Authari

Authari (c. 550 – 5 September 590) was king of the Lombards from 584 to his death. He was considered as the first Lombard king to have adopted some level of Romanitas (Roman-ness) and introduced policies that led to drastic changes, particularly in the treatment of the Romans and greater tolerance for the Christian faith. Authari was the son of Cleph, King of the Lombards, and duke of an unknown city. When the latter was murdered in 574, the Lombard nobility refused to appoint a successor, resulting in a ten-years-long interregnum known as the Rule of the Dukes, represented by leading regional oligarchs who held sway. In 574 and 575 the Lombards invaded Provence, then part of the kingdom of Burgundy of the Merovingian Guntram, but Burgundian counteroffensives pushed them across the Alps and into northern Italy, where they occupied the Susa and Aosia valleys. Meanwhile, the Merovingian kingdom allied itself with the Byzantines and counter-attacked; the combined Frankish and Byzantine armies marched through the Tyrol valley of the Etsch into Meran and up to the gates of Trent. While successful at first, the Lombard Duke of Trent, Euin, was able to repulse their assaults and crushed the invaders near Salurn. Not only was Euin able to score victory but increased the Lombards' regional ties by marrying the daughter of Garibald I, duke of Bavaria in 578. Under pressure from the Franks, who—under Byzantine employ—invaded Italy again in 584, the Lombards elected Duke Authari as their king, who defeated the intruders. When the next Frankish imposition occurred in 588, it proved a fiasco for the invading forces since both Authari's Lombards and Garibald's Bavarian forces were allied and defeated them accordingly. Additional imperial tactics of paying one barbarian group to fight another came into play when the Alemannic mercenary commander Droctulf was persuaded to abandon the Lombards and join the imperial forces in assailing his former confederates.