During Easter of 774, while Charlemagne was waiting for Pavia to fall, he paid a visit to Pope Adrian in Rome. The alliance between the papacy and the Carolingian court was renewed. Charlemagne extended the pledge to protect the Papal States, but in turn the pope agreed that any further lands won from the Lombards would go directly to Charlemagne.
It is likely that the young king of the Franks was deeply impressed by his visit to Rome. His own kingdom contained none of the majesty to be seen there, both in the ruins of Roman civilization and in the Easter ceremony performed by the pope in Saint Peter’s Basilica.
In fact, Roman culture, kept alive in modified form by the church, was to become a model for his social reforms. His administration was based on the existing structure within the church, and behind his extensive educational innovations, Charlemagne hoped that Latin would become the lingua franca that would unite the diverse ethnic groups in his empire into a single, Franco-Roman culture.
This task was to prove too difficult to be achieved within the king’s lifetime, but there is no doubt that by encouraging the copying of Latin texts and establishing the Palatine Academy at Aachen, he helped preserve the Greco-Roman basis of European culture.
After his victory over Desiderius, Charlemagne did not stay long in Italy. Word had reached him that the Saxons were in revolt, and he hurried northwards to prepare an expedition which would face one of the most difficult campaigns of his reign.