Lombard Invasion

Southern Italy Series

-----Early Lombard Italy: 565 to 630-----

In 565 a Germanic tribe known as the Lombards defeated their Gepid rivals in Pannonia with military assistance from the latest of nomadic horde to come off the Asiatic steppe, the Avars. The Lombards did not wish to become subjects of the Avars and so in 568 they marched over the Austrian Alps into Italy. Lead by their king Alboin [link] , they seized Verona, Bresica and Mediolanum (Milan) by the summer of 569. As cities were conquered king Alboin awarded them one by one to his dukes thus organizing his realm according to feudal methods. Then Alboin besieged Ticinum (Pavia) for three years, the city finally surrendering in 572. Not long after the fall of Pavia King Alboin was assassinated.

35 dukes then met in Pavia and declared Cleph as their new king. But Cleph did not rule for long, he was assassinated two years later. At this point the dukes decided that they did not need a king and simply governed themselves. The Roman elite with their latifundia [link] or farming estates were transformed by the Lombards into feudal estates. In 584 the Lombard dukes declared the son of Cleph, Autari as their new king.

Autari continued the attacks on the Eastern Roman Empire, consolidating more and more territory under Lombard rule. He married a Bavarian princess, Theodelinda, who was the descendent of Wacho, a Lombard king who ruled before the invasion of Italy. In 590 Autari died and his wife now chose the duke of Turin, Agilulf as her new husband and king. Agilulf consolidated the kingdom, moved the capital to Milan, titled himself King of Italy and converted from Arian Christianity to Roman Christianity.

Agilulf died in 616 and the kingdom passed to his son Adaloald. But the prince was young, so Theodelinda lead the kingdom. Alienated by the Roman Christian royal family, the Arian Christian dukes rebelled in 624. In 625 their leader, Arioald, Duke of Turin, took the throne and the capital of the kingdom was moved back to Pavia.



As it happened the Eastern Roman Empire could not deal with the Lombards because in 572 another war with the Persians broke out. The situation changed when rebels usurped the Persian throne and the Persian prince Khosrau II fled to Constantinople. The Eastern Roman emperor Maurice assisted in returning him to his throne in 591, ending the war.

Then in 602 Emperor Maurice was himself usurped and assassinated by general Phocas. The assassination was used as pretext for the 607 Persian invasion ordered by Emperor Khosru II. In 610 Phocas was overthrown by Heraclius. Among his first acts as emperor was to make Greek the official language of the Empire. For most American and Western European historians this marks the beginning of the Byzantine Empire.

But for the Byzantines, this marked no big change. They still referred to their Empire as the Roman Empire. Either way Heraclius still had a war to fight against the Persians. After capturing Mesopotamia and Armenia, the Persian moved next on Syria and into Anatolia itself. By 613 Damascus was lost, then Jerusalem in 614 and finally all of Egypt in 616. Heraclius agreed to an armistice while he prepared to retake the lost territories.

In 622 Heraclius lead his army into Armenia against the Persians. The Byzantine troops were motivated by icons of Jesus carried as a battle flags [link] . In 626 the Avars and the Slavs besieged Constantinople but failed to take the impregnable city. In 627 emperor Heraclius took the offensive, defeating the Persians in Persia itself at the battle of Nineveh [link] . Not long after Emperor Khosrau was assassinated and the war came to an end. In 629 Heraclius took the Greek title Basileus, furthur confirming the Byzantine Empire as a Greek rather than Roman empire.

But even more dramatic events were occurring to the south in Arabia, because in 630 Muhammad had just captured Mecca.



Southern Italy Series

500 BC [link] Origins
264 BC [link] The Punic Wars
115 AD [link] The Roman Empire
405 [link] East and West
526 [link] Collapse of the West
565 [link] Reconquest
572 Lombard Invasion
751 [link] Lombard Italy
814 [link] Charlemagne's Italy
1000 [link] Italy and the Holy Roman Empire
1095 [link] The Norman Conquest
1154 [link] The Kingdom of Sicily
1250 [link] Hohenstaufen Italy
1280 [link] Anjou Sicily
1300 [link] War of the Vespers
1400 [link] Black Death
1492 [link] Renaissance Italy
1559 [link] Italian Wars
1715 [link] Habsburg Italy
1780 [link] Bourbon Italy
1799 [link] Revolutionary Italy
1812 [link] Napoleonic Italy
1860 [link] United Italy

2/19/12 EDIT:
map base source [link]
map base created by Citypeek [link]