Lombard Duke - The Rebellion of the Dukes, 601-602 AD 75mm.

 Product not suitable for children under 14 years - Kit not painted and not assembled.

AGILULFUS – REX LONGOBARDORUM by Alessandro Marelli
It was a great pleasure for me to pose for the friends at MILITIA MODELS, as a historical reenactor portraying a high-ranking Lombard nobleman in a martial context. The historical inspiration for the subject can be identified thanks to the frontal plate of the helmet. The plate, mounted as the front element of an oriental-style helmet, belongs to my personal collection. It is an exact reproduction of the original preserved at the Bargello Museum in Florence, known as the ‘Plate of King Agilulf’ (or ‘Plate of the Triumph of Agilulf’), a medieval repoussé copper artefact plated in gold. According to the most widely accepted scholarly interpretation, it once adorned the front of a parade helmet belonging to a high-ranking figure. The plate has been interpreted as a commemorative piece celebrating the siege of Rome in 593, which forced Pope Gregory I to pay three hundred pounds of gold to the Lombards in order to prevent the sack of the city, thus acknowledging the subordination of the defeated.
Here, then, emerges our principal source of inspiration: Agilulf, first Duke of Turin and later King of the Lombards in Italy.
The historian Paul the Deacon—a Lombard monk and medieval chronicler, author of the invaluable “Historia Langobardorum”—records that after the death of King Authari, the widowed Queen Theodelinda, greatly beloved by the Lombards, chose Agilulf, Duke of Turin, a strong and valiant man, as her new husband in 590 and as sovereign of the Lombard Kingdom the following year.
The new king’s first military actions were directed against rebellious Lombard dukes who had allied themselves with the kingdom’s enemies: Franks, Romans, and Byzantines.
Later, with the support of Avar and Slavic allies, Agilulf fought further rebellious dukes and campaigned against Roman cities including Cremona and Mantua, before expanding into Tuscany. Finally, in 593, he laid siege to Rome and forced it into submission. (...)