CHAP. The Lombards and Avars de stroy the In this extraordinary visit he had probably seen the daughter of Cunimund, who soon after ascended the throne of the Gepida. Her name was Rosamond, an appellation expressive of female beauty, and which our own history or romance has consecrated to amorous tales. The king of the Lombards (the father of Alboin no longer lived) was contracted to the grand-daughter of Clovis; but the restraints of faith and policy soon yielded to the hope of possessing the fair Rosamond, and of insulting her family and nation. The arts of persuasion were tried without success; and the impatient lover, by force and stratagem, obtained the object of his desires. War was the consequence which he foresaw and solicited; but the Lombards could not long withstand the furious assault of the Gepida, who were sustained by a Roman army. And as the offer of marriage was rejected with contempt, Alboin was compelled to relinquish his prey, and to partake of the disgrace which he had inflicted on the house of Cunimund.9 When a public quarrel is envenomed by private injuries, a blow that is not mortal or decisive can be productive only of a short truce, which allows the unsuccessful combatant to sharpen his arms for a new encounter. The strength of Alboin had been found unequal to the gratification of his love, ambition, and revenge: he condescended to implore the formidable aid of the chagan; and the arguments that he employed are expressive of the art and policy of the Barbarians. In the attack of the Gepidæ, he had been prompted by the just desire of extirpating a people, whom their alliance with the Roman empire had rendered the common enemies of the nations, and the personal adversaries of the chagan. If the forces of the Avars and the Lombards should unite in this glorious quarrel, the victory was secure, and the reward inestimable: the Danube, the Hebrus, Italy, and Constan tinople, would be exposed, without a barrier, to their invincible arms. But if they hesitated or delayed to prevent the malice of the Romans, the same spirit which had in 9 The story is told by an impostor (Theophylact. Simocat 1 vi. c. 10.) but he had art enough to build his fictions on public and notorious facts. sulted, would pursue the Avars to the extremity of the earth. These specious reasons were heard by the chagan with coldness and disdain: he detained the Lombard ambassadors in his camp, protracted the negotiation, and by turns alledged his want of inclination, or his want of ability, to undertake this important enterprise. At length he signified the ultimate price of his alliance, that the Lombards should immediately present him with the tithe of their cattle; that the spoils and captives should be equally divided; but that the lands of the Gepida should become the sole patrimony of the Avars. Such hard conditions were eagerly accepted by the passions of Alboin; and as the Romans were dissatisfied with the ingratitude. and perfidy of the Gepidæ, Justin abandoned that incorrigible people to their fate, and remained the tranquil spectator of this unequal conflict. The despair of Cunimund was active and dangerous. He was informed that the Avars had entered his confines; but on the strong assurance, that, after the defeat of the Lombards, these foreign invaders would easily be repelled, he rushed forwards to encounter the implacable enemy of his name and family. But the courage of the Gepida could secure them no more than an honourable death. The bravest of the nation fell in the field of battle; the king of the Lombards contemplated with delight the head of Cunimund, and his skull was fashioned into a cup to satiate the hatred of the conqueror, or, perhaps, to comply with the savage custom of his country.10 After this victory, no farther obstacle could impede the progress of the confederates, and they faithfully executed the terms of their agreement. The fair countries of Walachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, and the parts of Hungary beyond the Danube, were occupied, without resistance, by a new colony of Scythians; and the Dacian empire of the chagans subsist 10 It appears from Strabo, Pliny, and Ammianus Marcellinus, that the same practice was common among the Scythian tribes (Muratori, Scriptores Rer. Italic. tom. i. p. 424). The scalps of North America are likewise trophies of valour. The skull of Cuniinund was preserved above two hundred years among the Lombards; and Paul himself was one of the guests to whom duke Ratchis exhibited this cup on a high festival (1. ii. c. 28). 11 Paul, l. i. c. 27. Menander, in Excerpt. Legat. p. 110, 111. 3 D VOL. V. CHAP. XLV. XLV. CHAP. ed with splendour above two hundred and thirty years. The nation of the Gepida was dissolved; but in the distribution of the captives, the slaves of the Avars were less fortunate than the companions of the Lombards, whose generosity adopted a valiant foe, and whose freedom was incompatible with cool and deliberate tyranny. One moiety of the spoil introduced into the camp of Alboin more wealth than a Barbarian could readily compute. The fair Rosamond was persuaded, or compelled, to acknowledge the rights of her victorious lover; and the daughter of Cunimund appeared to forgive those crimes which might be imputed to her own irresistible charms. Alboin undertakes the con The destruction of a mighty kingdom established the fame of Alboin. In the days of Charlemagne, the Bavarians, the Saxons, and the other tribes of the Teutonic Italy. A. D. 567. language, still repeated the songs which described the quest of heroic virtues, the valour, liberality, and fortune of the king of the Lombards.12 But his ambition was yet unsatisfied; and the conqueror of the Gepidæ turned his eyes from the Danube to the richer banks of the Po and the Tyber. Fifteen years had not elapsed, since his subjects, the confederates of Narses, had visited the pleasant climate of Italy: the mountains, the rivers, the highways, were familiar to their memory: the report of their success, perhaps the view of their spoils, had kindled in the rising generation the flame of emulation and enterprise. Their hopes were encouraged by the spirit and eloquence of Alboin; and it is affirmed, that he spoke to their senses, by producing, at the royal feast, the fairest and most exquisite fruits that grew spontaneously in the garden of the world. No sooner had he erected his standard, than the native strength of the Lombards was multiplied by the adventurous youth of Germany and Scythia. 12 Ut hactenus etiam tam apud Bajoariorum gentem, quam et Saxonum sed et alios ejusdem linguæ homines. . . . in eorum carminibus celebretur. Paul, 1. i. c. 27. He died A. D. 799 (Muratori, in Præfat. tom. i. p. 397). These German songs, some of which might be as old as Tacitus (de Moribus Germ. c 2.) were compiled and transcribed by Charlemagne. Barbara et antiquissima carmina, quibus veteram regum actus et bella canebantur scripsit memoriæque mandavit (Eginard, in Vit. Carol. Magn. c. 29. p. 130, 131). The poems, which Goldast commends (Animadvers. ad Eginard. p. 207.) appear to be recent and contemptible romances. The robust peasantry of Noricum and Pannonia had resumed the manners of Barbarians; and the names of the Gepida, Bulgarians, Sarmatians, and Bavarians, may be distinctly traced in the provinces of Italy.13 Of the Saxons, the old allies of the Lombards, twenty thousand warriors, with their wives and children, accepted the invitation of Alboin. Their bravery contributed to his success; but the accession or the absence of their numbers was not sensibly felt in the magnitude of his host. Every mode of religion was freely practised by its respective votaries. The king of the Lombards had been educated in the Arian heresy; but the Catholics, in their public worship, were allowed to pray for his conversion; while the more stubborn Barbarians sacrificed a she-goat, or perhaps a captive, to the gods of their fathers.14 The Lombards, and their confederates, were united by their common attachment to a chief, who excelled in all the virtues and vices of a savage hero; and the vigilance of Alboin provided an ample magazine of offensive and defensive arms for the use of the expedition. The portable wealth of the Lombards attended their march; their lands they cheerfully relinquished to the Avars, on the solemn promise, which was made and accepted without a smile, that if they failed in the conquest of Italy, these voluntary exiles should be reinstated in their former possessions. CHAP. XI V. tion and death of Narses. They might have failed, if Narses had been the anta- Disaffecgonist of the Lombards; and the veteran warriors, the associates of his Gothic victory, would have encountered with reluctance an enemy whom they dreaded and esteemed. But the weakness of the Byzantine court was subservient to the Barbarian cause; and it was for the ruin of Italy, that the emperor once listened to the complaints of his subjects. The virtues of Narses were stained with avarice; and in his provincial reign of fifteen years, he ac 13 The other nations are rehearsed by Paul (1. ii. c. 6. 26). Muratori (Antichita Italiane, tom. i. dissert. i. p. 4.) has discovered the village of the Bavarians, three miles from Modena. 14 Gregory the Roman (Dialog. 1. iii. c. 27, 28. apud Baron. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 579, No. 10.) supposes that they likewise adored this shegoat. I know but of one religion in which the god and the victim are the same. cumulated a treasure of gold and silver which surpassed the modesty of a private fortune. His government was oppressive or unpopular, and the general discontent was expressed with freedom by the deputies of Rome. Before the throne of Justin they boldly declared, that their Gothic servitude had been more tolerable than the despotism of a Greek eunuch; and that, unless their tyrant were instantly removed, they would consult their own happiness in the choice of a master. The apprehension of a revolt was urged by the voice of envy and detraction, which had so recently triumphed over the merit of Belisarius. A new exarch, Longinus, was appointed to supercede the conqueror of Italy, and the base motives of his recall were revealed in the insulting mandate of the empress Sophia, "that he should leave to men the exercise of arms, and << return to his proper station among the maidens of the "palace, where a distaff should be again placed in the "hand of the eunuch." "I will spin her such a thread, "as she shall not easily unravel!" is said to have been the reply which indignation and conscious virtue extorted from the hero. Instead of attending, a slave and a victim, at the gate of the Byzantine palace, he retired to Naples, from whence (if any credit is due to the belief of the times) Narses invited the Lombards to chastise the ingratitude of the prince and people.15 But the passions of the people are furious and changeable, and the Romans soon recollected the merits, or dreaded the resentment, of their victorious general. By the mediation of the pope, who undertook a special pilgrimage to Naples, their repentance was accepted; and Narses, assuming a milder aspect and a more dutiful language, consented to fix his residence in the Capitol. His death,16 though 15 The charge of the deacon against Narses (1. ii. c. 5.) may be groundless; but the weak apology of the cardinal (Baron. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 567, No. 8...12.) is rejected by the best critics...Pagi (tom. ii. p. 639, 640), Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. v. p. 160....163), and the last editors, Horatius Blancus (Script. Rerum Italic. tom. i. p. 427, 428.) and Philip Argelatus (Sigon. Opera, tom. ii. p. 11, 12). The Narses who assisted at the coronation of Justin (Corippus, 1. iii. 221.) is clearly understood to be a different person. 16 The death of Narses is mentioned by Paul, 1. ii. c. 11. Anastas. in Vit. Johan. iii. p. 43. Agnellus, Liber Pontifical. Raven. in Script. Rer. Italicarum, tom. ii, part i. p. 114. 124. Yet I cannot believe with Agnellus |