Arduin the Lombard

Who is Arduin the Lombard?

Arduin the Lombard was a Greek-speaking Lombard nobleman who fought originally for the Byzantines on Sicily and later against them as the leader of a band of Norman mercenaries.

He was the leader of the troops committed by Guaimar IV of Salerno to George Maniakes' Sicilian expedition in 1038. According to Amatus of Montecassino, he refused to surrender a captured horse to the Byzantine general and Maniakes consequently had him stripped and beaten. Whatever happened, Arduin and his Salernitan contingent along with the Normans and the Varangians abandoned Sicily and returned to the mainland.

On the peninsula, the Byzantine catepan of Italy, Michael Doukeianos, appointed him topoterites of Melfi. He soon revolted against Greek authority in Apulia and he and his Normans joined the rebellion-in-progress of Argyrus. First, the nominal leader of the insurrection, Atenulf, Prince of Benevento, defected to the Greeks and then Argyrus, his successor. The Normans, bypassing Arduin, chose their own successor to Argyrus, William Iron Arm, and Arduin faded completely out of view.