BOOK IV.

CHAPTER I.

When therefore Agilulf, who was also called Ago, had been confirmed in the royal dignity1 he sent Agnellus, Bishop of Tridentum (Trent) to France for the sake of those who had been led captive by the Franks from the fortified places of Tridentum. And Agnellus, on his return thence, brought back with him a number of captives whom Brunihilde,3 the queen of the Franks had ransomed with her own money. Also Euin, duke of the people of Trent, proceeded to Gaul to obtain peace and when he had procured it he returned.

CHAPTER II.

In this year there was a very severe drought from the month of January to the month of September and there occurred a dreadful famine. There came also into the territory of Tridentum a great quantity of locusts which were larger than other locusts, and, wonderful to relate, fed upon grasses and marsh seeds, but hardly touched

1 May, 591 (Waitz).

* Hartmann (II, 1, 84) believes that the statement that Agnellus was acting on behalf of the Langobards in this matter was a mistake due to the fact that Paul considered that the Catholic bishop of Trent was in Langobard territory.

Cf. III, 10 supra.

the crops of the fields. And they appeared also in like manner the following year.

CHAPTER III.

In these days king Agilulf put to death Mimulf, duke of the island of St. Julian,' because he had on a previous occasion treasonably surrendered to the dukes of the Franks. Gaidulf indeed, the Bergamascan duke, rebelled in his city of Pergamus (Bergamo) and fortified himself against the king, but afterwards gave hostages and made peace with his sovereign. Again Gaidulf shut himself up in the island of Comacina. But king Agilulf invaded this island and drove Gaidulf's men out of it and carried away to Ticinum (Pavia) the treasure he had found placed there by the Romans.3 But Gaidulf again fled to Pergamus (Bergamo) and was there taken by king Agilulf and again received into favor. Also duke Ulfari rebelled against king Ago at Tarvisium (Treviso), and was beseiged and captured by

him.

CHAPTER IV.

In this year the inguinal plague was again at Ravenna, Gradus (Grado) and Istria, and was very grievous as it had also been thirty years before. At this time too king Agilulf made peace with the Avars. Childepert

1 A small island in the Lago d' Orta (Giansevero), west of lake Maggiore.

"In lake Como.

3 Cf. III, 27 supra.

also waged with his cousin' the son of Hilperic," a war in which as many as thirty thousand men fell in battle. The winter was then very cold, so that hardly anyone recalled its like before. Also in the region of the Briones (Brenner) blood flowed from the clouds, and among the waters of the river Renus3 (Reno) a rivulet of blood arose.

CHAPTER V.

In these days the most wise and holy Pope Gregory, of the city of Rome, after he had written many other things for the service of the holy church, also composed four books of the Life of the Saints. This writing he called a dialogue, that is, the conversation of two persons, because he had produced it talking with his deacon Peter. The aforesaid pope then sent these books to queen Theudelinda, whom he knew to be undoubtedly devoted to the faith of Christ and conspicuous in good works.

CHAPTER VI.

By means of this queen too, the church of God obtained much that was serviceable. For the Langobards, when they were still held in the error of heathenism, seized nearly all the property of the churches, but the king, moved by her wholesome supplication, not only

'On the mother's side.

2 Chlotar II.

3

* Between Ferrara and Bologna. Or was this Rhenus the Rhine? A. D. 593 (Waitz).

I

held the Catholic faith, but also bestowed many possessions upon the church of Christ and restored to the honor of their wonted dignity bishops who were in a reduced and abject condition.

CHAPTER VII.

2

In these days Tassilo was ordained king among the Bavarians by Childepert, king of the Franks. And he presently entered with his army into the province of the Sclabi (Slavs), and when he had obtained the victory, he returned to his own land with very great booty.

CHAPTER VIII.

Also at this time, Romanus, the patrician and exarch of Ravenna, proceeded to Rome. On his return to Ravenna he re-occupied the cities that were held by the Langobards, of which the names are as follows: Sutrium (Sutri), Polimartium (Bomarzo), Hortas (Orte), Tuder (Todi), Ameria (Amelia), Perusia (Perugia), Luceolis 3 (Cantiano), and some other cities. When this fact was announced to king Agilulf, he straightway marched out of Ticinum with a strong army and attacked the

1 Paul is probably mistaken in this. Theudelinda the queen was a Catholic, but Agilulf, although tolerant, and allowing his son to be baptized as a Catholic, appears from the letters of St. Gregory and St. Columban not to have become one himself (Hodgkin, VI, 140 to 144).

A. D. 95 (Giansevero).

All these were later in the States of the Church. Three of them were important stages on the Via Flamminia connecting Rome with Ravenna (Hodgkin, V, 367).

city of Perusia, and there for some days he besieged Maurisio, the duke of the Langobards, who had gone over to the side of the Romans, and without delay took him and deprived him of life. The blessed Pope Gregory was so much alarmed at the approach of this king that he desisted from his commentary upon the temple mentioned in Ezekiel, as he himself also relates in his homilies. King Agilulf then, when matters were arranged, returned to Ticinum (Pavia), and not long afterwards, upon the special suggestion of his wife, Queen Theudelinda-since the blessed Pope Gregory had often thus admonished her in his letters-he concluded a firm peace with the same most holy man Pope Gregory and with the Romans,3 and that venerable

1 See Book II on Ezekiel. The passage is given in full in Waitz's note. See Homily XXII.

'Paul is in error here in his chronology, Agilulf's expedition against Perugia and Rome was in 594, or according to Hodgkin (V. 369) in 593. The peace was concluded in the latter part of 598 (Jacobi, 27) or more probably in 599 (Hodgkin, V, 415).

In this chapter Paul gives a very short and insufficient account of a period filled with important events. In the year 592, duke Ariulf of Spoleto, a town on the way from Ravenna to Rome, continually threatened the communication between these two cities and captured a number of other places belonging to the empire, and Arichis duke of Benevento, co-operating with Ariulf, pressed hard upon Naples. About the end of July (Hodgkin, V, p. 363) Pope Gregory concluded a separate peace with Ariulf which aroused great indignation at Ravenna and Constantinople because it was beyond the authority of the Pope to make such peace with an independent power. It would seem that it was this action which stirred the exarch Romanus to his campaign in which he recovered the cities mentioned by Paul, that had probably