The Lombards

Rare Example of Lombard Plastics Art in the Small Temple – Tempietto – Cividale

In 568 A.D., under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian — under whom much of the Western Empire had been reconquered and the laws codified in the Justinian Code — the Lombards, an Arian group of about 200,000 Teutonic people which included the Gepids (a Germanic people akin to the Goths) and Saxons, crossed the northern boundaries of the Empire near today’s Cividale.

Within a year, they settled all along the Po River Valley, establishing their kingdom with its capital in Pavia. Initially, Cividale — in Roman times known as Forum Julii (Forum of Julius Caesar), hence Friuli, and in the Middle Ages known as Civitas Austriae (under Austrian government), hence Cividat in the Friulian idiom — became the defensive centre of the Lombard kingdom.

From here, the Lombards defended their newly conquered lands against incursions by other ethnic groups, such as the Avars in 610 A.D., and later the Slavs and Hungarians.

Under King Alboin, Cividale became the capital of a Duchy that encompassed large parts of today’s Friuli. A major change in the social structure introduced by the Lombards, and by Teutonic ethnic groups in general, was the transformation of juridical relationships between people.

In Roman times, society was based on a dual relationship between freemen and slaves. Under Lombard rule, this structure became triple, comprising freemen, alds, and slaves. The alds were freed slaves who held the same juridical status as women: they could not leave their master and required the protection of a freeman — the edelingi (noblemen) or the arimanni and faramanni (freemen at the service of the king or duke).

Economically, the alds played a crucial role, as they formed a new class of artisans whose labour was compensated according to fees established by the Dukes. Their skills in metalwork, goldsmithing and sculpture produced works that can still be admired today, particularly in the Cividale Archaeological Museum and the Lombard Tempietto.

This social structure laid the foundations of the feudal system. Of the approximately 280 Lombard words that survive in the Italian language, many are still in use in the Friulian dialect.

The Lombard Kingdom came to an end in 776 A.D., following its annexation by Charles, King of the Franks.