Book 6

Chapter XVI.

At this time in Gaul when the kings of the Franks were degenerating from their wonted courage and skill, those who were regarded as stewards of the palace began to administer the kingly power and to do whatever is the custom for kings, since it was ordained from heaven that the sovereignty of the Franks should be transferred to the race of these men. And Arnulf was at that time [1] steward of the royal palace, a man, as was afterwards apparent, pleasing to God and of wonderful holiness, who, after enjoying the glory of this world, devoted himself to the service of Christ and was distinguished in the episcopate and finally, choosing the life of a hermit, rendered all kinds of services to lepers and lived in the greatest abstinence. Concerning his wonderful doings at the church of Metz where he carried on the bishopric, there is a book containing an account of his miracles and the abstinence of his life. But I too, in a book which I wrote concerning the bishops of this city, at the request of Angelramnus, archbishop of the aforesaid church, a very gentle man and distinguished by holiness, have set down concerning this most holy man Arnulf, certain of his miracles which I have considered it merely superfluous to repeat here.

[1] Paul is in error in making Arnulf, who died August 18, 641, contemporary with Cunincpert (Jacobi, 42).


Chapter XVII.

During these occurrences Cunincpert, a ruler most beloved by all, after he had held for twelve years alone, succeeding his father, the kingdom of the Langobards, was finally withdrawn from this life. He built in the field of Coronate where he had waged war against Alahis, a monastery in honor of the holy martyr George. [1] He was moreover a handsome man and conspicuous in every good quality and a bold warrior. He was buried with many tears of the Langobards near the church of our Lord the Saviour which his grandfather Aripert had formerly built. [2] And he left the kingdom of the Langobards to his son Liutpert who was yet of the age of boyhood, to whom he gave as his tutor Ansprand, a wise and distinguished man.

[1] The city of Modena, half ruined during the insurrection of Alahis, was also restored by him (Hodgkin, VI, 314, note 2). Cunincpert was the first Langobard king whose effigy is found upon the coins (id., p. 317).
[2] In Ticinum, where there was an epitaph upon his tomb, referred to by Muratori in his book on the Antiquities of Este, Chapters l-10, p. 73 (Waitz).


Chapter XVIII.

When eight months had elapsed from this time, [1] Raginpert, duke of Turin, whom formerly king Godepert had left as a little boy when he was killed by Grimuald, of which we have also spoken above, [2] came with a strong force and fought against Ansprand and Rotharit, duke of the Bergamascans at Novariae (Novara), and defeating them in the open field took possession of the kingdom of the Langobards. But he died the same year,

[1] A.D. 701 (Giansevero).
[2] IV, Ch. 51.


Chapter XIX.

Then his son Aripert, again making ready for war, fought at Ticinum with king Liutpert and with Ansprand and Ato and Tatzo and also Rotharit and Farao; but overcoming all these in battle he took the child Liutpert alive as a prisoner of war. Ansprand also fled and fortified himself in the island of Commacina.[1]

[1] Spelled elsewhere Comacina.


Chapter XX.

But when Rotharit indeed returned to his city of Bergamus (Bergamo) he seized the kingly power. King Aripert marched against him with a great army, and having first attacked and captured Lauda (Lodi) he beseiged Bergamus, and storming it without any difficulty with battering rams and other machines of war, presently took it and seized Rotharit the false king and shaving his hair and his beard, thrust him into exile at Turin, and there after some days he was killed. Liutpert indeed whom he had taken he deprived of life in like manner in the bath.


Chapter XXI.

He also sent an army into the island of Commacina against Ansprand. When this was known Ansprand fled to Clavenna (Chiavenna), thence he came through Curia (Chur) a city of the Rhaetians to Theutpert, duke of the Bavarians, and was with him for nine years. But the army of Aripert indeed took possession of the island in which Ansprand had been and destroyed his town.


Chapter XXII.

Then king Aripert when he was confirmed in his sovereignty, tore out the eyes of Sigiprand, the son of Ansprand, and afflicted in various ways all who had been connected with the latter by the tie of blood. He also kept Liutprand the younger son of Ansprand, in custody, but because he regarded him as a person of no importance and as yet a mere youth, he not only inflicted no punishment at all upon his body, but let him depart so that he could go to his father. There is no doubt that this was done by the command of God Almighty who was preparing him for the management of the kingdom. Then Liutprand proceeded to his father in Bavaria and caused him incalculable joy by his coming. But king Aripert caused the wife of Ansprand, Theodorada by name, to be seized; and when she with her woman's wilfulness boasted that she would get to be queen, she was disfigured in the beauty of her face, her nose and ears being cut off. Also the sister of Liutprand, Aurona by name, was mutilated in like manner.


Chapter XXIII.

At this time in Gaul, in the kingdom of the Franks, Anschis, [1] the son of Arnulf, who is believed to be named after Anchises the former Trojan, conducted the sovereignty under the title of steward of the palace.

[1] Or Ansegis. He is to be referred however to an earlier period (Waitz).


Chapter XXIV.

When Ado who we said was caretaker [1] had died at Forum Julii, Ferdulf, a man tricky and conceited, who came from the territories of Liguria, obtained the dukedom. Because he wanted to have the glory of a victory over the Slavs, he brought great misfortune upon himself and the people of Forum Julii. He gave sums of money to certain Slavs to send upon his request an army of Slavs into this province, and it was accordingly done. But that was the cause of great disaster in this province of Forum Julii. The freebooters of the Slavs fell upon the flocks and upon the shepherds of the sheep that pastured in their neighborhoods and drove away the booty taken from them. The ruler of that place, whom they called in their own language "sculdahis," [2] a man of noble birth and strong in courage and capacity, followed them, but nevertheless he could not overtake the freebooters. Duke Ferdulf met him as he was returning thence and when he asked him what had become of these robbers, Argait, for that was his name, answered that they had escaped. Then Ferdulf in rage thus spoke to him: "When could you do anything bravely, you whose name, Argait, comes from the word coward," [3] and Argait, provoked by great anger, since he was a brave man, answered as follows: "May God so will that you and I, duke Ferdulf, may not depart from this life until others know which of us is the greater coward." When they had spoken to each other in turn, these words, in the vulgar tongue [4] it happened not many days afterwards, that the army of the Slavs, for whose coming duke Ferdulf had given his sums of money, now arrived in great strength. And when they had set their camp upon the very top of a mountain and it was hard to approach them from almost any side, duke Ferdulf, coming upon them with his army, began to go around that mountain in order that he could attack them by more level places. Then Argait of whom we have spoken thus said to Ferdulf: "Remember, duke Ferdulf, that you said I was lazy and useless and that you called me in our common speech a coward, but now may the anger of God come upon him who shall be the last of us to attack those Slavs," and saying these words, he turned his horse where the ascent was difficult on account of the steepness of the mountain, and began to attack the fortified camp of the Slavs. Ferdulf, being ashamed not to attack the Slavs himself, through the same difficult places, followed him through those steep and hard and pathless spots, and his army too, considering it base not to follow their leader, began also to press on after him. Consequently the Slavs, seeing that they were coming upon them through steep places, prepared themselves manfully, and fighting against them more with stones and axes [1] than with arms they threw them nearly all from their horses and killed them. And thus they obtained their victory, not by their own strength, but by chance. There all the nobility of the Friulans perished. There duke Ferdulf fell and there too he who had provoked him was killed. And there so great a number of brave men were vanquished by the wickedness and thoughtlessness of dissension as could, with unity and wholesome counsel, overthrow many thousands of their enemies. There, however, one of the Langobards, Munichis by name, who was afterwards the father of the dukes Peter of Forum Julii and Ursus of Ceneta (Ceneda), alone acted in a brave and manly manner. When he had been thrown from his horse and one of the Slavs suddenly attacking him had tied his hands with a rope, he wrested with his bound hands the lance from the right hand of that same Slav, pierced him with it, and tied as he was, threw himself down through the steep places and escaped. We put these things into this history especially for this purpose, that nothing further of a like character may happen through the evil of dissension.

[1] VI, Chap. 3, supra.
[2] See the German, 'Schultheiss', local magistrate. They were subordinate to the judges (i.e., the dukes or the gastaldi). See II, 32, note 4 (pp. 86-91), supra; Pabst, 499.
[3] 'Arga', a Langobard word, meaning cowardly, inert, worthless. See Rothari, Edict, Chapter 381 (M. G. LL., IV, p. 88), where the word is recognized as conveying a particular insult. ''If one in rage calls another an 'arga', and he cannot deny it, and says he has called him so in rage, he shall declare upon oath that he does not hold him for an aiga, and thereupon he shall pay twelve solidi for the offensive word. But if he insists upon it and says he can prove it in a duel, so let him convict him, if he can, or let him pay as above."
[4] "Vulgaria verba." Hartmann (II, 2, 58) regards this passage as presupposing that Ferdulf and Argait could speak Latin with one another. After the permanent settlement of the Langobards in Italy the current Latin language of the time (which was the only written language, and the only one fitted to many of the new relations imposed by their intercourse with the Roman population) gradually superseded their own more barbarous tongue. (Hartmann, II, 2, 22.) It is evident, however, from the German words used by Paul, as well as from his description of this controversy between duke Ferdulf and Argait, which must have occurred not far from A.D. 700 (Hodgkin, VI, 328, note 3), that the Langobard language was spoken in the eighth century, and there are traces of its continuance even after the Frankish invasion, A.D. 774. In a document in upper Italy the pronoun 'ih' introduced by mistake before the Latin words "have subscribed myself" indicate the existence of the Langobard as a spoken language in the latter half of the ninth century. The Chronicle of Salerno, composed in 978 (Ch. 38, MGH. SS., Ill, 489), refers to the German language as "formerly" spoken by the Langobards, from which it would appear that in that region at least it had then become extinct. But it is quite uncertain just when it ceased to be used. Probably the language continued longest where the German population was most dense, and the period where it died out as a living language must have been preceded by a considerable time, in which those who spoke it also understood and spoke the Latin tongue. The period of its decline can be traced by numerous Latin terminations of German words and the addition of German suffixes (for example, engo, ingo, esco-asco- atto- etio- otto) to Latin words, combinations which have been important ingredients in the formation of modern Italian (Bruckner, Sprache der Langobarden, pp. 11-17).
[5] 'Securibus'. Hodgkin translates "tree trunks," believing that the axes were used in felling trees to cast down upon them (VI, 330, and note 3).