The Lombards were a Germanic tribe best known for establishing a kingdom in Italy.
In the first century C.E., the Lombards made their home in northwestern Germany. They were one of the tribes that made up the Suebi, and though this occasionally brought them into conflict with other Germanic and Celtic tribes, as well as with the Romans, for the most part the greater number of Lombards led a fairly peaceful existence, both sedentary and agricultural. Then, in the fourth century C.E., the Lombards began a great southward migration that took them through present-day Germany and into what is now Austria. By the end of the fifth century C.E., they had established themselves fairly firmly in the region north of the Danube River.
In the mid-sixth century, a Lombard leader by the name of Audoin took control of the tribe, beginning a new royal dynasty. Audoin apparently instituted a tribal organization similar to the military system used by other Germanic tribes, in which war bands formed of kinship groups were led by a hierarchy of dukes, counts, and other commanders.
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