soil, which, by every motive
of interest and honor, they were bound to defend. A Lombard was born the
soldier of his king and his duke; and the civil assemblies of the nation
displayed the banners, and assumed the appellation, of a regular army.
Of this army, the pay and the rewards were drawn from the conquered
provinces; and the distribution, which was not effected till after the
death of Alboin, is disgraced by the foul marks of injustice and rapine.
Many of the most wealthy Italians were slain or banished; the remainder
were divided among the strangers, and a tributary obligation was imposed
(under the name of hospitality) of paying to the Lombards a third
part of the fruits of the earth. Within less than seventy years, this
artificial system was abolished by a more simple and solid tenure. [42]
Either the Roman landlord was expelled by his strong and insolent guest,
or the annual payment, a third of the produce, was exchanged by a more
equitable transaction for an adequate proportion of landed property.
Under these foreign masters, the business of agriculture, in the
cultivation of corn, wines, and olives, was exercised with degenerate
skill and industry by the labor of the slaves and natives. But the
occupations of a pastoral life were more pleasing to the idleness of the
Barbarian. In the rich meadows of Venetia, they restored and improved
the breed of horses, for which that province had once been illustrious;
[43] and the Italians beheld with astonishment a foreign race of oxen
or buffaloes. [44] The depopulation of Lombardy, and the increase of
forests, afforded an ample range for the pleasures of the chase. [45]
That marvellous art which teaches the birds of the air to acknowledge
the voice, and execute the commands, of their master, had been unknown
to the ingenuity of the Greeks and Romans. [46] Scandinavia and Scythia
produce the boldest and most tractable falcons: [47] they were tamed
and educated by the roving inhabitants, always on horseback and in the
field. This favorite amusement of our ancestors was introduced by the
Barbarians into the Roman provinces; and the laws of Italy esteemed the
sword and the hawk as of equal dignity and importance in the hands of a
noble Lombard. [48]

[Footnote 38: Maffei (Verona Illustrata, part i. p. 310--321) and
Muratori (Antichita Italiane, tom. ii. Dissertazione xxxii. xxxiii.
p. 71--365) have asserted the native claims of the Italian idiom; the
former with enthusias