r life
she would not disentangle, is authentic, but it undoubtedly presents
historic truth. Whether or not Narses called the Lombards into Italy, their
king Alboin came from Pannonia over the Carnian Alps into the plain which
has ever since borne their name; and this was in the next year--568--to the
recal of Narses. The Goth and the Herules had worked much woe and wrought
great destruction; but the Goths compared to the Lombards were as knights
compared to villains. The Lombards, inferior to them by far in strength
both of body and of mind, this rudest of Teuton races seemed incapable of
receiving culture. It had, moreover, fewer elements in it capable of being
worked into the stable order of a state. In belief it was partly Arian and
partly pagan. It had also a mixture of Sarmatian blood. When they broke
into Italy, the cities of that land, however wasted and depopulated through
Attila and the Gothic wars, yet retained their Roman form, yet were full of
ancient monuments, splendid still in desolation. Now, one after another
fell under the sword of those barbarians. Milan surrendered to Alboin in
the autumn of 569, and after three years' siege he entered as conqueror
into Theodorick's palace in Pavia. Only Rome, Ravenna, and the cities of
the coast still carried the imperial flag. The Romans themselves regarded
as a marvel the maintenance of their scarcely defended city. Alboin aimed
at making the palace of the Caesars his royal residence. His warriors
advanced with terrible devastation from Spoleto to the very walls of Rome
in the time of Pope John III., who died, after nearly thirteen years'
government, the 13th July, 573.

Rome was then so severely pressed that the See of Peter remained more than
a year unfilled; for the Lombards were encamped before Rome, and hindered
communication with Byzantium, whence Benedict I., the newly-elected Pope,
had to wait for the imperial confirmation. The _Book of the Popes_ recites
that during his four years' government the Lombards overran all Italy, and
that pestilence and hunger consumed her people. Rome, also, was visited by
both. The emperor Tiberius tried to succour it by sending corn from Egypt
to the harbour Porto.

Alboin had been murdered, and Kleph had succeeded him, on whose death, in
575, the Lombards fell into anarchy, and were divided into thirty-six
dukes, and Faroald, the first duke of Spoleto, held Rome besieged when
Benedict I. died, in 578; and so his successor,