The Lombards, a Germanic people based on the lower Elbe River, (first mentioned by classical writers in the first century CE), are thought to have fought against the Romans as early as CE 6.

From the combined testimony of Strabo (CE 20) and Tacitus (CE 117), the Lombards dwell near the mouth of the Elbe shortly after the beginning of the Common Era, next to the Chauci.

Strabo states that the Lombards dwell on both sides of the Elbe.

The German archaeologist Willi Wegewitz defined several Iron Age burial sites at the lower Elbe as Langobardic.

The burial sites are crematorial and are usually dated from the sixth century BCE through the third century CE, so that a break in settlement seems unlikely.

The lands of the lower Elbe fall into the zone of the Jastorf Culture and became Elbe-Germanic, differing from the lands between Rhine, Weser, and the North Sea.

Archaeological finds show that the Lombards were an agricultural people.

The first mention of the Lombards occurs between CE 9 and 16, by the Roman court historian Velleius Paterculus, who had accompanied a Roman expedition as prefect of the cavalry.

Paterculus described the Lombards as "more fierce than ordinary German savagery."

Tacitus counted the Lombards as a Suebian tribe, and subjects of Marobod the King of the Marcomanni.

Marobod had made peace with the Romans, and that is why the Lombards were not part of the Germanic confederacy under Arminius at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in CE 9.

In CE 17, war breaks out between Arminius and Marobod.

Tacitus records: “Not only the Cheruscans and their confederates... took arms, but the Semnones and Langobards, both Suevian nations, revolted to him from the sovereignty of Marobod...

The armies... were stimulated by reasons of their own, the Cheruscans and the Langobards fought for their ancient honor or their newly acquired independence." (Tacitus, Ann. II, 45.).