This paper, in retracing the history of the Lombards from their mythical Scandinavian origins until their settlement in Italy, focuses in the Historia Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon some useful passages aimed at contextualizing the value of deception as a war instrument. The Lombard duces and reges, as can be deduced from the analysis of the source, resorted to cunning stratagems both to defeat the enemies with whom they had to fight during their migration from Scandinavia to Central Europe and then to Italy, and also to settle internal struggles in the regnum.