Note 118 — Chapter II · LOMBARD INVASION TO LIUTPRAND’S DEATH [568-744 A.D.]

[This custom of making a drinking cup of an enemy’s skull originally came from Asiatic Scythia, and was widely diffused in northern Europe: nowhere was it more religiously observed than in Scandinavia, the cradle of the Lombards. Their historian avers that he had seen the cup with his own eyes: Hoc ne cui videretur impossibile,—veritatem in Christo loquor—ego hoc poculum vidi in quodam die festo, etc. Paulus Diaconus,p lib. ii. cap. 28.

A modern Italian historian (Botta), totally unacquainted with the manners of the north, expresses great surprise at this act of Alboin: La naturale ferocia pel vino e per la vittoria a oltraggio fatta insolente, lo menava a tal atto di cui non è memoria nelle storie delle piu barbare nazioni, etc. The thing was common enough, as abundantly appears from the Scandinavian records.]