History of Verona - Early Middle Ages

Early Middle Ages

In 403 the king of the Visigoths, Alaric I, invaded northern Italy from Dalmatia. After setting himself up in Verona, he was defeated by the Roman general Stilicho. In 452 the Hun confederation leader Attila was stopped, after a series of ravages, not far from Verona by an imperial embassy led by Pope Leo I.

After the definitive fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, Verona was one of the strongholds of Odoacer, whose government was well entrenched in the city. At Verona, Odoacer implemented his last stand against the Ostrogoth army sent against him by the Eastern emperor, which was led by Theodoric the Great.

With the taking of Verona in 489, the Gothic domination of Italy began; Theodoric built his palace in the city. In Germanic legend the name of Verona is linked with that of Theodoric. The city remained in the hands of the Goths all through the Gothic War, with the exception of a single day in 541 when an Armenian officer effected an entrance. The Goths were able to regain possession of the city, due to disagreements which arose among the Byzantine generals with respect to booty. In 552 the Byzantine general Valerian vainly endeavoured to gain an entrance, and only the complete overthrow of the Goths brought about the city's surrender.

In 569 it was taken by Alboin, King of the Lombards. Verona became, for all intents and purposes, the second-most important city of his kingdom. Alboin was killed by his own wife at Verona in 572.

The dukes of Treviso often resided there. At Verona in 774, Adalgisus, son of Desiderius, made his last desperate stand against Charlemagne, who had destroyed the Lombard kingdom.

Verona was then the ordinary residence of the kings of Italy. The government of the city became hereditary in the family of Count Milo, progenitor of the counts of San Bonifacio. From 880 to 951 the two Berengarii resided there: Berengar II made the city the seat of a frontier March, which replaced the March of Friuli. At various times, the March of Verona was under the control of the Duchy of Carinthia and at other times not. From 951 to 975, both Carinthia and Verona were under the control of the Duchy of Bavaria.