After the fall of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in 553, the Germanic tribe of the Lombards invaded Italy via Friuli and founded the Lombard Kingdom of Italy, which no longer included all of Tyrol, only its southern part.
The frontier districts of Avaria and Carantania stretched along the eastern Bavarian border, from the Danube Basin down to the Drava and beyond to eastern Friuli, in order to protect the empire from any future attacks from Pannonia.