Military History of Late Rome 565602 by Ilkka Syvnne;

Author:Ilkka Syvnne;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Ancient
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2022-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

Maurice once again resorted to the standard strategy of using Franks against the Lombards. We do not know what means Maurice used to convince the Austrasian Franks to operate on his behalf, but one may guess that it consisted of a hefty bribe in gold. In late 587 or early 588 the Lombards had attempted to break up the alliance by giving a hefty gift to the Austrasian Franks and a marriage proposal from King Authari to Chlosind sister of Childebert II. Childebert had agreed to this but then changed his mind when the Visigothic envoys arrived immediately afterwards. Now Childebert II promised his sister to Reccared. Gregory of Tours states that the reason for the change of heart was that Reccared had converted to Catholicism. It was also then (probably in late 587 or early 588) that Childebert dispatched an embassy to Maurice. According to Gregory of Tours, he promised to undertake the campaign now that he had failed to carry out before, which was to campaign together with the imperial forces for the purpose of driving the Lombards out of Italy. This suggests that Childebert had temporarily thought of double-crossing the Romans by concluding an alliance with the Lombards and that he had had a change of heart after this. One possible reason for that would have been possible Roman involvement in the conspiracy of Rauching and/or in the Syagrius conspiracy, but nothing certain is known about this.50

It is probable that the abovementioned embassy of Gregory of Tours is the same that carried several of the so-called Austrasian Letters some of which were addressed by Childebert to the Emperor and others by Brunhild to the Empress. The embassy consisted of four envoys: Grippo, Ennodius, Radan and Eusebius. The embassy had two goals. The first was to ask for the release of Ingund’s son Athanagild and his return to Gaul; the second was the abovementioned promise to carry out the delayed invasion of Italy. En route to Constantinople, the envoys appear to have made a stop at Genoa to deliver a letter from Childebert II to Laurentius, the exiled Bishop of Milan, to instruct him to ask for military help from Smaragdus for the Franks.51

588: However, there were other remaining obstacles for the Frankish campaign in Italy in early 588. Childebert had not fulfilled all of the clauses of the agreement of Andelot, so he was forced to dispatch Gregory of Tours and Felix of Châlons as his envoys to the court of Guntram to convince Guntram of his good intentions, which was especially important in circumstances in which he had agreed to a marriage alliance with Reccared, the enemy of Guntram. Childebert also asked Guntram to provide assistance for him in the forthcoming Italian campaign so that the entire country could be subjected to imperial rule. Guntram refused. His excuse was that Italy was suffering from a terrible epidemic and he had no intention of dying as a result. The disease (probably bubonic plague), however, spread also to

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