Lombard invasion of Italy

The Lombard migration and conquest that began in 568 and established Lombard rule across much of Italy, fragmenting the peninsula’s post-Roman political order.

Alboin: The Lombard king who led his people into Italy in 568 and founded the Lombard kingdom. His leadership turned the migration into a conquest and secured the first Lombard foothold.
Pannonia: A historical region of Central Europe, including lands in the Carpathian Basin, where the Lombards lived before entering Italy. The Lombards assembled here before departing for Italy.
Exarchate of Ravenna: An Eastern Roman province in Italy, administered by an exarch from Ravenna from the late sixth century. It became a key Byzantine stronghold amid Lombard territorial expansion.
Milan: A city in northern Italy that became an important Lombard possession after the invasion. Its capture demonstrated the speed with which Lombard forces entered the former imperial north.
Friuli: A region of northeastern Italy that became the first Lombard duchy after the invasion. The Lombards entered Italy through this frontier region and organized their earliest base there.
Gepids: A Germanic people who established a kingdom in the Carpathian Basin during late antiquity. Conflict with the Gepids shaped Lombard power and the circumstances preceding the Italian migration.
Duchy of Benevento: A Lombard duchy in southern Italy that retained substantial autonomy from the kingdom’s northern center. Its distance from the Lombard heartland produced a durable southern center of Lombard power.
Pavia: A city in northern Italy that served as the Lombard kingdom’s capital. Its prolonged resistance and eventual capture made it the conquest’s defining urban prize.
Lombard Kingdom: A Germanic kingdom in Italy, founded in the late sixth century and lasting until Frankish conquest in 774. It was the political order built from the territories seized during the invasion.
Avars: A confederation of Eurasian steppe peoples that established power in the Carpathian Basin in the sixth century. Their rise altered the balance of power in Pannonia as the Lombards moved toward Italy.

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