hundred years among the Lombards; and Paul himself was one of the
guests to whom Duke Ratchis exhibited this cup on a high festival, (l.
ii. c. 28.)]

[Footnote 11: Paul, l. i. c. 27. Menander, in Excerpt Legat. p. 110,
111.]

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 language, still repeated the songs which described the
heroic virtues, the valor, liberality, and fortune of the king of the
Lombards. [12] But his ambition was yet unsatisfied; and the conqueror
of the Gepidae 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 Lombard was multiplied by
the adventurous youth of Germany and Scythia. The robust peasantry of
Noricum and Pannonia had resumed the manners of Barbarians; and the
names of the Gepidae, 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