of the Romans; the actual possession was
abandoned to the boldness of the first invader. On the opposite banks of
the Danube, the plains of Upper Hungary and the Transylvanian hills were
possessed, since the death of Attila, by the tribes of the Gepidae,
who respected the Gothic arms, and despised, not indeed the gold of
the Romans, but the secret motive of their annual subsidies. The vacant
fortifications of the river were instantly occupied by these Barbarians;
their standards were planted on the walls of Sirmium and Belgrade; and
the ironical tone of their apology aggravated this insult on the majesty
of the empire. "So extensive, O Caesar, are your dominions, so numerous
are your cities, that you are continually seeking for nations to whom,
either in peace or in war, you may relinquish these useless possessions.
The Gepidae are your brave and faithful allies; and if they have
anticipated your gifts, they have shown a just confidence in your
bounty." Their presumption was excused by the mode of revenge which
Justinian embraced. Instead of asserting the rights of a sovereign for
the protection of his subjects, the emperor invited a strange people to
invade and possess the Roman provinces between the Danube and the Alps
and the ambition of the Gepidae was checked by the rising power and fame
of the Lombards. [7] This corrupt appellation has been diffused in the
thirteenth century by the merchants and bankers, the Italian posterity
of these savage warriors: but the original name of Langobards is
expressive only of the peculiar length and fashion of their beards. I am
not disposed either to question or to justify their Scandinavian origin;
[8] nor to pursue the migrations of the Lombards through unknown regions
and marvellous adventures. About the time of Augustus and Trajan, a ray
of historic light breaks on the darkness of their antiquities, and
they are discovered, for the first time, between the Elbe and the Oder.
Fierce, beyond the example of the Germans, they delighted to propagate
the tremendous belief, that their heads were formed like the heads
of dogs, and that they drank the blood of their enemies, whom they
vanquished in battle. The smallness of their numbers was recruited by
the adoption of their bravest slaves; and alone, amidst their powerful
neighbors, they defended by arms their high-spirited independence. In
the tempests of the north, which overwhelmed so many names and nations,
this little bark of the Lo