1.
Lombards
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The Lombards or Longobards were a Germanic people who ruled large parts of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. In the 1st century AD, they formed part of the Suebi, the Lombard king Audoin defeated the Gepid leader Thurisind in 551 or 552, his successor Alboin eventually destroyed the Gepids at the Battle of Asfeld in 567. The Lombards were joined by numerous Saxons, Heruls, Gepids, Bulgars, Thuringians, and Ostrogoths, by late 569 they had conquered all north of Italy and the principal cities north of the Po River except Pavia, which fell in 572. At the same time, they occupied areas in central Italy and they established a Lombard Kingdom in north and central Italy, later named Regnum Italicum, which reached its zenith under the 8th-century ruler Liutprand. In 774, the Kingdom was conquered by the Frankish King Charlemagne, however, Lombard nobles continued to rule southern parts of the Italian peninsula, well into the 11th century when they were conquered by the Normans and added to their County of Sicily. In this period, the part of Italy still under Longobardic domination was known by the name Langbarðaland in the Norse runestones. Their legacy is apparent in the regional name Lombardy. The fullest account of Lombard origins, history, and practices is the Historia Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon, pauls chief source for Lombard origins, however, is the 7th-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum. The Origo Gentis Langobardorum tells the story of a tribe called the Winnili dwelling in southern Scandinavia. The Winnili were split into three groups and one part left their land to seek foreign fields. The reason for the exodus was probably overpopulation, the departing people were led by the brothers Ybor and Aio and their mother Gambara and arrived in the lands of Scoringa, perhaps the Baltic coast or the Bardengau on the banks of the Elbe. Scoringa was ruled by the Vandals and their chieftains, the brothers Ambri and Assi, the Winnili were young and brave and refused to pay tribute, saying It is better to maintain liberty by arms than to stain it by the payment of tribute. The Vandals prepared for war and consulted Godan, who answered that he would give the victory to those whom he would see first at sunrise. The Winnili were fewer in number and Gambara sought help from Frea, at sunrise, Frea turned her husbands bed so that he was facing east, and woke him. So Godan spotted the Winnili first and asked, Who are these long-beards. and Frea replied, My lord, thou hast given them the name, from that moment onwards, the Winnili were known as the Longbeards. When Paul the Deacon wrote the Historia between 787 and 796 he was a Catholic monk and devoted Christian and he thought the pagan stories of his people silly and laughable. Paul explained that the name Langobard came from the length of their beards, a modern theory suggests that the name Langobard comes from Langbarðr, a name of Odin. Priester states that when the Winnili changed their name to Lombards, they changed their old agricultural fertility cult to a cult of Odin
2.
Italian Peninsula
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The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is the central and the smallest of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe. It extends 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south, the peninsulas shape gives it the nickname lo Stivale. Three smaller peninsulas contribute to this shape, namely Calabria, Salento. Geographically, the Italian peninsula consists of the south of a line extending from the Magra to the Rubicon rivers. It excludes the Po Valley and the slopes of the Alps. All of the lies within the territory of the Italian Republic except for the microstates of San Marino. Additionally, Sicily, Elba and other islands, such as Palagruža, are usually considered as islands off the peninsula. The peninsula lies between the Tyrrhenian Sea on the west, the Ionian Sea on the south, and the Adriatic Sea on the east, the backbone of the Italian peninsula consists of the Apennine Mountains, from which it takes one of its names. Most of its coast is lined with cliffs, the Italian Peninsulas location between the centre of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea made it the target of many conquests. The peninsula has mainly a Mediterranean climate, though in the parts the climate is much cooler. Its natural vegetation includes macchia along the coasts and deciduous and mixed coniferous forests in the interior. Political divisions of the peninsula sorted by area, Apennine Mountains Roman Republic Roman Italy Insular Italy Media related to Italian Peninsula at Wikimedia Commons
3.
Benevento
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Benevento listen is a city and comune of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento,50 kilometres northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill 130 metres above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino and it is also the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop. Benevento occupies the site of the ancient Beneventum, originally Maleventum or still earlier Maloenton, the -vent portion of the name probably refers to a market-place and is a common element in ancient place names. The Romans theorized that it meant the site of bad events, in the imperial period it was supposed to have been founded by Diomedes after the Trojan War. A patron saint of Benevento is Saint Bartholomew, the Apostle, Benevento, as Maleventum, was one of the chief cities of Samnium, situated on the Via Appia at a distance of 51 kilometres east from Capua on the banks of the river Calor. Festus, on the contrary, related that it was founded by Auson, a son of Ulysses and Circe, a tradition which indicates that it was an ancient Ausonian city, previous to its conquest by the Samnites. But it first appears in history as a Samnite city, and must have already been a place of strength and it appears, however, to have fallen into their hands during the Third Samnite War, though the exact occasion is unknown. Benevento was certainly in the power of the Romans in 274 BC, six years later they further sought to secure its possession by establishing there a Roman colony with Latin rights. It is probable that the Oscan or Samnite name was Maloeis, or Malieis, whence the form Maleventum would derive, like Agrigentum from Acragas, Selinuntium from Selinus and its wealth is also evidenced by the quantity of coins minted by Beneventum. Horace famously notes Beneventum on his journey from Rome to Brundusium and it was indebted to the same circumstance for the honor of repeated visits from the emperors of Rome, among which those of Nero, Trajan, and Septimus Severus, are particularly recorded. It was probably for the reason that the triumphal arch. The Arch of Trajan is one of the best-preserved Roman structures in the Campania and it repeats the formula of the Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum, with reliefs of Trajans life and exploits of his reign. Some of the sculptures are in the British Museum, successive emperors seem to have bestowed on the city accessions of territory, and erected, or at least given name to, various public buildings. Its inhabitants were included in the Stellatine tribe, diaconus speaks of it as a very wealthy city, and the capital of all the surrounding provinces. The territory of Beneventum under the Roman Empire was of considerable extent. An inscription has preserved to us the names of several of the pagi or villages dependent upon Beneventum, the citys most ancient coins bear the legend Malies or Maliesa, which have been supposed to belong to the Samnite, or pre-Samnite, Maleventum. Coins with the legend BENVENTOD, must have struck after it became a Latin colony. Not long after it had been sacked by Totila and its walls razed, the circumstances of the creation of duchy of Benevento are disputed
4.
Southern Italy
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It generally coincides with the administrative regions of Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, Calabria, Molise, Sicily, and Sardinia. Some also include the most southern and eastern parts of Lazio within the Mezzogiorno, Southern Italy carries a unique legacy of culture. It features many major tourist attractions, such as the Palace of Caserta, there are also many ancient Greek cities in Southern Italy, such as Sybaris, which were founded several centuries before the start of the Roman Republic. These same subdivisions are at the bottom of the Italian First level NUTS of the European Union, the term Mezzogiorno first came into use in the 18th century and is an Italian rendition of meridies. The term was popularised by Giuseppe Garibaldi and it eventually came into vogue after the Italian unification. In a similar manner, Southern France is colloquially known as le Midi, Southern Italy forms the lower part of the Italian boot, containing the ankle, the toe, the arch, and the heel, along with the island of Sicily. Separating the heel and the boot is the Gulf of Taranto, named after the city of Taranto and it is an arm of the Ionian Sea. The island of Sardinia, right below the French island of Corsica, on the eastern coast is the Adriatic Sea, leading into the rest of the Mediterranean through the Strait of Otranto. Along the northern coast of the Salernitan Gulf and on the south of the Sorrentine Peninsula runs the Amalfi Coast, off the tip of the peninsula is the isle of Capri. The climate is mainly Mediterranean, except at the highest elevations and the eastern stretches in Apulia, along the Ionian Sea in Calabria. The largest city of Southern Italy is Naples, a name from the Greek that it has maintained for millennia. Bari, Taranto, Reggio Calabria, Foggia, and Salerno are the next largest cities in the area. The region is very active and highly seismic, the 1980 Irpinia earthquake killed 2,914 people, injured more than 10,000. Also during this period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of the Black Sea, Eastern Libya and they included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. The Romans called the area of Sicily and the foot of Italy, Magna Graecia, the ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria—Strabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions. With this colonisation, Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites, an original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic and Latin civilisations. Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like Neapolis, Syracuse, Acragas, other cities in Magna Graecia included Tarentum, Epizephyrian Locri, Rhegium, Croton, Thurii, Elea, Nola, Syessa, Bari, and others. After Pyrrhus of Epirus failed in his attempt to stop the spread of Roman hegemony in 282 BCE, from then to the Norman conquest of the 11th century, the south of the peninsula was constantly plunged into wars between Greece, Lombardy, and the Islamic Caliphate
5.
Pope
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The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, the office of the pope is the papacy. The pope is considered one of the worlds most powerful people because of his diplomatic and he is also head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the Italian capital city of Rome. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history, the popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of importance in Western Europe. Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers. In recent centuries, popes were gradually forced to give up temporal power, the word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning father. The earliest record of the use of title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD180 reflect a belief that Peter founded and organised the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peters presence in the early Roman Church, Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the struggles in our time and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, first, the greatest and most just columns, the good apostles Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero. Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome, others, using Peters own words, argue that Christ intended himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches, gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome, some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, documents of the 1st century and early 2nd century indicate that the Holy See had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, though the detail of what this meant is unclear. It seems that at first the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, the consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable
6.
Duchy of Rome
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The Duchy of Rome was a state within the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna. Like other Byzantine states in Italy, it was ruled by a functionary with the title dux. The duchy often came into conflict with the Papacy over supremacy within Rome, the duchy was founded by the conquest of Emperor Justinian I in 533 AD. After the founding of the Papal States in 751, the title of Duke of Rome fell into disuse, the Duchy of Rome was founded by Justinian in approximately 533 AD as part of the Byzantine conquest of Italy. The Duchy was secured in the outcome of the Gothic War, the city of Rome itself was the subject of multiple battles before the campaign ended in Byzantine victory and possession of most of the Italian peninsula. There the Pope led the opposition to the Lombards, because of his restoration activities, Justinian has sometimes been called the last Roman in modern historiography. This ambition was expressed by the recovery of the territories of the defunct western Roman empire. His general, Belisarius, swiftly conquered the Vandal kingdom in North Africa, if this strategic connection were broken, it was evident that Rome and Ravenna could not singly maintain themselves for any length of time. This was also recognized by the Lombards, the same narrow strip of land broke the connection between their Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento and the main portion of the kings territories in the north. The Lombards made multiple attacks against this front to wrest control of the peninsula from the Byzantines, in the beginning the popes were able repeatedly to repel these attacks and secure territory for Rome. In 728 the Lombard King Liutprand took the Castle of Sutri, however, Liutprand, softened by the entreaties of Pope Gregory II, restored Sutri as a gift to the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. This expression of the Liber pontificalis was erroneously interpreted to mean that in this gift the beginning of the States of the Church was to be recognized. This is incorrect inasmuch as the Popes continued to acknowledge the imperial government and it is true, however, that here for the first time the association of ideas on which the States of the Church were to be constructed is met. The Pope asked the Lombards for the return of Sutri for the sake of the Princes of the Apostles, the pious Liutprand was undoubtedly susceptible to such pleas, but never to any consideration for the Greeks. For this reason he gave Sutri to Peter and Paul, that he might not expose himself to their punishment, what the Pope then did with it would be immaterial to him. The belief that the Roman territory was defended by the Prince of the Apostles became more and more prevalent, in 738 the Lombard duke Transamund II of Spoleto captured the Castle of Gallese, which protected the road to Perugia to the north of Nepi. Pope Gregory III made a payment to the duke to restore the castle to him. The pope then sought an alliance with Duke Transamund to protect himself against Liutprand, however, Liutprand conquered Spoleto, besieged Rome, laid waste the Duchy of Rome, and seized four important frontier fortresses, thereby cutting off communication with Perugia and Ravenna
7.
Grimoald I of Benevento
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Grimoald I was duke of Benevento and king of the Lombards. Grimoald was probably born before 610 to Duke Gisulf II of Friuli and he succeeded his brother Radoald in 646/7 as duke of Benevento. In 641–42 CE, he and Radoald had served as regents for their mentally incapable adoptive brother, grimoald married the princess Theodota, daughter of King Aripert I. He sent Perctarits wife and son to Benevento and took over the kingship of the Lombards and it was then that he promptly married Godeperts sister in order to relate himself to the Bavarian Dynasty of Theodelinda. His martial prowess and skill in the field of battle secured his victory in many border wars, romuald then took Taranto and Brindisi, much limiting the Byzantine influence in the region during the rebellion of Mezezius in Sicily, which had distracted the Byzantines after Constans death. Grimoald himself took Forlì, in the north, from the Greeks and razed Oderzo and his capture of Forlì was shameful, however, for he took it on Easter Day, slaughtering worshippers during the festivities. While he was combatting the Byzantines in the Mezzogiorno, he left Duke Lupus of Friuli as regent in the north, Lupus usurped all authority and rebelled, though he was crushed and, with the help of the Avars, his duchy despoiled and devastated. Grimoald tracked down Lupus aspiring son Arnefrit, and his Slav allies, grimoald placed Wechthari, a stalwart enemy of the Slavs, in Friuli. Grimoald defeated the Franks, who invaded during the infancy of Chlothar III, grimoald had allied with Perctarit at Asti and the Avars, of whom he had been a hostage in his youth. In his religion he remained Arian despite his marriage to a Catholic, however, he perceived Saint Michael — whose cult was spreading strongly from Monte Gargano— as the warrior-protector of the Lombard nation. He died in 671 after concluding a treaty with the Franks and was succeeded by Perctarit and he was a popular ruler, known as much for the kingly virtues of generosity and mercy as for his ferocity and ruthlessness in war. Gwatkin, H. M. Whitney, J. P, the Cambridge Medieval History, Volume II—The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundations of the Western Empire
8.
Liutprand, King of the Lombards
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He is often regarded as the most successful Lombard monarch, notable for the Donation of Sutri, which was the first accolade of sovereign territory to the Papacy. His father was driven to exile among the Bavarians, his older brother Sigipert was blinded by Aripert II, king of the Lombards and his mother Theodarada, Liutprand was spared only because his youth made him appear harmless. He was released from Aripert IIs custody and allowed to join his father, Liutprands reign endured for thirty-one years. Within the Lombard kingdom he was considered a lawgiver of irreproachable Catholicity, at the opening of his reign, Liutprands chief ally among neighboring rulers was the Agilolfing Theodo I, the Frankish duke of Bavaria. Theodo Is intervention on Ansprands behalf helped him gain the throne, Theodo died in 717 or 718, under his successor the Lombard ties with the Agilolfing weakened. Until distracted by Byzantine politics in 726, Liutprands chief warmaking energies were concentrated on taking Bavarian castles on the River Adige, in his early reign, Liutprand did not attack the Exarchate of Ravenna or the Papacy. But in 726, the Emperor Leo III made his first of many edicts outlawing images or icons. The pope, Gregory II, ordered the people to resist, Liutprand chose this time of division to strike the Byzantine possessions in Emilia. In 727, he crossed the Po and took Bologna, Osimo, Rimini and Ancona, along with the cities of Emilia. He took Classis, the seaport of Ravenna, but could not take Ravenna itself from the exarch Paul, Paul was soon killed in a riot, however. Eventually, Ravenna would capitulate to Liutprand with barely a fight, the first Moorish raids on Corsica began around 713–719 from the Balearic Islands to the west. Acting as the protector of the Catholic Church and its faithful, Liutprand subjected the island to Lombard government, Corsica remained with the Lombard kingdom even after the Frankish conquest, by which time Lombard landholders and churches had established a significant presence on the island. When the Saracens invaded Sardinia, Liutprand redeemed the body of Augustine about the year 720 and he brought it with great ceremony to Pavia, and enshrined it in the Church of Saint Peter in Ciel doro, which was then the cathedral of Pavia. He rescued the relics stationed on the island with great haste as well as with great expense, according to Paul the Deacon. There the two reached an agreement, by which Sutri and some towns in Latium were given to the Papacy, as a gift to the blessed Apostles Peter. They were the first extension of Papal territory beyond the confines of the Duchy of Rome and this was the beginning of the Papal States. In the meantime, Leo sent Eutychius, as Exarch of Ravenna, the dukes, Thrasimund II and Godescalc, surrendered — though control of the duchies from Pavia was not to endure for long — and the new exarch marched on Rome. In 733 Liutprand promulgated the Notitia de actoribus regis, a series of six laws and they sought to curb the usurpation by local administrators of public lands
9.
Paul the Deacon
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Paul the Deacon, also known as Paulus Diaconus, Warnefridus, Barnefridus, Winfridus and sometimes suffixed Cassinensis, was a Benedictine monk, scribe, and historian of the Lombards. An ancestor named Leupichis entered Italy in the train of Alboin, during an invasion, the Avars swept off the five sons of this warrior into Pannonia, but one, his namesake, returned to Italy and restored the ruined fortunes of his house. The grandson of the younger Leupichis was Warnefrid, who by his wife Theodelinda became the father of Paul, Paulus was his monastic name, he was born Winfrid, son of Warnefrid. It is probable that he was secretary to the Lombard king Desiderius, after Adelperga had married Arichis II, duke of Benevento, Paul at her request wrote his continuation of Eutropius. Soon he entered a monastery on Lake Como, and before 782 he had become a resident at the great Benedictine house of Monte Cassino, where he made the acquaintance of Charlemagne. About 776 his brother Arichis had been carried as a prisoner to Francia, and his literary achievements attracted the notice of Charlemagne, and Paul became a potent factor in the Carolingian Renaissance. In 787 he returned to Italy and to Monte Cassino, where he died on April 13 in one of the years between 796 and 799. His surname Diaconus, shows that he took orders as a deacon, Pauls extant works are edited in Patrologia Latina vol. The chief work of Paul is his Historia Langobardorum and this incomplete history in six books was written after 787 and at any rate no later than 795/96, maybe at Monte Cassino. The story is told from the point of view of a Lombard and is valuable for the relations between the Franks and the Lombards. Cognate with this work is Pauls Historia Romana, a continuation of the Breviarium of Eutropius and this was compiled between 766 and 771, at Benevento. The story runs that Paul advised Adelperga to read Eutropius and this work has value for its early historical presentation of the end of the Roman Empire in the West, although it was very popular during the Middle Ages. It has been edited by H Droysen and published in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, auctores antiquissimi, Band ii. as well as by A. Crivellucci, in Fonti per la storia d Italia, n. He also wrote letters, verses and epitaphs, including those of Duke/Prince Arichis II of Benevento. Some of the letters are published with the Historia Langobardorum in the Monumenta, john the Baptist, which Guido dArezzo fitted to a melody which had previously been used for Horaces Ode 4.11. From the initial syllables of the first verses of the resultant setting he then took the names of the first notes of the musical scale, Paul also wrote an epitome, which has survived, of Sextus Pompeius Festus De verborum significatu. While in Francia, Paul was requested by Charlemagne to compile a collection of homilies and he executed this after his return to Monte Cassino, and it was largely used in the Frankish churches. A life of Pope Gregory the Great has also attributed to him
