Italy 568-752

The Lombards
Originally a Germanic people, the Lombards invaded northern Italy from Pannonia (modern Hungary) in 568 under their leader Alboin. They occupied the plain of the Po during 568-9 without encountering a great deal of opposition, establishing their dukes in the main cities, and taking Pavia in 572 following a three-year siege. They came to control what is now Venetia, Liguria and Tuscany. Alboin was murdered in 572 and his successor Cleph suffered the same fate two years later. There followed an interregnum of ten years during which the Lombards appear not to have had any overall leader, but by the end of the sixth century, under the young and romantic figure of Authari (584-90) and then Agilulf (590-616), they controlled two-thirds of Italy.

They clearly attempted to capture the whole of the peninsula, but lacked the resources to do so, being relatively few in number and often divided amongst themselves, to the extent that one of the Byzantines' main tactics against them seems to have been attempting to bribe some of their leaders. Additionally, the Byzantines, with their 'belt' of territory linking Ravenna and Rome, acted as an effective bulwark against Lombard expansion, often with the help of the native Italians who tended to regard the Greek empire as marginally preferable to the unsubtle pillaging of the 'barbarians'. Thus the division of Italy into two parts was complete and became the political status quo in early medieval times. It is important to note that the ability of the 'exarch' at Ravenna to repel the barbarians was very much dependent on the temporal power and support of the papacy, which can be seen as having developed into the 'third force' in the Italy of this period. The popes owned large amounts of land, and to a large extent enjoyed the support of the populace, providing as they did a rudimentary system of social security for the poor which they financed with the income from their estates. The eastern empire's hold on Italy was often tenuous, and the papacy to a large extent propped it up, fearing the militant paganism of the Lombards, exemplified by Authari's anti-Catholic edict of 590 (Authari died soon after - divine justice according to Gregory the Great!). The Church was thus largely responsible for administering Byzantine territory and for mustering resistance to the Lombards. It is probably legitimate to speculate that, had it not been for the papacy, Italy would have been reunited under Lombard rule during the sixth or seventh centuries.

Pope Gregory the Great, who assumed the papacy in 590, negotiated with Agilulf to put an end to the Lombard siege of Rome in 594 - the prelude to a series of truces between the Byzantine exarchy and the Lombards which was to establish a reasonably stable equilibrium in Italy and give relative peace to the territory for about 130 years. The Lombards established their capital at Pavia, and for much of their period in power the main Lombard kingdom in northern Italy and Tuscany was politically dominant over their duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, especially during the reign of Grimoald (662-71) and of Liutprand (712-44), probably the most significant of the Lombard kings. Pavia itself contained a variety of magnificent architectural features, reflecting its position as the pre-eminent Lombard city. These included the royal palace, several fine churches, and an interesting bath complex, one of the few which were operational in the seventh century. Unlike the Ostrogoths, the Lombards brought distinctly Germanic customs to Italy, although their administrative and political structures had a strong Roman flavour to them. We know a considerable amount about their ways because their customs were fully and systematically documented by Rothari in his Edict of 643. They were in essence organised around a series of fairly independent noble warriors, usually dukes or gastaidi, who controlled their locality, usually living in its most important city such as Milan, Brescia and Verona, and who owed some degree of allegiance only to the king. Lombard kings had often to be generous with patronage and estates in order to secure the support of their dukes. This resulted in a substantial devolution of power, and contributed to the growth in the independence and influence of the cities and the regions during this period. The central-southem duchies were generally more centra lised, with the governments in Spoleto and Benevento maintaining a tight rein on their local gastalds. The large degree of local power in the main kingdom meant that there were frequent boundary disputes between the major cities, who usually turned to the king for mediation. For example, there were four disputes between Parma and Piacenza between 626 and 854, as well as an enduring one between Arezzo and Siena which is still reflected in modern rivalry between these cities.

The Lombards adopted the local Italian language, losing their own by about 700, and the local style of dress, shedding their traditional long hair and striped linens for Roman leggings and trousers. They mixed and intermarried with the local people, as their burials which have been discovered at Nocera Umbra, Castel Trosino (near Ascoli Piceno), Invillino (in the Friuli), Fiesole, Brescia and Cividale tend to testify. They thus fused almost completely with the local populace, leaving a permanent mark on the Italian people. However, this was an invasion of a ruling Elite: the majority of the population of Italy was and remained Roman in origin. Lombard power over large parts of Italy lasted for nearly 200 years before they were finally overrun by the Franks.

This article is based on material taken from A Traveller's History of Italy (© Valerio Lintner), published by The Windrush Press, and is by kind permission of its author Valerio Lintner.