Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 4 (1897).djvu/367

OF THE ROMAN EMPIKE 343 Lombards." This corrupt appellation has been diiiused in theTheLombarOs thirteenth century by the merchants and bankers, the Italian posterity of these sava<>;e waiTiors ; but the orif:rinal name of Laiigohard.s 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 ; • 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 neigh- bours, 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 daughter, who had been provoked by some words of insult and disappointed by his diminutive stature ; and a tribute, tlie price of blood, was imposed on the Lombards, by his brother 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 (iens Gcrniana feiitate ferociore, says Velleius Paterculus of the Lombards (ii. io6). L'ngobardos paucitas nobilitat. Plurimis ac valentissimis natioiiibus cincti non per obsequium scd pra2liis et periclitando tuti sunt (Tacit, de Moribus German, c. 40). .See likewise -Strabo (1. vii. p. 446 [2, § 4]). The best geographers place them beyond the Elbe, in the bishopric of Magdeburg and the middle march of Brandenburg ; and their situation will agree with the patriotic remark of the Count de Hertzberg, that most of the Barbarian conquerors issued from the same countries which still produce the armies of Prussia. ^ The Scandinavian origin of the Goths and Lombards, as .stated by Paul Warnefrid, surnamed the deacon, is attacked by Cluverius (Germania Antiq. 1. iii. c. 26, p. 102, &c. ), a native of Prussia, and defended by Grotius (Prolegom. ad Hist. Goth. p. 28, &c.), the Swedish ambassador. " Two facts in the narrative of Paul Diaconus (1. i. c. 20) are expressive of national manners : i. Dum ad tahiilam luderet — while he played at draughts. 2. Camporuni viridantia Una. The cultivation of tiax supposes property, commerce, agriculture, and manufactures.