Friuli is certainly a point of reference for the early Middle Ages, for the history of the Lombards, from the Historia Langobardorvm written by Paolo Diacono, to Cividale, the first duchy of the kingdom.

But Friuli has a much older glorious history, linked to a people that has nothing to envy to the great Lombards: the Celts Carni.

The Carni were a people of Celtic language and culture settled mainly in the area that today bears their name, Carnia. There is evidence of their settlement in this area starting from the fourth century BC

Originally from the plains between the Rhine and Danube rivers, the Carni migrated and settled, around 400 BC, in today's Friuli, Styria, Carinthia and northwestern Slovenia, crossing the Alps at the Passo del Monte Croce Carnico, still unknown at the time. to the Romans, so much so that the historian Titus Livy, speaking precisely of the arrival of the Meat, writes "... per saltus ignotæ antea viæ transgressi ..." [Annales 39,45].

Even the historian Strabone, places the Oi Kàrnoi, or the Carni, "above and beyond the Veneti", therefore settled near the Adriatic Gulf, south of the Eastern Alps, linking the same Tergeste (Trieste), to the Carni defining it "Carnic village ":" ... Tergheste komès Karnikès. " [Geography VII-5,2].

They soon came into contact with the populations close to them, in particular with the Venetians and the Reti.

Carnia, Carniola, Carinthia and Carso, owe their name to these Celts who came from across the Alps.

There are many archaeological testimonies that tell us the history and habits of the Carni, coming from the necropolis of Misincinis, Paularo, Verzegnis, Amaro, Raveo, Lauco and Tolmezzo, also some silver coins were found in the church of S. Pietro of Carnia, on Plan da Vincule, dating back to the third century BC