History and ethnic pride in southern Italy at the end of the ninth century

At the end of the ninth century, the Cassinese monk Erchempert composed a chronicle (c. 774–889) blaming the southern-Italian Lombard leaders for their people’s defeats. It was his hope that future generations might learn from the folly of their forbearers. This chapter aims at analyzing the reasons why, in the wake of his monastery’s destruction by Muslim raiders (883), Erchempert did not express a generalized criticism toward all the elites of his homeland. Moreover, it will prove that Erchempert’s attachment to his people and his pride of being Lombard sometimes led him to stray from his intended narrative of failures and catastrophes.