Lombards

Germanic group (Lat. Langobardi) that entered the late Roman Empire. They were initially settled in Pannonia? by the Emperor Justinian. In 568 they invaded Italy under their king Alboin, but were unsuccessful at conquering any city with walls. They broke off sieges of most cities they tried to take and settled for what they could find in the countryside. After the death of Alboin and his immediate successor the Lombards failed to choose a king for more than 10 years, and the various regions were ruled by dukes.

When they entered Italy the Lombards were partly still pagan, partly Arian Christians, and hence got along very badly with the Roman Catholic Church. They were not converted to orthodox Christianity until after the year 600.

The last Lombard to rule as king of the Lombards was Desiderius, who ruled until 774, when Charlemagne not only conquered the Lombard kingdom, but in an utterly novel decision took the ethnic title "King of the Lombards" as well. Before then the Germanic kingdoms had frequently conquered each other, but none had adopted the title of King of another people.

Much of our knowledge of the mythological and semi-mythological early history of the Lombard people comes from Paul the Deacon's History of the Lombards, written in the late 8th century.

/Talk