Longobard Empire
The Kingdom of the Longobards or Langobardisches Kingdom ( Latin Regnum Langobardorum ) was an early medieval Germanic kingdom, the capital of which was Pavia . The Lombards founded it in 568-569 (invasion of Italy), in 774 it fell to the Frankish Empire under Charlemagne . The effective control of the two Lombard domains, the Langobardia maior in Upper and Langobardia minor in Lower Italy, varied by the Longobard kings; Initially the numerous principalities that made up the kingdom enjoyed a high degree of autonomy, later control by the king increased, even if the urge of individual dukes for greater self-determination never completely evaporated. The Germanic-Longobard character was lost over the centuries until the kingdom became part of the Kingdom of Italy . The Lombards gradually adopted Roman titles, names and traditions. Some of the originally Arian Lombards also converted to Catholicism in the 7th century . During the lifetime of Paulus Diaconus (8th century) the Lombard language, clothing and hairstyle had disappeared.
6th century
The foundation of the Longobard Empire
In the 6th century, the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian tried to restore Roman rule over the areas of the former Western Roman Empire . The resulting Gothic War nullified the Eastern Roman hope that the Ostrogoths would be overwhelmed quickly . It quickly turned into a real positional warfare, which brought mass displacement, extensive destruction, famine (538-542) and plague (541) with it. The Eastern Roman victory, achieved after many years, soon proved to be pyrrhic , as Italy was depopulated in the course of the war and the regions that were regained were completely impoverished. An attempt to invade Italy by the Franks , the allies of the Ostrogoths, was still repulsed; but soon afterwards the small Eastern Roman garrison, which Narses had left behind to guard Italy, had to capitulate before the Lombards invaded.
The Lombards broke the political unity of the Italian peninsula, which had been a fairly constant fact since the conquest by the Romans (3rd - 2nd centuries BC). The peninsula was now divided between Eastern Roman and Lombard areas, the borders of which were almost permanently changing.
The Lombards settled in the so-called Langobardia Maior (northern Italy, mainly around the city of Ticinum - today Pavia - where the name Lombardy comes from) and Langobardia Minor (the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento ), while the northern Italian regions, which were owned by the Byzantines could be held, were called "Romania" (where the name of today's Romagna comes from). This area was administered by the Exarchate of Ravenna .
Upon his arrival in Italy, Alboin passed control of the Eastern Alps to one of his most loyal followers, Gisulf , who became the first Duke of Friuli . The duchy, which was proclaimed in Cividale del Friuli (then Forum Iulii ), always had to fight with external enemies who besieged the fortress of Gorizia . Until the rule of Liutprand , the duchy retained greater autonomy compared to other Langobardia Maior.
Later other principalities were established in the larger cities of the kingdom. The reasons for this were primarily military in nature: the dukes were primarily commanders who had to secure the territory entrusted to them. However, this also laid the foundation for the later structural weakness of the Lombard royal power.
In 572, after Pavia's surrender and his elevation to the capital, Alboin was the victim of a conspiracy in Verona by his wife Rosamunde and some Gepids and Lombards. The Lombard nobility condemned the murder and forced Rosamunde to flee to the Eastern Romans in Ravenna .
Cleph and the reign of the dukes
Later in 572, the thirty-five Lombard dukes gathered and elected Cleph . Under the new ruler, the Longobards conquered Tuscia and even besieged Ravenna. Cleph pursued the same strategy as Alboin, and destroyed the administrative and legal foundations on which the Eastern Gothic and Eastern Roman rule had been based, by destroying a large part of the Roman aristocracy and usurping their possessions. Cleph was also the victim of a regicide in 574, which the East Romans might have planned.
After Cleph's assassination, no new king was appointed for a decade and the dukes ruled the duchies with royal power , which was not without internal conflicts ( rule of the dukes or anarchy ). At this point in time the dukes were practically the leaders of the Lombard tribes; they were not yet bound to cities, but roamed freely through the country, also because as tribal leaders they were under pressure to find enough booty for the warriors of the tribe. During this unstable period, the Roman-Italic administrative and political structure finally came to an end (this had remained largely intact until the Lombards invasion, as the example of Cassiodorus shows , for example ).
The Lombard upper class replaced the old Romanesque elite in Italy. It was stipulated that the Lombard population received a third ( tertia ) of the income of their Roman subjects.
The final settlement: Authari, Agilulf and Theudelinde
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After ten years of lawlessness, the need for central rule became apparent even to the most independent princes; the Franks and Eastern Romans oppressed the Lombards. In 584 the dukes agreed to make Cleph's son Authari king and gave half of their fortune to the new king (which was likely financed by expropriating the last remaining land in Roman hands). Authari could now tackle the reorganization of power and the permanent settlement of the Lombards in Italy. Like the Ostrogothic kings before him, he took on the title Flavius in order to stylize himself as the protector of the Romans in his dominion: with this he also accepted the legacy of the Western Roman Empire .
Authari defeated both Eastern Romans and Franks and broke their alliance, thereby rewarding the trust placed in him by the dukes. In 585 he drove the Franks out of Piedmont and made the East Romans ask for peace for the first time since the Lombards invaded. Finally, he captured the last Byzantine base in central northern Italy: Isola Comacina in Lake Como . In order to ensure a lasting peace with the Franks, Authari tried to marry a Franconian princess, but this failed. Therefore the king turned to the traditional enemies of the Franks, the Bavarians , and married Theudelinde . The marriage led to a rapprochement between the Franks and Eastern Romans, but Authari succeeded again (588 and 590) in repelling the renewed Franconian attacks. According to Paul the Deacon, the rule of Authari marked the first phase of inner stability in the Longobard Empire :
“Erat hoc mirabile in regno Langobardorum: nulla erat violentia, nullae struebantur insidiae; nemo aliquem iniuste angariabat, nemo spoliabat; non erant furta, non latrocinia; unusquisque quo libebat securus sine timore "
“A miracle happened in the kingdom of the Lombards: there was no more violence, no more devious plans; no one unlawfully suppressed the other, no looting; there was no theft, no robbery, everyone went his way safely and without fear. "
Authari died in 590, probably from palace intrigue. The succession to the throne was decided in a novel way. The young, widowed Queen Theudelinde was allowed to choose a king as her new husband: the choice fell on the Duke of Turin , Agilulf . The following year (591) Agilulf was crowned king in Milan before the Gairethinx assembly of the Lombards . The queen's influence on her husband appears to have been considerable.
After the rebellion of some dukes could be put down in 594, the rule of Agilulf and Theudelinde consolidated over their Italian territories. They secured their borders through peace treaties with the Franconian Empire and the Avars . However, they systematically and repeatedly broke their armistice with the Eastern Romans, so that the decade up to 603 was marked by a renewed Lombard offensive. In northern Italy, Agilulf conquered Parma , Piacenza , Padua , Monselice , Este , Cremona and Mantua, and also won Spoleto and Benevento in the south .
The increase in royal power that began under Authari and continued under Agilulf also marked the transition to a new, stable division of the kingdom into duchies. Each duchy was ruled by a duke who was not only the leader of a Longobard tribe (" fara "), but also a royal representative. The duchies were established in strategically important places, which accommodated the urban development of some way stations on the main communication routes of the time ( Cividale del Friuli , Treviso , Trento , Turin , Verona , Bergamo , Brescia , Ivrea , Lucca ). Some officials were assigned to the dukes for questions of civil administration, the Sculdahis and the Gastalde .
The reorganization of the rule was less based on race and clan and more on land administration, which was a milestone in the consolidation of Lombard rule . Slowly this lost the character of a pure military occupation and turned into a real state. The integration of the novels in the new kingdom was an inevitable step and Agilulf met some symbolic arrangements that he should give recognition to the Latin population: The ceremony for designating the throne successor Adaloald in 604 was held by Byzantine rite, the capital city of Pavia in the old Roman cities of Milan and Monza moved as summer residences; he described himself on a votive crown as Gratia Dei rex totius Italiae (“By the grace of God, King of all Italy” and no longer just Langobardorum rex , “King of the Lombards”).
Theudelinde in particular promoted the conversion of the Lombards from Arianism or even paganism to Catholicism. The regents also sought to resolve the simmering three-chapter dispute (in which the Patriarch of Aquileia broke communion with Rome) and maintained a close relationship with Gregory I the Great (obtained in a correspondence between him and Theudelinde). They also campaigned for the foundation of monasteries, such as B. Bobbio .
Art also enjoyed an upswing under Agilulf and Theudelinde. Queen Theudelinde, for example, founded the Basilica of St. John and had the Royal Palace of Monza built.
7th century
The Arian counterstrike: Arioald, Rotari
After Agilulf's death in 616, his son Adaloald ascended the throne as a minor. The reign (in fact even after coming of age) was exercised by his mother Theudelinde, who entrusted the military command to the Duke Sundarit . Theudelinde continued Agilulf's policy, which was friendly to the Catholics and aimed at peace with the Eastern Romans, but this increased the rejection by the soldier, predominantly Arian part of Longobard society. The tension erupted in 624 when Arioald , Duke of Turin, and his stepbrother ( who had married Arioald's sister Gundeperga ) began to revolt openly. Adaloald was deposed in 625 and Arioald became king.
The coup d'état against the Bavarian dynasty of Adaloald and Theudelinde, which brought Arioald to the throne, sparked new animosities between the Catholics and the Arians. The two faiths also stood for political directions. While the Catholics were inclined to peace with the Eastern Roman Empire and the papal state and to integration into Roman society, the Arian upper class tended to an expansionist policy of conquest. The kingdom of Arioalds (626–636), in which the capital was moved back to Pavia, was shaken by this fundamental conflict, but also by external dangers; the king was able to repel an attack by the Avars at Friuli , but not suppress the growing influence of the Franks in his kingdom. After his death, legend has it that the widowed Queen Gundeperga chose the new king, similar to Theudelinde's. The choice fell on Rothari , the Duke of Brescia and Arian.
Rothari ruled from 636 to 652. He led numerous campaigns that brought almost all of northern Italy under his rule. He conquered Liguria (643) with its capital Genoa , Luna and Oderzo , but not even after his complete victory over the Exarch of Ravenna , whom he defeated and killed near the Panaro River together with his 8000 soldiers, could the Exarchate of Ravenna surrender are forced. Domestically, Rotari strengthened central power at the expense of the Dukes of Langobardia Maior, while in the south the Duke of Benevento Arichis I (who also conquered territories for the Lombards) recognized his supremacy.
A famous edict was also promulgated under Rothari's rule , written in Latin , although it was only addressed to the Lombards. The Romans were still subject to Roman law . The edict codified traditional Germanic tribal rights , but also introduced innovations, which can be interpreted as the increasing influence of the Romans on the Lombards. The edict forbade feuds (private vengeance) in favor of wergeld (financial compensation) and restricted the use of the death penalty .
The Bavarian Dynasty
After Rotari's death, his son Rodoald ruled for a year (652–653), then the ducal assembly elected Aripert I , Duke of Asti and grandson of Theudelindas, as king. The Bavarian dynasty thus returned to the throne, which can be seen as the victory of the Catholic over the Arian faction; the rule of Aripert went down in history as a time of severe suppression of Arianism. At the time of his death (661), the kingdom was divided between his two sons Perctarit and Godepert , according to Aripert's will . This procedure was normally common among the Franks, but remained an isolated case in the history of the Lombards, perhaps because of the further course of this division: a conflict arose between Perctarit, whose seat was Milan , and Godepert, who remained in Pavia . The Duke of Benevento, Grimoald , was also involved in this fight . The latter advanced north with considerable troops to support Godepert, but as soon as he reached Pavia he killed him and took his place. Perctarit, who was strongly inferior militarily, fled to the Avars.
Grimoald was confirmed as king by the ducal assembly, but had to contend with the supporters of the old royal house, who were already making alliances to bring Perctarit back to power. Grimoald persuaded the Avars to deliver Perctarit to him. Back in Italy, he had to submit publicly before he could flee to the Franks of Neustria , who attacked Grimoald in 663. Grimoald was able to repel the Frankish attack at Refrancore , near Asti , and remained in power.
Grimoald, who in 663 simultaneously thwarted the attempt of the Byzantine emperor Constans II to recapture the Italian peninsula, achieved a concentration of power in the central authority that his successors could no longer achieve. He gave the duchy of Benevento to his son Romuald . He pursued the integration of the different parts of the empire and presented himself to his subjects as an innovator of aspirations Rotharis , for example, as legislators (Grimoald added new laws Edictum Rothari added), patron (in Pavia, he had a church dedicated to Saint Ambrose build ) and as a brave warrior.
With Grimoald's death in 671, Perctarit returned from exile and ended the short-lived rule of Garibald , Grimoald's underage son. He quickly reached an agreement with Grimoald's other son, Romuald I of Benevento, according to which the king would allow him to be granted in return for his recognition as an independent duke. Perctarit, in line with his dynasty, advocated policies that were friendly to Catholics. He achieved peace with the Byzantines, who recognized the Lombard rule over much of Italy, and suppressed the rebellion of the Duke of Trent , Alahis .
After Perctarit's death in 688, Alahis rose again and allied himself with the adversaries of the procatholic Bavarian dynasty. Perctarit's son and successor Cunincpert was initially defeated and forced to withdraw to Isola Comacina - it was not until 689 that he was able to defeat Alahis and the rebellion at the Battle of Coronate on the Adda . The crisis arose from the contrast between the two regions within the Langobardia Maior: on the one hand, the western regions ( Neustria ), which were loyal to the pro-Catholic Bavarian dynasty , which was keen to find a compromise with the Pope and Byzantium, and on the other On the eastern side ( Austrias ), which remained more closely linked to the Lombard tradition, i.e. rejected Catholicism and a "softening" towards a more Romanesque national character. The Dukes of Australia fought against an increasing "Latinization" of the Longobard court, the laws and religion, which in their opinion accelerated the disintegration of the Longobard people as a Germanic unit. His victory allowed Cunincpert, who had long been involved in his father's affairs of government, to continue his work to pacify the kingdom, always showing a slight preference for Catholics. A council met in Pavia in 698 and settled a religious dispute with the Pope.
8th century
The dynasty in crisis
Cunincpert's death in 700 marked the beginning of a dynastic crisis. The accession to the throne of Cunincpert's underage son, Liutpert , was immediately challenged by the Duke of Turin , Raginpert , the current head of the Bavarian dynasty. Raginpert defeated Liutpert's followers at Novara (his teacher, Ansprand , Duke of Asti , and the Duke of Bergamo , Rotarit ) and ascended the throne in early 701. However, he died after eight months and left the throne to his son Aripert II ; Gegand and Rotarit responded immediately and locked up Aripert, whereupon they returned the throne to Liutpert. Aripert in turn managed to escape and gather troops for a battle. In 702 he defeated Liutpert at Pavia, had him thrown into prison and ascended the throne himself. Shortly afterwards, he was able to finally break the opposition: he killed Rotarit and drowned Liutpert. Only Ansprand was able to escape and fled into exile in Bavaria . A little later, Aripert suppressed another rebellion, that of the Duke of Friuli , Corvulus , and was able to stabilize his kingdom afterwards, preferring the Catholic party.
In the year 712, Ansprand returned to Italy with an army set up in Bavaria. There was a battle with Aripert; the outcome was long uncertain, but Aripert showed signs of cowardice and was abandoned by his followers. He died on the run to the Franconian Empire when he drowned in the Ticino . He was the last representative of the Bavarian dynasty on the Lombard throne.
Liutprand: the peak of power
Gegand died after only three months on the royal throne and left his throne to Liutprand . During his reign, which was to be the longest of all Lombard kings in Italy, he was worshiped with an almost religious fervor by his people, who admired his strength, courage and political foresight; Because of these qualities, Liutprand survived two assassination attempts. These "classic" properties attributed to a Germanic king were supplemented by those of a piissimus rex about a now almost completely Catholic kingdom. On two occasions, in Sardinia and in the area around Arles (where he was called by his ally Karl Martell ), he successfully fought Saracen pirates, which increased his fame as a Christian king.
His alliance with the Franks , symbolized by the adoption of the young Pippin the Short , and with the Avars on the eastern border gave him a free hand in Italy. Soon there was a clash with the Byzantines and the papacy. A first attack, brought about by the attack by the Arab caliphate on Constantinople in 717, achieved little. He later took advantage of the pope's dispute with Constantinople over iconoclasm to bring many cities under his control under the rule of the Exarchate of Ravenna and the so-called Pentapolis by staging himself as the patron of the Catholics. In order not to make the Pope an enemy, he ended the occupation of Sutri ; However, he did not give the city to the Byzantine emperor, but to "the apostles Peter and Paul", as Paulus Diaconus describes in the "Historia gentis Langobardorum". The gift, known as the Donation of Sutri , set a precedent for the transfer of earthly power to the papacy, from which the papal state eventually emerged.
In the following years Liutprand entered into an alliance with the Exarch of Ravenna against the Pope, without giving up that with the Pope against the Exarch; he crowned this double game with a campaign that brought Spoleto and Benevento under his rule. Eventually, a peace useful to the Lombards was reached between the exarch and the pope. In 732 his nephew Hildeprand , who was to succeed him on the throne, even briefly captured Ravenna . A little later , however, he was expelled from there by the Venetians .
Liutprand was the last undisputed central ruler of the Longobard Empire, after him no king would succeed in eliminating the internal opposition. He was able to exercise this abundance of power because of his personal charisma, but rather because of the reforms he had undertaken since the beginning of his rule. He strengthened the chancellery of the Royal Palace of Pavia and laid down the local rights and duties (legal and administrative) of the Sculdasci , Gastalde and dukes . He was also active as a legislator: the twelve volumes of law that arose under his rule were inspired by Roman law and improved the efficiency of the courts, changed the provisions on wergeld and represented the weaker sections of society (minors, women, debtors, slaves) under protection.
Since the 7th century the socio-economic structure of the Longobard Empire has been subject to change. A steady population growth led to a fragmentation of the national wealth, which increased the number of impoverished Lombards continuously, as the laws written to protect them show. On the contrary, some novels began to rise in the Longobard Empire because they had achieved prosperity through trade , handicrafts or land ownership, which the Germanic peoples had not managed to manage profitably.
The last kings
Hildeprand's reign only lasted a few months, after which he was deposed by the rebellious Duke Ratchis . The circumstances of this coup are unclear as the main source of this period, Paulus Diaconus , concludes his work with an eulogy about Liutprand's death. Hildeprand was crowned king in 737 when Liutprand was seriously ill (who initially did not approve of the election: " Non aequo animo accepit " wrote Paulus Deacon ), although he accepted the election after his recovery. Initially, the king enjoyed some popularity with most of the Lombard nobles. Ratchis, the Duke of Friuli , who took his place, came from a rebellious family, but on the other hand he owed his life and title to Liutprand, which had given him after the discovery of a conspiracy by his father Pemmo .
Ratchis was a weak ruler: on the one hand, he had to give the dukes more room to maneuver, on the other hand, he had to try not to anger the Franks, especially the majordomo and de facto King Pippin the short . Because he could not trust the traditional structures of Lombard rule, he sought support from the Gasindii , the king's followers, who were bound to him by treaties, and especially from the Romans, his non-Lombard subjects. He displayed a strongly pro-Latin sentiment and married a Roman woman, Tassia, according to the Roman rite; he took the title of Princeps instead of the traditional rex Langobardorum , which alienated him from his Longobard subjects. This forced him to change course, so that he decided to attack the cities of the Pentapolis . The Pope convinced him to give up the siege of Perugia . After this failure, Ratchi's reputation fell and the dukes elected his brother Aistulf as king, who had already replaced him as Duke of Cividale and, after a short battle, forced him to flee to Rome and become a monk in the Montecassino monastery .
Aistulf's choice was based on a more aggressive stance on the part of the dukes, who refused to allow the Romansh population to participate in the rule. For his expansionist efforts he had to reorganize his army, so that all ethnic groups of the empire were represented , even if in the rather subordinate light infantry . Now all free men in the empire were obliged to serve in the arms, regardless of whether they were of Lombard or Roman origin; The new laws of Aistulf also mention merchants several times, a class that was emerging at the time.
At first Aistulf had some successes, culminating in the conquest of Ravenna (751); Residing in the former palace of the exarch , he issued coins in the Byzantine style and proclaimed his vision: to unite under his rule all the novels of the Italian peninsula that were still subjects of the Byzantines without necessarily merging them with the Lombards. The exarchate was not converted into a duchy, but retained its title as sedes imperii : As a result, Aistulf made himself the heir of the exarch and the Byzantine emperor in the eyes of the Romans. His campaigns made the Lombards masters of almost all of Italy , he occupied Istria (750-751), Ferrara , Comacchio , and all the land between Ravenna and Perugia. With the occupation of the fortress Ceccano he put Pope Stephen II under pressure, while in the south in the Langobardia Minor Spoleto and indirectly Benevento controlled.
When Aistulf had eliminated almost the entire opposition on the Italian peninsula, Pippin the Short , the old enemy of the traitors to Liutprand's family, succeeded in overthrowing the Merovingians and Childeric III in Gaul . to depose, which also made him de jure king. The support of the Pope was crucial, although there were also negotiations between Aistulf and the Pope (which soon failed). Aistulf's faction tried to damage Pippin's reputation with the Pope by referring to his brother Karlmann .
Because these negotiations represented a danger for the new Frankish king, Pippin had to commit himself in a treaty with Pope Stephen II in return for his official anointing to the king to lead a Frankish army to Italy. In 754, a defending Lombard army was defeated by the Franks near the Keys in Val di Susa . Aistulf then had to agree to the placement of hostages and the cession of some territories, but two years later he resumed the war against the Pope, who again called the Franks for help. Aistulf was defeated again and had to agree to much tougher conditions: Ravenna was not to be handed over to the Byzantines , but to the Pope. Aistulf had to agree to a kind of Frankish supremacy over his empire, his empire lost its cohesion through territorial cession and he undertook to pay tribute. The Dukes of Spoleto and Benevento quickly allied themselves with the victors. Aistulf died shortly after this humiliation in 756.
Aistulf's brother Ratchis then left his monastery and tried to return to the throne. His adversary was Desiderius , to whom Aistulf had given rule of the Duchy of Tuscany ; this did not belong to the dynasty of Friuli, which was hated by the Franks and the Pope, and was able to win their support. The Lombards surrendered to him to avoid another Franks campaign, and the Pope convinced Ratchis to return to Montecassino.
With a clever, cautious policy, Desiderius was able to strengthen the rule of the Lombards again by recruiting Romans again and creating a network of monasteries led by Lombard nobles (his daughter Anselperga, for example, became abbess of San Salvatore in Brescia ). He also pursued a clever marriage policy by marrying his daughter Liutperga to the Duke of Bavaria , Tassilo (763), who was an old enemy of the Franks, and after the death of Pippin the Short , by giving his older daughter Desiderata to the future Karl dem Gave a great wife, which for him was a welcome sign of support in the fight against his brother Karlmann.
Despite the changing fortunes of war, the 8th century was marked by increasing prosperity. The old society of warriors and unfree people had transformed into a dynamic mixture of the classes of landowners, artisans, farmers, traders and lawyers; During the period many new abbeys were established , especially Benedictine and expanded finance, which led to the emergence of a class of bankers. After an initial period in which Lombard coinage was limited to the imitation of Byzantine coins , the kings of Pavia developed their own gold and silver coinage.
The fall of the kingdom
When Desiderius wanted to reap the fruits of his diplomatic efforts in 771 and wanted to convince Pope Stephen II to place himself under his protection, the death of Karlmann enabled Charlemagne to take action against Desiderius, whose daughter he hated. In the following year, the new Pope Hadrian I persuaded the Longobard ruler to invade Romagna in a dispute over land . Despite the campaign against the Saxons that had begun, Charlemagne came to the aid of the Pope, as he feared the Lombards would capture Rome , whose protector he was. Between 773 and 774 he invaded Italy - again the defense of the key passes was insufficient, which was due to internal conflicts between the Lombards - and was finally able to conquer Pavia. The son of Desiderius, Adelchis , found refuge with the Byzantines; Desiderius and his wife were deported to Gaul . Charles now called himself Gratia Dei rex Francorum et Langobardorum ("By the grace of God, King of the Franks and Longobards"). He now led both kingdoms in personal union ; He retained the laws of the Longobards, the Leges Langobardorum , but otherwise reorganized the kingdom in the Frankish manner, with princes instead of dukes.
Historiographical Perspectives
The age of the Lombards, especially in Italy, was long dismissed as a time of barbarism, a chapter of the “dark time”. An age of dwindling and loss, sitting on the ruins of antiquity but unable to create anything new or equivalent; such as B. in the verses of Manzoni in Adelchi's tragedy:
"Dagli atri muscosi, dai Fori cadenti,
dai boschi, dall'arse fucine stridenti,
dai solchi bagnati di servo sudor,
un volgo disperso repente si desta."
"From the mossy atria, from the crumbling forum,
from the woods, from the flaming, screeching blacksmiths,
from the furrows wet with slave sweat,
suddenly a scattered mob awoke."
Sergio Rovagnati defines the persistent negative memory of the Lombards as "a kind of damnatio memoriae ". Modern historians have reevaluated the rule of the Lombards in Italy. The historian Jörg Jarnut emphasizes the significance of the epoch for Italy: For example, the historical division of Italy into a northern part oriented towards Central Europe and a southern part oriented towards the Mediterranean goes back to the Langobardia Major and Langobardia Minor, while the Longobard laws dominated the Italian legal system for a long time. Longobard , a Germanic language , played an important role in the formation of the modern Italian language , which developed from Vulgar Latin to an autonomous language precisely in the centuries of the Lombard rule.
With regard to the historical role of the Lombards in Europe, Jarnut shows that after the fall of the Visigothic Empire and the Frankish period of weakness under the Merovingians , Pavia almost achieved leadership in the west by wresting large parts of Italy from the control of the Byzantine basileus , which only through the rise Charlemagne was prevented.
swell
- Fredegar , Pseudo-Fredegarii scholastici Chronicarum libri IV cum continuationibus In: Monumenta Germaniae Historica SS rer. Mer. II, Hanover 1888
- Gregory of Tours , Gregorii episcopi Turonensis Libri historiarum X (Historia Francorum) in Monumenta Germaniae Historica SS rer. Mer. I 1, Hanover 1951
- Leges Langobardorum (643-866) , ed. F. Beyerle, Witzenhausen 1962
- Marius of Avenches , Chronica a. ProzLV-DLXXXI . Edied Theodor Mommsen in Monumenta Germaniae Historica AA, XI, Berlin 1894
- Origo Gentis Langobardorum , ed. G. Waitz in Monumenta Germaniae Historica SS rer. Long.
- Paulus Diaconus , Historia gentis Langobardorum ( Storia dei Longobardi , Lorenzo Valla / Mondadori, Milan 1992)
literature
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- Christie Neil: I Longobardi. Storia e archeologia di un popolo ECIG, Geneva 1997, ISBN 88-7545-735-2 .
- Paolo Possenti: Le radici degli italiani. Vol. II: Romania e Longobardia . Effedieffe, Milan 2001, ISBN 88-85223-27-3 .
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- Giovanni Tabacco: Egemonie sociali e strutture del potere nel medioevo italiano . Einaudi, Turin 1999, ISBN 88-06-49460-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ "The New Cambridge Medieval History: c. 500-c. 700 "by Paul Fouracre and Rosamond McKitterick (page 8)
- ↑ See Paulus Diaconus, Historia gentis Langobardorum , IV , 37; VI , 24-26 and 52.
- ↑ Jörg Jarnut, Storia dei Longobardi , pp. 48–50.
- ↑ or twelve years after Origo Gentis Langobardorum and Chronicle of Fredegar .
- ↑ Jarnut, cit., P. 37.
- ^ Paulus Diaconus, cit., III , 16.
- ↑ Jarnut, cit., P. 44.
- ^ Ivi, p. 43.
- ^ Paulus Diaconus, cit., IV , 41.
- ↑ Jarnut, cit., P. 61.
- ^ Ivi, p. 56.
- ^ Paulus Diaconus, cit., IV , 45.
- ↑ Jarnut, cit., P. 59.
- ^ Paulus Diaconus, cit., IV , 46.
- ^ Franco Cardini e Marina Montesano, Storia medievale , p. 86.
- ^ Ivi, VI , 35.
- ↑ Ibidem .
- ↑ Jarnut, cit. P. 97.
- ^ Paulus Diaconus, cit., VI , 49.
- ↑ Jörg Jarnut, cit., P. 82; Sergio Rovagnati, I Longobardi , pp. 75-76.
- ↑ Jarnut, pp. 98-101.
- ^ Paulus Diaconus, cit., VI , 55.
- ↑ Leges Langobardorum , Ratchis Leges , 14, 1-3.
- ↑ Jarnut, cit., P. 111.
- ^ Ivi, p. 112.
- ↑ Jarnut, p. 102.
- ^ Ivi, p. 125.
- ↑ cfr. Claudio Azzara, L'Italia dei barbari , p. 135.
- ↑ Rovagnati, cit., P. 1.
- ↑ Jarnut, cit., Pp. 135-136.
- ↑ Ivi, pp. 136-137.