The name of Wacho became famous, and the Lombards very desirable confederates; thus in the spring of 539 the Ostrogoth king Witiges sought to obtain their help against the Byzantines, but was refused as the Lombards had already formed an alliance with the Byzantines. An alliance seems also to have existed with the Thuringii, for the first wife of Wacho, Radegund, was the daughter of the Thuringian king Bisinus. Then Wacho married Ostrogotha, the daughter of the Gepidean king, which makes it very probable that the Lombard kingdom bordered on the Gepidean, as our statement concerning the position of the plain “Feld” confirms. The two daughters he had by her were again married to Frankish kings, namely Wisigarda to King Theudebert (534-548), Walderada to Theudebald (548-555), then also to Clotaire I (561, who, compelled by the clergy, resigned her to the Bavarian duke Garibald). In connection with this and also later alliances, is the plan of Theudebert to overthrow the Byzantine Empire by the help of the Lombards and Gepids during the war in Italy, against Totila.
A Lombard King
A third wife of Wacho was Salinga, who bore him a son, Waltari. The latter reigned after his father’s death, according to the Origin for seven years, but as he was a minor he was under the guardianship of a Lombard of noble birth named Audoin, who afterwards succeeded him as king. Shortly after the accession of Audoin, the Lombards passed over into Pannonia, which had been given to them by the emperor Justinian, who had first taken it from the Goths, as Procopius states. It cannot have been a voluntary cession. Justinian had to evacuate the country because he was no longer in a position to protect it against the Lombard invasion. By the sums of money he gave to the Lombards he doubtless hoped to buy peace for the sorely tried provinces, just as the Gepids and others had been restrained from devastating the Roman province by gifts of gold.
[548-555 A.D.]
Not long after the occupation of Pannonia—according to Procopius apparently in 548—war broke out between the Gepids and Lombards. The incitements of the emperor Justinian may be considered as the chief motive; it was in his interest to destroy the friendship of the two peoples who threatened to become dangerous to the empire. The ever increasing desire of the Lombards to gain possession of the important town of Sirmium in lower Pannonia which was occupied by the Gepids, and above all, the hostile feelings which had been raised between the two peoples by disputes at the Lombard court concerning the succession (disputes which began in Wacho’s time) came to his assistance.
We are informed as to these interesting proceedings by Procopius and the Origin. Procopius[m] relates as follows: “King Wacho had a cousin who by law ought to have succeeded him on his death; but in order to procure the crown for his son he had Risiulf banished from the land under a false accusation.”
Risiulf with his two sons, one named Hildichis, and a small number of his adherents fled to the Warni, and at the instigation of Wacho was murdered by them; Hildichis’ brother succumbed to an illness, whilst he himself fled and took up his residence with a Slavonian tribe, and then in the time of King Audoin, when war broke out between the Lombards and Gepids, he gave himself up to the latter who also promised to procure for him the royal crown of the Lombards. According to the Origin[j] Wacho, son of Winigis and nephew of King Tato, expelled him from the throne. Tato’s son, the rightful heir to the throne, named Hildichis, who sought to assert his rights, was suppressed and obliged to take refuge with the Gepids who from the time of his arrival showed great hatred for the Lombards. Both reports are incomplete but supplement one another well. The event was doubtless this, that Wacho overthrew his uncle Tato, then, when he had become king, banished Tato’s son Risiulf (his cousin) and the latter’s son (Hildichis) from the country, as he wished to insure the crown for his own son Waltari, whilst, not the law, as Procopius erroneously says, but his descent and the love of the people would have won the government for the heirs of the deposed king Tato.
Risiulf was murdered in his flight. Hildichis fled to the Gepids at a time when the discord between them and the Lombards had already reached a high point, and, it seems, by his presence precipitated the outbreak of war. His hope that the Gepids would help him to regain his rights was not fulfilled.