XLII.

of the empire.

CHA P. spected 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

“ So extensive, O Cæsar, are your “ dominions; so numerous are your citics; that

you are continually seeking for nations to whom, “ either in peace or war, you may relinquish these “ useless possessions. The Gepidæ are your brave " and faithful allies; and if they have anticipated

your gifts, they have shewn 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 Gepidæ was checked by the The Lom. rising power and fame of the LOMBARDS * 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 CHA P. the peculiar length and fashion of their beards. I XLII. am not disposed either to question or to justify their Scandinavian origin *; 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 neighbours, 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 Lombards still floated on the surface : they gradually descended towards the south and the Danube; and at the end of four hundred years they again appear with their ancient valour and renown. Their manners were not less ferocious. The assassination of a royal guest was executed in the presence, and by the command of the king's daugher, who had been provoked by some words of insult, and disappointed by his

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dimis

# The Scandinavian origin of the Goths and Lombards, ag stated by Paul Warnefrid, surnamed the deacon, is attacked by Cluverius (Germania Antiq. I. iii. c. 26. p. 102, &c.), a native of Prussia, and defended by Grotius (Prolegom. ad Hist. Goth. p. 28, &c.), the Swedish ambassador,

XLII.

CHA P. minutive stature; and a tribute, the price of

blood, was imposed on the Lombards, by his bro-
ther the king of the Heruli. Adversity revived a
sense of moderation and justice, and the insolence
of conquest was chastised by the signal defeat and
irreparable dispersion of the Heruli, who were
seated in the southern provinces of Poland *. The
victories of the Lombards recommended them to
the friendship of the emperors : and at the solicita
ation of Justinian, they passed the Danube, to re-
duce, according to their treaty, the cities of Noricum
and the fortresses of Pannonia. But the spirit of
rapine soon tempted them beyond these ample
limits; they wandered along the coast of the Ha-
driatic as far as Dyrrachium, and presumed, with
familiar rudeness, to enter the towns and houses
of their Roman allies, and to seize the captives
who had escaped from their audacious hands. These
acts of hostility, the sallies, as it might be pretended,
of some loose adventurers, were disowned by the
nation, and excused by the emperor; but the arms
of the Lombards were more seriously engaged by
a contest of thirty years, which was terminated only
by the extirpation of the Gepidæ. The hostile
nations often pleaded their cause before the throne
of Constantinople; and the crafty Justinian, to
whom the Barbarians were almost equally odious,
pronounced a partial and ambiguous sentence, and

a
dexterously protracted the war by slow and ineffec-

tual succours. Their strength was formidable, C HA P. since the Lombards, who sent into the field several XLII. myriads of soldiers, still claimed, as the weaker side, the protection of the Romans. Their spirit was intrepid ; yet such is the uncertainty of courage, that the two armies were suddenly struck with a pauic; they fled from each other, and the rival kings remained with their guards in the midst of an empty plain. A short truce was obtained; but their mutual resentment again kindled; and the remembrance of their shame rendered the next encounter more desperate and bloody. Forty thousand of the Barbarians perished in the de. cisive battle, which broke the power of the Gepidæ, transferred the fears and wishes of Justinian, and first displayed the character of Alboin, the youthful prince of the Lombards, and the future conqueror of Italy *.

The wild people who dwelt or wandered in the The Scla. plains of Russia, Lithuania, and Poland, might be reduced, in the age of Justinian, under the two great families of the BULGARIANS † and the SCLAVONIANS. According to the Greek writers,

the

vonians.

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CHA P. the former who touched the Euxine and the lake XLII. Mæotis, derived from the Huns their name or

descent; and it is needless to renew the simple and well-known picture of Tartar manners. They were bold and dexterous archers, who drank the milk and feasted on the flesh of their fleet and indefatigable horses; whose flocks and herds followed, or rather guided, the motions of their roving camps ; to whose inroads no country was remote or impervious, and who were practised in flight, though incapable of fear. The nation was divided into two powerful and hostile tribes, who pursued each other with fraternal hatred. They eagerly disputed the friendship or rather the gifts of the emperor; and the distinction which nature had fixed between the faithful dog and the rapacious wolf, was applied by an ambassador who received only verbal instructions from the mouth of his illiterate prince *. The Bulgarians, of whatsoever species, were equally attracted by Roman wealth : they assumed a vague dominion over the Sclavonian name, and their rapid marches could only be stopped by the Baltic sea, or the extreme cold and poverty of the north. But the same race of Sclavonians appears to have maintained, in every age, the possession of the same countries. Their numerous tribes, however distant or adverse, used one common language (it was harsh and irregular), and were known by the resemblance of their form, which deviated from

the