It was at Verona that the famous banquet took place, when Alboin ordered his wife Rosamund to drink wine out of her father’s skull. Alboin had conquered and killed his father-in-law, Cunimund, king of the Gepedoe, and carried about with him the trophy of his victory in the shape of the dead man’s skull converted into a drinking cup. He had no settled capital in Italy, but, as Theodoric had done before him, he dwelt gladly at Verona. The story of his orgie is a well-known one, though it may be that in his drunken debauchery he was hardly conscious of the sacrilege that he called upon his wife to commit. His brutality was amply avenged. Rosamund caused her husband to be murdered (June 28, 572, or according to Maffei 574) and then fled with Elmicho (who had acted for her as Alboin’s murderer) to Ravenna, taking with her Alsuinda, Alboin’s daughter, and the royal treasure. The fugitives sought the protection of Longinus, the exarch of Constantinople; but soon after they reached Ravenna they were tragically put to death, and Alsuinda together with King Alboin’s treasure was sent to Constantinople. According to the writings of Paul the Deacon, the Lombard historian of the eighth century, the “body of Alboin was buried by the Longobards with tears and great mourning under a staircase adjoining the palace. In our days Gilbert or Giselbert, Duke of Verona, opened the case, drew from it the sword and ornaments, and then with the vanity peculiar to the ignorant, boasted that he had seen Alboin.” The whole story of the banquet, the indignity forced upon Queen Rosamund, the king’s death, and all its sequel is often called in question and doubt thrown on the whole matter. The certainty of it cannot perhaps be asserted definitely, but the legend is a well-established one; and the historian Paul quoted above tells how he saw the fateful goblet, and speaks of the murder, the flight of the wife and of her accomplice, in a way which proves that he at least believed it all. The Lombards established duchies throughout Italy, and after Alboin’s death we find dukes in Verona, one of whom, Autari, married (_cir._ 589) the famous Theodolinda, daughter of Garibaldo, king or duke of the Bavarians, who exercised an important influence over the Lombard people, and who after her second marriage with Agilulf, Duke of Turin, converted them from Arianism to the Catholic faith.