Book 4

Chapter XXXVIII.

After the death, as we said, of Gisulf, duke of Forum Julii, his sons Taso and Cacco undertook the government of this dukedom. They possessed in their time the territory of the Slavs which is named Zeilia (Gail-thal), [1] up to the place which is called Medaria (Windisch Matrei), hence, those same Slavs, up to the time of duke Ratchis, paid tribute to the dukes of Forum Julii. Gregory the patrician of the Romans killed these two brothers in the city of Opitergium (Oderzo) by crafty treachery. For he promised Taso that he would cut his beard, [2] as is the custom, and make him his son, and this Taso, with Cacco his brother, and some chosen youths came to Gregory fearing no harm. When presently he had entered Opitergium with his followers, straightway the patrician ordered the gates of the city to be closed and sent armed soldiers against Taso and his companions. Taso with his followers perceiving this, boldly prepared for a fight, and when a moment of quiet was given, they bade each other a last farewell, and scattered hither and thither through the different streets of the city, killing whomsoever they could find in their way, and while they made a great slaughter of the Romans, they also were slain at last. But Gregory the patrician, on account of the oath he had given, ordered the head of Taso to be brought to him, and, perjured though he was, cut off his beard as he had promised. [3]

[1] Hodgkin, VI, 59, note, and Hartmann, II, i, 236. The valley of the Gail in Carinthia and eastern Tyrol.
[2] A ceremony indicating that he whose beard is shaved and whose hair is cut has arrived at the state of manhood. Thus king Liutprand performed a similar ceremony for the son of Charles Martel (Book VI, Chap. 53, infra).
[3] Fredegarius (IV, 69) tells a story (which is considered by some to be a variation of this) as to the murder of Taso, duke of Tuscany, by the patrician Isaac. King Arioald offered Isaac to remit one of the three hundredweights of gold which the empire paid yearly to the Langobards if he would kill Taso, who was a rebel (see chap. 49). Isaac invited Taso to Ravenna with a troop of warriors who were prevailed upon to leave their arms outside the walls, and when they entered the city they were assassinated. The tribute was accordingly reduced. Soon afterwards Arioald died. As Arioaild reigned from 626 to 636 and Isaac did not become exarch until 630, this story can not be reconciled with Paul's account of an event which must have happened many years earlier. Either Fredegarius got hold of an inaccurate version, or the coincidence of name is accidental and the story relates to some different event (Hodgkin, VI, 59, 60, note 2; Pabst, 429).


Chapter XXXIX.

When they were thus killed, Grasulf, the brother of Gisulf, was made duke of Forum Julii. [1] But Radoald and Grimoald, as they were now close to the age of manhood, held it in contempt to live under the power of their uncle Grasulf, and they embarked in a little boat and came rowing to the territories of Beneventum. Then hastening to Arichis, duke of the Beneventines, their former preceptor, they were received by him most kindly and treated by him in the place of sons. In these times, upon the death of Tassilo, duke of the Bavarians, his son Garibald was conquered by the Slavs at Aguntum (Innichen), and the territories of the Bavarians were plundered. The Bavarians, however, having recovered their strength, took away the booty from their foes and drove their enemies from their territories.

[1] De Rubeis (Appendix, p. 63) says this occurred A. D. 616.


Chapter XL.

King Agilulf, indeed, made peace with the emperor for one year, and again for another, and also renewed a second time the bond of peace with the Franks. In this year, nevertheless, the Slavs grievously devastated Istria after killing the soldiers who defended it. Also in the following month of March, Secundus, a servant of Christ of whom we have already often spoken, died at Tridentum (Trent). He composed a brief history of the deeds of the Langobards up to his time. [1] At that time king Agilulf again made peace with the emperor. In those days Theudepert, king of the Franks, was also killed, and a very severe battle occurred among them. Gunduald too, the brother of queen Theudelinda, who was duke in the city of Asta (Asti), died at this time, struck by .an arrow, but no one knew the author of his death.

[1] After the death of Secundus in 612 Paul's source for the history of Trent becomes exhausted and we hear little more about that duchy.


Chapter XLI.

Then king Agilulf, who was called Ago, after he had reigned twenty-five years, ended his last day, [1] and his son Adaloald, who was still a boy, was left in the sovereignty with Theudelinda his mother. Under them the churches were restored and many gifts were bestowed upon the holy places. But when Adaloald, after he had reigned with his mother ten years, lost his reason and became insane, he was cast out of the sovereignty, [2] and Arioald was substituted by the Langobards in his place. [3] Concerning the acts of this king hardly anything has come to our knowledge. [4] About these times the holy Columban, sprung from the race of Scots, after he had built a monastery in Gaul in the place called Luxovium (Luxeuil), came into Italy, [5] and was kindly received by the king of the Langobards, and built a convent in the Cottian Alps which is called Bobium (Bobbio) and is forty miles distant from the city of Ticinum. [6] In this place also many possessions were bestowed by particular princes and Langobards, and there was established there a great community of monks.

[1] Probably 615 or 616 (Waitz; Hodgkin, VI, 147, note l).
[2] Fredegarius (Chron. 49) tells the story thus: that Adaloald, upon the advice of one Eusebius, anointed himself in the bath with some sort of ointment, and afterwards could do nothing except what he was told by Eusebius; that he was thus persuaded to order all the chief persons and nobles of the Langobards to be killed, and upon their death to surrender, with all his people to the empire; that when he had put twelve to death without their fault, the rest conspired to raise Arioald, duke of Turin, who had married Gundiperga, the sister of Adaloald, to the throne; that Adaloald took poison and died and Arioald straightway took possession of the kingdom. Possibly the zeal of Theudelinda and Adaloald for the Catholic faith may have provoked a reaction among the Langobards, who had been Arians, and they may have become dissatisfied with the conciliatory policy toward the empire which was characteristic of the Bavarian line of sovereigns descended from Theudelinda. The legend of Eusebius was perhaps an expression of this dissatisfaction. Adaloald's successor was certainly an Arian. We have already seen (ch. 34, note, supra) that during Adaloald's time Eleutherius the exarch defeated John of Compsa who had revolted and taken possession of Naples, and put him to death. After this revolt the war with the Langobards was renewed and Sundrar the Langobard general repeatedly defeated the exarch, who finally obtained peace upon payment of a yearly tribute of five hundredweight of gold (Hodgkin, VI, 154, 155). We have also seen that Eleutherius afterwards aspired to independent sovereignty and was killed (IV, 34, supra), though Paul incorrectly places these occurrences during the reign of Agilulf. In 625 Pope Honorius I addressed a letter to Isaac the new exarch saying that some bishops beyond the Po had urged one Peter, who seems to have been a layman high in office, not to follow the Catholic Adaloald, but the tyrant Ariopalt (Arioald) (Hodgkin, VI, 158) ; since the crime of the bishops was odious, the pope asked the exarch to send them to Rome for punishment as soon as Adaloald was restored to his kingdom. This contest between Adaloald and his successor probably occurred between 624 and 626 (Hodgkin, VI, 160), and it would seem that Adaloald had taken refuge with the exarch in Ravenna from which Wiese (p. 284) infers that his death may have been by order of Isaac to avoid complications with the Langobards. We do not learn what part Theudelinda took in this contest. She died February 22nd, 628, shortly after the death of Adaloald (Hodgkin VI, 160).
[3] Probably A. U. 626 (Hodgkin, VI, 161).
[4] Fredegarius (IV, 51) tells us that Gundiperga (wife of Arioald and daughter of Agilulf and Theudelinda) said one day that Adalulf, a nobleman in the king's service, was a man of goodly stature, and Adalulf hearing this, proposed to her that she should be unfaithful to her marriage vow. She scorned his proposal whereupon he charged that she had granted a secret interview to Taso duke of Tuscany and had promised to poison the king and raise Taso to the throne. Upon this Arioald imprisoned her in a fortress. Two years afterwards Clothar II, king of the Franks, sent ambassadors to Arioald asking why she had been imprisoned and when the reason was given, one of the ambassadors suggested a trial by battle to ascertain her guilt or innocence. The duel accordingly took place, Adnlulf was slain by the queen's champion and she was restored to her royal dignity (Hodgkin, VI, 161—163).
[5] Probably before this time and about A. D. 612 (Giansevero).
[6] St. Columban was born, not in Scotland but in Ireland about 543 and entered a monastery at Bangor at a period when the Irish monasteries were centers of culture. After some years he set forth to preach the gospel, first in Britain and then in Gaul. Sigispert, king of Austrasia, the husband of Brunihilde gave him a ruined village named Anagratis where he established a monastery, but after a while he retired to a cave, and was so famed for miracles that he drew around him many disciples and found it necessary to establish another monastery at Luxovium in the domains of Gunthram of Burgundy, now the Vosges. A third was established near by at Ad Fontanas (Hodgkin VI, 110, 113). Afterwards he incurred the enmity of Brunihilde and her grandson Theuderic of Burgundy (pp. 121—123) and was expelled from that kingdom. Under the protection of Theudepert of Austrasia he found a retreat at Bregenz on the Lake of Constance (p. 126) where he put an end to the worship of heathen gods, which had been practiced in the neighborhood. Upon Theudepert's death, which the saint had foretold, he betook himself to Italy where he was received with honor by Agilulf and Theudelinda (p. 131). He remained some months at Milan at the royal court and argued there with Arian ecclesiastics, until a certain Jocundus came to king Agilulf and spoke of the advantages for a monastic life offered by the village of Bobium on the Trebia among the Apennines (p. 132). Columban retired thither and there built the monastery which became an important instrument in converting the Langobards from Arianism, and in the spread of Roman culture among that people (Hartmann II, 2, 25). He was a man of great learning. He aided Theudelinda in her conflicts with Arianism, but he also became an adherent of the schismatics in the controversy of the Three Chapters, and Theudelinda used him in defending their cause, which he did in a long letter to Pope Boniface IV, the third successor of Gregory the Great. Agilulf desired to heal the schism and Columban states in his letter that the king was reported to have said that he too would believe the Catholic faith if he could know the certainty of the matter! Columban died in 615, the same year as Agilulf (Hodgkin, VI, 138-147).