Book 4

Chapter X.

Meanwhile, in the following month of January, a comet appeared morning and evening through the whole month. And in this month also John, archbishop of Ravenna, died and Marianus, a Roman citizen, was substituted in his place. Also Euin, the duke of Trent, being dead, duke Gaidoald, a good man and a Catholic in religion, was assigned to that place. And in these same days, while the Bavarians, to the number of thirty thousand men, attacked the Slavs, the Cagan [1] fell upon them and all were killed. Then for the first time wild horses and buffaloes [2] were brought into Italy, and were objects of wonder to the people of that country.

[1] Thus the king of the Avars or Huns was called (Giansevero), and this is the probable meaning of the title in this place, but the term is also applied to the chiefs of the Russians or Muscovites (see DuCange), hence perhaps here to the chief of the Slavs. It was a generic name like "Caesar," "Augustus," " Flavius" among the Romans. The word "Khan" is evidently derived from it (Giansevero, p. 140).
[2] Bubalus is probably [Greek word for] ''buffalo,'' or possibly [Greek word for] an African deer or antelope.


Chapter XI.

Also at this time Childepert, king of the Franks, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, was murdered, as is said, together with his wife, by poison.[1] The Huns, too, who are also called Avars, entered Thuringia from Pannonia and waged desperate wars with the Franks. Queen Brunihilde, with her grandsons Theudepert and Theuderic who were still little boys, was then reigning over Gaul and the Huns took money from them and returned home. Also Gunthram, king of the Franks, died, and queen Brunihilde, with her grandsons, the sons of Childepert, who were still little children, assumed his royal authority.

[1] A.D. 593 (Hodgkin, V, 345).


Chapter XII.

At the same time the Cagan, king of the Huns, sending messengers to Mediolanum (Milan) to Agilulf, made peace with him. [1] Also the patrician Romanus died [2] and Gallicinus [3] succeeded him and entered into a treaty of peace with king Agilulf. [4]

[1]Some time between 593 and 600 (Hodgkin, V, 422, note 3).
[2] A. D. 596 or 597 (Hodgkin, V, 409).
[3] His proper name was Callinicus (Hodgkin, V, 410).
[4] This was the peace in regard to which Gregory wrote the preceding letters to Theudelinda and Agilulf. It was only a peace for two years (Hodgkin, V, 418, 420. 428).


Chapter XIII.

At this time also Agilulf made perpetual peace with Theuderic, king of the Franks. Afterwards king Ago put to death Zangrulf, duke of Verona, who rebelled against him. He also slew Gaidulf, duke of Pergamus (Bergamo), whom he had already spared twice. Also in like manner he put to death Warnecautius at Ticinum (Pavia).


Chapter XIV.

At a subsequent time a very severe plague again devastated Ravenna and those places which were around the shores of the sea. Also in the following year a great mortality wasted the people of Verona.


Chapter XV.

Then also a bloody sign was seen appearing in heaven, and as it were, bloody lances and a very brilliant light through the whole night. Theudepert king of the Franks at that time waged war with his cousin Clothar and violently overthrew his army.


Chapter XVI.

In the following year duke Ariulf who had succeeded Faruald [1] at Spoletium (Spoleto) died. This Ariulf, when he had waged war against the Romans at Camerinum (Camerino) [2] and had gotten the victory, [3] began to inquire of his men who that man was whom he had seen fighting so vigorously in the war he had waged. And when his men answered that they had not seen anyone there acting more bravely than the duke himself, he said: "Surely I saw another man there much and in every way better than I, and as often as any one of the opposite side attempted to strike me, that active man always protected me with his shield." And when the duke himself had come near Spoletium (Spoleto) where stands the church of the blessed martyr, the bishop Savinus, [4] in which his venerable body reposes, Ariulf asked to whom belonged this spacious abode. It was answered him by devout men that the martyr Savinus reposed there whom Christians were wont to invoke in their aid as often as they went to war against their enemies. And Ariulf, since up to this time he was a heathen, thus answered: "And can it be that a dead man can give any aid to one living?" And when he had said this, he leaped down from his horse and went into the church to look at it. And then while the others were praying he began to admire the pictures of that church. And when he had beheld the painted figure of the blessed martyr Savinus he straightway said and declared with an oath that that man who had protected him in battle had in every way such a form and bearing. Then it was understood that the blessed martyr Savinus had brought him help in battle. Upon the death of Ariulf, after two sons of Faroald the former duke had contended between themselves for the dukedom, one of them, Teudelapius by name, was crowned with victory and received the dukedom.[5]

[1]Faruald died about 591 (Waitz). The name is also spelled Faroald, see infra.
[2] A city of Picenum on the east side of the Apennines near the boundaries of Umbria.
[3] The campaign of Ariulf, including probably a siege of Rome, had taken place some time before this in 592, and had ended in a partial peace concluded by Pope Gregory with the Langobard duke, due to the veneration aroused in the heart of Ariulf by a personal interview with the pontiff. This was the peace that exposed the pope to bitter reproaches at Constantinople (Hodgkin, VI, 93) and was possibly the occasion of the campaign of Romanus against the cities that had been taken by the Langobards (IV, 8 supra').
[4]Hodgkin suggests (V, 365, note 3) that this may be a mistake as Savinus (or Sabinus) was patron saint, not of Spoleto but Camerino.
[5] Ariulf died in 601, about ten years after his accession and king Agilulf appears to have had little hand in regulating the succession, since this was decided by battle between the two sons of Faruald. Teudelapius kept the dukedom of Spoleto for more than half a century (601 to 653), during which time there were four kings at Pavia (Hodgkin, VI, 95, 96).


Chapter XVII.

About this time the monastery of the blessed father Benedict which was situated in the stronghold of Casinum (Monte Cassino) was attacked at night by the Langobards, [1] and although they plundered everything, they could not get hold of one of the monks. This was in fulfillment of a prophecy of the venerable father Benedict, which he had made long before, in which he said:

" I have been able with difficulty to obtain from God that the souls from this place should be yielded to me." [2] The monks fled from this place and made their way to Rome carrying with them the manuscript of the Holy Rule (of the order) which the aforesaid father had composed, and certain other writings and also a pound of bread and a measure of wine, and whatever of their household goods they had been able to snatch away. Subsequently to the blessed Benedict indeed, Constantine governed that fraternity; after him Simplicius; after him Vitalis; finally Bonitus under whom this destruction occurred.

[1] This attack actually occurred A. I). 589, not 601, the date of Ariulf's death (Jacobi, 25, 26). Some historians indeed place it as early as 582 (Giansevero).
[2] The whole prophecy was (see Dialogues Gregory the Great, II, chap. 17), "All this monastery that I built and all things that I prepared for the brothers, have been delivered to the heathen by the judgment of God Almighty. I have been able with difficulty, etc."


Chapter XVIII.

On the death of Zotto, duke of Beneventum (Benevento), [1] Arigis (or Arichis), sent by king Agilulf, succeeded to his place. He had come originally from Forum Julii (Cividale) and had educated the sons of Gisulf, [2] duke of Forum Julii (Friuli), and was a blood relation of that same Gisulf. There exists a letter of the blessed Pope Gregory to this Arigis drawn up in the following terms:

[1] A D. 591. He had pushed his ravages far into Apulia Lucania and Calabria, apparently acting independently of the Langobard kingdom in the north of Italy (Ilodgkin, VI, 73).
[2] Arichis was drke in 591, as appears from a letter of Gregory the Great (Epist., II, 46). How then could Grimoald, the son of Gisulf, who was a little boy during the Avar invasion of 610 (IV, 37 infra), have been one of his pupils before 591 ? Even Grimoald's elder brothers Taso and Gacco were young enough for the eldest to be adopted by the exarch after his father's death about 612, and could hardly have been born before 585, six years before Arichis became duke of Leneventum. Hodgkin believes (VI, 74, note) that it was the children of an earlier generation whom Arichis instructed, perhaps the children of Grasulf I, and that afterwards, when Arichis received the two young princes Radoald and Grimoald at his court (IV, 39 infra), it was the sons of one of his old pupils that he welcomed to Leneventum. Other commentators believe that Paul was altogether wrong. Arichis practically acted as an independent sovereign, making war with Naples and Rome, and king Agilulf could not conclude a peace with the empire till Arichis assented. When Arichis died the king of the Langobards does not seem to have been consulted in the appointment of his successor (Hodgkin, VI, 75).