Toward this rich land of promise, yet virgin of Islamitish seed,
Abdallah, at the head of the victorious Saracens, now hopefully bent his
ambitious steps.
EVOLUTION OF THE DOGESHIP IN VENICE
A.D. 697
WILLIAM CAREW HAZLITT
The early authentic history of Venice is intimately connected with
that of the Lombards, of whom the first mention is made by
Paterculus, the Roman historian, who wrote during the first quarter
of the first century of our era. He speaks of the Langobardi[68]
(Lombards) as dwelling on the west bank of the Elbe. Tacitus also
mentions them in his _Germany_. From the Elbe they wandered to the
Danube, and there encountered the Gepidae, a branch of the Goths.
The Lombards subdued this tribe, after a contest of thirty years.
By this victory Alboin, the young Lombard King, rose to great power
and fame. His beauty and renown were sung by German peasants even
in the days of Charlemagne. His name "crossed the Alps and fell,
with a foreboding sound, upon the startled ears of the Italians,"
and toward Italy he turned for conquest.
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