History essay 800 words, due within 20 hours

The topic now requires me to postpone my general history and relate also a few matters of a private character concerning the genealogy of myself who write these things, and because the case so demands, I must go back a little earlier in the order of my narrative. At the time when the nation of the Langobards came from Pannonia to Italy, my great-great-grandfather Leupchis of the same nation of Langobards came with them in like manner. When he ended his last day after he had lived some years in Italy, he left five sons begotten by him who were still little boys. That misfortune of captivity of which we have spoken included these, and they were all carried away as exiles from the fortress of Forum Julii into the country of the Avars. After they had borne in that region for many years the misery of bondage, and had already come to the age of manhood, although the four others, whose names we do not retain, remained in the constraint of captivity, the fifth brother, Lopichis by name, who was afterwards our great-grand-father, determined (at the inspiration as we believe of the Author of Mercy) to cast off the yoke of bondage, and to direct his course to Italy, where he had remembered that the race of the Langobards was settled, and he made an effort to regain the rights of freedom. When he had gone and betaken himself to flight, carrying only a quiver and bow and a little food for the journey, and did not at all know whither he was proceeding, a wolf came to him and became the companion of his journey and his guide. Seeing that it proceeded before him, and often looked behind and stood with him when he stood, and went ahead when he advanced, he understood that it had been given to him from heaven to show to him the way, of which he was ignorant. When they had proceeded in this manner for some days through the solitudes of the mountains, the bread, of which the traveler had had very little, wholly failed him. While he went on his way fasting, and had already become faint with exhaustion from hunger, he drew his bow and attempted to kill with his arrow this same wolf so that he could use it for food. But the wolf, avoiding the stroke that he cast, slipped away from his sight. And he, not knowing whither to proceed, when this wolf had gone away, and made very weak moreover by the privation of hunger, now despaired of his life, and throwing himself upon the earth, he went to sleep. And he saw in his dreams a certain man saying to him the following words: "Arise! why are you sleeping? Take your way in that direction opposite to which your feet are turned, for there is Italy which you are seeking." And straightway rising he began to proceed in that direction which he had heard in his dreams, and without delay he came to a dwelling place of men; for there was a settlement of Slavs in those places. And when an elderly woman now saw him, she straightway understood that he was a fugitive and suffering from the privation of hunger. And taking pity upon him, she hid him in her dwelling and secretly furnished him food, a little at a time, lest she should put an end to his life altogether if she should give him nourishment to repletion. In fine, she thus supplied him skillfully with food until he was restored and got his strength. And when she saw that he was now able to pursue his journey, she gave him provisions and told him in what direction he ought to go. After some days he entered Italy and came to the house in which he had been born, which was so deserted that not only did it have no roof but it was full of brambles and thorns. And when he had cut them down he found within the walls a large ash-tree, and hung his quiver upon it. He was afterwards provided with gifts by his relatives and friends, and rebuilt his house and took a wife. But he could obtain nothing of the property his father had had, being now excluded by those who had appropriated it through long and continuous possession. This man, as I already said before, was my great-grandfather, and he begot my grandfather Arichis,[footnoteRef:14] and Arichis, my father Warnefrit, and Warnefrit, from Theudelinda his wife, begot me, Paul, and my brother Arichis who was named after my grandfather.[footnoteRef:15] These few things having been considered concerning the chain of my own genealogy, now let us return to the thread of the general history. [14: Henry.] [15: Paul has probably omitted some links in his family genealogy. Four generations are very few for the period between Leupchis who came into Italy with Alboin, 568, and Paul, who was born between 720 and 730. It is remarkable too that Leupchis, a grown man in 568, should leave five little children at the time of the Avar invasion in 610 (Hodgkin, VI, 58, note l).]

Chapter XXXVIII. After the death, as we said, of Gisulf, duke of Forum Julii, his sons Taso and Cacco undertook the government of this dukedom. They possessed in their time the territory of the Slavs which is named Zeilia (Gail-thal),[footnoteRef:16] up to the place which is called Medaria (Windisch Matrei), hence, those same Slavs, up to the time of duke Ratchis, paid tribute to the dukes of Forum Julii. Gregory the patrician of the Romans killed these two brothers in the city of Opitergium (Oderzo) by crafty treachery. For he promised Taso that he would cut his beard,[footnoteRef:17] as is the custom, and make him his son, and this Taso, with Cacco his brother, and some chosen youths came to Gregory fearing no harm. When presently he had entered Opitergium with his followers, straightway the patrician ordered the gates of the city to be closed and sent armed soldiers against Taso and his companions. Taso with his followers perceiving this, boldly prepared for a fight, and when a moment of quiet was given, they bade each other a last farewell, and scattered hither and thither through the different streets of the city, killing whomsoever they could find in their way, and while they made a great slaughter of the Romans, they also were slain at last. But Gregory the patrician, on account of the oath he had given, ordered the head of Taso to be brought to him, and, perjured though he was, cut off his beard as he had promised.[footnoteRef:18] Chapter XXXIX. When they were thus killed, Grasulf, the brother of Gisulf, was made duke of Forum Julii.[footnoteRef:19] But Radoald and Grimoald, as they were now close to the age of manhood, held it in contempt to live under the power of their uncle Grasulf, and they embarked in a little boat and came rowing to the territories of Beneventum. Then hastening to Arichis, duke of the Beneventines, their former preceptor, they were received by him most kindly and treated by him in the place of sons. In these times, upon the death of Tassilo, duke of the Bavarians, his son Garibald was conquered by the Slavs at Aguntum (Innichen), and the territories of the Bavarians were plundered. The Bavarians, however, having recovered their strength, took away the booty from their foes and drove their enemies from their territories. Chapter XL. King Agilulf, indeed, made peace with the emperor for one year, and again for another, and also renewed a second time the bond of peace with the Franks. In this year, nevertheless, the Slavs grievously devastated Istria after killing the soldiers who defended it. Also in the following month of March, Secundus, a servant of Christ of whom we have already often spoken, died at Tridentum (Trent). He composed a brief history of the deeds of the Langobards up to his time.[footnoteRef:20] At that time king Agilulf again made peace with the emperor. In those days Theudepert, king of the Franks, was also killed, and a very severe battle occurred among them. Gunduald too, the brother of queen Theudelinda, who was duke in the city of Asta (Asti), died at this time, struck by an arrow, but no one knew the author of his death. Chapter XLI. Then king Agilulf, who was called Ago, after he had reigned twenty-five years, ended his last day,[footnoteRef:21] and his son Adaloald, who was still a boy, was left in the sovereignty with Theudelinda his mother. Under them the churches were restored and many gifts were bestowed upon the holy places. But when Adaloald, after he had reigned with his mother ten years, lost his reason and became insane, he was cast out of the sovereignty,[footnoteRef:22] and Arioald was substituted by the Langobards in his place.[footnoteRef:23] Concerning the acts of this king hardly anything has come to our knowledge.[footnoteRef:24] About these times the holy Columban, sprung from the race of Scots, after he had built a monastery in Gaul in the place called Luxovium (Luxeuil), came into Italy,[footnoteRef:25] and was kindly received by the king of the Langobards, and built a convent in the Cottian Alps which is called Bobium (Bobbio) and is forty miles distant from the city of Ticinum.[footnoteRef:26] In this place also many possessions were bestowed by particular princes and Langobards, and there was established there a great community of monks. [16: Hodgkin, VI, 59, note, and Hartmann, II, i, 236. The valley of the Gail in Carinthia and eastern Tyrol.] [17: A ceremony indicating that he whose beard is shaved and whose hair is cut has arrived at the state of manhood. Thus king Liutprand performed a similar ceremony for the son of Charles Martel (Book VI, Chap. 53, infra).] [18: Fredegarius (IV, 69) tells a story (which is considered by some to be a variation of this) as to the murder of Taso, duke of Tuscany, by the patrician Isaac. King Arioald offered Isaac to remit one of the three hundredweights of gold which the empire paid yearly to the Langobards if he would kill Taso, who was a rebel (see chap. 49). Isaac invited Taso to Ravenna with a troop of warriors who were prevailed upon to leave their arms outside the walls, and when they entered the city they were assassinated. The tribute was accordingly reduced. Soon afterwards Arioald died. As Arioaild reigned from 626 to 636 and Isaac did not become exarch until 630, this story can not be reconciled with Paul's account of an event which must have happened many years earlier. Either Fredegarius got hold of an inaccurate version, or the coincidence of name is accidental and the story relates to some different event (Hodgkin, VI, 59, 60, note 2; Pabst, 429).] [19: De Rubeis (Appendix, p. 63) says this occurred A. D. 616.] [20: After the death of Secundus in 612 Paul's source for the history of Trent becomes exhausted and we hear little more about that duchy.] [21: Probably 615 or 616 (Waitz; Hodgkin, VI, 147, note l).] [22: Fredegarius (Chron. 49) tells the story thus: that Adaloald, upon the advice of one Eusebius, anointed himself in the bath with some sort of ointment, and afterwards could do nothing except what he was told by Eusebius; that he was thus persuaded to order all the chief persons and nobles of the Langobards to be killed, and upon their death to surrender, with all his people to the empire; that when he had put twelve to death without their fault, the rest conspired to raise Arioald, duke of Turin, who had married Gundiperga, the sister of Adaloald, to the throne; that Adaloald took poison and died and Arioald straightway took possession of the kingdom. Possibly the zeal of Theudelinda and Adaloald for the Catholic faith may have provoked a reaction among the Langobards, who had been Arians, and they may have become dissatisfied with the conciliatory policy toward the empire which was characteristic of the Bavarian line of sovereigns descended from Theudelinda. The legend of Eusebius was perhaps an expression of this dissatisfaction. Adaloald's successor was certainly an Arian. We have already seen (ch. 34, note, supra) that during Adaloald's time Eleutherius the exarch defeated John of Compsa who had revolted and taken possession of Naples, and put him to death. After this revolt the war with the Langobards was renewed and Sundrar the Langobard general repeatedly defeated the exarch, who finally obtained peace upon payment of a yearly tribute of five hundredweight of gold (Hodgkin, VI, 154, 155). We have also seen that Eleutherius afterwards aspired to independent sovereignty and was killed (IV, 34, supra), though Paul incorrectly places these occurrences during the reign of Agilulf. In 625 Pope Honorius I addressed a letter to Isaac the new exarch saying that some bishops beyond the Po had urged one Peter, who seems to have been a layman high in office, not to follow the Catholic Adaloald, but the tyrant Ariopalt (Arioald) (Hodgkin, VI, 158) ; since the crime of the bishops was odious, the pope asked the exarch to send them to Rome for punishment as soon as Adaloald was restored to his kingdom. This contest between Adaloald and his successor probably occurred between 624 and 626 (Hodgkin, VI, 160), and it would seem that Adaloald had taken refuge with the exarch in Ravenna from which Wiese (p. 284) infers that his death may have been by order of Isaac to avoid complications with the Langobards. We do not learn what part Theudelinda took in this contest. She died February 22nd, 628, shortly after the death of Adaloald (Hodgkin VI, 160).] [23: Probably A. U. 626 (Hodgkin, VI, 161).] [24: Fredegarius (IV, 51) tells us that Gundiperga (wife of Arioald and daughter of Agilulf and Theudelinda) said one day that Adalulf, a nobleman in the king's service, was a man of goodly stature, and Adalulf hearing this, proposed to her that she should be unfaithful to her marriage vow. She scorned his proposal whereupon he charged that she had granted a secret interview to Taso duke of Tuscany and had promised to poison the king and raise Taso to the throne. Upon this Arioald imprisoned her in a fortress. Two years afterwards Clothar II, king of the Franks, sent ambassadors to Arioald asking why she had been imprisoned and when the reason was given, one of the ambassadors suggested a trial by battle to ascertain her guilt or innocence. The duel accordingly took place, Adnlulf was slain by the queen's champion and she was restored to her royal dignity (Hodgkin, VI, 161—163).] [25: Probably before this time and about A. D. 612 (Giansevero).] [26: St. Columban was born, not in Scotland but in Ireland about 543 and entered a monastery at Bangor at a period when the Irish monasteries were centers of culture. After some years he set forth to preach the gospel, first in Britain and then in Gaul. Sigispert, king of Austrasia, the husband of Brunihilde gave him a ruined village named Anagratis where he established a monastery, but after a while he retired to a cave, and was so famed for miracles that he drew around him many disciples and found it necessary to establish another monastery at Luxovium in the domains of Gunthram of Burgundy, now the Vosges. A third was established near by at Ad Fontanas (Hodgkin VI, 110, 113). Afterwards he incurred the enmity of Brunihilde and her grandson Theuderic of Burgundy (pp. 121—123) and was expelled from that kingdom. Under the protection of Theudepert of Austrasia he found a retreat at Bregenz on the Lake of Constance (p. 126) where he put an end to the worship of heathen gods, which had been practiced in the neighborhood. Upon Theudepert's death, which the saint had foretold, he betook himself to Italy where he was received with honor by Agilulf and Theudelinda (p. 131). He remained some months at Milan at the royal court and argued there with Arian ecclesiastics, until a certain Jocundus came to king Agilulf and spoke of the advantages for a monastic life offered by the village of Bobium on the Trebia among the Apennines (p. 132). Columban retired thither and there built the monastery which became an important instrument in converting the Langobards from Arianism, and in the spread of Roman culture among that people (Hartmann II, 2, 25). He was a man of great learning. He aided Theudelinda in her conflicts with Arianism, but he also became an adherent of the schismatics in the controversy of the Three Chapters, and Theudelinda used him in defending their cause, which he did in a long letter to Pope Boniface IV, the third successor of Gregory the Great. Agilulf desired to heal the schism and Columban states in his letter that the king was reported to have said that he too would believe the Catholic faith if he could know the certainty of the matter! Columban died in 615, the same year as Agilulf (Hodgkin, VI, 138-147).]

Chapter XLII. Then Arioald, after he had held the sovereignty over the Langobards twelve years, departed this life, and Rothari[footnoteRef:27] of the race of Arodus, received the kingdom of the Langobards.[footnoteRef:28] And he was brave and strong, and followed the path of justice;[footnoteRef:29] he did not, however, hold the right line of Christian belief, but was stained by the infidelity of the Arian heresy.[footnoteRef:30] The Arians, indeed, say to their own ruin that the Son is less than the Father, and the Holy Spirit also is less than the Father and the Son. But we Catholics confess that the Father and Son and Holy Spirit are one and the true God in three persons, equal in power and the same in glory. In this time there were two bishops throughout almost all the cities[footnoteRef:31] of the kingdom, one a Catholic and the other an Arian. In the city of Ticinum too there is shown, down to the present time, the place where the Arian bishop, who had his seat at the church of St. Eusebius, had a baptistery, while another bishop sat in the Catholic church. Yet this Ariari bishop, who was in the same city, Anastasius by name, became converted to the Catholic faith and afterwards governed the church of Christ. This king Rothari collected, in a series of writings, the laws of the Langobards which they were keeping in memory only and custom,[footnoteRef:32] and he directed this code to be called the Edict. It was now indeed the seventy-seventh year from the time when the Langobards had come into Italy, as that king bore witness in a prologue to his Edict.[footnoteRef:33] To this king, Arichis, the duke of Beneventum sent his son Aio. And when the latter had come to Ravenna on his way to Ticinum, such a drink was there given him by the malice of the Romans that it made him lose his reason, and from that time he was never of full and sound mind.[footnoteRef:34] [27: Hartmann (II, I, 235) considers that in this reckoning, the time is probably included in which Arioald was in insurrection against Adaloald. Rothari ascended the throne in 636 (Waitz).] [28: Fredegarius relates that after the death of Arioald his widow Gundiperga was asked, as Theudelinda had been, to choose his successor; that her choice fell upon Rothari, whom she invited to put away his wife and marry her, which he did, but afterwards confined her in one little room in the palace, while he lived with his concubines; that after five years' seclusion the Frankish king Clovis II interceded and she was restored to her queenly dignities (Hodgkin, VI, 165, 166). This story sounds like a repetition of the account of Gundiperga's disgrace during the reign of her first husband. It would seem that Rothari's marriage to Gundiperga, like that of Agilulf to Theudelinda was to add a certain claim of legitimacy to his pretensions to the throne and perhaps the fact that he was an Arian and his wife a Catholic led to the story above related (Hartmann, II, I, 239, 240).] [29: Fredegarius relates (Chron. 71) that at the beginning of his reign he put to death many insubordinate nobles and that in his efforts for peace he maintained very strict discipline (Pabst, 430, note 3).] [30: With the exception of Adaloald, all the kings of the Langobards up to this time had been Arians though their religious convictions were not strong, and they were net generally intolerant (Hodgkin VI, 144, 145). The beliefs of the invaders under Alboin were somewhat heterogeneous. Some of his followers were probably still tinctured with the remnants of heathenism, most of them were Arians, while the Noricans and Pannor.ians who accompanied him to Italy (II, 26 supra) were Catholics (Hegel, Stadteverfassung von Italien I, Ch. 3, p. 364). The conversion of the Langobards to the Catholic faith was promoted by their intermarriage with Roman wives. Theudelinda, who was a Catholic, had done much to further it. Even as early as the time of Gregory the Great there were Catholic bishops under the Langobards (id., p. 363).] [31: This is doubtful. Paul knew of some Arian bishops and doubtless he presumed, erroneously, the presence of Catholic bishops in the same places (Hartmann II, i, 278).] [32: Compare this with the Chronicon Gothanum, (M. G., LLIV, p.641) "Rothari reigned sixteen years and by him law and justice began with the Langobards and the judges first went through them in writing. For previously lawsuits were decided by custom, ('cadarfada') discretion and usage." Rothari's Edict was published Nov. 22d, 643. It was composed of 388 chapters. Although written in Latin, the greater part of this Edict was of purely Langobard origin. By this code the man who conspired against the king or deserted his comrades in battle must suffer death, but those accused of a capital offense might appeal to the wager of battle. If freemen conspired and accomplished the death of another they were to compound for the murder according to the rank of the person slain (Hodgkin, VI, 175 to 179). If any one should "place himself in the way" of a free woman or girl or injure her he must pay nine hundred solidi (540 pounds sterling). If any one should "place himself in the way " of a free man he must pay him twenty solidi, if he had not done him any bodily injury. These provisions indicated the high estimation in which the free women were held. If any one should ''place himself in the way'' of another man's slave or hand-maid or 'aldius' (half-free) he must pay twenty solidi to his lord. Bodily injuries were all catalogued, each of the teeth, fingers and toes being specially named and the price fixed for each. Many laws dealt specially with injuries to an aldius or to a household slave. These were not equivalent terms and it is generally believed that the vanquished Roman population were included in the first. A still lower class were the plantation slaves (Hodgkin, VI, 180-189). In the laws of succession, provision was made for illegitimate as well as legitimate children, though less in amount. No father could disinherit his son except for certain grievous crimes. Donations of property were made in the presence of the 'thing', an assembly of at least a few freemen, a survival of the folk-thing of the ancient Germans, from which comes the Latinized word 'thingare', to grant or donate, and one of the laws of Rothari provides that, if a man shall wish to "thing away '' his property to another, he must make the 'gairethinx' (spear donation), not secretly, but before freemen. The Langobard women always remained under some form of guardianship (pp.193 - 107). If a man should commit an immorality with a female slave ''belonging to the nations'' he must pay her lord twenty solidi, if with a Roman, twelve solidi, the Roman bond-woman being of less value than the slave of Teutonic or other origin. This is the only reference to Romans as such in Rothari's laws. If a slave or aldius married a free Langobard woman, her relatives had a right to slay her or sell her and divide her substance. No slave or aldius could sell properly without the consent of his master or patron. Slaves might be emancipated in various ways, but there were severe laws for the pursuit and restoration of fugitives (pp.204—211). In Judicial procedure, a system of compurgation prevailed as well as the wager of battle (pp. 224-230). Rothari's code was rude and barbarous to the last degree as compared with the elaborate system of Roman jurisprudence embodied in the laws of Justinian, under which the population of Italy had been living prior to the Langobard conquest. In Rothari's laws, although the rights of the clan, so important during the migration of the Langobards, became more and more subordinated to the rights of the state (Hartmann, II, 2, 11), the authority of the family still continued to be recognized as an important feature. The general assembly of freemen continued to add solemnity to important popular acts, such as the enactment of new laws or the selection of a king, although it was now manifestly impossible that such an assembly should consist, as in earlier times, of all those capable of bearing arms (id., pp. 12—13). Villari (Le Invasioni Barbariche in Italia, p. 310) insists that the indirect action of Roman jurisprudence appears in Rothari's laws, not only in the Latin language in which they were written, in some Justinian-like phrases, and in an arrangement to some extent systematical, but also in certain provisions which he thinks cannot be of Germanic origin. He adds (p. 311) that it cannot be conceived how the Langobards could have destroyed a system of jurisprudence established for centuries which had created among the conquered Italians a number of legal relations unknown to their conquerors so that the laws of the latter could not provide for them, nor how Roman law could be destroyed and afterwards reappear in Langobard Italy, without any account of its disappearance and reappearance in documents or chronicles. He concludes that although not officially recognized, it was allowed to live under the form of custom, in many of the private relations that existed among the conquered Italians. This view is confirmed by the 204th law of Rothari which, speaking of "any free woman living according to the law of the Langobards,'' would indicate that there were others not living according to that law. Moreover it was declared (Hodgkin, VI, 231) that foreigners who came to settle in the land ought to live according to the laws of the Langobards unless they obtained from the king the right to live according to some other law. Villari also sees (p. 312) evidences of the persistency of Roman law in the subsequent legislation of Liutprand providing that if a Langobard, after having children, should become a churchman, they should continue to live subject to the law under which he had lived before becoming a churchman. This would indicate that after becoming a churchman, the father lived under another law, which must have been the Roman law. Villari (p. 329) also sees elsewhere in Liutprand's legislation evidences of canonical law.] [33: Rothari says the seventy-sixth year (Edicti Codices M. G. LL., IV, p. I.) As to this, see note to I, 21, note 3, pp. 39, 40, supra; as to the so-called prologue, see Appendix, II, A. I.] [34: His intercourse with the Romans, as in the case of Adaloald, seems to have led to insanity. Was this the Langobard idea of the effect of contact with Roman luxury and civilization upon the princes of their race?]

Chapter XLIII. Therefore when duke Arichis, the father of him of whom we have spoken, was now ripe in years and nearing his last day, knowing that his son Aio was not of right mind, he commended Radoald and Grimoald[footnoteRef:35] now in the flower of their youth, as if they were his own sons, to the Langobards who were present, and said to them that these two could rule them better than could Aio his son. Chapter XLIV. Then on the death of Arichis, who had held the dukedom fifty years, Aio, his son, was made leader of the Samnites,[footnoteRef:36] and still Radoald and Grimoald[footnoteRef:37] obeyed him in all things as their elder brother and lord. When this Aio had already governed the dukedom of Beneventum a year and five months, the Slavs came with a great number of ships and set up their camp not far from the city of Sipontum (Siponto). They made hidden pit-falls around their camp and when Aio came upon them in the absence of Raduald and Grimoald and attempted to conquer them, his horse fell into one of these pit-falls, the Slavs rushed upon him and he was killed with a number of others. When this was announced to Raduald he came quickly and talked familiarly with these Slavs in their own language,[footnoteRef:38] and when in this way he had lulled them into greater indolence for war, he presently fell upon them, overthrew them with great slaughter, revenged the death of Aio and compelled those of his enemies who had survived to seek flight from these territories.[footnoteRef:39] [35: I follow here and in other places the spelling of Waitz's text which is not uniform.] [36: That is the Beneventines. This occurred A. D. 641 (Waitz).] [37: I follow here and in other places the spelling of Waitz's text which is not uniform.] [38: Raduald and Grimoald had been neighbors to the Slavs in the dukedom of Fruili from which they had come to Beneventum (Waitz).] [39: A.D. 642 (Hartmann, II, 1, 244).]

Chapter XLV. King Rothari then captured all the cities of the Romans which were situated upon the shore of the sea from the city of Luna (Luni) in Tuscany up to the boundaries of the Franks.[footnoteRef:40] Also he captured and destroyed Opitergium (Oderzo)[footnoteRef:41] a city placed between Tarvisium (Treviso) and Forum Julii (Cividale). He waged war with the Romans of Ravenna[footnoteRef:42] near the river of Emilia which is called the Scultenna (Panaro). In this war eight thousand fell on the side of the Romans and the remainder took to flight. At this time a great earthquake occurred at Rome and there was then a great inundation of the waters. After these things there was a scab disease of such a kind that no one could recognize his own dead on account of the great swelling and inflammation.[footnoteRef:43] Chapter XLVI. But when duke Raduald, who had managed the dukedom five years, died at Beneventum, Grimuald his brother became duke and governed the dukedom of the Samnites five and twenty years. From a captive girl, but one of high birth, however, whose name was Ita, he begot a son Romuald and two daughters. And since he was a very warlike man and distinguished everywhere, when the Greeks at that time came to plunder the sanctuary of the holy arch-angel[footnoteRef:44] situated upon Mount Garganus (Gargano), Grimuald, coming upon them with his army, overthrew them with the utmost slaughter. Chapter XLVII. But king Rothari indeed, after he had held the sovereignty sixteen years and four months, departed from life[footnoteRef:45] and left the kingdom of the Langobards to his son Rodoald. When he had been buried near the church of St. John the Baptist,[footnoteRef:46] after some time, a certain man inflamed by wicked cupidity opened his sepulcher at night and took away whatever he found among the ornaments of his body. St. John appearing to him in a vision frightened him dreadfully and said to him, "Why did you dare to touch the body of that man? Although he may not have been of the true faith yet he has commended himself to me. Because therefore you have presumed to do this thing you will never hereafter have admission into my church." And so it occurred; for as often soever as he wished to enter the sanctuary of St. John, straightway his throat would be hit as if by a very powerful boxer and thus stricken, he suddenly fell down backwards. I speak the truth in Christ; he who saw with his own eyes that very thing done related this to me. Rodoald then received the kingdom of the Langobards after the death of his father, and united with himself in marriage Gundiperga the daughter of Agilulf and Theudelinda.[footnoteRef:47] This Gundiperga in imitation of her mother, just as the latter had done in Modicia (Monza), so the former within the city of Ticinum (Pavia) built a church in honor of St. John the Baptist, which she decorated wonderfully with gold and silver and draperies and enriched bountifully with particular articles, and in it her body lies buried. And when she had been accused to her husband of the crime of adultery, her own slave, Carellus by name, besought the king that he might fight in single combat for the honor of his mistress, with him who had imputed the crime to the queen. And when he had gone into single combat with that accuser he overcame him in the presence of the whole people. The queen indeed after this was done, returned to her former dignity.[footnoteRef:48] [40: Rothari was a representative of the national, anti-Roman, Arian feeling among the Langobards; so the peace with the empire was broken and war renewed. He thus rounded out his possessions in the northern part of the kingdom, and Neustria, the western portion of these dominions, began to be distinguished from Austria, east of the Adda, which was more immediately subject to the dukes of Trent and Friuli (Hartmann, II, I, 243).] [41: This destruction was not complete, but twenty-five years later under Grimoald, the place was entirely annihilated (V, 28, infra).] [42: Who were under the exarch Isaac (Hodgkin, VI, 169).] [43: The earthquake and plague are placed by the Liber Pontificalis in the sixth indiction (617-618), and incorrectly placed by Paul during the reign of Rothari (636-652) (Jacobi, 54).] [44: Michael.] [45: A.D. 652 (Hodgkin, VI, 241).] [46: In Modicia (Monza) or possibly in Ticinum (Waitz).] [47: If Fredegarius (Chapters 50, 51, 70) be correct Paul must be mistaken, since Gundiperga was the wife of king Arioald and after his death, of Rothari, and was now over fifty years old (Waitz).] [48: Hartmann (II, I, 274) believes that Paul relates here the story of the first imprisonment of Gundiperga given by Fredegarius but has transposed it to a period two decades later (see Ch. 41, note, supra).]

Chapter XLVIII. Rodoald after he had reigned five years[footnoteRef:49] and seven days was killed as is said by a certain Langobard whose wife he had defiled, and Aripert, son of Gundoald, who had been the brother of queen Theudelinda, followed him in the government of the kingdom,[footnoteRef:50] He established at Ticinum a sanctuary of our Lord and Saviour, which lay outside the western gate that is called Marenca and he decorated it with various ornaments and enriched it sufficiently with possessions. [49: Paul should have written here five months instead of five years (Waitz). He probably died about March, 653 (Hartmann, II, 1, 275).] [50: There is no record of (the events which led to the succession of Aripert, a Catholic of the Bavarian house and friendly to the Romans, in place of the Arian, anti-Roman dynasty of Rothari (Hartmann, II, 1, 244).]

Chapter XLIX. In these days when the emperor Heraclius had died at Constantinople,[footnoteRef:51] his son Heraclones with his mother Martina received the rights of sovereignty and ruled the empire for two years. And when he departed from life his brother Constantine, another son of Heraclius, followed in his place and reigned six months. When he also died his son Constantine rose to the dignity of the sovereignty and held the imperial power for eight and twenty years. Chapter L. About these times the wife of the king of the Persians, Cesara by name, on account of her love of the Christian faith, departed out of Persia in private dress with a few of her faithful followers, and came to Constantinople. She was honorably received by the emperor and after some days obtained baptism as she desired and was raised from the sacred font by the empress.[footnoteRef:52] When her husband the king of the Persians heard this, he sent ambassadors to Constantinople to the emperor in order that the latter should restore to him his wife. When they came to the emperor they reported the words of the king of the Persians who demanded his queen. The emperor hearing these things and being altogether ignorant of the affair, returned them an answer saying: "We confess that we know nothing concerning the queen you seek except that a woman came to us here in the dress of a private person." But the ambassadors answered saying: "If it please your Imperial Presence we would like to see this woman you speak of," and when she had come by command of the emperor, presently the ambassadors looked upon her attentively, prostrated themselves at her feet and suggested to her with reverence that her husband wanted her. She replied to them: "Go, take back the answer to your king and lord that unless he also shall so believe in Christ as I have already believed, he can now no more have me as the partner of his bed." Why say more? The ambassadors returned to their country and reported again to their king all they had heard. And he without any delay came peaceably with sixty thousand men to Constantinople to the emperor by whom he was joyfully received and in a very suitable manner. And he, with the whole of them, believing in Christ our Lord, was in like manner with all the rest sprinkled[footnoteRef:53] with the water of holy baptism and was raised by the emperor from the font and confirmed in the Catholic faith; and having been honored by the emperor with many gifts, he took his wife and returned happy and rejoicing to his own country.[footnoteRef:54] About these times upon the death of duke Grasulf at Cividale, Ago undertook the government of the dukedom of Forum Julii. At Spoletium (Spoleto) also upon the death of Theudelaupus, Atto was made commander of that city.[footnoteRef:55] [51: The death of Heraclius (A. D. 641) is erroneously placed by Paul after the death of Rodoald 653 (Waitz) and after the taking of Oderzo by Rothari (IV, 45, supra). See Simonsfeld's article on Dandolo (Archivio Veneto, 14, p. 141).] [52: That is the empress became her god-mother (Abel).] [53: 'Perfusus' (see DuCange) seems to indicate sprinkling rather than immersion, though the latter was at this time the more usual form except in the case of those about to die.] [54: This account is wholly fictitious. Chosroes II, although well disposed toward the Christian faith did not abjure his own (Waitz).] [55: A.D. 653-663 (Hodgkin, VI, 96).]