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forging the lombard kingdom (568,605) 535
from Justinian’s wars in a condition of restored happiness: there had been
considerable destruction in major cities such as Naples and Rome, and
members of local aristocracies had been compelled to flee their homes. In
the countryside slaves had abandoned rural estates to join one or other of
the opposing armies, and many places – even the rich Po valley – had been
afflicted by famine. 46 Surveying the devastation, pope Pelagius I lamented
the ransacking of papal estates. 47
iv. forging the lombard kingdom (568,605)
Justinian’s dream of restoring the western empire had brought Italy little
more than misery. How bitter, then, that the achievement should prove so
ephemeral. In 568 the Julian Alps were breached once more, as a Lombard
army led by Alboin – whether at the invitation of the Byzantines or out of
fear of increasing Avar power in Pannonia – descended on Venetia and the
Po valley. 48 The reaction in Italy to this incursion typified the exhausted
condition of the peninsula after thirty years of war. Byzantine resistance
was the strongest, as imperial armies fought to retain the territory reconquered
less than a decade before. Soon it became clear, however, that
Byzantine resources were insufficient to halt the Lombard advance.
Alliances were forged with other barbarians, as when Tiberius II induced
the Franks to invade Italy in 577. 49 Ticinum (Pavia) put up a dogged resistance
until 572, but elsewhere Italian communities capitulated without any
notable struggle. The only alternative to surrender was flight. As Alboin’s
army entered his city, archbishop Honoratus of Milan fled across the
Apennines to Byzantine Genoa. Venetia, in particular, experienced considerable
displacement of its population. While many undoubtedly continued
to occupy old settlements such as Altinum (Altino) and Opitergium
(Oderzo), others, often under the leadership of their bishops, sought safety
in the islands of the lagoons, leading to the foundation of new centres,
such as Torcello and Heraclia. Even Aquileia, once the greatest city of the
region, shared this fate, as archbishop Paulinus moved the apparatus of his
see to Grado. 50
The Lombard advance was rapid, and by the end of 569 most of the Po
valley had fallen under their control. Only the Byzantine territories around
Genoa, Ravenna and along the coast of Venetia, as well as some isolated
inland areas, offered any significant resistance. 51 As compared with the
46 Cities: Procop. Wars v.10.28–9 (Naples), viii.33.14 (Rome). Runaway slaves: P. Ital. 13. Famine:
Procop. Wars vi.20.18–21. 47 Pelagius I, Ep. 49 (in MGH Epistolae 3.73).
48 Christie (1995) 60–3, in favour of a Byzantine initiative; cf., however, ch. 5 (Collins), p. 130 above.
49 Men. Prot. 25, 29; cf. Paul. Diac. Hist. Lang. iii.13.
50 Leciejewicz, Tabaczynska and Tabaczynski (1977), esp. 1–7, 287–94; Rando (1994) 13–34.
51 Wickham (1981) 31; Christie (1990).
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