Pemmo 1 was the son of Billo 1 (a native of Bellunum); husband of Ratperga 1 and father of Ratchis 1, Ratchait 1 and Aistulf 1; after the death of Ferdulf 1 and the blinding of Corvolus 1 Pemmo 1 was appointed to be dux of Forum Iulii; he gathered together the sons and grandsons of all the nobility who had perished in the recent disastrous battle against the Slavs (see Ferdulf 1 and Argait 1) and brought them up in his own household as if they were his own children; he is described as very capable and useful to his country ("Pemmo ducatum promeruit, qui fuit homo ingeniosus et utilis patriae"); his wife, who was supposedly a very plain looking girl ("facie rusticana"), is said to have urged him to take a prettier and more suitable wife when he became dux, but he, being a man of good sense ("ut erat vir sapiens"), preferred a woman with his wife's character and virtues to physical beauty: Paul. Diac., Hist. Lang. VI 26. He was still ruler of Forum Iulii when the patriarch of Aquileia, Serenus 2, died and was succeeded by Callistus (Kallistos 9) ("quo, ut diximus, in tempore Pemmo Foroiulanis praeerat Langobardis"); the children of the nobles whom he had brought up had just reached manhood ("eos iam ad iuvenilem perduxisset aetatem") when he heard of a large Slav army at a place called Lauriana (possibly the village of Spital near Villach); he led the young men out ("cum quibus iuvenibus") and made three assaults on the Slavs and killed huge numbers of them, losing only one casualty himself, Sicuald 1; Pemmo 1 then called a halt and made peace with the Slavs, who thereafter, it is said, grew more and more to fear the arms of the men of Forum Iulii: Paul. Diac., Hist. Lang. VI 45. He and the patriarch Kallistos 9 quarrelled, when Kallistos 9 occupied a dwelling at Forum Iulii which had previously been the home of the bishops of Castrum Iulium (Iulia Carnica); with many other Lombard nobles Pemmo 1 seized Kallistos 9, carried him off to the fort of Potium and after threatening to throw him off a cliff into the sea held him in custody; king Liutprand 1 was outraged and deprived Pemmo 1 of the ducatus of Forum Iulii for this, conferring it on his son, Ratchis 1 ("ducatumque Pemmoni auferens, Ratchis, eius filium, in eius loco ordinavit"); Pemmo 1 prepared to flee with his followers to the homeland of the Slavs but Ratchis 1 intervened and restored him to the king's favour; he later attended the king as one of his advisers; Liutprand 1 then ordered the arrest of his adherents and Pemmo 1's son Aistulf 1 was narrowly prevented from striking the king with his sword: Paul. Diac., Hist. Lang. VI 51.

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