against the exploitation of the services owed by arimanni to create benefices for vassals. The Lex Romana Utinensis was composed at his court. His rule was recognized in Benevento after the restoration of Prince Radelchis II in 897. Battle of Marengo However, Lambert still had to face Berengar of Friuli and the rebellious Adalbert of Tuscany. In 898, the latter marched on Pavia. The emperor, who had been hunting near Marengo south of Milan, was given advance word. Lambert surprised and defeated his rival at Borgo San Donnino, taking him prisoner to Pavia. On his return to Marengo however, he was killed, either by assassination (by Hugh, son of Maginulf), a theory about which Liutprand, our primary source, is reserved, or by falling from his horse. He was buried in Piacenza. Liutprand remembered him as an elegans iuvenis and vir severus: "an elegant youth and a stern man". His epitaph (in Latin elegiac couplets) is: {| | Sanguine præcipuō Francōrum germinis ortus Lambertus fuit hīc Caesar in Urbe potēns Alter erat Cōnstantīnus, Theodōsius alterEt prīnceps pācis clārus amōre nimis| Born with the distinguished blood of the stock of the Franks, Lambert was here Emperor, holding power in the City (of Rome); He was another Constantine, another Theodosius, and a prince of peace, excessively renowned with love. |} He was succeeded in Spoleto by Guy IV while the regnum Italicum and the imperium Romanum were thrown into chaos, contested by multiple candidates. Within days, Berengar had taken Pavia. References Sources Carpegna Falconieri, Tommaso di. Lamberto. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, LXIII. Rome: 2004, pp. 208–211. Comyn, Robert. History of the Western Empire, from its Restoration by Charlemagne to the Accession of Charles V, Vol. I. 1851 Mann, Horace, K. The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol. III: The Popes During the Carolingian Empire, 858–891. 1925 Mann, Horace, K. The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol. IV: The Popes in the Days of Feudal Anarchy, 891–999. 1925 Wickham, Chris. Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society 400–1000''. MacMillan Press: 1981. 880s births 898 deaths Sons of emperors Year of birth uncertain 9th-century Holy Roman Emperors 9th-century kings of Italy Italian monarchs Frankish warriors Guideschi dynasty 9th-century dukes of Spoleto Margraves of Italy