h this complete
amalgamation of two distinct races became an accomplished fact; we
need only to note that the unity of the race was achieved. Even
Macchiavelli recognizes this fact and, speaking of the time of the
Carlovingian conquest, in the brief review of the history of all Italy
which forms the first part of the first book of the "Florentine
History," he truly says that, after two hundred and twenty-two years
of occupation by the Lombards, "they retained nothing of the foreigner
save the name."[10]

But we must always bear in mind that it was not a process of
absorption of one race by another, but a process of combination, of
amalgamation; a levelling process, by which some members of the
conquered people, by natural and economic causes, were raised to the
level of their superiors; and on the other hand, some of the
conquerors, by reason of similar causes, fell to the rank of the
subject population. By manumission and by the various forms of
vassalage more or less honorable, and by gaining some economic
importance by trade and other means, many of the descendants of the
Roman population gained admission to the ranks of the Arimanni, and
obtained the full franchise by the possession of landed property. By
forfeitures, consequent poverty and ultimate pauperization, many of
the Lombard stock lost their rank and their lands and entered the same
state of vassalage with the great body of the people. We see evidences
of this change, this levelling up and levelling down, all through the
military code of Liutprand, and in the later one of Aistulf can even
more distinctly trace its progress; and without entering into further
detail, we can definitely state that, by the time we are now
considering, all traces of distinct race-origin had disappeared in the
mass of the people, and the only safe distinction that we can draw is
to say that among the families of the dukes and greater nobles, the
Lombard stock was preserved comparatively pure, and that the serf
population was, generally speaking, of Roman descent.[11]

KING
+--------------+--------------+
| | |
COUNTS DUKES GASTALDS
|
+--------------+--------------+
| | |
CUTANEI SCABINI SCULDAHIS
(LATER BARONS)
| | | | |
| | | | +-------------------------------+
| | |