WACCHO

died c. 539 king of the Lombards in the period preceding the invasion of Italy, when they occupied territory roughly coinciding with Austria north of the Danube River. Waccho assassinated his uncle Tato and usurped the throne about 510, ruling for 30 years. Tato's son and grandson took refuge with the king of a neighbouring people, the Gepidae, making several fruitless attempts to recover rule over the Lombards. Shortly after 536 Waccho made a treaty with the Byzantine emperor Justinian I against the Gepidae. In 539 the Ostrogoth king of Italy, Witigis, hard-pressed by Justinian's general Belisarius, sent ambassadors to Waccho, offering him money in exchange for military aid. Waccho refused, preferring to remain on good terms with Constantinople. Married successively to daughters of the kings of the Thuringians, of the Gepidae, and of the Heruli, Waccho was succeeded by a young son who died during the regency of the Lombard chief Audoin; this regent's son Alboin became the king who destroyed the Gepidae and invaded Italy.