The warlike Germans called Lombards had settled in Pannonia (south of
the present Austrian Empire), by Justinian’s invitation, about 540. They
fought to extermination the Gepidæ (Goths), and in 568 passed over the
Alps into the fertile plain of northern Italy.
Under their king Albion, the Lombards subdued the north and much of the
south of Italy (the central part, including Rome and Ravenna, on the
Adriatic, with Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia, remaining still Roman),
and the Lombard kingdom of Italy thus formed continued for two
centuries, until conquered by Charlemagne.
The growth of Venice dates from this Lombard conquest, when the victims
took refuge in the islands and lagoons at the head of the Adriatic Sea,
where a town had been founded by fugitives from the Huns.