Lombard Invasion of Italy (568): Alboin and a Divided Peninsula

The Lombard invasion of Italy began in spring 568, when King Alboin led the Lombards and their allies over the Julian Alps from Pannonia. Within a few years they had taken most of northern Italy, including Milan and Pavia, and set up duchies further south. Their arrival ended the brief reunification of Italy under the Byzantine Empire and divided the peninsula between Lombard and Byzantine rule for the next two centuries.

Background

The Lombards, or Langobardi, were a Germanic people who by the early sixth century had settled in Pannonia, roughly modern western Hungary. Some had served as allies of the Byzantine Empire during its wars in Italy.

Italy itself was exhausted. Emperor Justinian had reconquered it from the Ostrogoths in the long Gothic War of 535–554, which ruined many cities and estates. The Plague of Justinian, which first struck in 541–542 and returned in later waves, further reduced the population. Byzantine garrisons were thin, and the empire was busy on its eastern frontier.

In 567 Alboin, allied with the Avars, a nomadic people from the steppe, destroyed the neighbouring Gepids. Alboin killed their king, Cunimund, and married his daughter Rosamund. The Avars now dominated the Danube plain, and the Lombards chose to move south-west rather than live beside them.

The invasion

According to Paul the Deacon, the eighth-century Lombard historian, the migration began on the day after Easter in 568. The Lombards travelled with their families, herds and goods, joined by Saxons, Gepids, Sarmatians and other groups. Paul says more than 20,000 Saxons came with them; they later left for Gaul.

The Lombards entered Italy through the Julian Alps and took Forum Iulii, modern Cividale del Friuli, where Alboin set up the first Lombard duchy under his nephew Gisulf. They met little organised resistance. Many cities in the north opened their gates, while the Byzantines held on to fortified places and the coast. Milan fell on 3 September 569, after its bishop, Honoratus, had fled to Genoa.

Pavia, ancient Ticinum, resisted for three years and surrendered only in 572. It later became the capital of the Lombard kingdom. Meanwhile Lombard bands pushed south into Tuscany and central Italy, where the independent duchies of Spoleto and Benevento took shape. Some groups also raided across the Alps into Frankish Gaul between about 569 and 575 until they were defeated.

The Narses legend

Paul the Deacon tells a dramatic story to explain the invasion. The old general Narses, who had won the Gothic War and governed Italy, was recalled after complaints from Italians about his harsh taxes. The empress Sophia supposedly mocked him, saying he should go and spin wool with the women, and in revenge Narses invited the Lombards to come and take Italy.

Most historians treat this as legend. Narses was indeed removed from office around 567–568, but there is no contemporary evidence that he contacted the Lombards. The move is better explained by the Avar threat, the attraction of a rich and weakly defended country, and the Lombards’ earlier knowledge of Italy as Byzantine allies.

Alboin’s death and the rule of the dukes

Alboin did not live to enjoy his conquest. In 572 or 573 he was murdered in his palace at Verona by his foster-brother Helmichis, at the instigation of Queen Rosamund. Paul the Deacon claims she acted after Alboin forced her to drink from a cup made from her father’s skull, a famous story that cannot be confirmed.

His successor Cleph was murdered in 574. For about ten years the Lombards had no king, and Italy was controlled by some thirty-five dukes, each ruling a city and its territory. Threats from the Franks and the Byzantines led the dukes to restore the monarchy in 584 under Cleph’s son Authari.

A divided peninsula

By the end of the sixth century Italy was split. The Lombards held most of the north, which became known as Langobardia, as well as the large southern duchies. The Byzantines kept Ravenna, the seat of their governor, the exarch, along with Rome, Naples, much of the coast, the far south, Sicily and the Venetian lagoons. A narrow corridor across the Apennines linked Rome to Ravenna.

The popes, led by figures such as Gregory the Great, often had to negotiate with Lombard rulers directly. The Lombards themselves gradually converted from Arian Christianity and paganism to Catholicism, and King Rothari issued a written law code in 643. In 751 King Aistulf captured Ravenna, but the papacy turned to the Franks for help, and in 774 Charlemagne ended the Lombard kingdom, as told in Conquest of the Lombard Kingdom. The duchy of Benevento survived in the south until the eleventh century.

Timeline

• 567: Lombards and Avars destroy the Gepid kingdom.
• 568, spring: Alboin leads the Lombards out of Pannonia into north-eastern Italy.
• 569, 3 September: Milan falls to the Lombards.
• 572: Pavia surrenders after a three-year siege.
• 572 or 573: Alboin is murdered in Verona.
• 574–584: Period of rule by the dukes without a king.
• 584: Authari restores the Lombard monarchy.
• 774: Charlemagne conquers the Lombard kingdom.

Why it matters

The Lombard invasion ended Italy’s political unity for almost thirteen centuries, until the nineteenth century. It created the long frontier between Lombard and Byzantine Italy, pushed the papacy towards an alliance with the Franks and left its name on the region of Lombardy.