Lombards

A Germanic tribe inhabiting what is today northwestern Germany during the 1st Cent AD, who occasionally fought the Romans. In the 4th Cent, however, they began a great migration south, and by the end of the next century they already occupied most of what is modern Austria. In the 6th Cent they set their eyes on Italy, and in 578 invaded Rome. They eventually occupied most of the Italian peninsula—concentrated though in the north and central regions—giving their name to the region we now know as Lombardy. Lombards (actually the proper word for the plural is Lombardi) were converted to the Arian faith; as such, they represented a particular problem for the Catholic Church, and the conflict between the two was not resolved until Pope Adrian I sought Charlemagne's. In 773, Charlemagne moved against them, conquered them, and reconverted them to the Catholic faith.