Book 1

Chapter XXI

But after these things Tato indeed did not long rejoice in the triumph of war, for Waccho, the son of his brother Zuchilo, [1] attacked him and deprived him of his life. Tato's son Hildechis also fought [2] against Waccho, but when Waccho prevailed and he was overcome, he fled to the Gepidae and remained there an exile up to the end of his life. For this reason the Gepidae from that time incurred enmities with the Langobards. At the same time Waccho fell upon the Suavi and subjected them to his authority. [3] If any one may think that this is a lie and not the truth of the matter, let him read over the prologue of the edict which King Rothari composed [4] of the laws of the Langobards and he will find this written in almost all the manuscripts as we have inserted it in this little history. And Waccho had three wives, that is, the first, Ranicunda, daughter of the king of the Turingi (Thuringians) ; then he married Austrigusa, the daughter of the king of the Gepidae, from whom he had two daughters; the name of one was Wisegarda, whom he bestowed in marriage upon Theudepert, king of the Franks, and the second was called Walderada, who was united with Cusupald, another king of the Franks, and he, having her in hatred [5] gave her over in marriage to one of his followers called Garipald. [6] And Waccho had for his third wife the daughter of the king of the Heroli, [7] by name Salinga. From her a son was born to him, whom he called Waltari, and who upon the death of Waccho reigned as the eighth [8] king over the Langobards. All these were Lithingi; for thus among them a certain noble stock was called.

[1] This is a misunderstanding by Paul of the words of the Origo from which his account is taken, which says: "And Waccho the son of Unichis killed king Tato, his uncle, together with Zuchilo." (M. G. li. Script. Rer. Langob., p. 3.) See Appendix II.
[2] Procopius (III, 35) makes Hildechis the son of Risulf, a cousin of Waccho (Hodgkin, V, 117, note 2). He states that Risulf would have been entitled to the throne upon Waccho's death, but in order to get the crown for his own son, Waccho drove Risulf by means of a false accusation from the country; that Risulf fled with his two sons, one of whom was called Hildechis, to the Warni, by whom, at the instigation of Waccho, he was murdered; that Hildechis' brother died there of sickness and Hildechis escaped and was first received by a Slav people and afterwards by the Gepidae (Schmidt, 59).
[3] It is hard to see what people are designated by this name. The Suavi who dwelt in the southwestern part of Germany, now Suabia, are too far off. Hodgkin (p. 119) suggests a confusion between Suavia and Savia, the region of the Save. Schmidt (55) says, "There is ground to believe that this people is identical with the Suevi of Vannius who possessed the mountain land between the March and the Theiss." Other events in Waccho's reign are mentioned by Procopius (II, 22), but omitted by Paul. For instance, in the year 539, Vitiges, the Ostrogoth, being hard pressed by Belisarius, sent ambassadors to Waccho offering large sums of money to become his ally, but Waccho refused because a treaty had been concluded between the Langobards and Byzantines.
[4] Paul here refers to the famous "Origo Gentis Langobardorum " from which, or from a common original, Paul has taken much of his early Langobard history. See Appendix II. Paul appears to have considered the Origo as the Prologue to Rothari's Edict. The two were, however, different, though both were prefixed to the Edict in at least some of the MSS. Mommsen (58, note) thinks it probable that the Origo was not an official but a private work, prefixed to the Edict for the first time in the year 668. Rothari composed the Edict and not the Origo, though Paul seems to have considered him the author of the latter (Jacobi 5).[5] Gregory of Tours relates (IV, 9) that he repudiated her because he was accused by the clergy, probably on account of some ecclesiastical impediment.
[6] Garipald was duke of the Bavarians (Greg. Tours, IV, 9; Waitz ; see infra. III, 10, 30).
[7] And yet Paul has just told us in the preceding chapter that at this time the Heroli had no king.
[8] An error in enumeration, Tato being mentioned as seventh and Waccho omitted (Waitz).


Chapter XXII

Waltari, therefore, when he had held the sovereignty for seven years, [1] departed from this life, [2] and after him Audoin [3] was the ninth [4] who attained the kingly power (546-565), and he, not long afterwards, led the Langobards into Pannonia. [5]

[1] Probably 539 to 546 or thereabouts. (Hartmann, II, I, 30.)
[2] Procopius says by disease (B. G., Ill, 35).
[3] The same, probably, as the Anglo-Saxon and English "Edwin'' (Hodgkin, V, 122, note I).
[4] The race of Lethingi became extinct with Waltari. Audoin came from the race of Gausus (see Chronicon Gothanum, M. G., H, LL., IV, p. 644).
[5] Justinian, says Procopius (B. G., Ill, 33), had given this and other lands to the Langobards together with great sums of money (Schmidt, 58). They appear to have been in fact subsidized as allies and confederates of the Roman Empire (Hartmann, II, I, 12), and it seems to have been at Justinian's instigation that Audoin married a Thuringian princess, the great-niece of Theoderic, who after the overthrow of the Thuringians had fled to Italy, and later had been brought by Belisarius to the court of Constantinople (Hartmann, II, i, 14). The invasion of Pannonia probably occurred not far from 546 (id., p. 30).


Chapter XXIII

Then the Gepidae and the Langobards at last give birth to the strife which had been long since conceived and the two parties make ready for war. [1] When battle was joined, while both lines fought bravely and neither yielded to the other, it happened that in the midst of struggle, Alboin, the son of Audoin, and Turismod, the son of Turisind encountered each other. And Alboin, striking the other with his sword, hurled him headlong from his horse to destruction. The Gepidae, seeing that the king's son was killed, through whom in great part the war had been set on foot, at once, in their discouragement, start to flee. The Langobards, sharply following them up, overthrow them and when a great number had been killed they turn back to take off the spoils of the dead. When, after the victory had been won, the Langobards returned to their own abodes, they suggested to their king Audoin that Alboin, by whose valor they had won the victory in the fight, should become his table companion so that he who had been a comrade to his father in danger should also be a comrade at the feast. Audoin answered them that he could by no means do this lest he should break the usage of the nation. "You know," he said, "that it is not the custom among us that the son of the king should eat with his father unless he first receives his arms from the king of a foreign nation."

[1] Paul does not state the cause of this war. Schmidt believes (p. 58) that it was probably begun at the instigation of Justinian whose interest it was to break up the friendship of two peoples who threatened to become dangerous to his empire and that in addition to this, the desire of the Langobards to get the important city of Sirmium, then held by the Gepidae cooperated, and above all, the hostile feeling which had been called out by contests for the throne. It must be remembered that the Heroli, enemies to the Langobards, had been received in the confederacy of the Gepidae and that Hildechis, the descendant of Tato, was harbored by the Gepid king Turisind, just as Ustrigotthus, Turisind's rival for the Gepid throne, and son of his predecessor, Elemund, had found refuge at the court of Audoin. Prior to this, both nations had sought the alliance of the emperor (Hodgkin, V, 122-126). Justinian decided to help the Langobards since they were weaker and less dangerous to him than the Gepidae, so a Roman army of about 10,000 cavalry and 1500 Heroli marched against the Gepidae. Upon the way they annihilated a division of 3,000 Heroli who were allied to the Gepidae, and the Gepidae made a separate peace with the Langobards (p. 129). Audoin demanded of Turisind, king of the Gepidae, the delivery of Hildechis, but the latter escaped and wandered about in different countries (Schmidt, 60). A second war between the Langobards and Gepidae occurred about 549 (Procopius, IV, 18), when a desperate panic seized both armies at the beginning of a battle, whereupon the two kings concluded a two years' truce. At the end of this time hostilities began anew. Justinian took the side of the Langobards and sent troops into the field, one division of which, under command of Amalafrid, joined the Langobards, while the rest of the troops remained by command of the emperor in Ullpiana to quell certain disturbances (Schmidt, 60, 61). The Langobards pushed into the territory of the Gepidae and defeated their adversaries. The field of battle was probably near Sirmium. Procopius (II. 0., IV, 25) puts this battle in the seventeenth year of the war (March, 551, to March, 552). Probably this is the same battle which Paul relates. The Gepidae now begged for peace which was accorded to them through the intervention of Justinian. As a condition the Langobards and the emperor demanded the delivery of Hildechis. But as the Gepidae were resolved not to violate the sanctity of a guest, and as the Langobards refused to deliver Ustrigotthus, neither of these were surrendered, but both perished by assassination, not without the knowledge of the two kings (Schmidt, 62; Hodgkin, V, 134).


Chapter XXIV

When he heard these things from his father, Alboin, taking only forty young men with him, journeyed to Turisind, king of the Gepidae with whom he had before waged war, and intimated the cause in which he had come. And the king, receiving him kindly, invited him to his table and placed him on his right hand where Turismod, his former son had been wont to sit. In the meantime, while the various dishes were made ready, Turisind, reflecting that his son had sat there only a little while before, and recalling to mind the death of his child and beholding his slayer present and sitting in his place, drawing deep sighs, could not contain himself, but at last his grief broke forth in utterance. "This place," he says, " is dear to me, but the person who sits in it is grievous enough to my sight." Then another son of the king who was present, aroused by his father's speech, began to provoke the Langobards with insults declaring (because they wore white bandages from their calves down) that they were like mares with white feet up to the legs, saying: " The mares that you take after have white fetlocks." [1] Then one of the Langobards thus answered these things: " Go to the field of Asfeld and there you can find by experience beyond a doubt how stoutly those you call mares succeed in kicking; there the bones of your brother are scattered in the midst of the meadows like those of a vile beast." When they heard these things, the Gepidae, unable to bear the tumult of their passions, are violently stirred in anger and strive to avenge the open insult. The Langobards on the other side, ready for the fray, all lay their hands on the hilts of their swords. The king leaping forth from the table thrust himself into their midst and restrained his people from anger and strife, threatening first to punish him who first engaged in fight, saying that it is a victory not pleasing to God when any one kills his guest in his own house. Thus at last the quarrel having been allayed, they now finished the banquet with joyful spirits. And Turisind, taking up the arms of Turismod his son, delivered them to Alboin and sent him back in peace and safety to his father's kingdom. Alboin having returned to his father, was made from that time his table companion. And when he joyfully partook with his father of the royal delicacies, he related in order all the things which had happened to him among the Gepidae in the palace of Turisind. [2] Those who were present were astonished and applauded the boldness of Alboin nor did they less extol in their praises the most honorable behavior of Turisind.

[1] Or hoofs. Fetilus for petilus. The white hoof of a horse was so called. Others make foetidae, "evil smelling." See Gibbon, ch. 45. Hodgkin, V, 136.
[2] Read Turisindi with many MSS. instead of Turismodi.