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52 not mean in theory any change in the political state of the Romans of Italy. They would have been very much surprised to hear that the Roman Empire had come to an end. Theodoric never called himself King of Italy. He was only King of his own Goths. In theory the Romans remained subject to the Emperor at Constantinople. The two Roman Consuls were still regularly appointed, one nominated by the Emperor and one by Theodoric himself. Nor did the Gothic King tamper with the language, religion, or institutions of the Romans. Especially in the South and in Sicily the Gothic power made little difference, except that practically they were now subject to a foreign King. The defeat of the Goths by the generals of Justinian (527-565), first Belisarius, then Narses, put an end to this, and incidentally fortified the Greek element in the South. Belisarius landed in Sicily from Africa in 535. A war of eighteen years against the Goths follows, during which the people suffer the usual evils of war. Totila succeeded Theodoric as Gothic King. Rome was taken and retaken altogether six times; in 549 the Goths devastate Sicily. The end of the war was when Totila was defeated and killed in battle in 553. So, after being subject to the barbarians for sixty years, all Italy and Sicily again obey the Basileus at Constantinople.

The Gothic occupation of Italy left hardly any traces among the Greeks of the South; though in the strange medley of descent of modern Southern Italians there may be some particles of what was once Gothic blood. But hardly had İtaly returned to the obedience of her lawful sovereign when a new race of Teutonic barbarians appear, who are destined to have enormously more influence on her history, particularly on the history of the South. These are the Lombards.

The Lombards invaded Italy under their King Alboin in 568, just fifteen years after the final defeat of the Goths. At first they, like the Goths, were Arian heretics. Chiefly by the work of St Gregory I (590-604) they were converted to the Catholic Church in the course of the sixth and seventh centuries. By the time they appear in the South they are all Catholics. The great Lombard kingdom had its centre in the North. The Lombard King reigned at Pavia. But they spread over a great part of the whole peninsula.

During the seventh and eighth centuries Italy was divided