THE BURGUNDIANS.
16. The Burgundians were originally inhabitants of the countries situated between the Oder and the Vistula. They followed nearly the track of the Visigoths, and at the beginning of the fifth century had established themselves on the Upper Rhine and in Switzerland. On the dissolution of the empire, they seized on that part of Gaul, which from them retains the name of Burgundy.
THE LOMBARDS, THE GEPIDÆ, AND THE AVARS.
17. The Lombards, more properly called Longo-bardi, from the length of their beards, are supposed by some to have been a branch of the Sue'vi, and by others to have migrated from Scandina'via. They joined with the Avars, a fierce Asiatic people, in attacking the Gep'idæ, then in possession of that part of Dacia lying on the left bank of the Danube, but who are supposed to have come thither from some more northern country. The Avars and Lombards triumphed, but the former soon turned their arms against their allies, and compelled them to seek new habitations. 18. About the middle of the sixth century they invaded[Pg. 389] Italy, which the Eastern emperors had just before wrested from the Turks, and made themselves masters of the northern part; which has since borne the name of Lombardy.
THE SLA'VI.
19. These were the last of the barbarian hordes, and are not mentioned by any author before the sixth century. They first appeared in the east of Europe, and spreading themselves over the central provinces, occupied the greater part of the countries that now constitute the dominions of Austria. The Sla'vi warred chiefly against the Eastern empire, and their contest with the Grecian forces on the Danube, in the sixth and seventh centuries, shook the throne of Constantinople. The VENE'DI and the AN'TES were tribes of the Slavi.
THE NORMANS.
20. The piratical inhabitants of Norway and Denmark were called by the Franks, Normans, or, Men of the North; in Ireland they were named Ostmen, or, Men of the East. Their depredations began to attract notice early in the seventh century, but did not become formidable before the ninth: when they obtained possession of that part of France now called Normandy. In the two following centuries they wrested England from the Saxons, and established kingdoms in Sicily and southern Italy.
THE BULGARIANS.
21. The Bulgarians were of Scythian or Tartar origin, and became formidable to the Eastern empire in the latter part of the seventh century. In the beginning of the ninth, Cruni'nus, their king, advanced to the gates of Constantinople; but the city proving too strong, he seized Adrianople, and returned home loaded with booty. The successors of Cruni'nus did not inherit his abilities, and the Bulgarians soon sunk into comparative insignificance.