Tasso (or Taso) (died 617) was the joint
Duke of Friuli
The dukes and margraves of Friuli were the rulers of the Duchy and March of Friuli in the Middle Ages.
The dates given below, when contentious, are discussed in the articles of the respective dukes.
Lombard dukes
* 568–c.584 Grasulf I
...
with his younger brother
Kakko from their father's death (611
[Perhaps as early as 602.]) to their own. Their father was
Gisulf II and their mother
Romilda of Friuli. In or around 611, Gisulf was killed fending off an
Avar invasion.
Tasso, along with his brothers Kakko,
Radoald, and
Grimoald, escaped the Avars and evaded capture, successfully setting themselves up as Gisulf's successors. During their reign, they ruled over the
Slavs of the valley of the
Gail
Gail may refer to:
People
*Gail (given name), list of notable people with the given name
Surname
* Jean-Baptiste Gail (1755–1829), French Hellenist scholar
* Max Gail (born 1943), American actor
* Sophie Gail (1775–1819), French singer and ...
up to
Matrei and imposed a tribute upon them. Tasso and Kakko were treacherously killed one day by
Gregory,
exarch of Ravenna
The Exarchate of Ravenna ( la, Exarchatus Ravennatis; el, Εξαρχάτο της Ραβέννας) or of Italy was a lordship of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) in Italy, from 584 to 751, when the last exarch was put to death by the ...
. The
exarch
An exarch (;
from Ancient Greek ἔξαρχος ''exarchos'', meaning “leader”) was the holder of any of various historical offices, some of them being political or military and others being ecclesiastical.
In the late Roman Empire and ea ...
, having invited Tasso to
Oderzo
Oderzo ( la, Opitergium; vec, Oderso) is a ''comune'' with a population of 20,003 in the province of Treviso, Veneto, northern Italy.
It lies in the heart of the Venetian plain, about to the northeast of Venice. Oderzo is crossed by the Montican ...
for a ceremonial beard-cutting, had him hunted down and killed along with Kakko. Radoald and Grimoald fled to
Arechis I of Benevento
Arechis I (also ''Arigis'', ''Aretchis'', ) was the second duke of Benevento from 591 to his death in 641, a reign of half a century. He was from Friuli and was a relative of the dukes there, maybe a nephew of Zotto, his predecessor. He was appo ...
and Friuli passed to their uncle
Grasulf II.
Notes
Sources
*
Paul the Deacon''Historia Langobardorum'' Available at Northvegr.
Year of birth missing
617 deaths
Dukes of Friuli
Lombard warriors
7th-century Lombard people
7th-century rulers in Europe
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