Book 2

Chapter VI

But Alboin, being about to set out for Italy with the Langobards, asked aid from his old friends, the Saxons, that he might enter and take possession of so spacious a land with a larger number of followers. The Saxons came to him, more than 20,000 men, together with their wives and children, to proceed with him to Italy according to his desire. Hearing these things, Chlothar and Sigisbert, kings of the Franks, put the Suavi and other nations into the places from which these Saxons had come.[1]

[1] Hodgkin believes (V, 156 note) that the fact that the Suavi, whom he considers the same as the Alamanni, occupied the homes of these Saxons, indicates that they were located in southern Germany.


Chapter VII.

Then Alboin bestowed his own abode, that is, Pannonia, upon his friends the Huns [1] on this condition: that if at any time it should be necessary for the Langobards to return [2] they should take back their own fields. Then the Langobards, having left Pannonia, hastened to take possession of Italy with their wives and children and all their goods. They dwelt in Pannonia forty-two years. [3] They came out of it in the month of April in the first indiction [4] on the day after holy Easter, whose festival that year, according to the method of calculation, fell upon the calends (the first) of April, when five hundred and sixty-eight years had already elapsed from the incarnation of our Lord.

[1] That is the Avars (Waitz). See supra I, 27.
[2] "At any time within two hundred years,'' adds the Chronicon Gothanum (M. G. Leges IV, 644), and it was also provided in the agreement that the Avars should aid the Langobards in Italy.
[3] This period is impossible since the Langobards entered Pannonia not far from 546, and left it in 568. Probably 22 should be substituted for 42 (Hartmann, II, I, 30).
[4] The word '' indiction '' originally meant the declaration of the imposition of a tax. When Constantine the Great reorganized the Roman Empire he established a fiscal period of fifteen years for this imposition, beginning A. D. 313. Hence the word in chronology means the number attached to the year showing its place in a cycle of fifteen years, beginning A. D. 313. There were three kinds of indiction. The original Greek or Constantinopolitan indiction (here referred to) is reckoned from September 1st of what we consider the previous year. To find the indiction. add three to the number of the year in the vulgar era and divide it by 15, the remainder is the indiction. If nothing is left over, it is the 15th indiction. The year when Alboin left Pannonia was A. D. 568. Adding 3 and dividing by 15 we have 1 remaining, and as the indiction began in September, 567, April of the year 568 was in the 1st indiction, and the 2d indiction began in September of that year. It will be observed that this date is given by Paul for Alboin's departure from Pannonia, not for his actual entrance into Italy. Paul apparently takes this from the Origo (see Appendix II): "And Alboin, king of the Langobards, moved out of Pannonia in the month of April after Easter, in the first indiction. In the second indiction indeed (September, 568, to September, 569), they began to plunder in Italy, but in the third indiction he became master of Italy." A question has arisen whether the actual invasion of Italy occurred in 568 or 569. The edict of Rothari, of Nov., 643, states that it was published (M. G., LL., IV, p. l) in the 76th year after the arrival of the Langobards in the province of Italy. This indicates that the invasion must have occurred before Nov., 568. But a fragment of Secundus of June, 580, speaks of the Langobards as ''remaining in Italy 12 years since they entered it in the month of May in the second indiction.'' In these 12 years, according to a common method of computation at that time, the 12th year may not have been completed and Secundus' date for the invasion is clearly May, 569 (see M. G., Script. Rerum Lang. et Ital., p. 25, n. 3 a). Marius of Avenches says that in 569 Alboin " occupied " Italy, which Muratori thinks (Annals, A. D. 568) must have been a mistake in the copyist. The Annals of Ravenna (Agnello, a. c. 94) says that in the 2nd indiction (Sept. l, 568, to Sept. l, 569) Venetia was invaded and occupied by the Langobards. Pope Gregory I wrote June, 595 (Indie. 13, lib. V, 21) that the Romans had been threatened by the Langobards for 27 years, and in July, 603 (Indie. 6, lib. XIII, 38), for 35 years, but in computing this time the final year is not complete, so that the probable date of the invasion would be 569 (see Roviglio, infra, p. 12). Cipolla (Atti del R. Istituto Vcneto, x, 1889-90, series 7, t. i, pp. 686-688) and Roviglio (Sopra Alcuni Dati Cronologici, Reggio-Emilia, 1899 contend for 569; Crivellucci (Studii Storici, I, 478-497) and IIodgkin (V, 158) for 568. The authorities are very equally divided. Secundus, a contemporary and considered reliable, would perhaps be entitled to the greatest weight, were it not that the official statement in the Edict supports the year given by Paul.


Chapter VIII.

Therefore, when king Alboin with his whole army and a multitude of people of all kinds [1] had come to the limits of Italy, he ascended a mountain which stands forth in those places, and from there as far as he could see, he gazed upon a portion of Italy. Therefore this mountain it is said, was called from that time on "King's Mountain." [2] They say wild oxen graze upon it, and no wonder, since at this point it touches Pannonia, which is productive of these animals. In fine, a certain very truthful old man related to me that he had seen the hide of a wild ox killed on this mountain of such size that in it fifteen men, as he said, could lie one against the other.

[1] Including no doubt inhabitants of Noricum and Pannonia, Slavs from the East, a strong contingent of Saxons, and many others belonging to different German races (Hartmann, II, i, p.19).
[2] Rudolf Virchow said at the meeting of the German Anthropological Society, Sept. 5, 1899 (see Correspondenz-blatt of that Society for 1898-99, p. I 80) that he had taken a special journey to follow the course of the Langobards into Italy and was convinced that their irruption was by the road over the Predil pass, thence into the valley of the Isonzo, and that Monte Maggiore (north of Cividale) is the "King's Mountain " of Paul.


Chapter IX.

When Alboin without any hindrance had thence entered the territories of Venetia, which is the first province of Italy - that is, the limits of the city or rather of the fortress of Forum Julii (Cividale) [1] - he began to consider to whom he should especially commit the first of the provinces that he had taken. For indeed all Italy (which extends toward the south, or rather toward the southeast), is encompassed by the waves of the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas, yet from the west and north it is so shut in by the range of Alps that there is no entrance to it except through narrow passes and over the lofty summits of the mountains. Yet from the eastern side by which it is joined to Pannonia it has an approach which lies open more broadly and is quite level. When Albion therefore, as we have said, reflected whom he ought to make duke [2] in these places, he determined, as is related, to put over the city of Forum Julii and over its whole district, [3] his nephew Gisulf, [4] who was his master of horse—whom they call in their own language "marpahis" [5] - a man suitable in every way. This Gisulf announced that he would not first undertake the government of this city and people unless Alboin would give him the "faras," that is, the families or stocks of the Langobards that he himself wished to choose. And this was done, and with the approval of the king he took to dwell with him the chief families of the Langobards he had desired. [6] And thus finally, he acquired the honor of a leader. [7] He asked also from the king for herds of high-bred mares, and in this also he was heeded by the liberality of his chief.

[1] See, however, Waitz, who thinks Colonia Julia Carnia, north of Osopus, is referred to.
[2] As to the meaning of the word '' duke '' at this time see note to II, 32, infra.
[3] The district or duchy of Friuli which Gisulf was to rule cannot be definitely bounded. It reached northward probably to the Carnic Alps, eastward to the Julian Alps, and southward to a line not far from the coast which was subject to the sea power of the Eastern Empire. Concordia was not won from the empire until about 615, and Opitergium in 642. To the west, Friuli was bounded by other Langobard territory, especially by the duchy of Ceneda from which it was separated by the Tagliamento or Livenza (IIodg., VI, 43, 44). The Bavarians dwelt northwest of the duchy, the Slavonians northeast, and behind them the Asiatic Avars (Hodgkin, VI, 44). Cividale was made the capital instead of Aquileia which had been the chief city (Hodgkin, VI, 39). Friuli is the first mentioned of the four great dukedoms conspicuous by their size and power over all others during the period of the Langobards: Friuli, Trent, Spoleto, and Benevento. The two last were largely independent of the Langobard kingdom. Trent and Friuli never succeeded in achieving their independence although this was several times attempted (Hodg., VI, 23).
[4] Bethmnnn believes that it was Grasulf, Gisulf's father (Waitz).
[5] From 'mar', 'mare' a horse and 'paizan' to put on the bit, according to Grimm (Abel, Hodgkin, VI, 42; V, l6l).
[6] Indeed it was by faras or clans that Italy in general was first occupied by the Langobards (Hartmann II, 1, 21).
[7] Read ducior instead of doctor.


Chapter X.

In these days in which the Langobards invaded Italy, the kingdom of the Franks, divided into four parts upon the death of their king Chlotar, was ruled by his four sons. The first among these, Aripert (Charibert) had the seat of his kingdom at Paris; [1] the second indeed, Gunthram held sway at the city of Aureliani (Orleans) ; the third, Hilperic (Chilperic) had his throne at Sessionae (Soissons), in the place of Chlotar, his father; the fourth, Sigisbert, ruled at the city of Mettis (Metz). [2] At this time, too, the most holy Benedict as pope governed the Roman Church. [3] Also the blessed patriarch Paul presided over the city of Aquileia and its people and, fearing the barbarity of the Langobards, fled from Aquileia to the island of Grado; [4] and he carried away with him all the treasure of his church. [5] In this year in the early winter as much snow fell in the plain as is wont to fall upon the summits of the Alps, and in the following summer there was such great fertility as no other age claims to remember. At this time too when they had learned of the death of king Chlotar, the Huns, who are also called Avars, attacked his son Sigisbert and the latter, coming up to meet them in Turingia, overcame them with great force near the river Albis (Elbe) and gave peace to them when they sought it. Brunicheldis, [6] coming from Spain, is joined in marriage to this Sigisbert, and from her he had a son by name Childepert. The Avars, fighting again with Sigisbert in the same places as before, crushed the army of the Franks and obtained the victory.

[1] Charibert in fact had died in 567, just before the Langobards invaded Italy (Hodgkin, V, 199).
[2] See infra. III, 10, note. The name is there spelled Sigispert.
[3] This is erroneous. It was John III who was pope from 560 to 573 (Jacobi, 48). Benedict was pope 573-578. Paul was led
into this error by a statement in the Liber Pontificalis from which he took the account, that at the time of Benedict, the Langobards invaded all Italy (Ed L. Duchesne, I, 308; Atti del Congresso in Cividale, 1899, p. 118, note.)
[4] An island near Aquileia and close to the mainland but inaccessible to the Langobards who had no boats.
[5] It was Paulinus, not Paul who thus fled to Grado (Waitz).
[6] Or Brunichildis, Brunihilde, as Paul variously spells it.