {{harvnb|Whitby|2012|p=857}}. "Lombards, or Langobardi, a Germanic group..." |
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* {{harvnb|Brown|2005|p=}}. "Lombards... a west-Germanic people..." |
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* {{harvnb|Darvill|2009|p=}}. "Lombards (Lombard). Germanic people..." |
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* {{harvnb|Taviani-Carozzi|2005|p=}}. "Lombards, A people of Germanic origin, conquerors of part of Italy from 568." |
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</ref> who conquered most of the [[Italian Peninsula]] between 568 and 774. |
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The Lombard historian [[Paul the Deacon]] wrote in the ''[ |
The medieval Lombard historian [[Paul the Deacon]] wrote in the ''[[History of the Lombards]]'' (written between 787 and 796) that the Lombards descended from a small tribe called the Winnili,<ref name="ReferenceA">{{harvnb|Priester|2004|p=16}}: "From [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] ''[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/winnaną|winna-]]'', meaning "to fight, win"</ref> who dwelt in northern Germany<ref name="dick">{{cite book|last1=Harrison |first1=D. |last2=Svensson |first2=K. |date=2007 |title=Vikingaliv |publisher=Fälth & Hässler |location=Värnamo |isbn=978-91-27-35725-9 |pages=74}}</ref> before migrating to seek new lands. Earlier Roman-era historians wrote of the Lombards in the [[first century]] AD as being one of the [[Suebi]]an peoples, also from what is now northern Germany, near the Elbe river. They migrated south, and by the end of the fifth century, the Lombards had moved into the area roughly coinciding with modern Austria and [[Slovakia]] north of the [[Danube]]. Here they subdued the [[Heruls]] and later fought frequent wars with the [[Gepids]]. The Lombard king [[Audoin]] defeated the Gepid leader [[Thurisind]] in 551 or 552, and Audoin's successor [[Alboin]] eventually destroyed the Gepids in 567. The Lombards also settled in Pannonia (modern-day Hungary). Near [[Szólád]], archaeologists have unearthed burial sites of Lombard men and women buried together as families, unusual among Germanic peoples at the time. Contemporary traces have also been discovered of Mediterranean Greeks and a possible migrant from France. |
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Following |
Following Alboin's victory over the Gepids, he led his people into [[northeastern Italy]], which had become severely depopulated and devastated after the long [[Gothic War (535–554)]] between the [[Byzantine Empire]] and the [[Ostrogothic Kingdom]]. The Lombards were joined by numerous [[Saxons]], [[Heruli|Heruls]], Gepids, [[Bulgars]], [[Thuringians]] and [[Ostrogoths]], and their invasion of Italy was almost unopposed. By late 569, they had conquered all of northern Italy and the principal cities north of the [[Po River]] except [[Pavia]], which fell in 572. At the same time, they occupied areas in central and southern Italy. They established a [[Kingdom of the Lombards|Lombard Kingdom]] in north and central Italy, which reached its zenith under the eighth-century ruler [[Liutprand, King of the Lombards|Liutprand]]. In 774, the kingdom was conquered by the [[Franks|Frankish]] king [[Charlemagne]] and integrated into the [[Frankish Empire]]. However, Lombard nobles continued to rule southern parts of the [[Italian peninsula]] well into the eleventh century, when they were [[Norman conquest of southern Italy|conquered]] by the [[Normans]] and added to the [[County of Sicily]]. In this period, the southern part of Italy still under Lombard domination was known to the Norse as Langbarðaland ('land of the Lombards'), as inscribed in the Norse [[Italy runestones|runestones]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lansmuseum.a.se/runriket/taby.html |title=2. Runriket – Täby Kyrka |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080604203505/http://www.lansmuseum.a.se/runriket/taby.html |archive-date=4 June 2008 |website=Stockholm County Museum |access-date=1 July 2007}}</ref> Their legacy is also apparent in the name of the region of [[Lombardy]] in northern Italy. |
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==Name== |
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According to their traditions, the Lombards initially called themselves the ''Winnili''. After a reported major victory against the [[Vandals]] in the first century, they changed their name to ''Lombards''.{{sfn|Christie|1995|p=3}} The name ''Winnili'' is generally translated as 'the wolves', related to the Proto-Germanic root ''*wulfaz'' 'wolf'.''<ref>{{cite journal|last=Sergent |first=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Sergent |date=1991 |title=Ethnozoonymes indo-européens |language=fr |trans-title=Indo-European ethnozoonyms |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1991_num_17_2_1932 |journal=Dialogues d'Histoire Ancienne |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=15 |doi=10.3406/dha.1991.1932}}</ref>'' The name ''[[:wiktionary:Lombard|Lombard]]'' was reportedly derived from the distinctively long beards of the Lombards.{{sfn|Christie|2018b|pp=920-922}} It is probably a compound of the [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] elements [[:wiktionary:Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/langaz|*''langaz'']] (long) and [[:wiktionary:Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/bardaz|*''bardaz'']] (beard). |
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==History== |
==History== |
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===Early history=== |
===Early history=== |
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====Legendary origins==== |
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[[File:PauDia 010.PNG|thumb|[[Paul the Deacon]], historian of the Lombards, circa 720-799.]] |
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===Legendary origins and name=== |
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{{Further|Hundings}} |
{{Further|Hundings}} |
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{{multiple image |
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The fullest account of Lombard origins, history, and practices is the ''[[Historia Langobardorum]]'' (''History of the Lombards'') of [[Paul the Deacon]], written in the 8th century. Paul's chief source for Lombard origins, however, is the 7th-century ''[[Origo Gentis Langobardorum]]'' (''Origin of the Lombard People''). |
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| image1 = Wodan Frea Himmelsfenster by Emil Doepler.jpg |
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| alt1 = |
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| caption1 = [[Wodan]] (Godan) and [[Frigg]] (Frea) looking out of a window in the heavens... |
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| image2 = Wodan Frea Himmelsfenster II by Emil Doepler.jpg |
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| alt2 = |
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| caption2 = ...and spotting the Lombard women with their long hair tied as to appear as beards |
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}} |
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According to their own legends, the Lombards originated in Northern Germany/Denmark zone{{sfn|Christie|1995|pp=1–6}} including modern-day Denmark. The Germanic origins of the Lombards is supported by genetic,<ref name="Vai_2019"/> anthropological,{{sfn|Christie|1995|pp=1–6}} archaeological and earlier literary evidence.{{sfn|Christie|1995|pp=1–6}} |
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The ''Origo Gentis Langobardorum'' tells the story of a small tribe called the ''Winnili''<ref name="ReferenceA"/> dwelling in southern [[Scandinavia]]<ref name="dick">Harrison, D. & Svensson, K. (2007). ''Vikingaliv'' Fälth & Hässler, Värnamo. 978-91-27-35725-9 p. 74</ref> (''Scadanan'') (The ''[[Codex Gothanus]]'' writes that the Winnili first dwelt near a river called ''Vindilicus'' on the extreme boundary of [[Gaul]].)<ref>CG, II.</ref> The Winnili were split into three groups and one part left their native land to seek foreign fields. The reason for the exodus was probably [[overpopulation]].<ref>Menghin, 13.</ref> The departing people were led by the brothers Ybor and Aio and their mother Gambara<ref>Priester, 16. Grimm, ''Deutsche Mythologie'', I, 336. Old Germanic for "[[Strenuus]]", "[[Sibyl]]".</ref> and arrived in the lands of ''Scoringa'', perhaps the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] coast<ref>Priester, 16</ref> or the [[Bardengau]] on the banks of the [[Elbe]].<ref>Hammerstein-Loxton, 56.</ref> Scoringa was ruled by the [[Vandals]], and their chieftains, the brothers Ambri and Assi, who granted the Winnili a choice between tribute or war. |
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A legendary account of Lombard origins, history, and practices is the ''Historia Langobardorum'' (''History of the Lombards'') of [[Paul the Deacon]], written in the eighth century. Paul's chief source for Lombard origins, however, is the seventh-century ''[[Origo Gentis Langobardorum]]'' (''Origin of the Lombard People''). |
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The Winnili were young and brave and refused to pay tribute, saying "It is better to maintain liberty by arms than to stain it by the payment of tribute."<ref name="PD, VII">PD, VII.</ref> The Vandals prepared for war and consulted Godan (the god [[Odin]]<ref name="dick"/>), who answered that he would give the victory to those whom he would see first at sunrise.<ref name="PD, VIII">PD, VIII.</ref> The Winnili were fewer in number<ref name="PD, VII"/> and Gambara sought help from Frea (the goddess [[Frigg]]<ref name="dick"/>), who advised that all Winnili women should tie their hair in front of their faces like beards and march in line with their husbands. So it came that Godan spotted the Winnili first, and asked, "Who are these long-beards?" and Frea replied, "My lord, thou hast given them the name, now give them also the victory."<ref>OGL, appendix 11.</ref> From that moment onwards, the Winnili were known as the ''Longbeards'' (Latinised as ''Langobardi'', Italianised as ''Lombardi'', and Anglicized as ''Lombards''). |
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The ''Origo Gentis Langobardorum'' tells the story of a small tribe called the ''Winnili''<ref name="ReferenceA"/> dwelling in Northern Germany/Denmark zone<ref name="dick"/> (the ''[[Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani]]'' writes that the Winnili first dwelt near a river called ''Vindilicus'' on the extreme boundary of [[Gaul]]).<ref name="HLcG2">''Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani'', 2.</ref> The Winnili were split into three groups and one part left their native land to seek foreign fields. The reason for the exodus was probably [[Human overpopulation|overpopulation]].<ref>{{harvnb|Menghin|1985|p=13}}</ref> The departing people were led by Gambara and her sons Ybor and Aio <ref>Priester, 16. Grimm, ''Deutsche Mythologie'', I, 336. Old Germanic for "Strenuus", "[[Sibyl]]".</ref><ref>Ibor and Aio were called by Prosper of Aquitaine, Iborea and Agio; Saxo-Grammaticus calls them Ebbo and Aggo; the popular song of Gothland (Bethmann, 342), Ebbe and Aaghe (Wiese, 14).</ref> and arrived in the lands of ''Scoringa'', perhaps the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] coast<ref>{{harvnb|Priester|2004|p=16}}</ref> or the [[Bardengau]] on the banks of the [[Elbe]].<ref name="Hammerstein-Loxten56">{{harvnb|Von Hammerstein-Loxten|1869|p=56}}</ref> Scoringa was ruled by the [[Vandals]] and their chieftains, the brothers Ambri and Assi, who granted the Winnili a choice between tribute or war. |
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When Paul the Deacon wrote the ''Historia'' between 787 and 796 he was a [[Catholicism|Catholic]] monk and devoted [[Christianity|Christian]]. He thought the [[Paganism|pagan]] stories of his people "silly" and "laughable".<ref name="PD, VIII"/><ref>Priester, 17</ref> Paul explained that the name "Langobard" came from the length of their beards.<ref>PD, I, 9.</ref> A modern theory suggests that the name "Langobard" comes from ''Langbarðr'', [[List of names of Odin|a name of Odin]].<ref>Pohl and Erhart. Nedoma, 449–445.</ref> Priester states that when the Winnili changed their name to "Lombards", they also changed their old agricultural [[fertility cult]] to a cult of Odin, thus creating a conscious tribal tradition.<ref>Priester, 17.</ref> Fröhlich inverts the order of events in Priester and states that with the Odin cult, the Lombards grew their beards in resemblance of the Odin of tradition and their new name reflected this.<ref>Fröhlich, 19.</ref> Bruckner remarks that the name of the Lombards stands in close relation to the worship of Odin, [[List of names of Odin|whose many names]] include "the Long-bearded" or "the Grey-bearded", and that the Lombard given name ''Ansegranus'' ("he with the beard of the gods") shows that the Lombards had this idea of their chief deity.<ref>Bruckner, 30–33.</ref> |
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[[File:PaulusDiaconus Plut.65.35.jpg|left|thumb|304x304px|[[Paul the Deacon]], historian of the Lombards, circa 720–799]] |
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The Winnili were young and brave and refused to pay tribute, saying "It is better to maintain liberty by arms than to stain it by the payment of tribute."<ref name="PD, VII">PD, VII.</ref> The Vandals prepared for war and consulted Godan (the god [[Odin]]<ref name="dick"/>), who answered that he would give victory to those whom he would see first at sunrise.<ref name="PD, VIII">PD, VIII.</ref> The Winnili were fewer in number<ref name="PD, VII"/> and Gambara sought help from Frea (the goddess [[Frigg]]<ref name="dick"/>), who advised that all Winnili women should tie their hair in front of their faces like beards and march in line with their husbands. At sunrise, Frea turned her husband's bed so that he was facing east, and woke him. So Godan spotted the Winnili first and asked, "Who are these long-beards?," and Frea replied, "My lord, thou hast given them the name, now give them also the victory."<ref>OGL, appendix 11.</ref> From that moment onwards, the Winnili were known as the ''Longbeards'' (Latinised as ''Langobardi'', Italianised as ''Longobardi'', and Anglicized as ''Langobards'' or ''Lombards''). |
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When Paul the Deacon wrote the ''Historia'' between 787 and 796 he was a [[Catholic]] monk and devoted [[Christianity|Christian]]. He thought the [[Paganism|pagan]] stories of his people "silly" and "laughable".<ref name="PD, VIII"/><ref>{{harvnb|Priester|2004|p=17}}</ref> Paul explained that the name "Langobard" came from the length of their beards.<ref>PD, I, 9.</ref> A modern theory suggests that the name "Langobard" comes from ''Langbarðr'', a [[List of names of Odin|name of Odin]].<ref>Nedoma, Robert (2005).''[https://www.academia.edu/36246147/Der_altisländische_Odinsname_Langbarðr_Langbart_und_die_Langobarden Der altisländische Odinsname Langbarðr: 'Langbart' und die Langobarden]''. In Pohl, Walter and Erhart, Peter, eds. ''Die Langobarden. Herrschaft und Identität''. Wien. pp. 439–444</ref> Priester states that when the Winnili changed their name to "Lombards", they also changed their old agricultural [[fertility cult]] to a cult of Odin, thus creating a conscious tribal tradition.<ref>{{harvnb|Priester|2004|p=17}}</ref> Fröhlich inverts the order of events in Priester and states that with the Odin cult, the Lombards grew their beards in resemblance of the Odin of tradition and their new name reflected this.<ref>{{harvnb|Fröhlich|1980|p=19}}</ref> Bruckner remarks that the name of the Lombards stands in close relation to the worship of Odin, whose [[List of names of Odin|many names]] include "the Long-bearded" or "the Grey-bearded", and that the Lombard given name ''Ansegranus'' ("he with the beard of the gods") shows that the Lombards had this idea of their chief deity.<ref>{{harvnb|Bruckner|1895|pp=30–33}}</ref> The same Old Norse root Barth or Barði, meaning "beard", is shared with the [[Heaðobards]] mentioned in both ''[[Beowulf]]'' and in ''[[Widsith]]'', where they conflict with the [[Daner|Danes]]. They were possibly a branch of the [[Langobard]]s.<ref name=Hadubarder>[https://runeberg.org/nfbj/0531.html The article ''Hadubarder'' in ''Nordisk familjebok'' (1909).]</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Wilson Chambers |first=Raymond |title=Widsith: A Study in Old English Heroic Legend |date=2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=205}}</ref> |
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====Archaeology and migrations==== |
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From the combined testimony of [[Strabo]] (AD 20) and [[Tacitus]] (AD 117), the Lombards dwelt near the mouth of the [[Elbe]] shortly after the beginning of the Christian era, next to the [[Chauci]].<ref name="Menghin, 15">Menghin, 15.</ref> Strabo states that the Lombards dwelt on both sides of the Elbe.<ref>Strabo, VII, 1, 3. Menghin, 15.</ref> The German archaeologist Willi Wegewitz defined several [[Iron Age]] burial sites at the lower Elbe as ''Langobardic''.<ref>Wegewitz, ''Das langobardische Brandgräberfeld von Putensen, Kreis Harburg'' (1972) ''Problemi della civilita e dell'economia Longobarda'', Milan (1964), 19ff.</ref> The burial sites are crematorial and are usually dated from the 6th century BC through the 3rd AD, so that a settlement breakoff seems unlikely.<ref>Menghin, 17.</ref> The lands of the lower Elbe fall into the zone of the [[Jastorf Culture]] and became [[Elbe-Germans|Elbe-Germanic]], differing from the lands between [[Rhine]], [[Weser]], and the [[North Sea]].<ref>Menghin, 18.</ref> Archaeological finds show that the Lombards were an agricultural people.<ref>Priester, 18.</ref> |
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Alternatively, some etymological sources suggest an Old High German root, barta, meaning "axe" (and related to English halberd), while [[Edward Gibbon]] puts forth an alternative suggestion which argues that: |
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[[Image:Long555.PNG|thumb|300px|Distribution of Langobardic burial fields at the Lower Elbe Lands, according to W. Wegewitz]] |
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<blockquote>...Börde (or Börd) still signifies "a fertile plain by the side of a river," and a district near Magdeburg is still called the lange Börde. According to this view Langobardi would signify "inhabitants of the long bord of the river;" and traces of their name are supposed still to occur in such names as Bardengau and Bardewick in the neighborhood of the Elbe.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=William |title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities |date=1875 |publisher=John Murray |location=London |page=119}}</ref></blockquote> |
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The first mention of the Lombards occurred between AD 9 and 16, by the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] court historian [[Velleius Paterculus]], who accompanied a Roman expedition as prefect of the cavalry.<ref name="Menghin, 15"/> Paterculus described the Lombards as "more fierce than ordinary German savagery."<ref>Velleius, Hist. Rom. II, 106. Schmidt, 5.</ref> [[Tacitus]] counted the Lombards as a [[Suebi]]an tribe,<ref name="Tacitus, Ann. II, 45">Tacitus, Ann. II, 45.</ref> and subjects of [[Marbod|Marobod]] the King of the [[Marcomanni]].<ref>Tacitus, Germania, 38-40; Tacitus, Annals, II, 45.</ref> Marobod had made peace with the Romans, and that is why the Lombards were not part of the Germanic confederacy under [[Arminius]] at the [[Battle of Teutoburg Forest]] in AD 9. In AD 17, war broke out between Arminius and Marobod. Tacitus records: |
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According to the [[Gallaeci]]an [[Christian priest]], [[historian]] and [[theology|theologian]] [[Paulus Orosius]] (translated by [[Daines Barrington]]), the Lombards or Winnili lived originally in the Vinuiloth (Vinovilith) mentioned by [[Jordanes]], in his masterpiece [[Getica]], to the north of [[Uppsala]], Sweden. Scoringa was near the province of [[Uppland]], so just north of [[Östergötland]]. |
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{{bquote|Not only the Cheruscans and their confederates... took arms, but the Semnones and Langobards, both Suevian nations, revolted to him from the sovereignty of Marobod... The armies... were stimulated by reasons of their own, the Cheruscans and the Langobards fought for their ancient honor or their newly acquired independence. . . "''<ref name="Tacitus, Ann. II, 45"/> }} |
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The footnote then explains the etymology of the name Scoringa: |
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In 47, a struggle ensued amongst the [[Cherusci]] and they expelled their new leader, the nephew of Arminius, from their country. The Lombards appear on the scene with sufficient power, it seems, to control the destiny of the tribe that, thirty-eight years before, had been the leader in the struggle for independence, for they restored the deposed leader to the sovereignty again.<ref>Tacitus, Annals, XI, 16, 17.</ref> In the mid 2nd century, the Lombards also appear in the [[Rhineland]]. According to [[Claudius Ptolemy|Ptolemy]], the Suebic Lombards settled south of the [[Sugambri]],<ref>Ptolemy, Geogr. II, 11, 9. Menghin, 15.</ref> but also remained at the Elbe, between the Chauci and the Suebi,<ref>Ptolemy, Geogr. II, 11, 17. Menghin, 15</ref> which indicates a Lombard expansion. The ''Codex Gothanus'' also mentions ''Patespruna'' ([[Paderborn]]) in connections with the Lombards.<ref>Codex Gothanus, II.By [[Cassius Dio]], we are informed that just before the [[Marcomannic Wars]], 6,000 Lombards and [[Ubii]] crossed the [[Danube]] and invaded [[Pannonia]].<ref>Cassius Dio, 71, 3, 1. Menghin 16.</ref> The two tribes were defeated, whereupon they desisted from their invasion and sent as ambassador to [[Aelius Bassus]], who was then administering Pannonia, Ballomar, King of the Marcomanni.Peace was made and the two tribes returned to their homes, which in the case of the Lombards were the lands of the lower Elbe.<ref>Priester, 21. Zeuss, 471. Wiese, 38. Schmidt, 35–36.</ref> At about this time, Tacitus, in his work ''Germania'' (AD 98), describes the Lombards as such: |
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<blockquote>The shores of Uppland and Östergötland are covered with [[skerry|small rocks and rocky islands]], which are called in German Schæren and in Swedish Skiaeren. Heal signifies a port in the [[North Germanic languages|northern languages]]; consequently, Skiæren-Heal is the port of the Skiæren, a name well adapted to the port of [[Stockholm]], in the Upplandske Skiæren, and the country may be justly called Scorung or Skiærunga.<ref>{{cite book|author=Orosius |title=The Anglo-Saxon Version, from the Historian Orosius, by Ælfred the Great together with an English Translation from the Anglo-Saxon |year=1773 |publisher=Printed by W. Bowyer and J. Nichols and sold by S. Baker |location=London |edition=Alfred the Great |translator-first=Daines |translator-last=Barrington |url=https://archive.org/details/anglosaxonversi00barrgoog/page/n559/mode/2up/search/scoringa |page=256 |access-date=7 May 2020 |language=en}}</ref></blockquote> |
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{{bquote|To the Langobardi, on the contrary, their scanty numbers are a distinction. Though surrounded by a host of most powerful tribes, they are safe, not by submitting, but by daring the perils of war.}} |
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The legendary king [[Sceafa]] of [[Scandza]] was an ancient Lombardic king in [[Anglo-Saxon paganism|Anglo-Saxon legend]]. The Old English poem [[Widsith]], in a listing of famous kings and their countries, has Sceafa [weold] Longbeardum, so naming [[Sceafa]] as ruler of the Lombards.<ref>[[Widsith]], line 30</ref> |
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From the 2nd century onwards, many of the Germanic tribes recorded as active during the Principate started to unite into bigger tribal unions, resulting in the [[Franks]], [[Alamanni]], [[Bavarii]], and [[Saxons]].<ref name="Priester, 14. Menghin, 16">Priester, 14. Menghin, 16.</ref> The reasons why the Lombards disappear, as such, from Roman history from 166–489 could be that they dwelt so deep into Inner Germania that they were detectable only when they appeared on the Danubian banks again, or that the Lombards were also subjected into a bigger tribal union, most probably the Saxons.<ref name="Priester, 14. Menghin, 16"/> It is, however, highly probable that when the bulk of the Lombards migrated, a considerable part remained behind and afterwards became absorbed by the Saxon tribes in the region, while the emigrants alone retained the name of Lombards.<ref>Hartmann, II, pt I, 5.</ref> However, the ''Codex Gothanus'' writes that the Lombards were subjected by the Saxons around 300, but rose up against the Saxons with their king Agelmund.<ref>Menghin, 17. Codex Gothanus, II.</ref> In the second half of the 4th century, the Lombards left their homes, probably due to bad harvests, and embarked on their migration.<ref>Zeuss, 471. Wiese, 38. Schmidt, 35–36. Priester, 21–22. ''HGL'', X.</ref> |
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[[File:Lombard Migration.jpg|thumb|200px|Lombard migration from [[Scandinavia]]]] |
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Similarities between Langobardic and Gothic migration traditions have been noted among scholars. These early migration legends suggest that a major shifting of tribes occurred sometime between the first and second century BC, which would coincide with the time that the [[Teutoni]] and [[Cimbri]] left their homelands in Northern Germany and migrated through central Germany, eventually invading Roman Italy.<ref>{{harvnb|Cardini|2019|p=80}}</ref> |
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The migration route of the Lombards, from their homeland to "Rugiland" in 489 encompassed several places: ''Scoringa'' (believed to be the their land on the Elbe shores), ''Mauringa'', ''Golanda'', ''Anthaib'', ''Banthaib'', and ''Vurgundaib'' (''Burgundaib'').<ref>Hammerstein-Loxton, 56. Bluhme. ''HGL'', XIII.</ref> According to the [[Ravenna Cosmography]], Mauringa was the land east of the Elbe.<ref>Cosmographer of Ravenna, I, 11.</ref> |
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====Archaeology and classical sources==== |
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The crossing into Mauringa was very difficult. The Assipitti (Usipetes) denied them passage through their lands and a fight was arranged for the strongest man of each tribe. The Lombard was victorious, passage was granted, and the Lombards reached Mauringa.<ref>Hodgkin, Ch. V, 92. ''HGL'', XII.</ref> The first Lombard king, Agelmund, from the race of [[Guginger]], ruled for thirty years.<ref>Menghin, 19.</ref> |
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{{Germanic tribes (750BC-1AD)}} |
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[[File:Long555.PNG|thumb|Distribution of Langobardic burial fields at the [[Unterelbe|Lower Elbe]] Lands (according to W. Wegewitz)]] |
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The first mention of the Lombards occurred between AD 9 and 16, by the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] court historian [[Velleius Paterculus]], who accompanied a Roman expedition as prefect of the cavalry.<ref name="Menghin, 15"/> Paterculus says that under [[Tiberius]] the "power of the Langobardi was broken, a race surpassing even the Germans in savagery".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Velleius_Paterculus/2D*.html#ref:Langobardi |title=Velleius, Hist. Rom. II, 106. Schmidt, 5.}}</ref> |
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The Lombards departed from Mauringa and reached Golanda. Scholar Ludwig Schmidt thinks this was further east, perhaps on the right bank of the [[Oder]].<ref>Schmidt, 49.</ref> Schmidt considers that the name is the equivalent of [[Gotland]] and means simply "good land."<ref>Hodgkin, V, 143.</ref> This theory is highly plausible, [[Paul the Deacon]] mentions an episode of the Lombards crossing a river, and the Lombards could have reached ''Rugiland'' from the Upper Oder area via the [[Moravian-Silesian Region|Moravian Gate]].<ref>Menghin, ''Das Reich an der Donau'', 21.</ref> |
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From the combined testimony of [[Strabo]] (AD 20) and [[Tacitus]] (AD 117), the Lombards dwelt near the mouth of the [[Elbe]] shortly after the beginning of the Christian era, next to the [[Chauci]].<ref name="Menghin, 15">{{harvnb|Menghin|1985|p=15}}</ref> Strabo states that the Lombards dwelt on both sides of the Elbe.<ref name="Menghin, 15"/> He treats them as a branch of the [[Suebi]], and states that: |
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Moving out of Golanda, the Lombards passed through Anthaib and Banthaib until they reached Vurgundaib. Vurgundaib is believed to be the old lands of the [[Burgundes]].<ref>K. Priester, 22.</ref><ref>Bluhme, Gens Langobardorum Bonn, 1868</ref> In Vurgundaib, the Lombards were stormed in camp by "[[Bulgars]]" (probably [[Huns]])<ref>Menghin, 14.</ref> and were defeated; King Agelmund was killed. Laimicho was raised to the kingship afterwards; he was in his youth and desired to avenge the slaughter of Agelmund.<ref>Hist. gentis Lang., Ch. XVII</ref> The Lombards themselves were probably made subjects of the Huns after the defeat, but the Lombards rose up against them and defeated them with great slaughter.<ref>Hist. gentis Lang., Ch. XVII.</ref> The victory gave the Lombards great booty and confidence, as they "... became bolder in undertaking the toils of war."<ref>PD, XVII.</ref> |
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<blockquote>Now as for the tribe of the Suebi, it is the largest, for it extends from the Rhenus to the Albis; and a part of them even dwells on the far side of the Albis, as, for instance, the Hermondori and the Langobardi; and at the present time these latter, at least, have, to the last man, been driven in flight out of their country into the land on the far side of the river.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0198:book=7:chapter=1&highlight=langobardi |title=Strabo, VII, 1, 3.}}</ref></blockquote> |
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In the 540s, [[Audoin]] (ruled 546–565) led the Lombards across the Danube once more into [[Pannonia]], where they received Imperial subsidies, as [[Justinian]] encouraged them to battle the [[Gepids]]. |
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Consistent with this, [[Suetonius]] wrote that Roman general [[Nero Claudius Drusus]] defeated a large force of Germans and drove some "to the farther side of the Albis (Elbe)" river.<ref>[[Suetonius]], [[The Twelve Caesars]], chapters II and III.</ref> |
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===Kingdom in Italy, 568–774=== |
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The German archaeologist Willi Wegewitz defined several [[Iron Age]] burial sites at the [[Unterelbe|Lower Elbe]] as ''Langobardic''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wegewitz |chapter=Das langobardische Brandgräberfeld von Putensen, Kreis Harburg |publication-date=1972 |pages=1–29 |title=Problemi della civilita e dell'economia Longobarda |location=Milan |date=1964}}</ref>{{rp|19}} The burial sites are crematorial and are usually dated from the sixth century BC through the third century AD, so a settlement breakoff seems unlikely.<ref name="Menghin, 17">{{harvnb|Menghin|1985|p=17}}</ref> The lands of the lower Elbe fall into the zone of the [[Jastorf Culture]] and became [[Elbe-Germans|Elbe-Germanic]], differing from the lands between [[Rhine]], [[Weser]], and the [[North Sea]].<ref>{{harvnb|Menghin|1985|p=18}}</ref> Archaeological finds show that the Lombards were an agricultural people.<ref>{{harvnb|Priester|2004|p=18}}</ref> |
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[[Tacitus]] also counted the Lombards as a remote and aggressive [[Suebi]]an tribe, listing them between the Semnones on the Elbe, and the [[Nerthus]]-worshipping tribes whose land of rivers and forest stretched to the sea. Writing in the late first century AD, he described the Langobardi in his ''[[Germania (book)|Germania]]'' saying that "their scanty numbers are a distinction" because "surrounded by a host of most powerful tribes, they are safe, not by submitting, but by daring the perils of war".<ref>Tacitus, Germania, 38–40</ref> |
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Tacitus also noted that the Lombards were subjects of [[Marbod|Marobod]] the King of the [[Marcomanni]], who was allied with Rome when [[Arminius]] and his allies won the [[Battle of Teutoburg Forest]] in 9 AD. However, after the outbreak of war between Arminius and Marobod in 17 AD the Lombards and Semnones switched to the alliance of Arminius. They detested Marobod's title of king, and saw Arminius as a champion of freedom.<ref name="Tacitus, Ann. II, 45">Tacitus, Annals, II, 45.</ref> |
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In 47, a struggle ensued amongst the [[Cherusci]] and they expelled their new leader, the nephew of Arminius, from their country. The Lombards appeared on the scene with sufficient power to control the destiny of the tribe that had been the leader in the struggle for independence thirty-eight years earlier, for they restored the deposed leader to sovereignty.<ref>Tacitus, Annals, XI, 16, 17.</ref> |
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To the south, in 166 [[Cassius Dio]] reported that just before the [[Marcomannic Wars]], 6,000 Lombards and Obii (sometimes thought to be [[Ubii]]) crossed the [[Danube]] and invaded [[Pannonia]].<ref>Cassius Dio, 71, 3, 1.</ref><ref name="Menghin, 16">{{harvnb|Menghin|1985|p=16}}</ref> The two tribes were defeated, whereupon they ceased their invasion and sent Ballomar, King of the Marcomanni, as ambassador to [[Aelius Bassus]], who was then administering Pannonia. Peace was made and the two tribes returned to their homes, which in the case of the Lombards was the lands of the lower Elbe.<ref>{{harvnb|Priester|2004|p=21}}</ref><ref name="Zeuss471">{{harvnb|Zeuss|2012|p=471}}</ref><ref name="Wiese38">{{harvnb|Wiese|1877|p=38}}</ref><ref name="Schmidt35">{{harvnb|Schmidt|2018|pp=35–36}}</ref> |
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In the mid-second century, the Lombards supposedly appeared in the [[Rhineland]], because according to [[Claudius Ptolemy]], the Suebic Lombards lived "below" the [[Bructeri]] and [[Sugambri]], and between these and the [[Tencteri]]. To their east stretching northwards to the central Elbe are the Suebi [[Angili]].<ref name="Menghin, 15"/><ref>Ptolemy, Geogr. II, 11, 9.</ref> But Ptolemy also mentions the "Laccobardi" to the north of the above-mentioned Suebic territories, east of the [[Angrivarii]] on the [[Weser]], and south of the [[Chauci]] on the coast, probably indicating a Lombard expansion from the Elbe to the Rhine.<ref name="Menghin, 15"/><ref>Ptolemy, Geogr. II, 11, 17.</ref> This double mention has been interpreted as an editorial error by Gudmund Schütte, in his analysis of Ptolemy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Schütte |title=Ptolemy's Maps of Northern Europe |pages=[https://archive.org/stream/ptolemysmapsofno00schrich#page/34/mode/2up/search/angles 34], and [https://archive.org/stream/ptolemysmapsofno00schrich#page/118/mode/2up/search/angles 118]}}</ref> However, the ''Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani'' also mentions ''Patespruna'' ([[Paderborn]]) in connection with the Lombards.<ref name="HLcG2"/> |
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From the second century onwards, many of the Germanic tribes recorded as active during the [[Principate]] started to unite into bigger tribal unions, such as the [[Franks]], [[Alamanni]], [[Bavarii]], and [[Saxons]].<ref name="Menghin, 16"/><ref name="Priester, 14">{{harvnb|Priester|2004|p=14}}</ref> The Lombards are not mentioned at first, perhaps because they were not initially on the border of Rome, or perhaps because they were subjected to a larger tribal union, like the Saxons.<ref name="Menghin, 16"/><ref name="Priester, 14"/> It is, however, highly probable that, when the bulk of the Lombards migrated, a considerable part remained behind and afterwards became absorbed by the Saxon tribes in the Elbe region, while the emigrants alone retained the name of Lombards.<ref>{{harvnb|Hartmann|2011|loc=II, pt I|p=5}}</ref> However, the ''Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani'' states that the Lombards were subjected by the Saxons around 300 but rose up against them under their first king, Agelmund, who ruled for 30 years.<ref name="HLcG2"/><ref>{{harvnb|Menghin|1985|pp=17–19}}</ref> In the second half of the fourth century, the Lombards left their homes, probably due to bad harvests, and embarked on their migration.<ref name=Zeuss471/><ref name=Wiese38/><ref name=Schmidt35/><ref>{{harvnb|Priester|2004|pp=21–22}}</ref> |
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The migration route of the Lombards in 489, from their homeland to "[[Rugiland]]", encompassed several places: ''Scoringa'' (believed to be their land on the Elbe shores), ''Mauringa'', ''Golanda'', ''Anthaib'', ''Banthaib'', and ''Vurgundaib'' (''Burgundaib'').<ref name=Hammerstein-Loxten56/> According to the [[Ravenna Cosmography]], Mauringa was the land east of the Elbe.<ref>Cosmographer of Ravenna, I, 11.</ref> |
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The crossing into Mauringa was very difficult. The Assipitti (possibly the [[Usipetes]]) denied them passage through their lands and a fight was arranged for the strongest man of each tribe. The Lombard was victorious, passage was granted, and the Lombards reached Mauringa.<ref>{{harvnb|Hodgkin|2012|loc=Ch. V|p=92}}</ref> |
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The Lombards departed from Mauringa and reached Golanda. Scholar Ludwig Schmidt thinks this was further east, perhaps on the right bank of the [[Oder]].<ref>{{harvnb|Schmidt|2018|p=49}}</ref> Schmidt considers the name the equivalent of [[Gotland]], meaning simply "good land".<ref>{{harvnb|Hodgkin|2012|loc=Ch. V|p=143}}</ref> This theory is highly plausible; [[Paul the Deacon]] mentions the Lombards crossing a river, and they could have reached ''Rugiland'' from the Upper Oder area via the [[Moravian Gate]].<ref>Menghin, ''Das Reich an der Donau'', 21.</ref> |
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Moving out of Golanda, the Lombards passed through Anthaib and Banthaib until they reached Vurgundaib, believed to be the old lands of the [[Burgundes]].<ref>{{harvnb|Priester|2004|p=22}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Bluhme|1868|loc=Ch. XIII}}</ref> In Vurgundaib, the Lombards were stormed in camp by "[[Bulgars]]" (probably [[Huns]])<ref>{{harvnb|Menghin|1985|p=14}}</ref> and were defeated; King Agelmund was killed and Laimicho was made king. He was in his youth and desired to avenge the slaughter of Agelmund.<ref>Hist. gentis Lang., Ch. XVII</ref> The Lombards themselves were probably made subjects of the Huns after the defeat but rose up and defeated them with great slaughter,<ref>Hist. gentis Lang., Ch. XVII.</ref> gaining great booty and confidence as they "became bolder in undertaking the toils of war."<ref>PD, XVII.</ref> During the reign of [[Claffo|King Claffo]], the Langobards occupied parts of modern-day [[Upper Austria|Upper]] and [[Lower Austria]] and converted to [[Arian Christianity]]. In 505 the [[Heruli]]ans attacked and defeated them, obliging them to pay tax and withdraw to Northern [[Bohemia]]. In 508, [[Rodulf, Herule king|King Rodulf]] sent his brother to the Lombard court to collect tribute and extend the truce; however, he was stabbed by Rometrud, sister of [[Tato|King Tato]]. Rodulf personally led his forces against Tato, but was ambushed and killed from a hill.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Márki |first=Sándor |url=http://real-eod.mtak.hu/5753/1/000911018.pdf |title=A longobárdok hazánkban |publisher=Ajtai Kovách Albert Magyar Polgár Könyvnyomdája |year=1899 |location=Kolozsvár ([[Cluj-Napoca]]) |language=hu |trans-title=The Langobards in our homeland}}</ref> |
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In the 540s, [[Audoin]] (ruled 546–560) led the Lombards across the Danube once more into [[Pannonia]]. [[Thurisind]], King of the [[Gepids]] attempted to expel them, and both peoples asked for help from the Byzantines. [[Justinian I]] sent his army against the Gepids; however, it was routed on the way by the [[Heruli]]ans and the sides signed a two-year truce. Revenging what he felt as a betrayal, Thurisind made an alliance with the [[Kutrigurs]] who devastated [[Moesia]] before end of the armistice. The Langobard and Roman army joined together and defeated the Gepids in 551. In the battle, [[Audoin]]'s son, [[Alboin]] killed [[Thurisind]]'s son, [[Turismod]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Borovszky |first=Samu |url=http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01267/html/index.htm |title=Nagy Képes Világtörténet |publisher=Franklin Társulat Magyar Irodalmi Intézet és Könyvnyomda Rt. |editor-last=Marczali |editor-first=Henrik |location=Budapest |language=hu |trans-title=Great Illuminated World History |chapter=A népvándorlás kora |trans-chapter=The Migration Period |chapter-url=http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01267/html/04kotet/ind04kot.htm}}</ref> |
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In 552, the Byzantines, aided by a large contingent of [[Foederati]], notably Lombards, Heruls and Bulgars, defeated the last Ostrogoths led by [[Teia]] in the [[Battle of Taginae]].<ref name="HFH">{{cite book|title=Battles The World's History: Central and northern Europe |first=Hans Ferdinand |last=Helmolt |year=1907 |place=London}}</ref> |
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===Kingdom of the Lombards, 568–774=== |
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{{Main|Kingdom of the Lombards}} |
{{Main|Kingdom of the Lombards}} |
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====Invasion and conquest of the Italian peninsula==== |
====Invasion and conquest of the Italian peninsula==== |
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{{anchor|Invasion of Italy}} |
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[File:Italien zur Langobardenzeit.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The Lombard possessions in Italy: The Lombard Kingdom ''(Neustria, Austria and Tuscia)'' and the Lombard Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento] |
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[[File:Lombard Conquest of Italy.png|thumb|right|Phases of the conquest of Italy]] |
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In 560 a new, energetic king emerged: [[Alboin]], who defeated the neighboring [[Gepidae]], made them his subjects, and, in 566, married the daughter of their king [[Cunimund]], [[Rosamund (Lombard)|Rosamund]].<BR>In the spring of 568, [[Alboin|King Alboin]] led the Lombard migration into [[Italy (Roman Empire)|Italy]]:<ref name=HGL>{{cite book|title=History of the Lombards: Translated by William Dudley Foulke |first=Edward |last=Peters |year=2003 |place=University of Pennsylvania Press}}</ref><BR> |
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{{Hatnote|"Lombard invasion of Italy" redirects here.}}[[File:Pietro della Vecchia - Rosamund forced to drink from the skull of her father.jpg|thumb|''Rosamund forced to drink from the skull of her father'' by [[Pietro della Vecchia]]. According to [[Samu Szádeczky-Kardoss]], the cup could be a gift from [[Bayan I|Bayan]], as it was a nomad habit to make cups from the enemy's skulls.]]In approximately 560, Audoin was succeeded by his son [[Alboin]], a young and energetic leader who defeated the neighboring [[Gepidae]] and made them his subjects; in 566, he married [[Rosamund (queen)|Rosamund]], daughter of the Gepid king [[Cunimund]]. In the same year, he made a pact with [[Bayan I|Khagan Bayan]]. Next year the Lombards and the [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]] destroyed the Gepid kingdom in the [[Lombard–Gepid War (567)|Lombard–Gepid War]], the allies halved the [[prize of war]] and the nomads settled in [[Transylvania]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Kiss |first=Attila |year=2020 |title=A langobardok pannóniai kivonulása |trans-title=The withdrawal of the Langobards from Pannonia |url=https://mki.gov.hu/hu/hirek-hu/minden-hir-hu/innen-aprilis-havaban-koltoztek-ki-a-szent-husvetra-kovetkezo-napon-a-langobardok-pannoniai-kivonulasa |website=[[Institute of Hungarian Research|Magyarságkutató Intézet]] |language=hu}}</ref> In the spring of 568, Alboin, now fearing the aggressive Avars, led the Lombard migration into [[Italy (Roman Empire)|Italy]],<ref name="HGL">{{cite book|title=History of the Lombards: Translated by William Dudley Foulke |first=Edward |last=Peters |year=2003 |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]]}}</ref> which he planned for years.<ref name=":1"/> According to the ''History of the Lombards,'' "Then the Langobards, having left [[Pannonia]], hastened to take possession of [[Italy (Roman Empire)|Italy]] with their wives and children and all their goods."<ref>Peters, 2.7.</ref> The Avars have agreed to shelter them if they wish to come back.<ref name=":1"/> |
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{{bquote|''"Then the Langobards, having left [[Pannonia]], hastened to take possession of [[Italy (Roman Empire)|Italy]] with their wives and children and all their goods." B.2-Ch.7''}} |
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Various other people who either voluntarily joined or were subjects of [[Alboin|King Alboin]] were also part of the migration:<ref name=HGL/> |
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Various other peoples who either voluntarily joined or were subjects of [[Alboin|King Alboin]] were also part of the migration.<ref name="HGL"/> <blockquote>Whence, even until today, we call the villages in which they dwell [[Gepids|Gepidan]], [[Bulgars|Bulgarian]], [[Sarmatian]], [[Pannonians|Pannonian]], [[Suebi|Suabian]], [[Taurisci|Norican]], or by other names of this kind."<ref>Peters, 2.26.</ref></blockquote> At least 20,000 Saxon warriors, old allies of the Lombards, and their families joined them in their new migration.<ref>Paolo Diacono, Historia Langobardorum, FV, II, 4, 6, 7.</ref> |
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The first important city to fall was ''Forum Iulii'' ([[Cividale del Friuli]]), in [[northeast Italy|northeastern Italy]], in 569. There, Alboin created the first Lombard duchy, which he entrusted to his nephew [[Gisulf II of Friuli|Gisulf]]. Soon [[Vicenza]], [[Verona]] and [[Brescia]] fell into Germanic hands. In the summer of 569, the Lombards conquered the main Roman centre of [[northern Italy]], [[Milan]]. The area was then recovering from the terrible [[Gothic War (535–552)|Gothic Wars]], and the small [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] army left for its defence could do almost nothing. The [[Exarch]] sent to Italy by Emperor [[Justin II]], Longinus, could defend only coastal cities that could be supplied by the powerful Byzantine fleet. [[Pavia]] fell after a siege of three years, in 572, becoming the first capital city of the new Lombard kingdom of Italy. In the following years, the Lombards penetrated further south, conquering [[Tuscany]] and establishing two duchies, [[Duchy of Spoleto|Spoleto]] and [[Duchy of Benevento|Benevento]] under [[Zotto]], which soon became semi-independent and even outlasted the northern kingdom, surviving well into the 12th century. The [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantines]] managed to retain control of the area of Ravenna and Rome, linked by a thin corridor running through [[Perugia]]. |
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The first important city to fall was ''Forum Iulii'' ([[Cividale del Friuli]]) in [[northeastern Italy]], in 569. There, Alboin created the first Lombard duchy, which he entrusted to his nephew [[Gisulf II of Friuli|Gisulf]]. Soon [[Vicenza]], [[Verona]] and [[Brescia]] fell into Germanic hands. In the summer of 569, the Lombards conquered the main Roman centre of [[northern Italy]], [[Milan]]. The area was then recovering from the terrible [[Gothic War (535–554)|Gothic Wars]], and the small [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] army left for its defence could do almost nothing. Longinus, the [[Exarch]] sent to Italy by Emperor [[Justin II]], could only defend coastal cities that could be supplied by the powerful Byzantine fleet. [[Pavia]] fell after a siege of three years, in 572, becoming the first capital city of the new Lombard kingdom of Italy.[[File:0815 - Museo archeologico di Milano - Corredo longobardico (sec. VI-VII) - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto, 13-mar-2012.jpg|thumb|Lombard grave goods (sixth to seventh century), [[Milan]], [[Lombardy]]]]In the following years, the Lombards penetrated further south, conquering [[Tuscany]] and establishing two duchies, [[Duchy of Spoleto|Spoleto]] and [[Duchy of Benevento|Benevento]] under [[Zotto]], which soon became semi-independent and even outlasted the northern kingdom, surviving well into the twelfth century. Wherever they went, they were joined by the Ostrogothic population, which was allowed to live peacefully in Italy with their [[Rugii|Rugian]] allies under Roman sovereignty.<ref>De Bello Gothico IV 32, pp. 241–245</ref> The [[Byzantine]]s managed to retain control of the area of Ravenna and Rome, linked by a thin corridor running through [[Perugia]]. |
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When they entered Italy, some Lombards retained their native form [[Germanic paganism|paganism]], while some were [[Arianism|Arian]] Christians. Hence they did not enjoy good relations with the [[ |
When they entered Italy, some Lombards retained their native form of [[Germanic paganism|paganism]], while some were [[Arianism|Arian]] Christians. Hence they did not enjoy good relations with the [[Early Christian Church]]. Gradually, they adopted Roman or Romanized titles, names, and traditions, and partially converted to orthodoxy (in the seventh century), though not without a long series of religious and ethnic conflicts. By the time [[Paul the Deacon]] was writing, the Lombard language, dress and even hairstyles had nearly all disappeared ''[[in toto]]''.<ref>"The New Cambridge Medieval History: c. 500–c. 700" by Paul Fouracre and [[Rosamond McKitterick]] (p. 8)</ref> |
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[[File:Musei civici (Pavia)29.jpg|thumb|[[Plutei of Theodota]], mid-eighth century, [[Pavia Civic Museums|Civic Museums of Pavia]].]] |
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By the time [[Paul the Deacon]] was writing, the Lombard language, dress and even hairstyles had all disappeared.<ref>"The New Cambridge Medieval History: c. 500-c. 700" by Paul Fouracre and Rosamond McKitterick (page 8)</ref> |
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The whole Lombard territory was divided into 36 duchies, whose leaders settled in the main cities. The king ruled over them and administered the land through emissaries called ''gastaldi''. This subdivision, however, together with the independent indocility of the duchies, deprived the kingdom of unity, making it weak even when compared to the Byzantines, especially |
The whole Lombard territory was divided into 36 duchies, whose leaders settled in the main cities. The king ruled over them and administered the land through emissaries called ''gastaldi''. This subdivision, however, together with the independent indocility of the duchies, deprived the kingdom of unity, making it weak even when compared to the Byzantines, especially since these had begun to recover from the initial invasion. This weakness became even more evident when the Lombards had to face the increasing power of the Franks. In response, the kings tried to centralize power over time, but they definitively lost control over [[Spoleto]] and [[Benevento]] in the attempt. |
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=====Langobardia major===== |
=====Langobardia major===== |
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{{div col|colwidth=18em}} |
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{{multicol}} |
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*[[Duchy |
* [[Duchy of Friuli]] |
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*[[Duchy of |
* [[Duchy of Tridentum]] |
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*[[ |
* [[Duchy of Persiceta]] |
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* |
* Duchy of Pavia |
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*[[Duchy of |
* [[Duchy of Tuscia]] |
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{{div col end}} |
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*[[Brescia|Duchy of Brescia]] |
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{{multicol-break}} |
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*[[Bergamo|Duchy of Bergamo]] |
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*[[San Giulio|Duchy of San Giulio]] |
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*[[Pavia|Duchy of Pavia]] |
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*[[Turin|Duchy of Turin]] |
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*[[Asti|Duchy of Asti]] |
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*[[Tuscany|Duchy of Tuscia]] |
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{{multicol-end}} |
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=====Langobardia minor===== |
=====Langobardia minor===== |
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*[[Duchy of Spoleto]] and [[ |
* [[Duchy of Spoleto]] and [[Duke of Spoleto]] |
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*[[Duchy of Benevento]] and [[List of |
* [[Duchy of Benevento]] and [[List of dukes and princes of Benevento]] |
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====Arian monarchy==== |
====Arian monarchy==== |
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{{Unreferenced section|date=October 2018}} |
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[[File:Chlothar II.jpg|thumb|The Frankish [[Merovingian]] King [[Chlothar II]] in combat with the Lombards]] |
[[File:Chlothar II.jpg|thumb|The Frankish [[Merovingian]] King [[Chlothar II]] in combat with the Lombards]] |
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Alboin was murdered |
In 572, Alboin was murdered in Verona in a plot led by his wife, Rosamund, who later fled to [[Ravenna]]. His successor, [[Cleph]], was also assassinated, after a ruthless reign of 18 months. His death began an interregnum of years (the "[[Rule of the Dukes]]") during which the [[Duke (Lombard)|duke]]s did not elect any king, a period regarded as a time of violence and disorder. In 586, threatened by a Frankish invasion, the dukes elected Cleph's son, [[Authari]], as king. In 589, he married [[Theodelinda]], daughter of [[Garibald I of Bavaria]], the Duke of [[Duchy of Bavaria|Bavaria]]. The Catholic Theodelinda was a friend of [[Pope Gregory I]] and pushed for Christianization. In the meantime, Authari embarked on a policy of internal reconciliation and tried to reorganize royal administration. The dukes yielded half their estates for the maintenance of the king and his court in Pavia. On the foreign affairs side, Authari managed to thwart the dangerous alliance between the Byzantines and the Franks. |
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Authari died in 591 |
Authari died in 591 and was succeeded by [[Agilulf]], the duke of [[Duchy of Turin|Turin]], who also married Theodelinda in the same year. Agilulf successfully fought the rebel dukes of northern Italy, conquering [[Padua]] in 601, [[Cremona]] and [[Mantua]] in 603, and forcing the [[Exarch of Ravenna]] to pay tribute. Agilulf died in 616; Theodelinda reigned alone until 628 when she was succeeded by [[Adaloald]]. [[Arioald]], the head of the Arian opposition who had married Theodelinda's daughter Gundeperga, later deposed Adaloald. |
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Arioald was succeeded by [[Rothari]], regarded by many authorities as the most energetic of all Lombard kings. He extended his dominions, conquering [[Liguria]] in 643 and the remaining part of the Byzantine territories of inner [[Veneto]], including the Roman city of ''Opitergium'' ([[Oderzo]]). Rothari also made the famous edict bearing his name, the ''[[Edictum Rothari]]'', which established the laws and the customs of his people in [[Latin]]: the edict did not apply to the tributaries of the Lombards, who could retain their own laws. Rothari's son [[Rodoald]] succeeded him in 652, still very young, and was killed by his opponents. |
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At the death of King [[ |
At the death of King [[Aripert I]] in 661, the kingdom was split between his children [[Perctarit]], who set his capital in Milan, and [[Godepert]], who reigned from [[Pavia]] ([[Ticinum]]). Perctarit was overthrown by [[Grimoald I of Benevento|Grimoald]], son of Gisulf, duke of [[Duchy of Friuli|Friuli]] and [[Duchy of Benevento|Benevento]] since 647. Perctarit fled to the [[Avars (Carpathians)|Avars]] and then to the Franks. Grimoald managed to regain control over the duchies and deflected the late attempt of the [[Byzantine emperor]] [[Constans II (Byzantine Empire)|Constans II]] to conquer southern Italy. He also defeated the Franks. At Grimoald's death in 671 [[Perctarit]] returned and promoted tolerance between Arians and Catholics, but he could not defeat the Arian party, led by Arachi, duke of [[Duchy of Tridentum|Trento]], who submitted only to his son, the philo-Catholic [[Cunincpert]]. |
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The Lombards engaged in fierce battles with [[Slavic peoples]] during these years: from 623 to 626 the Lombards unsuccessfully attacked the [[Carantania]]ns, and, in 663–64, the Slavs raided the [[Vipava Valley]] and the [[Friuli]]. |
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====Catholic monarchy==== |
====Catholic monarchy==== |
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[[File:Luitprand tremissis 661673.jpg|thumb |
[[File:Luitprand tremissis 661673.jpg|thumb|right|[[Liutprand, King of the Lombards|King Liutprand]] (712–744) "was a zealous Catholic, generous and a great founder of monasteries".<ref name=FEL>{{cite book|title=The End of the Ancient World and the Beginnings of the Middle Ages |first=Ferdinand |last=Lot |year=1931 |place=London}}</ref>]] |
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Religious strife and the Slavic raids remained a source of struggle in the following years. In 705, the Friuli Lombards were defeated and lost the land to the west of the [[Soča]] River, namely the [[Gorizia Hills]] and the [[Venetian Slovenia]].<ref name="VidmarSolkan" |
Religious strife and the Slavic raids remained a source of struggle in the following years. In 705, the Friuli Lombards were defeated and lost the land to the west of the [[Soča]] River, namely the [[Gorizia Hills]] and the [[Venetian Slovenia]].<ref name="VidmarSolkan"/> A new ethnic border was established that has lasted for over 1200 years up until the present time.<ref name="VidmarSolkan">{{cite web |url=http://www.solkan.si/o-solkanu/od-kod-prihajajo-in-kdo-so-solkanski-langobardi |title=Od kod prihajajo in kdo so solkanski Langobardi |language=sl |trans-title=From Where Come and Who Are the Solkan Lombards |first=Jernej |last=Vidmar |access-date=30 July 2012 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113612/http://www.solkan.si/o-solkanu/od-kod-prihajajo-in-kdo-so-solkanski-langobardi |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A Slovene history: society – politics – culture |first1=Peter |last1=Štih |first2=Vasko |last2=Simoniti |first3=Peter |last3=Vodopivec |editor-first=Žarko |editor-last=Lazarević |publisher=Institute of Modern History |place=Ljubljana |year=2008 |isbn=978-961-6386-19-7 |chapter=The Settlement of the Slavs |page=22}}</ref> |
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The Lombard reign began to recover only with [[Liutprand the Lombard]] (king from 712), son of [[Ansprand]] and successor of the brutal [[Aripert II]]. He managed to regain a certain control over [[Spoleto]] and Benevento, and, taking advantage of the disagreements between the Pope and Byzantium concerning the [[Iconoclasm|reverence of icons]], he annexed the Exarchate of Ravenna and the duchy of [[Rome]]. He also helped the Frankish marshal [[Charles Martel]] |
The Lombard reign began to recover only with [[Liutprand the Lombard]] (king from 712), son of [[Ansprand]] and successor of the brutal [[Aripert II]]. He managed to regain a certain control over [[Spoleto]] and Benevento, and, taking advantage of the disagreements between the Pope and [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]] concerning the [[Byzantine Iconoclasm|reverence of icons]], he annexed the Exarchate of Ravenna and the duchy of [[Rome]]. He also helped the Frankish marshal [[Charles Martel]] drive back the [[Arabs]]. The Slavs were defeated in the [[Battle of Lavariano]], when they tried to conquer the [[Friulian Plain]] in 720.<ref name="VidmarSolkan"/> Liutprand's successor [[Aistulf]] conquered Ravenna for the Lombards for the first time but had to relinquish it when he was subsequently defeated by the king of the Franks, [[Pippin III]], who was called by the Pope. |
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After |
After the death of Aistulf, [[Ratchis]] attempted to become king of Lombardy, but he was deposed by [[Desiderius]], duke of [[March of Tuscany|Tuscany]], the last Lombard to rule as king. Desiderius managed to take Ravenna definitively, ending the Byzantine presence in northern Italy. He decided to reopen struggles against the Pope, who was supporting the dukes of Spoleto and Benevento against him, and entered Rome in 772, the first Lombard king to do so. But when [[Pope Hadrian I]] called for help from the powerful Frankish king [[Charlemagne]], Desiderius was defeated at [[Susa, Italy|Susa]] and besieged in [[Pavia]], while his son [[Adalgis|Adelchis]] was forced to open the gates of Verona to Frankish troops. Desiderius surrendered in 774, and Charlemagne, in an utterly novel decision, took the title "King of the Lombards". 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]]. |
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The [[Lombardy]] region in Italy, which includes the cities of Brescia, Bergamo, Milan and the old capital Pavia, is a reminder of the presence of the Lombards. |
The [[Lombardy]] region in Italy, which includes the cities of Brescia, Bergamo, Milan, and the old capital Pavia, is a reminder of the presence of the Lombards. |
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===Later history=== |
===Later history=== |
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====Falling to the Franks and the Duchy of Benevento, 774–849==== |
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[[File:Duchy of Benevento It.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Lombard [[Duchy of Benevento]] in the eighth century]] |
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Though the kingdom centred on Pavia in the north fell to Charlemagne and the [[Franks]] in 774, the Lombard-controlled territory to the south of the Papal States was never subjugated by Charlemagne or his descendants. In 774, Duke [[Arechis II of Benevento]], whose duchy had only nominally been under royal authority, though certain kings had been effective at making their power known in the south, claimed that Benevento was the [[successor state]] of the kingdom. He tried to turn Benevento into a ''secundum Ticinum'': a second Pavia. He tried to claim the kingship, but with no support and no chance of a coronation in Pavia. |
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====United Principality of Benevento, 774–849==== |
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Though the kingdom centred on Pavia in the north fell to Charlemagne, the Lombard-controlled territory to the south of the Papal States was never subjugated by Charlemagne or his descendants. In 774, Duke [[Arechis II of Benevento]], whose duchy had only nominally been under royal authority, though certain kings had been effective at making their power known in the south, claimed that Benevento was the [[successor state]] of the kingdom. He tried to turn Benevento into a ''secundum Ticinum'': a second Pavia. He tried to claim the kingship, but with no support and no chance of a coronation in Pavia. |
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Charlemagne came down with an army, and his son [[Louis the Pious]] sent men, to force the Beneventan duke to submit, but his submission and promises were never kept and Arechis and his successors were ''de facto'' independent. The Beneventan dukes took the title '' |
Charlemagne came down with an army, and his son [[Louis the Pious]] sent men, to force the Beneventan duke to submit, but his submission and promises were never kept and Arechis and his successors were ''de facto'' independent. The Beneventan dukes took the title ''prínceps'' (prince) instead of that of king. |
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The Lombards of southern Italy were thereafter in the anomalous position of holding land claimed by two empires: the [[Carolingian Empire]] to the north and west and the [[Byzantine Empire]] to the east. They typically made pledges and promises of tribute to the Carolingians, but effectively remained outside Frankish control. Benevento meanwhile grew to its greatest extent yet when it imposed a tribute on the [[Duchy of Naples]], which was tenuously loyal to Byzantium and even conquered the Neapolitan city of [[Amalfi]] in 838. At one point in the reign of [[Sicard of Benevento|Sicard]], Lombard control covered most of southern Italy save the very south of [[Apulia]] and [[Calabria]] and Naples, with its nominally attached cities. It was during the |
The Lombards of southern Italy were thereafter in the anomalous position of holding land claimed by two empires: the [[Carolingian Empire]] to the north and west and the [[Byzantine Empire]] to the east. They typically made pledges and promises of tribute to the Carolingians, but effectively remained outside Frankish control. Benevento meanwhile grew to its greatest extent yet when it imposed a tribute on the [[Duchy of Naples]], which was tenuously loyal to Byzantium and even conquered the Neapolitan city of [[Amalfi]] in 838. At one point in the reign of [[Sicard of Benevento|Sicard]], Lombard control covered most of southern Italy save the very south of [[Apulia]] and [[Calabria]] and [[Naples]], with its nominally attached cities. It was during the ninth century that a strong Lombard presence became entrenched in formerly Greek Apulia. However, Sicard had opened up the south to the invasive actions of the [[Saracen]]s in his war with [[Andrew II of Naples]] and when he was assassinated in 839, Amalfi declared independence and two factions fought for power in Benevento, crippling the principality and making it susceptible to external enemies. |
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The civil war lasted ten years and |
The civil war lasted ten years and ended with a peace treaty imposed in 849 by [[Emperor Louis II]], the only Frankish king to exercise actual sovereignty over the Lombard states. The treaty divided the kingdom into two states: the Principality of Benevento and the [[Principality of Salerno]], with its capital at [[Salerno]] on the [[Tyrrhenian Sea]]. |
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====Southern Italy and the Arabs, |
====Southern Italy and the Arabs, 836–915==== |
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{{Main|History of Islam in southern Italy}} |
{{Main|History of Islam in southern Italy}} |
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Andrew II of Naples hired |
Andrew II of Naples hired Islamic mercenaries and formed a Muslim-Christian alliance for his war with Sicard of Benevento in 836; Sicard responded with other Muslim mercenaries. The Saracens initially concentrated their attacks on [[Sicily]] and Byzantine Italy, but soon [[Radelchis I of Benevento]] called in more mercenaries, who destroyed [[Capua]] in 841. [[Landulf I of Capua|Landulf the Old]] founded the present-day Capua, "New Capua", on a nearby hill. In general, the Lombard princes were less inclined to ally with the Saracens than with their Greek neighbours of Amalfi, Gaeta, Naples, and Sorrento. [[Guaifer of Salerno]], however, briefly put himself under Muslim suzerainty. |
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In 847 a large Muslim force seized [[Bari]], until then a Lombard [[gastald]]ate under the control of [[Pandenulf of Bari|Pandenulf]]. Saracen incursions proceeded northwards until [[Adelchis of Benevento]] sought the help of his suzerain, Louis II, who allied with the Byzantine emperor [[Basil I]] to [[Louis II's campaign against Bari (866–871)|expel the Arabs from Bari in 869]]. An Arab landing force was defeated by the emperor in 871. Adelchis and Louis remained at war until the death of Louis in 875. Adelchis regarded himself as the true successor of the Lombard kings, and in that capacity he amended the ''[[Edictum Rothari]]'', the last Lombard ruler to do so. |
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After |
After the death of Louis, [[Landulf II of Capua]] briefly flirted with a Saracen alliance, but [[Pope John VIII]] convinced him to break it off. [[Guaimar I of Salerno]] fought the Saracens with Byzantine troops. Throughout this period the Lombard princes swung in allegiance from one party to another. Finally, towards 915, [[Pope John X]] managed to unite the Christian princes of southern Italy against the Saracen establishments on the [[Garigliano]] river. The Saracens were ousted from Italy in the [[Battle of the Garigliano]] in 915. |
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====Lombard principalities in the tenth century==== |
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[[Image:Italy 1000 AD.svg|thumb|250px|right|Italy around the turn of the millennium, showing the Lombard states in the south on the eve of the arrival of the Normans.]] |
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[[File:Italy 1000 AD.svg|thumb|right|250px|Italy around the turn of the millennium, showing the Lombard states in the south on the eve of the arrival of the Normans.]] |
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The independent state of Salerno inspired the [[List of princes of Capua|gastalds of Capua]] to move towards independence, and by the end of the century they were styling themselves "princes" and as a third Lombard state. The Capuan and Beneventan states were united by [[Atenulf I of Capua]] in 900. He subsequently declared them to be in perpetual union, and they were separated only in 982, on the death of [[Pandulf Ironhead]]. With all of the Lombard south under his control, except Salerno, Atenulf felt safe to use the title ''Princeps Gentis Langobardorum'' ("prince of the Lombard people"), which Arechis II had begun using in 774. Among Atenulf's successors the principality was ruled jointly by fathers, sons, brothers, cousins, and uncles for the greater part of the century. |
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Meanwhile, the prince [[Gisulf I of Salerno]] began using the title ''Langobardorum Gentis Princeps'' around mid-century, but the ideal of a united Lombard principality was realised only in December 977, when Gisulf died and his domains were inherited by Pandulf Ironhead, who temporarily held almost all Italy south of Rome and brought the Lombards into an alliance with the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. His territories were divided upon his death. |
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====The Lombard principalities in the tenth century==== |
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[[File:South Italy AD 1039-1047-es.svg|300px|thumb|left|The Principate of Salerno under [[Guaimar IV]] (1027-1052) controlled all southern continental Italy (includind Naples as a "vassal" duchy)]] |
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The independent state at Salerno inspired the [[prince of Capua|gastalds of Capua]] to move towards independence and, by the end of the century, they were styling themselves "princes" and there was a third Lombard state. The Capuan and Beneventan states were united by [[Atenulf I of Capua]] in 900. He subsequently declared them to be in perpetual union and they were separated only in 982, on the death of [[Pandulf Ironhead]]. With all of the Lombard south under his control save Salerno, Atenulf felt safe in using the title ''princeps gentis Langobardorum'' ("prince of the Lombard people"), which Arechis II had begun using in 774. Among Atenulf's successors the principality was ruled jointly by fathers, sons, brothers, cousins, and uncles for the greater part of the century. Meanwhile, the prince [[Gisulf I of Salerno]] began using the title ''Langobardorum gentis princeps'' around mid-century, but the ideal of a united Lombard principality was realised only in December 977, when Gisulf died and his domains were inherited by Pandulf Ironhead, who temporarily held almost all Italy south of Rome and brought the Lombards into alliance with the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. His territories were divided upon his death. |
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[[Landulf II of Benevento|Landulf the Red]] of Benevento and Capua tried to conquer the principality of Salerno with the help of [[John III of Naples]], but with the aid of [[Mastalus I of Amalfi]], Gisulf repulsed him. The rulers of Benevento and Capua made several attempts on [[Catapanate of Italy|Byzantine Apulia]] at this time, but late in the century, the Byzantines, under the stiff rule of [[Basil II]], gained ground on the Lombards. |
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According to the ''Catalogum Principum Salerni'', the Prince of "langobard Salerno" [[Guaimar IV]] ruled for 34 years and 17 days. He conquered and was: [[Duke of Amalfi]] (1039–1052), [[Duke of Gaeta]] (1040–1041), and [[Prince of Capua]] (1038–1047) in [[Southern Italy]] over the period from 1027 to 1052. He was an important figure in the final phase of [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] authority in the [[Mezzogiorno]] and [[Norman conquest of southern Italy|the commencement of Norman power]]. Guaimar's legacy includes his dominion, either by conquest or otherwise, over Salerno, Amalfi, Gaeta, Naples, Sorrento, Apulia, Calabria, and Capua at one time or another. He was the last great Lombard prince of the south, but perhaps he is best known for his character, which the [[John Julius Norwich|Lord Norwich]] sums up this way: "...without once breaking a promise or betraying a trust. Up to the day he died his honour and good faith had never once been called in question."<ref>Norwich, 88.</ref>. Salerno in these decades was the main and more rich city (called "Opulenta Salernum") in southern Italy, even because of the "Schola Medica Salernitana" (the first "university" of medicine in Europe). |
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[[Landulf II of Benevento|Landulf the Red]] of Benevento and Capua tried to conquer the principality of Salerno with the help of [[John III of Naples]], but with the aid of [[Mastalus I of Amalfi]] Gisulf repulsed him. The rulers of Benevento and Capua made several attempts on [[Catapanate of Italy|Byzantine Apulia]] at this time, but in late century the Byzantines, under the stiff rule of [[Basil II]], gained ground on the Lombards. |
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After the assassination of Guaimar IV the Principality of Salerno started to be dominated more and more by the Normans: in 1077 ended the history of the Langobards in Italy when this Principality was conquered by the Norman [[Robert Guiscard]]. |
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The principal source for the history of the Lombard principalities in this period is the ''[[Chronicon Salernitanum]]'', composed late in the century at Salerno. |
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The principal source for the history of the Lombard principalities in this period is the ''[[Chronicon Salernitanum]]'', composed late in the tenth century at Salerno. |
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====Norman conquest, 1017–1078==== |
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====Norman conquest, 1017–1078==== |
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{{Main|Norman conquest of southern Italy}} |
{{Main|Norman conquest of southern Italy}} |
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The diminished Beneventan principality soon lost its independence to the [[papacy]] and declined in importance until it fell in the [[ |
The diminished Beneventan principality soon lost its independence to the [[papacy]] and declined in importance until it fell in the [[Norman conquest of southern Italy]]. The Normans, first called in by the Lombards to fight the Byzantines for control of [[Apulia]] and [[Calabria]] (under the likes of [[Melus of Bari]] and [[Arduin the Lombard|Arduin]], among others), had become rivals for hegemony in the south. The Salernitan principality experienced a golden age under [[Guaimar III of Salerno|Guaimar III]] and [[Guaimar IV of Salerno|Guaimar IV]], but under [[Gisulf II of Salerno|Gisulf II]], the principality shrank to insignificance and fell in 1078 to [[Robert Guiscard]], who had married Gisulf's sister [[Sichelgaita]]. The Capua principality was hotly contested during the reign of the hated [[Pandulf IV of Capua|Pandulf IV]], the ''Wolf of the Abruzzi'', and, under his son, it fell, almost without contest, to the Norman [[Richard I of Aversa|Richard Drengot]] (1058). The Capuans revolted against Norman rule in 1091, expelling Richard's grandson [[Richard II of Capua|Richard II]] and setting up one [[Lando IV of Capua|Lando IV]]. |
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Capua was again put under Norman rule after the [[Siege of Capua]] of 1098 and the city quickly declined in importance under a series of |
Capua was again put under Norman rule after the [[Siege of Capua]] of 1098 and the city quickly declined in importance under a series of ineffective Norman rulers. The independent status of these Lombard states is in general attested by the ability of their rulers to switch suzerains at will. Often the legal vassal of the pope or the emperor (either Byzantine or [[Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman]]), they were the real power-brokers in the south until their erstwhile allies the Normans rose to preeminence. |
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== |
==Genetics== |
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{{Further|Goths#Genetics|Visigoths#Genetics|Bavarii#Genetics|Alemanni#Genetics}} |
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A genetic study published in ''[[Nature Communications]]'' in September 2018 found strong genetic similarities between Lombards of Italy and earlier Lombards of Central Europe. Lombard males were primarily carriers of subclades of [[haplogroup R1b]] and [[Haplogroup I-M438#I2a2a|I2a2a1]], both of which are common among Germanic peoples. Lombard males were found to be more genetically homogeneous than Lombard females. The evidence suggested that the Lombards originated in Central/Northern Europe, and were a patriarchal people who settled Central Europe and then later Italy through a migration from the north.<ref>{{harvnb|Amorim|2018}}. "[B]iological relationships played an important role in these early medieval societies... Finally, our data are consistent with the proposed long-distance migration from Pannonia to Northern Italy."</ref> |
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A genetic study published in ''[[Science Advances]]'' in September 2018 examined the remains of a Lombard male buried at an [[Alemanni]]c graveyard. He was found to be a carrier of the paternal haplogroup [[Haplogroup R-M269#R1b1a1a2a1a1 (R-U106)|R1b1a2a1a1c2b2b]] and the maternal haplogroup [[Haplogroup H (mtDNA)#H2, H6 and H8|H65a]]. The graveyard also included the remains of a [[Franks|Frankish]] and a [[Byzantine]] male, both of whom were also carriers of subclades of the paternal haplogroup R1b1a2a1a1. The Lombard, Frankish and Byzantine males were all found to be closely related, and displayed close genetic links to [[Northern Europe]], particularly [[Lithuania]] and [[Iceland]].<ref>{{harvnb|O'Sullivan|2018}}. "Niederstotzingen North individuals are closely related to northern and eastern European populations, particularly from Lithuania and Iceland."</ref> |
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A genetic study published in the ''[[European Journal of Human Genetics]]'' in January 2019 examined the mtDNA of a large number of [[Early Middle Ages|early-medieval]] Lombard remains from Central Europe and Italy. These individuals were found to be closely related and displayed strong genetic links to Central Europe. The evidence suggested that the Lombard settlement of Italy was the result of a migration from the north involving both males and females.<ref name="Vai_2019">{{harvnb|Vai|2019}}. "[T]he presence in this cluster of haplogroups that reach high frequency in Northern European populations, suggests a possible link between this core group of individuals and the proposed homeland of different ancient barbarian Germanic groups... This supports the view that the spread of Longobards into Italy actually involved movements of people, who gave a substantial contribution to the gene pool of the resulting populations...This is even more remarkable thinking that, in many studied cases, military invasions are movements of males, and hence do not have consequences at the mtDNA level. Here, instead, we have evidence of maternally linked genetic similarities between LC in Hungary and Italy, supporting the view that immigration from Central Europe involved females as well as males."</ref> |
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==Culture== |
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===Language=== |
===Language=== |
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{{Main|Lombardic language}} |
{{Main|Lombardic language}} |
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[[File:West germanic languages c 500.png|thumb|500px|The West-Germanic languages around the sixth century CE]] |
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The [[Lombardic language]] is extinct (unless [[Cimbrian language|Cimbrian]] and [[Mocheno]] represent surviving dialects).<ref name=BKM>{{cite book|title=The Languages and Linguistics of Europe: Vol.II |first=Bernd |last=Kortmann |year=2011 |place=Berlin}}</ref> The [[Germanic languages|Germanic language]] declined beginning in the 7th century, but may have been in scattered use until as late as about the year 1000. The language is preserved only fragmentarily, the main evidence being individual words quoted in [[Latin]] texts. In the absence of Lombardic texts, it is not possible to draw any conclusions about the language's morphology and syntax. The genetic classification the language is based entirely on phonology. Since there is evidence that Lombardic participated in, and indeed shows some of the earliest evidence for, the [[High German consonant shift]], it is classified as an [[Elbe Germanic]] or [[Upper German]] dialect. |
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Unless [[Cimbrian language|Cimbrian]] and [[Mòcheno language|Mòcheno]] represent surviving dialects, the [[Lombardic language]] is extinct.<ref name=BKM>{{cite book|title=The Languages and Linguistics of Europe |volume=II |first= Bernd |last=Kortmann |year=2011 |place=Berlin}}</ref> It declined beginning in the seventh century, but may have been in scattered use until as late as about the year 1000. Only fragments of the language have survived, the main evidence being individual words quoted in [[Latin]] texts. In the absence of Lombardic texts, it is not possible to draw any conclusions about the language's [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] and syntax. The genetic classification of the language depends entirely on phonology. Since there is evidence that Lombardic participated in, and indeed shows some of the earliest evidence for, the [[High German consonant shift]], it is usually classified as an [[Upper German]] dialect descended from [[Elbe Germanic]].<ref>Marcello Meli, ''Le lingue germaniche'', p. 95.</ref> |
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[[File:Pforzen Inschrift.JPG|thumb|upright=1.35|The runic inscription from the [[Pforzen buckle]] may be the earliest written example of Lombardic language]] |
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Lombardic fragments are preserved in [[rune|runic]] inscriptions. Primary source texts include short inscriptions in the [[Elder Futhark]], among them the "bronze capsule of [[Schretzheim]]" (c. 600) and the silver belt buckle found in [[Pforzen]], [[Ostallgäu]] ([[Schwaben]]). A number of Latin texts include Lombardic names, and Lombardic legal texts contain terms taken from the legal vocabulary of the vernacular. In 2005, Emilia Denčeva argued that the inscription of the [[Pernik sword]] may be Lombardic.<ref>Emilia Denčeva (2006). [https://web.archive.org/web/20110206095949/http://germanistik.gradina.net/wp-content/blogs/16/uploads/Grosse.Schwert.pdf "Langobardische (?) Inschrift auf einem Schwert aus dem 8. Jahrhundert in bulgarischem Boden"] (PDF). ''[[Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur]]''. '''128''' (1): 1–11. {{doi|10.1515/BGSL.2006.1}}</ref> |
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The Italian language preserves a large number of Lombardic words, although it is not always easy to distinguish them from other Germanic borrowings such as those from [[Gothic language|Gothic]] or from [[Frankish language|Frankish]]. They often bear some resemblance to English words, as Lombardic was akin to [[Old Saxon]].{{sfn|Hutterer|1999|page=339}} For instance, ''landa'' from ''land'', ''guardia'' from ''wardan'' (warden), ''guerra'' from ''werra'' (war), ''ricco'' from ''rikki'' (rich), and ''guadare'' from ''wadjan'' (to wade). |
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The ''Codice diplomatico longobardo'', a collection of legal documents, makes reference to many Lombardic terms, some of them still in use in the Italian language: |
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Lombardic fragments are preserved in [[rune|runic]] inscriptions. Among the primary source texts are short inscriptions in the [[Elder Futhark]], among them the "bronze capsule of [[Schretzheim]]" (c. 600). There are a number of Latin texts that include Lombardic names, and Lombardic legal texts contain terms taken from the legal vocabulary of the vernacular. In 2005, there were claims that the inscription of the [[Pernik sword]] may be Lombardic. |
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''barba'' (beard), ''marchio'' (mark), ''maniscalco'' (blacksmith), ''aia'' (courtyard), ''braida'' (suburban meadow), ''borgo'' (burg, village), ''fara'' (fundamental unity of Lombard social and military organization, presently used as toponym), ''picco'' (peak, mountain top, also used as toponym), ''sala'' (hall, room, also used as toponym), ''staffa'' (stirrup), ''stalla'' (stable), ''sculdascio'', ''faida'' (feud), ''manigoldo'' (scoundrel), ''sgherro'' (henchman); ''fanone'' (baleen), ''stamberga'' (hovel); ''anca'' (hip), ''guancia'' (cheek), ''nocca'' (knuckle), ''schiena'' (back); ''gazza'' (magpie), ''martora'' (marten); ''gualdo'' (wood, presently used as toponym), ''pozza'' (pool); verbs like ''bussare'' (to knock), ''piluccare'' (to peck), ''russare'' (to snore). |
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The Italian language preserves a large number of Lombardic words, although it is not always easy to tell them apart from those stemming from other Germanic languages such as Gothic and Frankish. They often bear some resemblance to English words as Lombardic was akin to Saxon. For instance, ''landa'' from ''land'', ''guardia'' from ''wardan'' (warden), ''guerra'' from ''werra'' (war), ''guadare'' from ''wadjan'' (to wade). |
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===Social structure=== |
===Social structure=== |
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====Migration Period society==== |
====Migration Period society==== |
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During their stay at the mouth of the Elbe, the Lombards came into contact with other western Germanic populations, such as the Saxons and the [[Frisians]]. From these populations, which had long been in contact with the [[Celts]] (especially the Saxons), they adopted a rigid social organization into castes, rarely present in other Germanic peoples.<ref>{{harvnb|Cardini|2019|p=82}}</ref> |
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The Lombard kings can be traced back as early as [[circa|c.]] 380 and thus to the beginning of the Great Migration. Kingship developed amongst the Germanic peoples when the unity of a single military command was found necessary. Schmidt believed that the Germanic tribes were divided according to [[canton (country subdivision)|cantons]] and that the earliest government was a general assembly that selected the chiefs of the cantons and the war leaders from the cantons (in times of war). All such figures were probably selected from a caste of nobility. As a result of wars of their wanderings, royal power developed such that the king became the representative of the people; but the influence of the people upon the government did not fully disappear.<ref>Schmidt, 76–77.</ref> Paul the Deacon gives an account of the Lombard tribal structure during the migration: |
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The Lombard kings can be traced back as early as c. 380 and thus to the beginning of the [[Migration Period|Great Migration]]. Kingship developed among the Germanic peoples when the unity of a single military command was found necessary. Schmidt believed that the Germanic tribes were divided into [[canton (country subdivision)|cantons]] and that the earliest government was a general assembly that selected canton chiefs and war leaders in times of conflict. All such figures were probably selected from a caste of nobility. As a result of the wars of their wanderings, royal power developed such that the king became the representative of the people, but the influence of the people on the government did not fully disappear.<ref>{{harvnb|Schmidt|2018|pp=76–77}}</ref> Paul the Deacon gives an account of the Lombard tribal structure during the migration: |
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<blockquote> |
<blockquote> |
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. |
... in order that they might increase the number of their warriors, [the Lombards] 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 confirmation of the fact. |
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</blockquote> |
</blockquote> |
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Complete emancipation appears to have been granted only among the Franks and the Lombards.<ref>Schmidt |
Complete emancipation appears to have been granted only among the Franks and the Lombards.<ref>{{harvnb|Schmidt|2018|p=47}}</ref> |
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====Society of the Catholic kingdom==== |
====Society of the Catholic kingdom==== |
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{{See also|Duke (Lombard)}} |
{{See also|Duke (Lombard)}} |
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Lombard society was divided into classes comparable to those found in the other Germanic successor states of Rome |
Lombard society was divided into classes comparable to those found in the other Germanic successor states of Rome, [[Frankish Empire|Frankish Gaul]] and [[Hispania|Spain]] under the [[Visigoths]]. There was a noble class, a class of free persons beneath them, a class of unfree non-slaves (serfs), and finally slaves. The aristocracy itself was poorer, more urbanised, and less landed than elsewhere. Aside from the richest and most powerful of the dukes and the king himself, Lombard noblemen tended to live in cities (unlike their Frankish counterparts) and hold little more than twice as much in land as the merchant class (a far cry from provincial Frankish aristocrats who held vast swathes of land, hundreds of times larger than those beneath his status). The aristocracy by the eighth century was highly dependent on the king for means of income related especially to judicial duties: many Lombard nobles are referred to in contemporary documents as ''iudices'' (judges) even when their offices had important military and legislative functions as well. |
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The freemen of the Lombard kingdom were far more numerous than in |
The freemen of the Lombard kingdom were far more numerous than in Frankish lands, especially in the eighth century, when they are almost invisible in surviving documentary evidence. Smallholders, owner-cultivators, and rentiers are the most numerous types of person in surviving diplomata for the Lombard kingdom. They may have owned more than half of the land in Lombard Italy. The freemen were ''exercitales'' and ''viri devoti'', that is, soldiers and "devoted men" (a military term like "retainers"); they formed the [[Conscription#Medieval levies|levy]] of the Lombard army, and they were sometimes, if infrequently, called to serve, though this seems not to have been their preference. The small landed class, however, lacked the political influence necessary with the king (and the dukes) to control the politics and legislation of the kingdom. The aristocracy was more thoroughly powerful politically if not economically in Italy than in contemporary Gaul and Spain. |
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[[File:BRONZETTO.jpg|thumb|Lombard warrior, bronze statue, eighth century, [[Pavia Civic Museums]]]] |
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The urbanisation of Lombard Italy was characterised by the |
The urbanisation of Lombard Italy was characterised by the {{lang|it|città ad isole}} (or "city as islands"). It appears from archaeology that the great cities of Lombard Italy—[[Pavia]], [[Lucca]], [[Siena]], [[Arezzo]], [[Milan]]—were themselves formed of small urban cores within the old Roman city walls. The cities of the Roman Empire had been partially destroyed in the series of wars of the fifth and sixth centuries. Many sectors were left in ruins and ancient monuments became fields of grass used as pastures for animals, thus the [[Roman Forum]] became the ''Campo Vaccino'', the field of cows. The portions of the cities that remained intact were small, modest, contained a cathedral or major church (often sumptuously decorated), and a few public buildings and townhouses of the aristocracy. Few buildings of importance were stone, most were wood. In the end, the inhabited parts of the cities were separated from one another by stretches of pasture even within the city walls. |
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====Lombard states==== |
====Lombard states==== |
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*Lombard state on the Carpathians ( |
* Lombard state on the Carpathians (sixth century) |
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*Lombard state in Pannonia ( |
* Lombard state in Pannonia (sixth century) |
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*[[Kingdom of Italy (Lombard)|Kingdom of Italy]] and [[ |
* [[Kingdom of Italy (Lombard)|Kingdom of Italy]] and [[List of kings of the Lombards]] |
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*[[Principality of Benevento]] and [[List of |
* [[Principality of Benevento]] and [[List of dukes and princes of Benevento]] |
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*[[Principality of Salerno]] and [[List of |
* [[Principality of Salerno]] and [[List of princes of Salerno]] |
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*[[Principality of Capua]] and [[List of |
* [[Principality of Capua]] and [[List of princes of Capua]] |
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===Religious history=== |
===Religious history=== |
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The legend from Origo may hint that initially, before the passage from Scandinavia to the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, the Lombards worshiped the [[Vanir]]. Later, in contact with other Germanic populations, they adopted the worship of the [[Æsir]]: an evolution that marked the passage from the adoration of deities related to fertility and the earth to the cult of warlike gods.<ref>{{harvnb|Rovagnati|2003|p=99}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Karl |last=Hauk |title=Lebensnormen und Kultmythen in germanischen Sammes- und Herrscher genealogien |language=de |trans-title=Norms of life and cult myths in Germanic collection and ruler genealogies}}</ref> |
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====Paganism==== |
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[[Barbatus of Benevento|St. Barbatus]] of [[Benevento]] observed many pagan rituals and traditions amongst the Lombards authorised by the [[Romuald I of Benevento|Duke Romuald]], son of [[Grimoald I of Benevento|King Grimoald]].<ref name=RAB>{{cite book|title=The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints: Vol.I |first=Alban |last=Rev. Butler |year=1866 |place=London}}</ref><BR> |
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{{bquote|''"They expressed a religious veneration to a golden viper, and prostrated themselves before it: they paid also a superstitious honour to a tree, on which they hung the skin of a wild beast, and these ceremonies were closed by public games, in which the skin served for a mark at which bowmen shot arrows over their shoulder."''}} |
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The earliest indications of Lombard religion show that they originally worshipped the [[Germanic paganism|Germanic gods]] of the [[Vanir]] pantheon while in Scandinavia. After settling along the Baltic coast, through contact with other Germans they adopted the cult of the [[Aesir]] gods, a shift that represented a cultural change from an agricultural society into a warrior society.{{Citation needed|date=February 2008}} |
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In chapter 40 of his ''[[Germania (book)|Germania]]'', Roman historian [[Tacitus]], discussing the Suebian tribes of Germania, writes that the Lombards were one of the Suebian tribes united in worship of the deity Nerthus, who is often identified with the [[Norse mythology|Norse]] goddess [[Freyja]]. The other tribes were the [[Reudigni]], [[Aviones]], [[Anglii]], [[Varini]], [[Eudoses]], [[Suarines]] and [[Nuitones]].<ref>Tacitus', ''Germania'', [[wikisource:Germania#XL|40]], Medieval Source Book. Code and format by Northvegr.[http://www.northvegr.org/lore/tacitus/009.php] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080404105305/http://www.northvegr.org/lore/tacitus/009.php|date=2008-04-04}}</ref> |
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After their migration into Pannonia, the Lombards had contact with the [[Ancient Iranian peoples|Iranian]] [[Sarmatians]]. From these people they borrowed a long-lived custom once of religious symbolism. A long pole surmounted by the figure of a bird, usually a dove, derived from the standards used in battle, was placed by the family in the ground at the home of a man who had died far afield in war and who could not be brought home for funeral and burial. Usually the bird was oriented so as to point in the direction of the suspected site of the warrior's death.{{Citation needed|date=February 2008}} |
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[[Barbatus of Benevento|St. Barbatus]] of [[Benevento]] observed many pagan rituals and traditions among the Lombards authorised by the [[Romuald I of Benevento|Duke Romuald]], son of [[Grimoald, King of the Lombards|King Grimoald]]:<ref name=RAB>{{cite book|title=The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints: Vol. I |first=Alban |last=Rev. Butler |year=1866 |place=London}}</ref> |
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{{blockquote|They expressed a religious veneration to a golden viper, and prostrated themselves before it: they paid also a superstitious honour to a tree, on which they hung the skin of a wild beast, and these ceremonies were closed by public games, in which the skin served for a mark at which bowmen shot arrows over their shoulder.}} |
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====Christianisation==== |
====Christianisation==== |
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The Lombards first adopted Christianity while still in Pannonia, but their conversion and Christianisation was largely nominal and far from complete. During the reign of [[Wacho]], they were Orthodox Catholics allied with the [[Byzantine Empire]], but [[Alboin]] converted to [[Arianism]] as an ally of the [[Ostrogoths]] and invaded Italy. All these Christian conversions primarily affected the aristocracy, while the common people remained pagan.<ref>{{harvnb|Jarnut|2002|p=51}}</ref> |
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In Italy, the Lombards were intensively Christianised and the pressure to convert to Catholicism was great. With the Bavarian queen [[Theodelinda]], |
In Italy, the Lombards were intensively Christianised, and the pressure to convert to Orthodox Catholicism was great. With the [[Baiuvarii|Bavarian]] queen [[Theodelinda]], an Orthodox Catholic, the monarchy was brought under heavy Catholic influence. After initial support for the anti-Rome party in the [[Schism of the Three Chapters]], Theodelinda remained a close contact and supporter of [[Pope Gregory I]].<ref>{{harvnb|Jarnut|2002|p=51}}</ref> In 603, [[Adaloald]], the heir to the throne, received Orthodox Catholic baptism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Waitz |first=Georg |title=Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI–IX |date=1964 |publisher=Hahn |location=Hannover |pages=12–219}}</ref> However, the lack of spiritual involvement of most of the Lombards in religious disputes remained constant, so much so that the opposition between Orthodox Catholics, on the one hand, and pagans, Arians and schismatics, on the other, soon took on political significance. The supporters of Roman orthodoxy, led by the [[Bavarian dynasty]], were politically the proponents of greater integration with the Romans, accompanied by a strategy of preserving the status quo with the Byzantines. Arians, pagans and schismatics, rooted above all in the northeastern regions of the kingdom ([[Austria (Lombard)|Austria]]), were instead interpreters of the preservation of the warlike and aggressive spirit of the people. Thus, to the "pro-Catholic" phase of [[Agilulf]], Theodolinda and Adaloald followed, from 626 ([[Arioald]]'s accession to the throne) to 690 (definitive defeat of the rebel [[Alahis]]), a long phase of the revival of Arianism, embodied by militarily aggressive kings like [[Rothari]] and [[Grimoald, King of the Lombards|Grimoald]]. However, tolerance towards Orthodox Catholics was never questioned by the various kings, also safeguarded by the influential contribution of the respective queens (largely chosen, for reasons of dynastic legitimacy, among the Orthodox Catholic princesses of the Bavarian dynasty).<ref>{{harvnb|Jarnut|2002|pp=61–62}}</ref> |
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In the seventh century, the nominally Christian aristocracy of Benevento was still practising pagan rituals such as sacrifices in "sacred" woods.<ref>{{harvnb|Rovagnati|2003|p=101}}</ref> By the end of the reign of [[Cunipert|Cunincpert]], however, the Lombards were more or less completely Catholicised. Under [[Liutprand, King of the Lombards|Liutprand]] Orthodox Catholicism became tangible as the king sought to justify his title ''rex totius Italiae'' by uniting the south of the peninsula with the north, thereby bringing together his Italo-Roman and Germanic subjects into one Catholic State.<ref>{{harvnb|Rovagnati|2003|p=64}}</ref> |
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[[Image:Beneventan.jpeg|thumb|175px|left|The [[Rule of Saint Benedict]] in Beneventan (i.e. Lombard) script]] |
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====Beneventan Christianity==== |
====Beneventan Christianity==== |
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[[File:Beneventan.jpeg|thumb|The [[Rule of Saint Benedict]] in Beneventan (i.e. Lombard) script]] |
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The Duchy and eventually Principality of Benevento in southern Italy developed a unique Christian [[rite]] in the 7th and 8th centuries. The Beneventan rite is more closely related to the liturgy of the [[Ambrosian rite]] than the [[Roman rite]]. The Beneventan rite has not survived in its complete form, although most of the principal feasts and several feasts of local significance are extant. The Beneventan rite appears to have been less complete, less systematic, and more liturgically flexible than the Roman rite. |
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The Duchy and eventually Principality of Benevento in southern Italy developed a unique Christian [[Christian liturgy|rite]] in the seventh and eighth centuries. The Beneventan rite is more closely related to the liturgy of the [[Ambrosian rite]] than to the [[Roman rite]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Approfondimenti – Il canto beneventano – Scuola di Canto Gregoriano |url=https://www.scuoladicantogregoriano.it/ |access-date=2022-09-06 |website=www.scuoladicantogregoriano.it}}</ref> The Beneventan rite has not survived in its complete form, although most of the principal feasts and several feasts of local significance are extant. The Beneventan rite appears to have been less complete, less systematic, and more liturgically flexible than the Roman rite. |
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Characteristic of this rite was the [[Beneventan chant]], a Lombard-influenced chant that bore similarities to the [[Ambrosian chant]] of |
Characteristic of this rite was the [[Beneventan chant]], a Lombard-influenced<ref name=":0"/> chant that bore similarities to the [[Ambrosian chant]] of Milan. The Beneventan chant is largely defined by its role in the liturgy of the Beneventan rite; many Beneventan chants were assigned multiple roles when inserted into Gregorian chantbooks, appearing variously as antiphons, offertories, and communions, for example. It was eventually supplanted by the [[Gregorian chant]] in the eleventh century. |
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The chief centre of Beneventan chant was [[Montecassino]], one of the first and greatest abbeys of [[Western monasticism]]. [[Gisulf II of Benevento]] had donated a large swathe of land to Montecassino in 744 and that became the basis for an important state, the ''[[Terra Sancti Benedicti]]'', which was a subject only to Rome. The Cassinese influence on Christianity in southern Italy was immense. Montecassino was also the starting point for another characteristic of Beneventan monasticism |
The chief centre of the Beneventan chant was [[Montecassino]], one of the first and greatest abbeys of [[Western monasticism]]. [[Gisulf II of Benevento]] had donated a large swathe of land to Montecassino in 744, and that became the basis for an important state, the ''[[Terra Sancti Benedicti]]'', which was a subject only to Rome. The Cassinese influence on Christianity in southern Italy was immense.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Montecassino nell'Enciclopedia Treccani |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/montecassino |access-date=2022-09-06 |website=www.treccani.it |language=it-IT}}</ref> Montecassino was also the starting point for another characteristic of Beneventan monasticism, the use of the distinct [[Beneventan script]], a clear, angular script derived from the [[Roman cursive]] as used by the Lombards.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-02-20 |title=Rivive dopo mille anni uno scriptorium di Scrittura Beneventana, Benevento Longobarda affila le 'penne' |url=https://beneventolongobarda.it/rivive-dopo-mille-anni-uno-scriptorium-di-scrittura-beneventana-benevento-longobarda-affila-le-penne/ |access-date=2022-09-06 |website=Benevento Longobarda |language=it-IT}}</ref> |
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===Art |
===Art=== |
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During their nomadic phase, the Lombards created |
During their nomadic phase, the Lombards primarily created art that was easily carried with them, like arms and jewellery. Though relatively little of this has survived, it bears resemblance to the similar endeavours of other Germanic tribes of central Europe from the same era. |
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The first major modifications to the Germanic style of the Lombards came in Pannonia and especially in Italy, under the influence of local, [[Byzantine art and architecture|Byzantine]], and [[early Christian art and architecture|Christian]] styles. The conversions from nomadism and paganism to settlement and Christianity also opened up new arenas of artistic |
The first major modifications to the Germanic style of the Lombards came in Pannonia and especially in Italy, under the influence of local, [[Byzantine art and architecture|Byzantine]], and [[early Christian art and architecture|Christian]] styles. The conversions from nomadism and paganism to settlement and Christianity also opened up new arenas of artistic expressions, such as architecture (especially churches) and its accompanying decorative arts (such as frescoes). |
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<gallery> |
<gallery> |
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Langobard Shield Boss 7th Century.jpg|Lombard [[shield boss]]<br>northern Italy, seventh century, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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Langobardic - Fibula - Walters 542440.jpg|Lombard [[Fibula (brooch)|S-shaped fibula]] |
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Arte longobarda, da sutri, bicchiere a forma di corno, fine VI-inizio VII sec.JPG|A glass [[drinking horn]] from Castel Trosino |
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Langobardic - Shroud Cross - Walters 571773.jpg|Lombard ''Goldblattkreuz'' |
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Cividale fibula1.jpg|Lombard [[Fibula (brooch)|fibulae]] |
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Cividale Ratchis1.JPG|Altar of [[Ratchis]] |
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Cividale Tempietto Longobardo - Westwand Märtyrerinnen 1.jpg|Eighth-century Lombard sculpture depicting female martyrs, based on a Byzantine model. ''Tempietto Longobardo'', [[Cividale del Friuli]] |
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Interno della cripta.jpg|[[Crypt of Sant'Eusebio]], [[Pavia]]. |
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</gallery> |
</gallery> |
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====Architecture==== |
====Architecture==== |
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{{main|Lombard architecture|Longobards in Italy, Places of Power (568-774 A.D.)}} |
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[[Image:Fara Gera d'Adda3.JPG|thumb|right|200px|The ''Basilic autariana'' in [[Fara Gera d'Adda]]]] |
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[[File:Chiesa di santa sofia, benevento.jpg|thumb|Church of [[Santa Sofia, Benevento]]|alt=Chiesa di santa sofia, benevento.jpg]] |
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{{main|Lombard architecture}} |
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Few Lombard buildings have survived. Most have been lost, rebuilt, or renovated at some point and so preserve little of their original Lombard structure. Lombard architecture has been well-studied in the 20th century, and [[Arthur Kingsley Porter]]'s four-volume ''Lombard Architecture'' (1919) is a "monument of illustrated history." |
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Few Lombard buildings have survived. Most have been lost, rebuilt, or renovated at some point, so they preserve little of their original Lombard structure. Lombard architecture was well-studied in the twentieth century, and the four-volume ''Lombard Architecture'' (1919) by [[Arthur Kingsley Porter]] is a "monument of illustrated history". |
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The small [[Oratorio di Santa Maria in Valle]] in [[Cividale del Friuli]] is probably one of the oldest preserved pieces of Lombard architecture, as Cividale was the first Lombard city in Italy. Parts of Lombard constructions have been preserved in [[Pavia]] ([[San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro]], crypts of [[Sant'Eusebio]] and [[San Giovanni Domnarum]]) and [[Monza]] ([[Cathedral of Monza|cathedral]]). The ''Basilic autariana'' in [[Fara Gera d'Adda]] near [[Bergamo]] and the church of San Salvatore in [[Brescia]] also have Lombard elements. All these building are in northern Italy (Langobardia major), but by far the best-preserved Lombard structure is in southern Italy (Langobardia minor). The [[Santa Sofia, Benevento|Church of Santa Sofia]] in [[Benevento]] was erected in 760 by [[Arechis II of Benevento|Duke Arechis II]]. It preserves Lombard frescoes on the walls and even Lombard capitals on the columns. |
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The small [[Oratorio di Santa Maria in Valle]] in [[Cividale del Friuli]] is probably one of the oldest preserved examples of Lombard architecture, as Cividale was the first Lombard city in Italy. Parts of Lombard constructions have been preserved in [[Pavia]] ([[San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro]], [[crypt of Sant'Eusebio|crypts of Sant'Eusebio]] and San Giovanni Domnarum) and [[Monza]] ([[Cathedral of Monza|cathedral]]). The ''Basilic autariana'' in [[Fara Gera d'Adda]] near [[Bergamo]] and the church of San Salvatore in [[Brescia]] also have Lombard elements. All these buildings are in northern Italy (Langobardia major), but by far the best-preserved Lombard structure is in southern Italy (Langobardia minor). The [[Santa Sofia, Benevento|Church of Santa Sofia]] in [[Benevento]] was erected in 760 by [[Arechis II of Benevento|Duke Arechis II]], and it preserves Lombard frescoes on the walls and even Lombard capitals on the columns. |
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Through the impulse given by the Catholic monarchs like [[Theodelinda]], [[Liutprand the Lombard|Liutprand]], and [[Desiderius]] to the foundation of monasteries to further their political control, Lombard architecture flourished. [[Bobbio Abbey]] was founded during this time. |
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Lombard architecture flourished under the impulse provided by the Catholic monarchs like [[Theodelinda]], [[Liutprand the Lombard|Liutprand]], and [[Desiderius]] to the foundation of monasteries to further their political control. [[Bobbio Abbey]] was founded during this time. |
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Some of the late Lombard structures of the 9th and 10th century have been found to contain elements of style associated with [[Romanesque architecture]] and have been so dubbed "[[first Romanesque]]". These edifices are considered, along with some similar buildings in [[southern France]] and [[Catalonia]], to mark a transitory phase between the [[Pre-Romanesque art and architecture|Pre-Romanesque]] and full-fledged Romanesque. |
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Some of the late Lombard structures of the ninth and tenth centuries have been found to contain elements of style associated with [[Romanesque architecture]] and so have been dubbed "[[first Romanesque]]". These edifices are considered, along with some similar buildings in [[southern France]] and [[Catalonia]], to mark a transitory phase between the [[Pre-Romanesque art and architecture|Pre-Romanesque]] and full-fledged Romanesque. |
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==See also== |
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{{Portal|Ancient Germanic culture}} |
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*[[Longobards in Italy, Places of Power (568-774 A.D.)]] |
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*[[East Germanic tribes]] |
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*[[Barbarian invasions]] |
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*[[List of Germanic tribes]] |
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== |
==List of rulers== |
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{{Main|List of kings of the Lombards}} |
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;Notes |
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{{reflist|colwidth=30em}} |
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==Notes and sources== |
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;Bibliography |
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===Notes=== |
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* ''Cosmographer of Ravenna'' |
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{{Reflist}} |
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* ''Historia langobardorum codicis Gothani'' |
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* ''Historia Langobardorum'' |
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===Sources=== |
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* ''Origo gentis Langobardorum'' |
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'''Ancient sources''' |
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* Bluhme, Friedrich. ''Gens Langobardorum'' |
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{{Refbegin}} |
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* Bruckner, Wilhelm. ''Die Sprache der Langobarden'' |
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* ''[[Cosmographer of Ravenna]]'' |
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* {{cite book|last=Christie|first=Neil|title=The Lombards: the ancient Longobards|year=1995|series=The Peoples of Europe|publisher=Blackwell|location=Oxford}} |
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* ''[[Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani]]'' |
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* {{cite book|title=Literacy in Lombard Italy, C. 568-774|first=Nicholas|last=Everett|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2003|isbn=0-521-81905-9, 9780521819053|location=Cambridge}} |
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* ''[[Historia Langobardorum]]'' |
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* Fröhlich, Harmann. ''Studien zur langobardischen Thronfolge'' - ''Zur Herkunft der Langobarden - Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken (QFIAB)'' |
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* ''[[Origo Gentis Langobardorum]]'' |
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* Giess, Hildegard. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0004-3079%28195909%2941%3A3%3C249%3ATSOTCO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P "The Sculpture of the Cloister of Santa Sofia in Benevento"],''The Art Bulletin'', Vol. 41, No. 3. (September 1959), pp 249–256. |
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* [[Brothers Grimm|Grimm]]. ''Deutsche Mythologie'' |
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* [[H. M. Gwatkin|Gwatkin, H. M.]], [[J. P. Whitney|Whitney, J. P.]] (ed) - ''The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume II—The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundations of the Western Empire''. Cambridge University Press, 1926. |
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* Hallenbeck, Jan T. "Pavia and Rome: The Lombard Monarchy and the Papacy in the Eighth Century" ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'' New Series, '''72'''.4 (1982), pp. 1–186. |
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* Hammerstein-Loxten, Freiherren von. ''Bardengau'' |
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* Hartmann, Ludo Moritz. ''Geschichte Italiens im Mittelalter II Vol.'' |
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* Hodgkin, Thomas. ''Italy and her Invaders''. [[Clarendon Press]] |
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* Menghin, Wilifred. ''Die Langobarden / Geschichte und Archäologie''. Theiss |
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* [[Charles Oman|Oman, Charles]]. ''The Dark Ages 476-918''. London, 1914. |
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* Pohl, Walter and Erhart, Peter. ''Die Langobarden / Herrschaft und Identität'' |
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* Priester, Karin. ''Geschichte der Langobarden / Gesellschaft - Kultur - Altagsleben''. Theiss |
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* {{cite book|author=Rothair|coauthors=Grimwald; [[Liutprand, King of the Lombards|Liutprand]]; [[Ratchis]]; [[Aistulf]]; Katherine Fischer Drew (Translator, Editor); Edward Peters (Foreword)|title=The Lombard Laws|location=Philadelphia|publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]]| |
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year=1973|isbn=0-8122-1055-7}} |
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* [[Antonio Santosuosso|Santosuosso, Antonio]]. ''Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels: The Ways of Medieval Warfare''. 2004. ISBN 0-8133-9153-9 |
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* Schmidt, Dr. Ludwig. ''Älteste Geschichte der Langobarden'' |
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* [[Tacitus]]. ''Annals'' |
* [[Tacitus]]. ''Annals'' |
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* Tacitus. ''[[Germania (book)|Germania]]'' |
* Tacitus. ''[[Germania (book)|Germania]]'' |
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{{Refend}} |
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* Wegewitz, Willi. ''Das Langobardische brandgräberfeld von Putensen, Kreise Harburg'' |
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* {{Cite book|first=Christopher|last=Wickham|author-link=Chris Wickham|editor-last=Goffart|editor-first=Walter A.|editor2-last=Murray|editor2-first=Alexander C.|contribution=Aristocratic Power in Eight-Century Lombard Italy|title=After Rome's Fall: Narrators and Sources of Early Medieval History, Essays presented to Walter Goffart|year=1998|pages=153–170|place=Toronto|publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]]|isbn=0-8020-0779-1|postscript=<!--None-->}}. |
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'''Modern sources''' |
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* Wiese, Rbert ''Die aelteste Geschichte der Langobarden'' |
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* Zeuss, Kaspar. ''Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme'' |
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* {{cite book |last=Cardini |first=Franco |title=Storia medievale |year=2019 |publisher=Le Monnier Università |location=Florence |isbn=978-8800748155 |language=it}} |
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* {{cite journal |last=Amorim |first=Carlos Eduardo G. |date=11 September 2018 |title=Understanding 6th-century barbarian social organization and migration through paleogenomics |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |publisher=[[Nature Research]] |volume=9 |issue=3547 |page=3547 |doi=10.1038/s41467-018-06024-4 |pmc=6134036 |pmid=30206220 |bibcode=2018NatCo...9.3547A |doi-access=free |biorxiv=10.1101/268250}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Bluhme |first=Friedrich |author-link=:de:Friedrich Bluhme |year=1868 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008235861 |title=Die Gens Langobardorum und ihre Herkunft, ...und ihre Sprache |language=de |trans-title=The Gens Langobardorum and their origin, ...and their language |location=Bonn |publisher=A.Marcus}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Brown |first=Thomas S. |year=2005 |chapter=Lombards |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001/acref-9780195046526-e-3191? |editor-last=Kazhdan |editor-first=Alexander P. |editor-link1=Alexander Kazhdan |title=[[The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780195187922 |access-date=26 January 2020}} |
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* {{cite journal |last=Bruckner |first=Wilhelm |year=1895 |url=https://archive.org/details/quellenundforsc03unkngoog/page/n453 |title=Die Sprache der Langobarden |language=de |trans-title=The language of the Lombards |journal=Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Culturgeschichte der germanischen Völker |volume=75 |location=Strassburg |publisher=Karl J. Trübner}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Chadwick Oman |first=Charles William |title=The Dark Ages 476–918 |year=2016 |publisher=Palala Press |isbn=978-1358378560 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.86389/page/n5/mode/2up}} |
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* {{cite book |first=Neil |last=Christie |author-link1=Neil Christie |year=2018a |chapter=Lombards |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-2847 |editor-last=Nicholson |editor-first=Oliver |title=[[The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=920–922 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001 |isbn=9780191744457 |access-date=March 13, 2020}} |
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* {{cite book |first=Neil |last=Christie |author-link1=Neil Christie |year=2018b |chapter=Lombard Invasion Of Italy |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-2845 |editor1-last=Nicholson |editor1-first=Oliver |title=[[The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=919–920 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001 |isbn=9780191744457 |access-date=March 13, 2020}} |
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* {{cite book |first=Neil |last=Christie |author-link1=Neil Christie |year=1995 |title=The Lombards |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNuGQgAACAAJ |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]] |isbn=0631182381}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Daim |first=Falko |chapter=The Longobards in Pannonia |title=Prima e dopo Alboino: sulle tracce dei Longobardi |language=it |trans-title=Before and after Alboino: on the trail of the Lombards |year=2019 |location=Napoli |publisher=Guida |pages=221–241 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42431017}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Darvill |first=Timothy |author-link=Timothy Darvill |year=2009 |chapter=Lombards |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199534043.001.0001/acref-9780199534043-e-2297? |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199534043.001.0001/acref-9780199534043 |edition=3 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199534043.001.0001 |isbn=9780191727139 |access-date=25 January 2020}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Everett |first=Nicholas |title=Literacy in Lombard Italy, c. 568–774 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2003 |isbn=9780521819053 |location=Cambridge}} |
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* {{cite book |translator-last=Fischer Drew |translator-first=Katherine |others=foreword by Edward Peters |title=The Lombard Laws |location=Philadelphia |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |year=1973 |isbn=0-8122-1055-7}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Fock |first=Gustav |title=Älteste Geschichte der Langobarden. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Völkerwanderung |year=1884 |publisher=Universität |location=Leipzig |language=de}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Fröhlich |first=Hermann |year=1980 |title=Studien zur langobardischen Thronfolge |language=de |trans-title=Studies on the Longobard succession}} In two volumes. Diss. Eberhard-Karls-Universität zu Tübingen. |
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* {{cite book |last=Fröhlich |first=Hermann |year=1976 |url=https://www.perspectivia.net/publikationen/qfiab/55-56-1976 |chapter=Zur Herkunft der Langobarden |language=de |trans-chapter=On the origin of the Lombards |title=Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken (QFIAB) 55/56 |trans-title=Sources and Research from Italian Archives and Libraries (QFIAB) 55/56 |location=Tübingen |publisher=Max Niemeyer |pages=1–21}} |
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* {{cite journal |last=Giess |first=Hildegard |jstor=3047841 |title=The Sculpture of the Cloister of Santa Sofia in Benevento |journal=The Art Bulletin |volume=41 |number=3 |date=September 1959 |pages=249–256 |doi=10.1080/00043079.1959.11407988}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Grimm |first=Jacob |title=Deutsche Mythologie |publisher=Marix |year=2003 |isbn=3932412249 |language=de}} |
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* {{cite journal |last=Hallenbeck |first=Jan T. |year=1982 |title=Pavia and Rome: The Lombard Monarchy and the Papacy in the Eighth Century |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |volume=74 |series=New Series |issue=4 |location=Philadelphia}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Hartmann |first=Ludwig Moritz |title=Geschichte Italiens Im Mittelalter |year=2011 |publisher=Nabu Press |isbn=978-1247551845 |language=de}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Hutterer |first=Claus Jürgen |title=Die Germanischen Sprachen |language=de |trans-title=The Germanic Languages |chapter=Langobardisch |trans-chapter=Lombardish |pages=336–341 |year=1999 |publisher=Albus |location=Wiesbaden |isbn=3-928127-57-8}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Hodgkin |first=Thomas |title=Italy and her invaders |year=2012 |publisher=Ulan Press}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Jarnut |first=Jörg |title=Storia dei Longobardi |location=Turin |publisher=[[Einaudi]] |year=2002 |isbn=88-06-16182-2}} |
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* {{cite journal |last=Leonardi |first=Michela |date=September 6, 2018 |title=Storia dei Longobardi |journal=[[American Journal of Physical Anthropology]] |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]] |volume=167 |issue=3 |pages=497–506 |biorxiv=10.1101/268250 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.23679 |pmid=30187463 |s2cid=52161000}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Menghin |first=Wilifred |title=Die Langobarden / Geschichte und Archäologie |location=Stuttgart |publisher=[[Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft|Theiss]] |year=1985 |isbn=3926642238 |language=de}} |
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* {{cite journal |last=O'Sullivan |first=Niall |date=September 9, 2018 |title=Ancient genome-wide analyses infer kinship structure in an Early Medieval Alemannic graveyard |journal=[[Science Advances]] |publisher=[[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] |volume=4 |issue=9 |pages=eaao1262 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.aao1262 |pmc=6124919 |pmid=30191172 |bibcode=2018SciA....4.1262O}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Pohl |first=Walter |title=Die Langobarden Herrschaft und Identität |date=2024 |location=Wien |isbn=978-3-7001-3400-8 |language=de}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Priester |first=Karin |title=Die Geschichte der Langobarden: Gesellschaft – Kultur – Alltagsleben |year=2004 |publisher=Theiss |location=Stuttgart |isbn=380621848X}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Rovagnati |first=Sergio |title=I Longobardi |location=Milan |publisher=Xenia |year=2003 |isbn=88-7273-484-3}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Santosuosso |first=Antonio |title=Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels: The Ways of Medieval Warfare |year=2004 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=0813391539}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Schmidt |first=Ludwig |title=Zur Geschichte der Langobarden |location=Leipzig |publisher=Forgotten Books |year=2018 |isbn=978-0267059577 |url=https://archive.org/details/zurgeschichtede08schmgoog/page/n5 |language=de}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Taviani-Carozzi |first=Huguette |year=2005 |chapter=Lombards |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780227679319.001.0001/acref-9780227679319-e-1700 |editor1-last=Vauchez |editor1-first=André |editor1-link=André Vauchez |title=Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780227679319.001.0001/acref-9780227679319 |publisher=[[The Lutterworth Press|James Clarke & Co]] |doi=10.1093/acref/9780227679319.001.0001 |isbn=9780195188172 |access-date=26 January 2020}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Todd |first=Malcolm |author-link1=Malcolm Todd |year=2004 |title=The Early Germans |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxXltwAACAAJ |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]] |isbn=9781405117142}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Troya |first=Carlo |title=Codice Diplomatico Longobardo Dal DLXVIII Al DCCLXXIV: Con Note Storiche, Volume 1 |year=2010 |publisher=Nabu Press |isbn=978-1144256270}} |
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* {{cite journal |last=Vai |first=Stefania |date=19 January 2019 |title=A genetic perspective on Longobard-Era migrations |journal=[[European Journal of Human Genetics]] |publisher=[[Nature Research]] |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=647–656 |doi=10.1038/s41431-018-0319-8 |pmc=6460631 |pmid=30651584}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Von Hammerstein-Loxten |first=Wilhelm C |title=Der Bardengau : e. histor. Unters. über dessen Verhältnisse u. über d. Güterbesitz d. Billunger |date=1869 |publisher=Hahn |location=Hannover |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_3vlSAAAAcAAJ/page/n3/mode/2up |language=de}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Wegwitz |first=Willie |title=Das langobardische Brandgräberfeld von Putensen |year=1972 |publisher=Hildesheim |location=Harburg |language=de}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Whitby |first=L. Michael |author-link1=Michael Whitby |year=2012 |chapter=Lombards |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199545568.001.0001/acref-9780199545568-e-3764? |editor-last1=Hornblower |editor-first1=Simon |editor-link1=Simon Hornblower |editor-last2=Spawforth |editor-first2=Antony |editor-last3=Eidinow |editor-first3=Esther |editor-link3=Esther Eidinow |title=[[The Oxford Classical Dictionary]] |edition=4th |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=857 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199545568.001.0001 |isbn=9780191735257 |access-date=25 January 2020}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Whitney |first=J. P. |title=''[[The Cambridge Medieval History]]: Volume II – The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundations of the Western Empire'' |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1913}} |
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* {{Cite book |first=Christopher |last=Wickham |author-link=Chris Wickham |editor-last1=Goffart |editor-first1=Walter A. |editor-link=Walter Goffart |editor-last2=Murray |editor-first2=Alexander C. |contribution=Aristocratic Power in Eighth-Century Lombard Italy |title=After Rome's Fall: Narrators and Sources of Early Medieval History, Essays presented to Walter Goffart |year=1998 |pages=153–170 |place=Toronto |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |isbn=0-8020-0779-1}}. |
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* {{cite book |last=Wiese |first=Robert |title=Die älteste Geschichte der Langobarden bis zum Untergange des Reiches der Heruler |year=1877 |publisher=Ratz, Jena |language=de}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Zeuss |first=Johann Kaspar |title=Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme |year=2012 |publisher=Nabu Press |isbn=978-1278747057 |language=de}} |
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{{Refend}} |
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==External links== |
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{{Commons category|Lombards}} |
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* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Lombards |first1=Frederick George Meeson |last1=Beck |first2=Richard William |last2=Church |author2link=Richard William Church |short=x}} |
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Latest revision as of 02:27, 27 November 2024
The Lombards (/ˈlɒmbərdz, -bɑːrdz, ˈlʌm-/)[1] or Longobards (Latin: Longobardi) were a Germanic people[2] who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the History of the Lombards (written between 787 and 796) that the Lombards descended from a small tribe called the Winnili,[3] who dwelt in northern Germany[4] before migrating to seek new lands. Earlier Roman-era historians wrote of the Lombards in the first century AD as being one of the Suebian peoples, also from what is now northern Germany, near the Elbe river. They migrated south, and by the end of the fifth century, the Lombards had moved into the area roughly coinciding with modern Austria and Slovakia north of the Danube. Here they subdued the Heruls and later fought frequent wars with the Gepids. The Lombard king Audoin defeated the Gepid leader Thurisind in 551 or 552, and Audoin's successor Alboin eventually destroyed the Gepids in 567. The Lombards also settled in Pannonia (modern-day Hungary). Near Szólád, archaeologists have unearthed burial sites of Lombard men and women buried together as families, unusual among Germanic peoples at the time. Contemporary traces have also been discovered of Mediterranean Greeks and a possible migrant from France.
Following Alboin's victory over the Gepids, he led his people into northeastern Italy, which had become severely depopulated and devastated after the long Gothic War (535–554) between the Byzantine Empire and the Ostrogothic Kingdom. The Lombards were joined by numerous Saxons, Heruls, Gepids, Bulgars, Thuringians and Ostrogoths, and their invasion of Italy was almost unopposed. By late 569, they had conquered all of northern Italy and the principal cities north of the Po River except Pavia, which fell in 572. At the same time, they occupied areas in central and southern Italy. They established a Lombard Kingdom in north and central Italy, which reached its zenith under the eighth-century ruler Liutprand. In 774, the kingdom was conquered by the Frankish king Charlemagne and integrated into the Frankish Empire. However, Lombard nobles continued to rule southern parts of the Italian peninsula well into the eleventh century, when they were conquered by the Normans and added to the County of Sicily. In this period, the southern part of Italy still under Lombard domination was known to the Norse as Langbarðaland ('land of the Lombards'), as inscribed in the Norse runestones.[5] Their legacy is also apparent in the name of the region of Lombardy in northern Italy.
Name
[edit]According to their traditions, the Lombards initially called themselves the Winnili. After a reported major victory against the Vandals in the first century, they changed their name to Lombards.[6] The name Winnili is generally translated as 'the wolves', related to the Proto-Germanic root *wulfaz 'wolf'.[7] The name Lombard was reportedly derived from the distinctively long beards of the Lombards.[8] It is probably a compound of the Proto-Germanic elements *langaz (long) and *bardaz (beard).
History
[edit]Early history
[edit]Legendary origins
[edit]According to their own legends, the Lombards originated in Northern Germany/Denmark zone[9] including modern-day Denmark. The Germanic origins of the Lombards is supported by genetic,[10] anthropological,[9] archaeological and earlier literary evidence.[9]
A legendary account of Lombard origins, history, and practices is the Historia Langobardorum (History of the Lombards) of Paul the Deacon, written in the eighth century. Paul's chief source for Lombard origins, however, is the seventh-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum (Origin of the Lombard People).
The Origo Gentis Langobardorum tells the story of a small tribe called the Winnili[3] dwelling in Northern Germany/Denmark zone[4] (the Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani writes that the Winnili first dwelt near a river called Vindilicus on the extreme boundary of Gaul).[11] The Winnili were split into three groups and one part left their native land to seek foreign fields. The reason for the exodus was probably overpopulation.[12] The departing people were led by Gambara and her sons Ybor and Aio [13][14] and arrived in the lands of Scoringa, perhaps the Baltic coast[15] or the Bardengau on the banks of the Elbe.[16] Scoringa was ruled by the Vandals and their chieftains, the brothers Ambri and Assi, who granted the Winnili a choice between tribute or war.
The Winnili were young and brave and refused to pay tribute, saying "It is better to maintain liberty by arms than to stain it by the payment of tribute."[17] The Vandals prepared for war and consulted Godan (the god Odin[4]), who answered that he would give victory to those whom he would see first at sunrise.[18] The Winnili were fewer in number[17] and Gambara sought help from Frea (the goddess Frigg[4]), who advised that all Winnili women should tie their hair in front of their faces like beards and march in line with their husbands. At sunrise, Frea turned her husband's bed so that he was facing east, and woke him. So Godan spotted the Winnili first and asked, "Who are these long-beards?," and Frea replied, "My lord, thou hast given them the name, now give them also the victory."[19] From that moment onwards, the Winnili were known as the Longbeards (Latinised as Langobardi, Italianised as Longobardi, and Anglicized as Langobards or Lombards).
When Paul the Deacon wrote the Historia between 787 and 796 he was a Catholic monk and devoted Christian. He thought the pagan stories of his people "silly" and "laughable".[18][20] Paul explained that the name "Langobard" came from the length of their beards.[21] A modern theory suggests that the name "Langobard" comes from Langbarðr, a name of Odin.[22] Priester states that when the Winnili changed their name to "Lombards", they also changed their old agricultural fertility cult to a cult of Odin, thus creating a conscious tribal tradition.[23] Fröhlich inverts the order of events in Priester and states that with the Odin cult, the Lombards grew their beards in resemblance of the Odin of tradition and their new name reflected this.[24] Bruckner remarks that the name of the Lombards stands in close relation to the worship of Odin, whose many names include "the Long-bearded" or "the Grey-bearded", and that the Lombard given name Ansegranus ("he with the beard of the gods") shows that the Lombards had this idea of their chief deity.[25] The same Old Norse root Barth or Barði, meaning "beard", is shared with the Heaðobards mentioned in both Beowulf and in Widsith, where they conflict with the Danes. They were possibly a branch of the Langobards.[26][27]
Alternatively, some etymological sources suggest an Old High German root, barta, meaning "axe" (and related to English halberd), while Edward Gibbon puts forth an alternative suggestion which argues that:
...Börde (or Börd) still signifies "a fertile plain by the side of a river," and a district near Magdeburg is still called the lange Börde. According to this view Langobardi would signify "inhabitants of the long bord of the river;" and traces of their name are supposed still to occur in such names as Bardengau and Bardewick in the neighborhood of the Elbe.[28]
According to the Gallaecian Christian priest, historian and theologian Paulus Orosius (translated by Daines Barrington), the Lombards or Winnili lived originally in the Vinuiloth (Vinovilith) mentioned by Jordanes, in his masterpiece Getica, to the north of Uppsala, Sweden. Scoringa was near the province of Uppland, so just north of Östergötland.
The footnote then explains the etymology of the name Scoringa:
The shores of Uppland and Östergötland are covered with small rocks and rocky islands, which are called in German Schæren and in Swedish Skiaeren. Heal signifies a port in the northern languages; consequently, Skiæren-Heal is the port of the Skiæren, a name well adapted to the port of Stockholm, in the Upplandske Skiæren, and the country may be justly called Scorung or Skiærunga.[29]
The legendary king Sceafa of Scandza was an ancient Lombardic king in Anglo-Saxon legend. The Old English poem Widsith, in a listing of famous kings and their countries, has Sceafa [weold] Longbeardum, so naming Sceafa as ruler of the Lombards.[30]
Similarities between Langobardic and Gothic migration traditions have been noted among scholars. These early migration legends suggest that a major shifting of tribes occurred sometime between the first and second century BC, which would coincide with the time that the Teutoni and Cimbri left their homelands in Northern Germany and migrated through central Germany, eventually invading Roman Italy.[31]
Archaeology and classical sources
[edit]The first mention of the Lombards occurred between AD 9 and 16, by the Roman court historian Velleius Paterculus, who accompanied a Roman expedition as prefect of the cavalry.[34] Paterculus says that under Tiberius the "power of the Langobardi was broken, a race surpassing even the Germans in savagery".[35]
From the combined testimony of Strabo (AD 20) and Tacitus (AD 117), the Lombards dwelt near the mouth of the Elbe shortly after the beginning of the Christian era, next to the Chauci.[34] Strabo states that the Lombards dwelt on both sides of the Elbe.[34] He treats them as a branch of the Suebi, and states that:
Now as for the tribe of the Suebi, it is the largest, for it extends from the Rhenus to the Albis; and a part of them even dwells on the far side of the Albis, as, for instance, the Hermondori and the Langobardi; and at the present time these latter, at least, have, to the last man, been driven in flight out of their country into the land on the far side of the river.[36]
Consistent with this, Suetonius wrote that Roman general Nero Claudius Drusus defeated a large force of Germans and drove some "to the farther side of the Albis (Elbe)" river.[37]
The German archaeologist Willi Wegewitz defined several Iron Age burial sites at the Lower Elbe as Langobardic.[38]: 19 The burial sites are crematorial and are usually dated from the sixth century BC through the third century AD, so a settlement breakoff seems unlikely.[39] The lands of the lower Elbe fall into the zone of the Jastorf Culture and became Elbe-Germanic, differing from the lands between Rhine, Weser, and the North Sea.[40] Archaeological finds show that the Lombards were an agricultural people.[41]
Tacitus also counted the Lombards as a remote and aggressive Suebian tribe, listing them between the Semnones on the Elbe, and the Nerthus-worshipping tribes whose land of rivers and forest stretched to the sea. Writing in the late first century AD, he described the Langobardi in his Germania saying that "their scanty numbers are a distinction" because "surrounded by a host of most powerful tribes, they are safe, not by submitting, but by daring the perils of war".[42]
Tacitus also noted that the Lombards were subjects of Marobod the King of the Marcomanni, who was allied with Rome when Arminius and his allies won the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. However, after the outbreak of war between Arminius and Marobod in 17 AD the Lombards and Semnones switched to the alliance of Arminius. They detested Marobod's title of king, and saw Arminius as a champion of freedom.[43]
In 47, a struggle ensued amongst the Cherusci and they expelled their new leader, the nephew of Arminius, from their country. The Lombards appeared on the scene with sufficient power to control the destiny of the tribe that had been the leader in the struggle for independence thirty-eight years earlier, for they restored the deposed leader to sovereignty.[44]
To the south, in 166 Cassius Dio reported that just before the Marcomannic Wars, 6,000 Lombards and Obii (sometimes thought to be Ubii) crossed the Danube and invaded Pannonia.[45][46] The two tribes were defeated, whereupon they ceased their invasion and sent Ballomar, King of the Marcomanni, as ambassador to Aelius Bassus, who was then administering Pannonia. Peace was made and the two tribes returned to their homes, which in the case of the Lombards was the lands of the lower Elbe.[47][48][49][50]
In the mid-second century, the Lombards supposedly appeared in the Rhineland, because according to Claudius Ptolemy, the Suebic Lombards lived "below" the Bructeri and Sugambri, and between these and the Tencteri. To their east stretching northwards to the central Elbe are the Suebi Angili.[34][51] But Ptolemy also mentions the "Laccobardi" to the north of the above-mentioned Suebic territories, east of the Angrivarii on the Weser, and south of the Chauci on the coast, probably indicating a Lombard expansion from the Elbe to the Rhine.[34][52] This double mention has been interpreted as an editorial error by Gudmund Schütte, in his analysis of Ptolemy.[53] However, the Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani also mentions Patespruna (Paderborn) in connection with the Lombards.[11]
From the second century onwards, many of the Germanic tribes recorded as active during the Principate started to unite into bigger tribal unions, such as the Franks, Alamanni, Bavarii, and Saxons.[46][54] The Lombards are not mentioned at first, perhaps because they were not initially on the border of Rome, or perhaps because they were subjected to a larger tribal union, like the Saxons.[46][54] It is, however, highly probable that, when the bulk of the Lombards migrated, a considerable part remained behind and afterwards became absorbed by the Saxon tribes in the Elbe region, while the emigrants alone retained the name of Lombards.[55] However, the Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani states that the Lombards were subjected by the Saxons around 300 but rose up against them under their first king, Agelmund, who ruled for 30 years.[11][56] In the second half of the fourth century, the Lombards left their homes, probably due to bad harvests, and embarked on their migration.[48][49][50][57]
The migration route of the Lombards in 489, from their homeland to "Rugiland", encompassed several places: Scoringa (believed to be their land on the Elbe shores), Mauringa, Golanda, Anthaib, Banthaib, and Vurgundaib (Burgundaib).[16] According to the Ravenna Cosmography, Mauringa was the land east of the Elbe.[58]
The crossing into Mauringa was very difficult. The Assipitti (possibly the Usipetes) denied them passage through their lands and a fight was arranged for the strongest man of each tribe. The Lombard was victorious, passage was granted, and the Lombards reached Mauringa.[59]
The Lombards departed from Mauringa and reached Golanda. Scholar Ludwig Schmidt thinks this was further east, perhaps on the right bank of the Oder.[60] Schmidt considers the name the equivalent of Gotland, meaning simply "good land".[61] This theory is highly plausible; Paul the Deacon mentions the Lombards crossing a river, and they could have reached Rugiland from the Upper Oder area via the Moravian Gate.[62]
Moving out of Golanda, the Lombards passed through Anthaib and Banthaib until they reached Vurgundaib, believed to be the old lands of the Burgundes.[63][64] In Vurgundaib, the Lombards were stormed in camp by "Bulgars" (probably Huns)[65] and were defeated; King Agelmund was killed and Laimicho was made king. He was in his youth and desired to avenge the slaughter of Agelmund.[66] The Lombards themselves were probably made subjects of the Huns after the defeat but rose up and defeated them with great slaughter,[67] gaining great booty and confidence as they "became bolder in undertaking the toils of war."[68] During the reign of King Claffo, the Langobards occupied parts of modern-day Upper and Lower Austria and converted to Arian Christianity. In 505 the Herulians attacked and defeated them, obliging them to pay tax and withdraw to Northern Bohemia. In 508, King Rodulf sent his brother to the Lombard court to collect tribute and extend the truce; however, he was stabbed by Rometrud, sister of King Tato. Rodulf personally led his forces against Tato, but was ambushed and killed from a hill.[69]
In the 540s, Audoin (ruled 546–560) led the Lombards across the Danube once more into Pannonia. Thurisind, King of the Gepids attempted to expel them, and both peoples asked for help from the Byzantines. Justinian I sent his army against the Gepids; however, it was routed on the way by the Herulians and the sides signed a two-year truce. Revenging what he felt as a betrayal, Thurisind made an alliance with the Kutrigurs who devastated Moesia before end of the armistice. The Langobard and Roman army joined together and defeated the Gepids in 551. In the battle, Audoin's son, Alboin killed Thurisind's son, Turismod.[70]
In 552, the Byzantines, aided by a large contingent of Foederati, notably Lombards, Heruls and Bulgars, defeated the last Ostrogoths led by Teia in the Battle of Taginae.[71]
Kingdom of the Lombards, 568–774
[edit]Invasion and conquest of the Italian peninsula
[edit]
In approximately 560, Audoin was succeeded by his son Alboin, a young and energetic leader who defeated the neighboring Gepidae and made them his subjects; in 566, he married Rosamund, daughter of the Gepid king Cunimund. In the same year, he made a pact with Khagan Bayan. Next year the Lombards and the Avars destroyed the Gepid kingdom in the Lombard–Gepid War, the allies halved the prize of war and the nomads settled in Transylvania.[72] In the spring of 568, Alboin, now fearing the aggressive Avars, led the Lombard migration into Italy,[73] which he planned for years.[72] According to the History of the Lombards, "Then the Langobards, having left Pannonia, hastened to take possession of Italy with their wives and children and all their goods."[74] The Avars have agreed to shelter them if they wish to come back.[72] Various other peoples who either voluntarily joined or were subjects of King Alboin were also part of the migration.[73]
Whence, even until today, we call the villages in which they dwell Gepidan, Bulgarian, Sarmatian, Pannonian, Suabian, Norican, or by other names of this kind."[75]
At least 20,000 Saxon warriors, old allies of the Lombards, and their families joined them in their new migration.[76] The first important city to fall was Forum Iulii (Cividale del Friuli) in northeastern Italy, in 569. There, Alboin created the first Lombard duchy, which he entrusted to his nephew Gisulf. Soon Vicenza, Verona and Brescia fell into Germanic hands. In the summer of 569, the Lombards conquered the main Roman centre of northern Italy, Milan. The area was then recovering from the terrible Gothic Wars, and the small Byzantine army left for its defence could do almost nothing. Longinus, the Exarch sent to Italy by Emperor Justin II, could only defend coastal cities that could be supplied by the powerful Byzantine fleet. Pavia fell after a siege of three years, in 572, becoming the first capital city of the new Lombard kingdom of Italy.
In the following years, the Lombards penetrated further south, conquering Tuscany and establishing two duchies, Spoleto and Benevento under Zotto, which soon became semi-independent and even outlasted the northern kingdom, surviving well into the twelfth century. Wherever they went, they were joined by the Ostrogothic population, which was allowed to live peacefully in Italy with their Rugian allies under Roman sovereignty.[77] The Byzantines managed to retain control of the area of Ravenna and Rome, linked by a thin corridor running through Perugia.
When they entered Italy, some Lombards retained their native form of paganism, while some were Arian Christians. Hence they did not enjoy good relations with the Early Christian Church. Gradually, they adopted Roman or Romanized titles, names, and traditions, and partially converted to orthodoxy (in the seventh century), though not without a long series of religious and ethnic conflicts. By the time Paul the Deacon was writing, the Lombard language, dress and even hairstyles had nearly all disappeared in toto.[78]
The whole Lombard territory was divided into 36 duchies, whose leaders settled in the main cities. The king ruled over them and administered the land through emissaries called gastaldi. This subdivision, however, together with the independent indocility of the duchies, deprived the kingdom of unity, making it weak even when compared to the Byzantines, especially since these had begun to recover from the initial invasion. This weakness became even more evident when the Lombards had to face the increasing power of the Franks. In response, the kings tried to centralize power over time, but they definitively lost control over Spoleto and Benevento in the attempt.
Langobardia major
[edit]- Duchy of Friuli
- Duchy of Tridentum
- Duchy of Persiceta
- Duchy of Pavia
- Duchy of Tuscia
Langobardia minor
[edit]Arian monarchy
[edit]In 572, Alboin was murdered in Verona in a plot led by his wife, Rosamund, who later fled to Ravenna. His successor, Cleph, was also assassinated, after a ruthless reign of 18 months. His death began an interregnum of years (the "Rule of the Dukes") during which the dukes did not elect any king, a period regarded as a time of violence and disorder. In 586, threatened by a Frankish invasion, the dukes elected Cleph's son, Authari, as king. In 589, he married Theodelinda, daughter of Garibald I of Bavaria, the Duke of Bavaria. The Catholic Theodelinda was a friend of Pope Gregory I and pushed for Christianization. In the meantime, Authari embarked on a policy of internal reconciliation and tried to reorganize royal administration. The dukes yielded half their estates for the maintenance of the king and his court in Pavia. On the foreign affairs side, Authari managed to thwart the dangerous alliance between the Byzantines and the Franks.
Authari died in 591 and was succeeded by Agilulf, the duke of Turin, who also married Theodelinda in the same year. Agilulf successfully fought the rebel dukes of northern Italy, conquering Padua in 601, Cremona and Mantua in 603, and forcing the Exarch of Ravenna to pay tribute. Agilulf died in 616; Theodelinda reigned alone until 628 when she was succeeded by Adaloald. Arioald, the head of the Arian opposition who had married Theodelinda's daughter Gundeperga, later deposed Adaloald.
Arioald was succeeded by Rothari, regarded by many authorities as the most energetic of all Lombard kings. He extended his dominions, conquering Liguria in 643 and the remaining part of the Byzantine territories of inner Veneto, including the Roman city of Opitergium (Oderzo). Rothari also made the famous edict bearing his name, the Edictum Rothari, which established the laws and the customs of his people in Latin: the edict did not apply to the tributaries of the Lombards, who could retain their own laws. Rothari's son Rodoald succeeded him in 652, still very young, and was killed by his opponents.
At the death of King Aripert I in 661, the kingdom was split between his children Perctarit, who set his capital in Milan, and Godepert, who reigned from Pavia (Ticinum). Perctarit was overthrown by Grimoald, son of Gisulf, duke of Friuli and Benevento since 647. Perctarit fled to the Avars and then to the Franks. Grimoald managed to regain control over the duchies and deflected the late attempt of the Byzantine emperor Constans II to conquer southern Italy. He also defeated the Franks. At Grimoald's death in 671 Perctarit returned and promoted tolerance between Arians and Catholics, but he could not defeat the Arian party, led by Arachi, duke of Trento, who submitted only to his son, the philo-Catholic Cunincpert.
The Lombards engaged in fierce battles with Slavic peoples during these years: from 623 to 626 the Lombards unsuccessfully attacked the Carantanians, and, in 663–64, the Slavs raided the Vipava Valley and the Friuli.
Catholic monarchy
[edit]Religious strife and the Slavic raids remained a source of struggle in the following years. In 705, the Friuli Lombards were defeated and lost the land to the west of the Soča River, namely the Gorizia Hills and the Venetian Slovenia.[80] A new ethnic border was established that has lasted for over 1200 years up until the present time.[80][81]
The Lombard reign began to recover only with Liutprand the Lombard (king from 712), son of Ansprand and successor of the brutal Aripert II. He managed to regain a certain control over Spoleto and Benevento, and, taking advantage of the disagreements between the Pope and Byzantium concerning the reverence of icons, he annexed the Exarchate of Ravenna and the duchy of Rome. He also helped the Frankish marshal Charles Martel drive back the Arabs. The Slavs were defeated in the Battle of Lavariano, when they tried to conquer the Friulian Plain in 720.[80] Liutprand's successor Aistulf conquered Ravenna for the Lombards for the first time but had to relinquish it when he was subsequently defeated by the king of the Franks, Pippin III, who was called by the Pope.
After the death of Aistulf, Ratchis attempted to become king of Lombardy, but he was deposed by Desiderius, duke of Tuscany, the last Lombard to rule as king. Desiderius managed to take Ravenna definitively, ending the Byzantine presence in northern Italy. He decided to reopen struggles against the Pope, who was supporting the dukes of Spoleto and Benevento against him, and entered Rome in 772, the first Lombard king to do so. But when Pope Hadrian I called for help from the powerful Frankish king Charlemagne, Desiderius was defeated at Susa and besieged in Pavia, while his son Adelchis was forced to open the gates of Verona to Frankish troops. Desiderius surrendered in 774, and Charlemagne, in an utterly novel decision, took the title "King of the Lombards". 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 cities of Brescia, Bergamo, Milan, and the old capital Pavia, is a reminder of the presence of the Lombards.
Later history
[edit]Falling to the Franks and the Duchy of Benevento, 774–849
[edit]Though the kingdom centred on Pavia in the north fell to Charlemagne and the Franks in 774, the Lombard-controlled territory to the south of the Papal States was never subjugated by Charlemagne or his descendants. In 774, Duke Arechis II of Benevento, whose duchy had only nominally been under royal authority, though certain kings had been effective at making their power known in the south, claimed that Benevento was the successor state of the kingdom. He tried to turn Benevento into a secundum Ticinum: a second Pavia. He tried to claim the kingship, but with no support and no chance of a coronation in Pavia.
Charlemagne came down with an army, and his son Louis the Pious sent men, to force the Beneventan duke to submit, but his submission and promises were never kept and Arechis and his successors were de facto independent. The Beneventan dukes took the title prínceps (prince) instead of that of king.
The Lombards of southern Italy were thereafter in the anomalous position of holding land claimed by two empires: the Carolingian Empire to the north and west and the Byzantine Empire to the east. They typically made pledges and promises of tribute to the Carolingians, but effectively remained outside Frankish control. Benevento meanwhile grew to its greatest extent yet when it imposed a tribute on the Duchy of Naples, which was tenuously loyal to Byzantium and even conquered the Neapolitan city of Amalfi in 838. At one point in the reign of Sicard, Lombard control covered most of southern Italy save the very south of Apulia and Calabria and Naples, with its nominally attached cities. It was during the ninth century that a strong Lombard presence became entrenched in formerly Greek Apulia. However, Sicard had opened up the south to the invasive actions of the Saracens in his war with Andrew II of Naples and when he was assassinated in 839, Amalfi declared independence and two factions fought for power in Benevento, crippling the principality and making it susceptible to external enemies.
The civil war lasted ten years and ended with a peace treaty imposed in 849 by Emperor Louis II, the only Frankish king to exercise actual sovereignty over the Lombard states. The treaty divided the kingdom into two states: the Principality of Benevento and the Principality of Salerno, with its capital at Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Southern Italy and the Arabs, 836–915
[edit]Andrew II of Naples hired Islamic mercenaries and formed a Muslim-Christian alliance for his war with Sicard of Benevento in 836; Sicard responded with other Muslim mercenaries. The Saracens initially concentrated their attacks on Sicily and Byzantine Italy, but soon Radelchis I of Benevento called in more mercenaries, who destroyed Capua in 841. Landulf the Old founded the present-day Capua, "New Capua", on a nearby hill. In general, the Lombard princes were less inclined to ally with the Saracens than with their Greek neighbours of Amalfi, Gaeta, Naples, and Sorrento. Guaifer of Salerno, however, briefly put himself under Muslim suzerainty.
In 847 a large Muslim force seized Bari, until then a Lombard gastaldate under the control of Pandenulf. Saracen incursions proceeded northwards until Adelchis of Benevento sought the help of his suzerain, Louis II, who allied with the Byzantine emperor Basil I to expel the Arabs from Bari in 869. An Arab landing force was defeated by the emperor in 871. Adelchis and Louis remained at war until the death of Louis in 875. Adelchis regarded himself as the true successor of the Lombard kings, and in that capacity he amended the Edictum Rothari, the last Lombard ruler to do so.
After the death of Louis, Landulf II of Capua briefly flirted with a Saracen alliance, but Pope John VIII convinced him to break it off. Guaimar I of Salerno fought the Saracens with Byzantine troops. Throughout this period the Lombard princes swung in allegiance from one party to another. Finally, towards 915, Pope John X managed to unite the Christian princes of southern Italy against the Saracen establishments on the Garigliano river. The Saracens were ousted from Italy in the Battle of the Garigliano in 915.
Lombard principalities in the tenth century
[edit]The independent state of Salerno inspired the gastalds of Capua to move towards independence, and by the end of the century they were styling themselves "princes" and as a third Lombard state. The Capuan and Beneventan states were united by Atenulf I of Capua in 900. He subsequently declared them to be in perpetual union, and they were separated only in 982, on the death of Pandulf Ironhead. With all of the Lombard south under his control, except Salerno, Atenulf felt safe to use the title Princeps Gentis Langobardorum ("prince of the Lombard people"), which Arechis II had begun using in 774. Among Atenulf's successors the principality was ruled jointly by fathers, sons, brothers, cousins, and uncles for the greater part of the century.
Meanwhile, the prince Gisulf I of Salerno began using the title Langobardorum Gentis Princeps around mid-century, but the ideal of a united Lombard principality was realised only in December 977, when Gisulf died and his domains were inherited by Pandulf Ironhead, who temporarily held almost all Italy south of Rome and brought the Lombards into an alliance with the Holy Roman Empire. His territories were divided upon his death.
Landulf the Red of Benevento and Capua tried to conquer the principality of Salerno with the help of John III of Naples, but with the aid of Mastalus I of Amalfi, Gisulf repulsed him. The rulers of Benevento and Capua made several attempts on Byzantine Apulia at this time, but late in the century, the Byzantines, under the stiff rule of Basil II, gained ground on the Lombards.
According to the Catalogum Principum Salerni, the Prince of "langobard Salerno" Guaimar IV ruled for 34 years and 17 days. He conquered and was: Duke of Amalfi (1039–1052), Duke of Gaeta (1040–1041), and Prince of Capua (1038–1047) in Southern Italy over the period from 1027 to 1052. He was an important figure in the final phase of Byzantine authority in the Mezzogiorno and the commencement of Norman power. Guaimar's legacy includes his dominion, either by conquest or otherwise, over Salerno, Amalfi, Gaeta, Naples, Sorrento, Apulia, Calabria, and Capua at one time or another. He was the last great Lombard prince of the south, but perhaps he is best known for his character, which the Lord Norwich sums up this way: "...without once breaking a promise or betraying a trust. Up to the day he died his honour and good faith had never once been called in question."[82]. Salerno in these decades was the main and more rich city (called "Opulenta Salernum") in southern Italy, even because of the "Schola Medica Salernitana" (the first "university" of medicine in Europe).
After the assassination of Guaimar IV the Principality of Salerno started to be dominated more and more by the Normans: in 1077 ended the history of the Langobards in Italy when this Principality was conquered by the Norman Robert Guiscard.
The principal source for the history of the Lombard principalities in this period is the Chronicon Salernitanum, composed late in the tenth century at Salerno.
Norman conquest, 1017–1078
[edit]The diminished Beneventan principality soon lost its independence to the papacy and declined in importance until it fell in the Norman conquest of southern Italy. The Normans, first called in by the Lombards to fight the Byzantines for control of Apulia and Calabria (under the likes of Melus of Bari and Arduin, among others), had become rivals for hegemony in the south. The Salernitan principality experienced a golden age under Guaimar III and Guaimar IV, but under Gisulf II, the principality shrank to insignificance and fell in 1078 to Robert Guiscard, who had married Gisulf's sister Sichelgaita. The Capua principality was hotly contested during the reign of the hated Pandulf IV, the Wolf of the Abruzzi, and, under his son, it fell, almost without contest, to the Norman Richard Drengot (1058). The Capuans revolted against Norman rule in 1091, expelling Richard's grandson Richard II and setting up one Lando IV.
Capua was again put under Norman rule after the Siege of Capua of 1098 and the city quickly declined in importance under a series of ineffective Norman rulers. The independent status of these Lombard states is in general attested by the ability of their rulers to switch suzerains at will. Often the legal vassal of the pope or the emperor (either Byzantine or Holy Roman), they were the real power-brokers in the south until their erstwhile allies the Normans rose to preeminence.
Genetics
[edit]A genetic study published in Nature Communications in September 2018 found strong genetic similarities between Lombards of Italy and earlier Lombards of Central Europe. Lombard males were primarily carriers of subclades of haplogroup R1b and I2a2a1, both of which are common among Germanic peoples. Lombard males were found to be more genetically homogeneous than Lombard females. The evidence suggested that the Lombards originated in Central/Northern Europe, and were a patriarchal people who settled Central Europe and then later Italy through a migration from the north.[83]
A genetic study published in Science Advances in September 2018 examined the remains of a Lombard male buried at an Alemannic graveyard. He was found to be a carrier of the paternal haplogroup R1b1a2a1a1c2b2b and the maternal haplogroup H65a. The graveyard also included the remains of a Frankish and a Byzantine male, both of whom were also carriers of subclades of the paternal haplogroup R1b1a2a1a1. The Lombard, Frankish and Byzantine males were all found to be closely related, and displayed close genetic links to Northern Europe, particularly Lithuania and Iceland.[84]
A genetic study published in the European Journal of Human Genetics in January 2019 examined the mtDNA of a large number of early-medieval Lombard remains from Central Europe and Italy. These individuals were found to be closely related and displayed strong genetic links to Central Europe. The evidence suggested that the Lombard settlement of Italy was the result of a migration from the north involving both males and females.[10]
Culture
[edit]Language
[edit]Unless Cimbrian and Mòcheno represent surviving dialects, the Lombardic language is extinct.[85] It declined beginning in the seventh century, but may have been in scattered use until as late as about the year 1000. Only fragments of the language have survived, the main evidence being individual words quoted in Latin texts. In the absence of Lombardic texts, it is not possible to draw any conclusions about the language's morphology and syntax. The genetic classification of the language depends entirely on phonology. Since there is evidence that Lombardic participated in, and indeed shows some of the earliest evidence for, the High German consonant shift, it is usually classified as an Upper German dialect descended from Elbe Germanic.[86]
Lombardic fragments are preserved in runic inscriptions. Primary source texts include short inscriptions in the Elder Futhark, among them the "bronze capsule of Schretzheim" (c. 600) and the silver belt buckle found in Pforzen, Ostallgäu (Schwaben). A number of Latin texts include Lombardic names, and Lombardic legal texts contain terms taken from the legal vocabulary of the vernacular. In 2005, Emilia Denčeva argued that the inscription of the Pernik sword may be Lombardic.[87]
The Italian language preserves a large number of Lombardic words, although it is not always easy to distinguish them from other Germanic borrowings such as those from Gothic or from Frankish. They often bear some resemblance to English words, as Lombardic was akin to Old Saxon.[88] For instance, landa from land, guardia from wardan (warden), guerra from werra (war), ricco from rikki (rich), and guadare from wadjan (to wade).
The Codice diplomatico longobardo, a collection of legal documents, makes reference to many Lombardic terms, some of them still in use in the Italian language:
barba (beard), marchio (mark), maniscalco (blacksmith), aia (courtyard), braida (suburban meadow), borgo (burg, village), fara (fundamental unity of Lombard social and military organization, presently used as toponym), picco (peak, mountain top, also used as toponym), sala (hall, room, also used as toponym), staffa (stirrup), stalla (stable), sculdascio, faida (feud), manigoldo (scoundrel), sgherro (henchman); fanone (baleen), stamberga (hovel); anca (hip), guancia (cheek), nocca (knuckle), schiena (back); gazza (magpie), martora (marten); gualdo (wood, presently used as toponym), pozza (pool); verbs like bussare (to knock), piluccare (to peck), russare (to snore).
Social structure
[edit]Migration Period society
[edit]During their stay at the mouth of the Elbe, the Lombards came into contact with other western Germanic populations, such as the Saxons and the Frisians. From these populations, which had long been in contact with the Celts (especially the Saxons), they adopted a rigid social organization into castes, rarely present in other Germanic peoples.[89]
The Lombard kings can be traced back as early as c. 380 and thus to the beginning of the Great Migration. Kingship developed among the Germanic peoples when the unity of a single military command was found necessary. Schmidt believed that the Germanic tribes were divided into cantons and that the earliest government was a general assembly that selected canton chiefs and war leaders in times of conflict. All such figures were probably selected from a caste of nobility. As a result of the wars of their wanderings, royal power developed such that the king became the representative of the people, but the influence of the people on the government did not fully disappear.[90] Paul the Deacon gives an account of the Lombard tribal structure during the migration:
... in order that they might increase the number of their warriors, [the Lombards] 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 confirmation of the fact.
Complete emancipation appears to have been granted only among the Franks and the Lombards.[91]
Society of the Catholic kingdom
[edit]Lombard society was divided into classes comparable to those found in the other Germanic successor states of Rome, Frankish Gaul and Spain under the Visigoths. There was a noble class, a class of free persons beneath them, a class of unfree non-slaves (serfs), and finally slaves. The aristocracy itself was poorer, more urbanised, and less landed than elsewhere. Aside from the richest and most powerful of the dukes and the king himself, Lombard noblemen tended to live in cities (unlike their Frankish counterparts) and hold little more than twice as much in land as the merchant class (a far cry from provincial Frankish aristocrats who held vast swathes of land, hundreds of times larger than those beneath his status). The aristocracy by the eighth century was highly dependent on the king for means of income related especially to judicial duties: many Lombard nobles are referred to in contemporary documents as iudices (judges) even when their offices had important military and legislative functions as well.
The freemen of the Lombard kingdom were far more numerous than in Frankish lands, especially in the eighth century, when they are almost invisible in surviving documentary evidence. Smallholders, owner-cultivators, and rentiers are the most numerous types of person in surviving diplomata for the Lombard kingdom. They may have owned more than half of the land in Lombard Italy. The freemen were exercitales and viri devoti, that is, soldiers and "devoted men" (a military term like "retainers"); they formed the levy of the Lombard army, and they were sometimes, if infrequently, called to serve, though this seems not to have been their preference. The small landed class, however, lacked the political influence necessary with the king (and the dukes) to control the politics and legislation of the kingdom. The aristocracy was more thoroughly powerful politically if not economically in Italy than in contemporary Gaul and Spain.
The urbanisation of Lombard Italy was characterised by the città ad isole (or "city as islands"). It appears from archaeology that the great cities of Lombard Italy—Pavia, Lucca, Siena, Arezzo, Milan—were themselves formed of small urban cores within the old Roman city walls. The cities of the Roman Empire had been partially destroyed in the series of wars of the fifth and sixth centuries. Many sectors were left in ruins and ancient monuments became fields of grass used as pastures for animals, thus the Roman Forum became the Campo Vaccino, the field of cows. The portions of the cities that remained intact were small, modest, contained a cathedral or major church (often sumptuously decorated), and a few public buildings and townhouses of the aristocracy. Few buildings of importance were stone, most were wood. In the end, the inhabited parts of the cities were separated from one another by stretches of pasture even within the city walls.
Lombard states
[edit]- Lombard state on the Carpathians (sixth century)
- Lombard state in Pannonia (sixth century)
- Kingdom of Italy and List of kings of the Lombards
- Principality of Benevento and List of dukes and princes of Benevento
- Principality of Salerno and List of princes of Salerno
- Principality of Capua and List of princes of Capua
Religious history
[edit]The legend from Origo may hint that initially, before the passage from Scandinavia to the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, the Lombards worshiped the Vanir. Later, in contact with other Germanic populations, they adopted the worship of the Æsir: an evolution that marked the passage from the adoration of deities related to fertility and the earth to the cult of warlike gods.[92][93]
In chapter 40 of his Germania, Roman historian Tacitus, discussing the Suebian tribes of Germania, writes that the Lombards were one of the Suebian tribes united in worship of the deity Nerthus, who is often identified with the Norse goddess Freyja. The other tribes were the Reudigni, Aviones, Anglii, Varini, Eudoses, Suarines and Nuitones.[94]
St. Barbatus of Benevento observed many pagan rituals and traditions among the Lombards authorised by the Duke Romuald, son of King Grimoald:[95]
They expressed a religious veneration to a golden viper, and prostrated themselves before it: they paid also a superstitious honour to a tree, on which they hung the skin of a wild beast, and these ceremonies were closed by public games, in which the skin served for a mark at which bowmen shot arrows over their shoulder.
Christianisation
[edit]The Lombards first adopted Christianity while still in Pannonia, but their conversion and Christianisation was largely nominal and far from complete. During the reign of Wacho, they were Orthodox Catholics allied with the Byzantine Empire, but Alboin converted to Arianism as an ally of the Ostrogoths and invaded Italy. All these Christian conversions primarily affected the aristocracy, while the common people remained pagan.[96]
In Italy, the Lombards were intensively Christianised, and the pressure to convert to Orthodox Catholicism was great. With the Bavarian queen Theodelinda, an Orthodox Catholic, the monarchy was brought under heavy Catholic influence. After initial support for the anti-Rome party in the Schism of the Three Chapters, Theodelinda remained a close contact and supporter of Pope Gregory I.[97] In 603, Adaloald, the heir to the throne, received Orthodox Catholic baptism.[98] However, the lack of spiritual involvement of most of the Lombards in religious disputes remained constant, so much so that the opposition between Orthodox Catholics, on the one hand, and pagans, Arians and schismatics, on the other, soon took on political significance. The supporters of Roman orthodoxy, led by the Bavarian dynasty, were politically the proponents of greater integration with the Romans, accompanied by a strategy of preserving the status quo with the Byzantines. Arians, pagans and schismatics, rooted above all in the northeastern regions of the kingdom (Austria), were instead interpreters of the preservation of the warlike and aggressive spirit of the people. Thus, to the "pro-Catholic" phase of Agilulf, Theodolinda and Adaloald followed, from 626 (Arioald's accession to the throne) to 690 (definitive defeat of the rebel Alahis), a long phase of the revival of Arianism, embodied by militarily aggressive kings like Rothari and Grimoald. However, tolerance towards Orthodox Catholics was never questioned by the various kings, also safeguarded by the influential contribution of the respective queens (largely chosen, for reasons of dynastic legitimacy, among the Orthodox Catholic princesses of the Bavarian dynasty).[99]
In the seventh century, the nominally Christian aristocracy of Benevento was still practising pagan rituals such as sacrifices in "sacred" woods.[100] By the end of the reign of Cunincpert, however, the Lombards were more or less completely Catholicised. Under Liutprand Orthodox Catholicism became tangible as the king sought to justify his title rex totius Italiae by uniting the south of the peninsula with the north, thereby bringing together his Italo-Roman and Germanic subjects into one Catholic State.[101]
Beneventan Christianity
[edit]The Duchy and eventually Principality of Benevento in southern Italy developed a unique Christian rite in the seventh and eighth centuries. The Beneventan rite is more closely related to the liturgy of the Ambrosian rite than to the Roman rite.[102] The Beneventan rite has not survived in its complete form, although most of the principal feasts and several feasts of local significance are extant. The Beneventan rite appears to have been less complete, less systematic, and more liturgically flexible than the Roman rite.
Characteristic of this rite was the Beneventan chant, a Lombard-influenced[102] chant that bore similarities to the Ambrosian chant of Milan. The Beneventan chant is largely defined by its role in the liturgy of the Beneventan rite; many Beneventan chants were assigned multiple roles when inserted into Gregorian chantbooks, appearing variously as antiphons, offertories, and communions, for example. It was eventually supplanted by the Gregorian chant in the eleventh century.
The chief centre of the Beneventan chant was Montecassino, one of the first and greatest abbeys of Western monasticism. Gisulf II of Benevento had donated a large swathe of land to Montecassino in 744, and that became the basis for an important state, the Terra Sancti Benedicti, which was a subject only to Rome. The Cassinese influence on Christianity in southern Italy was immense.[103] Montecassino was also the starting point for another characteristic of Beneventan monasticism, the use of the distinct Beneventan script, a clear, angular script derived from the Roman cursive as used by the Lombards.[104]
Art
[edit]During their nomadic phase, the Lombards primarily created art that was easily carried with them, like arms and jewellery. Though relatively little of this has survived, it bears resemblance to the similar endeavours of other Germanic tribes of central Europe from the same era.
The first major modifications to the Germanic style of the Lombards came in Pannonia and especially in Italy, under the influence of local, Byzantine, and Christian styles. The conversions from nomadism and paganism to settlement and Christianity also opened up new arenas of artistic expressions, such as architecture (especially churches) and its accompanying decorative arts (such as frescoes).
-
Lombard shield boss
northern Italy, seventh century, Metropolitan Museum of Art -
Lombard S-shaped fibula
-
A glass drinking horn from Castel Trosino
-
Lombard Goldblattkreuz
-
Lombard fibulae
-
Altar of Ratchis
-
Eighth-century Lombard sculpture depicting female martyrs, based on a Byzantine model. Tempietto Longobardo, Cividale del Friuli
Architecture
[edit]Few Lombard buildings have survived. Most have been lost, rebuilt, or renovated at some point, so they preserve little of their original Lombard structure. Lombard architecture was well-studied in the twentieth century, and the four-volume Lombard Architecture (1919) by Arthur Kingsley Porter is a "monument of illustrated history".
The small Oratorio di Santa Maria in Valle in Cividale del Friuli is probably one of the oldest preserved examples of Lombard architecture, as Cividale was the first Lombard city in Italy. Parts of Lombard constructions have been preserved in Pavia (San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, crypts of Sant'Eusebio and San Giovanni Domnarum) and Monza (cathedral). The Basilic autariana in Fara Gera d'Adda near Bergamo and the church of San Salvatore in Brescia also have Lombard elements. All these buildings are in northern Italy (Langobardia major), but by far the best-preserved Lombard structure is in southern Italy (Langobardia minor). The Church of Santa Sofia in Benevento was erected in 760 by Duke Arechis II, and it preserves Lombard frescoes on the walls and even Lombard capitals on the columns.
Lombard architecture flourished under the impulse provided by the Catholic monarchs like Theodelinda, Liutprand, and Desiderius to the foundation of monasteries to further their political control. Bobbio Abbey was founded during this time.
Some of the late Lombard structures of the ninth and tenth centuries have been found to contain elements of style associated with Romanesque architecture and so have been dubbed "first Romanesque". These edifices are considered, along with some similar buildings in southern France and Catalonia, to mark a transitory phase between the Pre-Romanesque and full-fledged Romanesque.
List of rulers
[edit]Notes and sources
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ "Lombard". Collins English Dictionary.
- ^
- Christie 1995. "The Lombards, also known as the Longobards, were a Germanic tribe whose fabled origins lay in the barbarian realm of Scandinavia."
- Whitby 2012, p. 857. "Lombards, or Langobardi, a Germanic group..."
- Brown 2005. "Lombards... a west-Germanic people..."
- Darvill 2009. "Lombards (Lombard). Germanic people..."
- Taviani-Carozzi 2005. "Lombards, A people of Germanic origin, conquerors of part of Italy from 568."
- ^ a b Priester 2004, p. 16: "From Proto-Germanic winna-, meaning "to fight, win"
- ^ a b c d Harrison, D.; Svensson, K. (2007). Vikingaliv. Värnamo: Fälth & Hässler. p. 74. ISBN 978-91-27-35725-9.
- ^ "2. Runriket – Täby Kyrka". Stockholm County Museum. Archived from the original on 4 June 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2007.
- ^ Christie 1995, p. 3.
- ^ Sergent, Bernard (1991). "Ethnozoonymes indo-européens" [Indo-European ethnozoonyms]. Dialogues d'Histoire Ancienne (in French). 17 (2): 15. doi:10.3406/dha.1991.1932.
- ^ Christie 2018b, pp. 920–922.
- ^ a b c Christie 1995, pp. 1–6.
- ^ a b Vai 2019. "[T]he presence in this cluster of haplogroups that reach high frequency in Northern European populations, suggests a possible link between this core group of individuals and the proposed homeland of different ancient barbarian Germanic groups... This supports the view that the spread of Longobards into Italy actually involved movements of people, who gave a substantial contribution to the gene pool of the resulting populations...This is even more remarkable thinking that, in many studied cases, military invasions are movements of males, and hence do not have consequences at the mtDNA level. Here, instead, we have evidence of maternally linked genetic similarities between LC in Hungary and Italy, supporting the view that immigration from Central Europe involved females as well as males."
- ^ a b c Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani, 2.
- ^ Menghin 1985, p. 13
- ^ Priester, 16. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, I, 336. Old Germanic for "Strenuus", "Sibyl".
- ^ Ibor and Aio were called by Prosper of Aquitaine, Iborea and Agio; Saxo-Grammaticus calls them Ebbo and Aggo; the popular song of Gothland (Bethmann, 342), Ebbe and Aaghe (Wiese, 14).
- ^ Priester 2004, p. 16
- ^ a b Von Hammerstein-Loxten 1869, p. 56
- ^ a b PD, VII.
- ^ a b PD, VIII.
- ^ OGL, appendix 11.
- ^ Priester 2004, p. 17
- ^ PD, I, 9.
- ^ Nedoma, Robert (2005).Der altisländische Odinsname Langbarðr: 'Langbart' und die Langobarden. In Pohl, Walter and Erhart, Peter, eds. Die Langobarden. Herrschaft und Identität. Wien. pp. 439–444
- ^ Priester 2004, p. 17
- ^ Fröhlich 1980, p. 19
- ^ Bruckner 1895, pp. 30–33
- ^ The article Hadubarder in Nordisk familjebok (1909).
- ^ Wilson Chambers, Raymond (2010). Widsith: A Study in Old English Heroic Legend. Cambridge University Press. p. 205.
- ^ Smith, William (1875). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London: John Murray. p. 119.
- ^ Orosius (1773). The Anglo-Saxon Version, from the Historian Orosius, by Ælfred the Great together with an English Translation from the Anglo-Saxon. Translated by Barrington, Daines (Alfred the Great ed.). London: Printed by W. Bowyer and J. Nichols and sold by S. Baker. p. 256. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
- ^ Widsith, line 30
- ^ Cardini 2019, p. 80
- ^ Kinder, Hermann (1988), Penguin Atlas of World History, vol. I, London: Penguin, p. 108, ISBN 0-14-051054-0.
- ^ "Languages of the World: Germanic languages". The New Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago, IL, United States: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1993. ISBN 0-85229-571-5.
- ^ a b c d e Menghin 1985, p. 15
- ^ "Velleius, Hist. Rom. II, 106. Schmidt, 5".
- ^ "Strabo, VII, 1, 3".
- ^ Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, chapters II and III.
- ^ Wegewitz (1964). "Das langobardische Brandgräberfeld von Putensen, Kreis Harburg". Problemi della civilita e dell'economia Longobarda. Milan (published 1972). pp. 1–29.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Menghin 1985, p. 17
- ^ Menghin 1985, p. 18
- ^ Priester 2004, p. 18
- ^ Tacitus, Germania, 38–40
- ^ Tacitus, Annals, II, 45.
- ^ Tacitus, Annals, XI, 16, 17.
- ^ Cassius Dio, 71, 3, 1.
- ^ a b c Menghin 1985, p. 16
- ^ Priester 2004, p. 21
- ^ a b Zeuss 2012, p. 471
- ^ a b Wiese 1877, p. 38
- ^ a b Schmidt 2018, pp. 35–36
- ^ Ptolemy, Geogr. II, 11, 9.
- ^ Ptolemy, Geogr. II, 11, 17.
- ^ Schütte. Ptolemy's Maps of Northern Europe. pp. 34, and 118.
- ^ a b Priester 2004, p. 14
- ^ Hartmann 2011, p. 5, II, pt I
- ^ Menghin 1985, pp. 17–19
- ^ Priester 2004, pp. 21–22
- ^ Cosmographer of Ravenna, I, 11.
- ^ Hodgkin 2012, p. 92, Ch. V
- ^ Schmidt 2018, p. 49
- ^ Hodgkin 2012, p. 143, Ch. V
- ^ Menghin, Das Reich an der Donau, 21.
- ^ Priester 2004, p. 22
- ^ Bluhme 1868, Ch. XIII
- ^ Menghin 1985, p. 14
- ^ Hist. gentis Lang., Ch. XVII
- ^ Hist. gentis Lang., Ch. XVII.
- ^ PD, XVII.
- ^ Márki, Sándor (1899). A longobárdok hazánkban [The Langobards in our homeland] (PDF) (in Hungarian). Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca): Ajtai Kovách Albert Magyar Polgár Könyvnyomdája.
- ^ Borovszky, Samu. "A népvándorlás kora" [The Migration Period]. In Marczali, Henrik (ed.). Nagy Képes Világtörténet [Great Illuminated World History] (in Hungarian). Budapest: Franklin Társulat Magyar Irodalmi Intézet és Könyvnyomda Rt.
- ^ Helmolt, Hans Ferdinand (1907). Battles The World's History: Central and northern Europe. London.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b c Kiss, Attila (2020). "A langobardok pannóniai kivonulása" [The withdrawal of the Langobards from Pannonia]. Magyarságkutató Intézet (in Hungarian).
- ^ a b Peters, Edward (2003). History of the Lombards: Translated by William Dudley Foulke. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- ^ Peters, 2.7.
- ^ Peters, 2.26.
- ^ Paolo Diacono, Historia Langobardorum, FV, II, 4, 6, 7.
- ^ De Bello Gothico IV 32, pp. 241–245
- ^ "The New Cambridge Medieval History: c. 500–c. 700" by Paul Fouracre and Rosamond McKitterick (p. 8)
- ^ Lot, Ferdinand (1931). The End of the Ancient World and the Beginnings of the Middle Ages. London.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b c Vidmar, Jernej. "Od kod prihajajo in kdo so solkanski Langobardi" [From Where Come and Who Are the Solkan Lombards] (in Slovenian). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
- ^ Štih, Peter; Simoniti, Vasko; Vodopivec, Peter (2008). "The Settlement of the Slavs". In Lazarević, Žarko (ed.). A Slovene history: society – politics – culture. Ljubljana: Institute of Modern History. p. 22. ISBN 978-961-6386-19-7.
- ^ Norwich, 88.
- ^ Amorim 2018. "[B]iological relationships played an important role in these early medieval societies... Finally, our data are consistent with the proposed long-distance migration from Pannonia to Northern Italy."
- ^ O'Sullivan 2018. "Niederstotzingen North individuals are closely related to northern and eastern European populations, particularly from Lithuania and Iceland."
- ^ Kortmann, Bernd (2011). The Languages and Linguistics of Europe. Vol. II. Berlin.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Marcello Meli, Le lingue germaniche, p. 95.
- ^ Emilia Denčeva (2006). "Langobardische (?) Inschrift auf einem Schwert aus dem 8. Jahrhundert in bulgarischem Boden" (PDF). Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur. 128 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1515/BGSL.2006.1
- ^ Hutterer 1999, p. 339.
- ^ Cardini 2019, p. 82
- ^ Schmidt 2018, pp. 76–77
- ^ Schmidt 2018, p. 47
- ^ Rovagnati 2003, p. 99
- ^ Hauk, Karl. Lebensnormen und Kultmythen in germanischen Sammes- und Herrscher genealogien [Norms of life and cult myths in Germanic collection and ruler genealogies] (in German).
- ^ Tacitus', Germania, 40, Medieval Source Book. Code and format by Northvegr.[1] Archived 2008-04-04 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Rev. Butler, Alban (1866). The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints: Vol. I. London.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Jarnut 2002, p. 51
- ^ Jarnut 2002, p. 51
- ^ Waitz, Georg (1964). Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI–IX. Hannover: Hahn. pp. 12–219.
- ^ Jarnut 2002, pp. 61–62
- ^ Rovagnati 2003, p. 101
- ^ Rovagnati 2003, p. 64
- ^ a b "Approfondimenti – Il canto beneventano – Scuola di Canto Gregoriano". www.scuoladicantogregoriano.it. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
- ^ "Montecassino nell'Enciclopedia Treccani". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 6 September 2022.
- ^ "Rivive dopo mille anni uno scriptorium di Scrittura Beneventana, Benevento Longobarda affila le 'penne'". Benevento Longobarda (in Italian). 20 February 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
Sources
[edit]Ancient sources
Modern sources
- Cardini, Franco (2019). Storia medievale (in Italian). Florence: Le Monnier Università. ISBN 978-8800748155.
- Amorim, Carlos Eduardo G. (11 September 2018). "Understanding 6th-century barbarian social organization and migration through paleogenomics". Nature Communications. 9 (3547). Nature Research: 3547. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9.3547A. bioRxiv 10.1101/268250. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06024-4. PMC 6134036. PMID 30206220.
- Bluhme, Friedrich [in German] (1868). Die Gens Langobardorum und ihre Herkunft, ...und ihre Sprache [The Gens Langobardorum and their origin, ...and their language] (in German). Bonn: A.Marcus.
- Brown, Thomas S. (2005). "Lombards". In Kazhdan, Alexander P. (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195187922. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
- Bruckner, Wilhelm (1895). "Die Sprache der Langobarden" [The language of the Lombards]. Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Culturgeschichte der germanischen Völker (in German). 75. Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner.
- Chadwick Oman, Charles William (2016). The Dark Ages 476–918. Palala Press. ISBN 978-1358378560.
- Christie, Neil (2018a). "Lombards". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. pp. 920–922. doi:10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001. ISBN 9780191744457. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
- Christie, Neil (2018b). "Lombard Invasion Of Italy". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. pp. 919–920. doi:10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001. ISBN 9780191744457. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
- Christie, Neil (1995). The Lombards. Wiley. ISBN 0631182381.
- Daim, Falko (2019). "The Longobards in Pannonia". Prima e dopo Alboino: sulle tracce dei Longobardi [Before and after Alboino: on the trail of the Lombards] (in Italian). Napoli: Guida. pp. 221–241.
- Darvill, Timothy (2009). "Lombards". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199534043.001.0001. ISBN 9780191727139. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
- Everett, Nicholas (2003). Literacy in Lombard Italy, c. 568–774. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521819053.
- The Lombard Laws. Translated by Fischer Drew, Katherine. foreword by Edward Peters. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1973. ISBN 0-8122-1055-7.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link) - Fock, Gustav (1884). Älteste Geschichte der Langobarden. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Völkerwanderung (in German). Leipzig: Universität.
- Fröhlich, Hermann (1980). Studien zur langobardischen Thronfolge [Studies on the Longobard succession] (in German). In two volumes. Diss. Eberhard-Karls-Universität zu Tübingen.
- Fröhlich, Hermann (1976). "Zur Herkunft der Langobarden" [On the origin of the Lombards]. Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken (QFIAB) 55/56 [Sources and Research from Italian Archives and Libraries (QFIAB) 55/56] (in German). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer. pp. 1–21.
- Giess, Hildegard (September 1959). "The Sculpture of the Cloister of Santa Sofia in Benevento". The Art Bulletin. 41 (3): 249–256. doi:10.1080/00043079.1959.11407988. JSTOR 3047841.
- Grimm, Jacob (2003). Deutsche Mythologie (in German). Marix. ISBN 3932412249.
- Hallenbeck, Jan T. (1982). "Pavia and Rome: The Lombard Monarchy and the Papacy in the Eighth Century". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series. 74 (4). Philadelphia.
- Hartmann, Ludwig Moritz (2011). Geschichte Italiens Im Mittelalter (in German). Nabu Press. ISBN 978-1247551845.
- Hutterer, Claus Jürgen (1999). "Langobardisch" [Lombardish]. Die Germanischen Sprachen [The Germanic Languages] (in German). Wiesbaden: Albus. pp. 336–341. ISBN 3-928127-57-8.
- Hodgkin, Thomas (2012). Italy and her invaders. Ulan Press.
- Jarnut, Jörg (2002). Storia dei Longobardi. Turin: Einaudi. ISBN 88-06-16182-2.
- Leonardi, Michela (6 September 2018). "Storia dei Longobardi". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 167 (3). Wiley: 497–506. bioRxiv 10.1101/268250. doi:10.1002/ajpa.23679. PMID 30187463. S2CID 52161000.
- Menghin, Wilifred (1985). Die Langobarden / Geschichte und Archäologie (in German). Stuttgart: Theiss. ISBN 3926642238.
- O'Sullivan, Niall (9 September 2018). "Ancient genome-wide analyses infer kinship structure in an Early Medieval Alemannic graveyard". Science Advances. 4 (9). American Association for the Advancement of Science: eaao1262. Bibcode:2018SciA....4.1262O. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aao1262. PMC 6124919. PMID 30191172.
- Pohl, Walter (2024). Die Langobarden Herrschaft und Identität (in German). Wien. ISBN 978-3-7001-3400-8.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Priester, Karin (2004). Die Geschichte der Langobarden: Gesellschaft – Kultur – Alltagsleben. Stuttgart: Theiss. ISBN 380621848X.
- Rovagnati, Sergio (2003). I Longobardi. Milan: Xenia. ISBN 88-7273-484-3.
- Santosuosso, Antonio (2004). Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels: The Ways of Medieval Warfare. Basic Books. ISBN 0813391539.
- Schmidt, Ludwig (2018). Zur Geschichte der Langobarden (in German). Leipzig: Forgotten Books. ISBN 978-0267059577.
- Taviani-Carozzi, Huguette (2005). "Lombards". In Vauchez, André (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. James Clarke & Co. doi:10.1093/acref/9780227679319.001.0001. ISBN 9780195188172. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
- Todd, Malcolm (2004). The Early Germans. Wiley. ISBN 9781405117142.
- Troya, Carlo (2010). Codice Diplomatico Longobardo Dal DLXVIII Al DCCLXXIV: Con Note Storiche, Volume 1. Nabu Press. ISBN 978-1144256270.
- Vai, Stefania (19 January 2019). "A genetic perspective on Longobard-Era migrations". European Journal of Human Genetics. 27 (4). Nature Research: 647–656. doi:10.1038/s41431-018-0319-8. PMC 6460631. PMID 30651584.
- Von Hammerstein-Loxten, Wilhelm C (1869). Der Bardengau : e. histor. Unters. über dessen Verhältnisse u. über d. Güterbesitz d. Billunger (in German). Hannover: Hahn.
- Wegwitz, Willie (1972). Das langobardische Brandgräberfeld von Putensen (in German). Harburg: Hildesheim.
- Whitby, L. Michael (2012). "Lombards". In Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (eds.). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 857. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199545568.001.0001. ISBN 9780191735257. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
- Whitney, J. P. (1913). The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume II – The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundations of the Western Empire. Cambridge University Press.
- Wickham, Christopher (1998). "Aristocratic Power in Eighth-Century Lombard Italy". In Goffart, Walter A.; Murray, Alexander C. (eds.). After Rome's Fall: Narrators and Sources of Early Medieval History, Essays presented to Walter Goffart. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 153–170. ISBN 0-8020-0779-1..
- Wiese, Robert (1877). Die älteste Geschichte der Langobarden bis zum Untergange des Reiches der Heruler (in German). Ratz, Jena.
- Zeuss, Johann Kaspar (2012). Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme (in German). Nabu Press. ISBN 978-1278747057.
External links
[edit]- Beck, Frederick George Meeson; Church, Richard William (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.).