Only with a betrayal do the natural defences fall; Charles is able to arrive and surround
Longobard's camp.
Restituto, there is the splendid Maria Santissima Assunta in Cielo Church with a
Longobard foundation (979 ca).
The modern built-up area of Francolise probably expanded only in the late
Longobard era.
(1) The first major diaspora was in 568, when denizens of the hinterland took to islands in the lagoon to avoid the
Longobard invaders; the second was the remarkable mercantile expansion into the eastern Mediterranean which brought in wealth beyond the dreams of Venice's European contemporaries; the third was the positive diffusion of cultural and artistic Venetian traditions which until 1700 had remained more or less confined to Venice and its hinterland; a fourth, in 1797, followed Bonaparte's invasion and (at the treaty of Campoformio) his betrayal of Venice to her arch-enemy Austria.
(33) According to Edbury, "their marriage was the first of a rapid series of events that transformed the politics of the Latin East, such as the growth of the Ibelins, the
Longobard wars and the disputed regency of Jerusalem." (34) The extent of the teenage queen's political competence or her participation in royal government during her eight year marriage is not known.
(68) Here he seeks to reinforce this argument by pointing out that certain
Longobard kings gave cities and towns to the church, and their example was followed by Pipin, Charlemagne, and some German emperors, with the consent of their peoples.
Nearly six hundred years earlier, Article 353 of
Longobard Rothari's Edict had contemplated just such cases: `Si duo porcarii inter se battederint aut scandalum commiserint ...' (if two swineherds come to blows, or cause a rucus ...).(11) The term here (428) is perhaps less surprising than it might be, were it to be applied to modern-day pigs, for the medieval `domestic' pig was hardly distinguishable from a wild boar, and had a very visible coat.(12)
Maraldo, or Maraldisci, were from
Longobard stock and they came above all from Genoa neighbourhood, more exactly from Perinaldo_(Di Crollalanza, 1886).
(9) Before writing I promessi sposi, Manzoni had described in great detail the throes of love suffered by Ermengarda, the
Longobard princess married to Charlemagne, in Adelchi.
According to John the Deacon in the early eleventh century, the inhabitants of this first Venice fled to the islands of the lagoon to escape the
Longobard invasions, carrying their relics with them.
Many of the "abstract" figures and symbolic graphic elements, part of the universal heritage, can be recognised not only in the ornaments of the artefacts in ancient cultures such as Cucuteni or Vadastra, but also in the ones belonging to the Celts,
Longobards, Armenians and Arabs only to refer to the ones that display similitude with the mix of decorations from The Three Hierarchs.