PAUL THE DEACON HISTORY OF THE LOMBARDS
'1 K.ASSLyrFIl BY WILLIAM DUDLEY FOULKE, LL.D.
ELlI'l'EIl liY ED\t7ARD PETERS
PENN
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS Philadelphia THE MIDDLE AGES SERIES Ruth Mazo Karras, Series Editor Edward Peters, Founding Editor A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
Originally published in 1907 by the Lniversiy of Pennsylvania Press as History of the Lnngobol-ds. Introduction and Appendix copyright 0 1974 Lniversity of Pennsylvania Press. Bibliographical Note copyright 0 zoo3 Universit). of Pennsylvania Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
Published by Universit). of Pennsylvania Press Ph~ladelphia,Pennsylvania I 9104-401 I
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Paul, the Deacon, ca. 720-799' History of the Lombards / Paul the Deacon ; translated by W~lliamDudley Foulke ; edited, with introd. by Edward Peters. [De gestis Langobardorum. English] 329 pp. ; 20 cnl. ISBN 0-8122-1079-4 (pbk.) (Sources of ~nedievalhistory) Translation of De gestis Langobardorum. Bibliography: p. 3 I j-329. 1. Lombards-Italy-Histov-Sources. 2. Germanic peoples- Italy-History-Sources. 3. Middle Ages-Sources. 4. Italy- History-476-774-Sources. I. Title. DG~II.P413 1974 74-016829 CIP TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPENDIX:SOME SOURCES AND ANALOGUES...... 315 The Origo Gentis Langobardorum ...... 315 The Codex Gothanum ...... 32I An Account of the Provinces of Italy ...... 326 A SOTE OS THE TITLE OF THIS REPRINT EDITIOS
Although the Latin title of Paul's History is the His- tnria Langobardorurrr and J\'illian~ Dudley Foullte trans- lated it as The History of tllp Larigobards, modern usage favors The History of the Lorribards, and I have used the Inore recent style. The running heads of the text, of course, retain Foullte's usage, hut this should be a minor inconven- ience. For a discussion of the question of Langobarn/Lon~- bard usage, see Thomas Hodgkin, Italy n17d Her Inzlatlers, 1'01. VI, The Lon16ard Inzlasion (Oxford, 189i), pp. 174- I75 EXPLANATION OF REFERENCES.
" Waitz" indicates the edition of Pauli Historia Langobard- orum" in " hlonumenta Germaniae, Scriptores Rerum Lango- bardicarum," from which this translation is made, and unless otherwise stated, the matters referred to ail1 Ee found in connec- tion n.ith the bock and chapter (the page not being given) corre- sponding to those of this translation.
66 Abel " refers to the German translation entitled " l'aulus Diakonus und die ubrigen Geschichtschreiber der Langobarden," by Dr. Otto Abel." (Second edition revised by Cr. Reinhard Jacobi, Leipsic, 1888 ; published as Vcl. I 5 of the series " Geschichtschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit," and tl~eratters referred to, unless otherwine stated, will Ee found either in the test or notes of the book acd chapter corresponding to thcse of this translation.
" Giansevero " indicates the Italian translation entitled '' Pa010 Diacono, Dei Fatti de' Langobardl," by Prcf. Uberti Giansevero (Cividale, 1899), and the matters referred to uill be found in the book and chapter correspondin: to those cf this translatic n.
I' Bethmann " unless other\vise stated refers to one cf his articles,
I' Paulus Diakonus Lc1:en. " " l'a~111.s Diakcnvs Schriften, " " Die Geschichtschreil~rngder Langobarden," ccntained in the t-nth volume cf the '' Archiv der Cesellschaft fi:r altere deutsche
Geschichtkunde " (Hanover, I 849). "Jacobi" refers to 'I Die Quellen der Langobardengeschichte des Paulus Diacon~is. Ein Ceitrag zc-r Ceschichte deutscher His- toriographie," by Dr. R. Jacobi (Halle, 1877). '' Mommsen " to an article " Die Quellen der Langobarden- geschichte des Paulus Diaconus " L-y Th. Mommsen in volume V, EXPLANATION OF REFERENCES. p. 5 j, of the " Necez Archiv der Gesellschaft fiir iiltere deutsche Geschichtskunde " (Wanover, I 879).
Hartmann " to the second volt.me of " Geschichte Italiens im Mittelalter," by Lrdo A:cl-itz Finrtmann, being the jzd work of the series " Geschichte der eiiropaischen Staaten," edited by Heeren, Vkert, (:iesebrecht and Lamprecht (Cotha, 1903).
Dahn " to '' I'aulus Iliaconus," by Felix Dahn, Part I (Leip- sic, 1876). Hodgkin " to " Italy and her Invaders," by Thomas Hodg- kin (Clarendcn Press, I Sg 5). Zeuss " to Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstamme," by Kaspar Zeuss (Gottingen, 19~3). " Schmidt " to " Zur Geschichte der Langobarden," by Dr. Ludwig Schmidt (Leipsic, I 885).
" Pabst " to '' Geschichte des langobardischen Herzogthums " in 5'01. 11, p. 405, " Forsch~~ngenzur deutschen Geschichte," (Gottingen, 1862.)
'I Bruckner " to '' Die Sprache der Langobarden," by XVilhelm Briickner (Quellen und Forschungen, Part 75, Strasburg, 1895). Koegel" to " Geschichte der deutschen Litteratur," by Ru- dolf Koegel, 1'01. I, I'art I (Strasburg, 1894).
" \Viese " to " Die aelteste Geschichte der Langobarden," by Robert Wiese (Jena, 1877). INTRODUCTION
PA4ULTHE DELICON, THE LOMBA4RDS, AND ,1 SOMETIICIE MEDIEVA1,IST FROICl INDIANA
"The translation of Paul the Deacon has just come, and I hale already begun to read it. It is such a pleasure to have triends \rho do such things as you do! What a delightful old boy the Deacon \r as; and nhat an interesting mixture of fact and fable he wrote!" -Theodore Roosel elt to Willian~Dudley Foulke, 1907 The route irom the court oi Charlemagne and the monas- tery of illonte Cassino, where Paul the Deacon wrote his History of the Lor~~bar-ASlate in the eighth century, to the circle of government officials and confidants around Theo- dore Roosevelt, where Paul's History found its first English translator, is long, circuitous, oiten improbable, and remark- ably ill-lit. There are few reliable guides to the history oi the idea oi, and interest in, the lliddle Ages. Nor is there much in the may oi explanation, except his own, as to why William Dudley Foulke, lawyer, newspaper publisher, Pro- gressive Republican state legislator, Civil Service Commis- sioner, and sometime man oi letters in Indiana and Wash- ington. D.C., decided to translate Paul the Deacon's remarkable History : I had come across an attractive book written in Latin by Paul the Deacon, a Benedictine monk, during the reign of Clinrlemngne. "Thr History oi the Lnngobnrds." In liis garrulous stor!--telling he scernctl to me :I sort me die^-a1 Herotlotus. . . . Quit? ;ip;lrt trom its vnlur as ;I source ot metlievnl history. Paul's cjunint ant1 simple narrative lins :I charm oi it> o\\-n :inti is fitted tor tlie rntrrt;~inrnentot tlie gencr:ll re;~tler ;I\ \\rll ;Ir ot thr stuclent.' Foulke'. final ticcision. ;I, tiehcribeci in hi, 1022 autobiog- raph!.. \\-;I.; 11i;ldr ;IS ;In ;~ltern;rti\eto his tirst choice, n his- tor!- of i7cnii.e. :I auhject too x;~st;[nil co~nplicntcdas Foullce sadl!. obser\-cd. I:acept to]- bonie undistinguished tl-nnsla- tions ot Pctr;~rcli'>I\ sic,, the translation ot P;rul thr Ileacon ~vaaFoul! ' iiulc oul 1 f I eit/~rcp/~t le\\ York, 1922), pp. 209-210. See also tllc Dirtir,r~ci~-~,of rl~ncr-iccir~ flio//r-cip/cl.,\701. SSI. Supplement One (Ye\\-Ti.ork, 1944), pp. ,314-31 5. 'The st;indn~-ti ;iccount is Hans Kudoli (;ugpishe~-g. Dnr. ~'rtr-op~iisc/~~~.lfitti.ifliti>~- ill1 c11111r~kflrz~sc/11~11(~i~.schir/itscii~rlk~n fil,.c I. I 1 ,frci/c~~0. .~~br/l/i?lf~~~rt\(Il:~sel ;inti Stuttgnrt. 1964). Srr ;IISO John Hig1l;irn. 1,eonnrti Krieger. :untl Feli\ Gilbert, rlistorl: tlic. Dc7~110p~1ci~1ito,f I-iistoricnl Stretlii~s irz [/I? L.~~iti,(/S't(1t1,~ (F:~i~le\\ 0011 Clifis, 1965 ). The Lornbard invasion of Italy in 568 followed hard upon the Ostrogothic occupation after 491, the devastating and implacable war waged by imperial armies to destroy the Ostrogcthic kingdom, and a heavy-handed and rapacious imperial peace. Burdensome exactions were collected by a series of imperial governors far enough removed from the imperial court at Constantinople to wield great power, yet sufficiently identified with imperial policy to generate bitter resentment against both the Eirlpire and themselves on the part of the population of Italy. The Lombards, the last of the migrating Germanic peoples to enter the western part of the old Roman Empire, had migrated southwards fro111 the \-alley of the lower Elbe. The!- ventured first into the lands north of the Danube and then, in the first quarter of the sixth centur!-, across the Danube into the old province of Pannonia. There, stopped by the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italj-, as well as BJ-zantine imperial strength and diplomacy in the east, and made uneasy b!- the presence of other mi- ~r:itingpeoples (the Gepids and the powerful Avars), the Lombards sta!-ed for half a century. With the collapse of the Ostrogoths, the resultant Byzantine imperial occupation, and the annihilation of the Gepids by joint Lombard-Avar forces, the I,ornbards moved southwest into Italy under their lung, Alboin. From j68, until the fall of the Lombard king- dom in Italy to the armies of Charlernagne in 774, 1.ornbxrd power expanded slowl!- and irregularlj- throughout northern Italy and into thc two great duchies of Spoleto and Bene- vento to the east and south of Korne. Onl!. Rome itself and the coastal lands around the imperial capital of Kavenna in the northeast, anti around (;enox in the west, eluded Lom- bard domination for an!. length of time. Hy the middle of the eighth century, with tlic fall of Kn~enn:land the increas- ing JJomhz~rd pressures on Ro~ne,the Lombard Icingdom ~rholl! tlo~ninated tile n111-th of the peninsul:~, ~vhile tile B!-zantine force.; held the houth. This division sul-vived Charlemagnr's conquest.;, the I-aids of the .A~-;ib>in the ninth and earl!- tenth centuriez. and the Sor~naninvasions of >outh Ital! in the eleventh and t\\.elftli cerituries. In addi- tion, it plaj-ed an impor-tant part irl tlie later histor!. of Italj-. ccntributing to thr ni;tn!. tiifirr-ences hetn-eeii tlic north and the south and ihaping the culture out of ~vhichen~erged the Itnlian comn~unehot thr north in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth ceriturics. Lpon their ;~rrival in 1t;lly the 120rnbards n-ere Asian Christians, grouprcl into clans utidel. ~v;~r-leaderItings, and sharing man! of the cliarncteristic of 11iigrator~-Germanic and Asiatic peoples hetween thr second and the sel-entli cen- turies. 'I'lie ph!sical iacts of ~nigration;mtl warfare, cul- tural ant1 ~.eligiouschange, new cil-cumstance.; of economic dependence and indeprndcnce. and the ;~cquisitionof new wealth a11 contributed to the instabilit!. of traditional I,om- bard societl-. Not until the 5e~-enthcentur!. did n mon- arch!- begin to impose a central authorit! (]\-el- the dispersed and localiseti l,on~bar-d clan.: ;lnd their "dukes." .Around the I,o~nbard-controlled lands of northern and central Itall-, mu\-ed the ioi-ces of a ~vorldthe! I Tiiere is ;In extetlsive hibliograp11~-nn~l ;I gooti analysis oi Lo~nhnrdsociety :~tidIan- in Kntherit~rFischer Drew, Tlic Lorrz- l,rrr/i Lo.rc,s (Philniielphin, 197.3). tempted, sometimes reluctantly, to mediate between Pavia (the Lcrnbard capital) and Constantinople, and Ravenna. The conversion of the Lombards to orthodox Christianity toolc riearl!- a century, and the Lombards had entered the economic community of the Byzantine-dominated Jledi- terranean long before they captured imperial Ravenna in 7j1-and the! rernained in it long after. Problems in papal-imperial relations dominated the mid-eighth century, and when Lombard pressures on Rome itself nlounted after the fall of Ravenna, the popes turned to the Franks in Gaul fcr aid. The papal relations with the Franks between 751 and 774 paved the way not only for the destruction of the Lombard Icingdorn, but also for the formation of the papal states in central Italy, the revival of the Roman imperial title in the west under Charlemagne in 800, the increasing role of Ital! in trans-alpine political affairs, and the growing estrangement between the Greek East and the Latin I$Test. Paul the Deacon was born around 720 to Iliarnefridus and Theudelinda, Lcmbards of sufficientl!. prominent status as to have their son educated by the grammarian Flavianus, possibly at the rol-a1 Lombard court of Pavia itself. The survival of traditions of literacy, of antique educational prac- tices, and of physical and cultural legacies from antiquit!. contributed much to the intellectual conditions of eighth- century Italy and shaped the education of Paul himself. Under the patronage of King Liutprand ( 71 2-7.11)) ~erhaps the most powerful of the Lombard kings, the centralization of royal power and the patronage of religious figures con- tributed to the favor shown to teachers and scholars, laymen as well as clergy. Paul himself appears to have served as a uii 1115I.ORY Or TIlE I ObIl%IRDS la!- tutor to Adelpel-ga, the d:tughter of King Desiderius 1750-774) and wife of Arichis. Duke ot Henevento. Paul l~atilearned Idatin ;111ti (;I-eek lettel-s ilnder- I;lnvianus, and he Iila! ha\-e filled othel- ofiici:~l duties hesides that of tutor. IVith the fall of the 1,ombarti kingdo~llin j 71. Paul entered the monnster!. ot' .\Iontc Cnasino, perhaps unn-illinglj-. lrl~erehe relnnined until 783. In 776. l'artl's brother. Arichis. :inti other 1,omh:trd nobles revolted :igailist C'linrle- Iiiagne. 'I'he ~se~.olt\I ;I> .;uppre>seci. :inti Xrichis was im- prisoned. Paul wrote to charlernngne himself in 782, requesting release iron1 t11c cloistrs. ;rnd in 78.3 he trnx-elled acrc:>s the .Alps to I,lr:ttl Iiis I>sother'b cauze persotlall! betore the King of the l"rar~Ic>. So~netirnct,et~veen 78j and 787 Paul retusned to \Iontc. c;i>.;ino. x~.hrl-elie ~.eiiiainrtluntil hi.; ilenth, :~rountl799 Paul's earliest litesas!- n-orl Among the many transformations of Germanic societies that follo~vedtheir ~nigration into the old Roman world, the development of written law codes and the idea of national histories are two of the most striking. Influenced bj- Roman jurists, ecclesiastical and lay, the written law codes of the iTisigoths, Ostrogoths, Kurgundians, Lornhards, Franks, and Anglo-Saxons are important documents not only of legal, but of social, cultural, and intellectual change as well. xiv IIIST~R~or TIIE r.051~~RDS From the earl! si\tli cent~r!, when the Rornan aristocrat Cassiodol-us colnposed the first version of his Gothic NistorJ,, to the last !e;irs of the eighth, when Paul the Deacon >topped his Histot.!, ai tl~ca I~ott~ht~t.//s.,the tr;lnsforri~ation of tribal legends ;ind tolklore into c~rganizetl historical n;irratives ;erl.ed to join the Ger~nanic~iligrants and their descendant-: to the culturnl ;is n~ll;is tile ph!.sical l~ibtor!. of the new ~vorld into which the! h;iil come. I)urin:,. the sixth, sel-enth, and eighth centur-ie, the e.;istence of such histor-ies served to pro~.ide;in expandcti intellectu:~l trn~ne~~-t-orkfor explaining to the descentlent of the mieratin:,. peoples their ~I;LCCin the new ~rorltl. 'l'he histories drew upon both ti-aditior~and new conceptions of time :inti the nature of Christian Germanic societie-. 'l'lle e;irliest exn~n~lesof this iriipol-t;~ntgenre--Jt~rtl;i~~rs' Ilist~r~ ,I/ tlrc' Gotl~s,Crregor!. oi Tours' fIistorr o/ tli~I.'t.otlk.\, 2nd I~idoreof: Sex-ille'h I-listor! of flrc (;otl1~,l~oi~clnls ntzd Sllri'i-offered tar more than siinple conti~~uation.;ot late liolnan 1iisto1-y. The!- suggest :I p;lttrrn :i~ltl ;I liea an in^, invested ~l-ithChristian ~norality.greater and inorr significant th;m the earl!- I~eroic songs ;uld legends. '1'11~ later examples. I3ede's Ilistor~ 01 ~IIPEi1~~1isl1 Cl1111-c-h cirrtl 1)i~opli.and Paul tile Deacon'.; His- tor.!, of tlit' I~o~~il~nt~~i~.are >onle\\-l~at more co~nplcx. For Rede, the signific;int /cir.t in the histor!- of l3:nKl;ind was the Christianization of Celts anti (;ermans I~otl~,and the onl! rtieaningiul 1ri.rto1-1 that Eng1:und possessed wns tile account of this pl-ace.;.;. After 13ecir, one of the KI-e;~testhistorinns of an!- period, older st~le.;oi nntion;~lhistor! coulti not be duplicntetl. 'Thuc. ~vhe11Paul tllr Ile:icor~ untler-tool< to ~rritethe histol-!. of his on-n people, he \r-I-c~trin :I tr-;itlition that had alrcad! iwen tr;insio~-metih! l