The Lombards: The History and Legacy of the Germanic Group that Dominated Italy after the Fall of Rome

*Includes pictures

*Includes a bibliography for further reading

The birth of Europe as people know it today was hardly an easy and effortless process. The continent was reshaped by centuries of continuous wars, raids, and the falls and rises of empires, and the most turbulent of these events happened at the beginning of the Middle Ages, from the 3rd-7th centuries CE. This was the time when the old slave society gave way to the feudal system that marked the latter Middle Ages, and it was also a period of battles between the Roman Empire and various nomadic groups. Rome waged wars, made and broke alliances, and bribed and negotiated with chieftains of various "barbarian" tribes to preserve the territorial integrity of their empire, but the razor-edge division between the civilized world of the Romans and that of the "savages" that threatened their borders was dulling with every decade. In fact, the constant need for army recruits swelled the Roman legions with barbarian foederati, a phenomenon that forced both the Romans and Byzantines to use a very subtle way of playing the barbarian tribes against each other via diplomatic schemes and bountiful rewards. A new religion was also taking root: Christianity became a reason for both unification and division, as different people adopted different variations of its teachings.

While many people are familiar with the Vandals' sack of Rome, the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and the Byzantine Empire's attempt to reunify the entire Roman Empire, the history of Italy in the wake of Rome's fall is often overlooked. The late 5th century's political instability allowed wave after wave of semi-nomadic peoples, most of them ethnic Germans, to establish new kingdoms, only for most of them to collapse in an ongoing domino effect. Among the most important of these tribes to make an impact on Europe in the early part of the period were the Visigoths, Vandals, and Franks, which entered Western Europe and forged the earliest medieval kingdoms in Spain and France while battling with each other and Rome. Meanwhile, the Ostrogoths and Lombards, despite entering the scene a bit later, left just as much of an impact on Europe further to the south.

Like the other Germanic tribes, the Lombards originated in Scandinavia before migrating slowly through central Europe, and as the Western Roman Empire collapsed and the Byzantine successor state in Constantinople attempted to reestablish order, the Lombards took advantage of the chaos and planted themselves firmly on Italian soil. From the late 6th century until the arrival of Charlemagne in the late 8th century, the Lombards were the masters of Italy, giving the land many of its modern names and adding a touch of Germanic culture to the overwhelmingly Mediterranean land. During their peak, the Lombards were one of the most powerful kingdoms of Europe and were approached by the Byzantines, Franks, and other European kingdoms for alliances and trade. The Lombards also fought with these groups quite frequently as they all contended for control of Italy and Rome, which at one point culminated with the Lombards even determining the election of one pope and indirectly exacerbating the schism of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox denominations of Christianity.

Today, the Lombards are primarily just associated with northwestern Italy due to the eponymously named district in that country, but influence extended to most areas of medieval Italian culture, including law, economics, government, art, and architecture. The Lombards: The History and Legacy of the Germanic Group that Dominated Italy after the Fall of Rome chronicles how the Lombards established their medieval kingdom, the important events that took place in the region, and the Lombards' lasting legacy. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Lombards like never before.