HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

ETHNIC AND NATIONAL HISTORY CA. 500‒1000 71of the HL, and it is likely that he was interrupted by death and thatthe HL was left unfinished. 87To the development of national or ethnic historiography the HLbrings a new generic self-consciousness and deliberation. In additionto his specifically Lombard sources—the seventh-century Origo gentisLangobardorum and the equally seventh-century Historiola de gestisLangobardorum of Secundus of Trent, now lost, as well as (it is thought)a rich supply of oral tradition—Paul uses all the works and authorsdiscussed so far, with the single exception of the Liber historiae Francorum,to provide a panoramic view of Italy and the Lombards, but alsoof the Franks, the Byzantines, the Anglo-Saxons, Visigoths, and Avars.He is far removed from the ethnocentricity of an Isidore. 88Paul’s orientation and point of view are anything but transparent,and recent interpretations of the HL show few areas of agreement. 89Certain large questions come up regularly: writing when the Lombardkingdom no longer exists, does Paul design the HL as a memorialto a vanished culture? If we keep in mind his years among theFranks and his careful record of Frankish history in the HL, shouldwe expect to find an anticipation of the Lombard downfall in hisnarrative, perhaps even a justification of Frankish triumph? Whatmakes it particularly difficult to answer such questions is that Paulmoralizes only about events and actions, rarely or never about charactersor national communities in general. His Lombard kings maybe great leaders of their people, brave in battle and politically astute,but they nonetheless are guilty of usurpation, treachery, perjury (thebest example is Grimoald I in IV.51 and V.1–4), and Paul neitherapologizes for their crimes, of which he gives highly dramatic accounts,nor tries to draw coherent moral portraits. The same is true ofnationalities. Though he obviously dislikes the Greeks, he praisesJustinian lavishly. He does not characterize the Franks negatively,though he acknowledges that they often were at odds with theLombards, and he presents King Guntram, Queen Brunhild, Arnulfof Metz, and Charles Martel in a favorable light. 90 Less often noticed87HL, VI.58, the final chapter, contains a reference to an episode to be narratedlater, a miracle performed by Peter, bishop of Pavia.88An outline is provided in Appendix 3.89Vinay (1978), 25–49; Bullough (1986); Goffart (1988), 328–431.90Contra Bullough (1986), 97: “The Franks figure in his narrative almost entirelyas enemies”.