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749-753] to the Romans, the countrymen of his wife Tassia. He evidently strove to lessen the disparity between Romans and Lombards. Nevertheless he saw himself compelled to invade the imperial Pentapolis and besiege Perusia. But when he desisted from this blockade upon the pope's personal intervention, the Lombards gave vent to their indignation over their king's romanising policy. The nobles raised Aistulf, the king's brave and fierce brother, upon the buckler at Milan (June 749); Ratchis was forced to abdicate, went to St Peter's on pilgrimage, was accepted as a monk by the pope, and retired to Monte Cassino.

Aistulf immediately took up again with the greatest energy Liutprand's conquering policy. The donations which Ratchis had made before Aistulf's elevation were annulled, intercourse with Romans was forbidden, commerce with a foreign country keenly watched, the frontier well guarded, and military duty regulated on the basis of the new social structure. The important towns of Comacchio and Ferrara were occupied and the Lombard king gave forth a charter as early as 7 July 751 in the palace of Ravenna, which the last exarch, Eutychius, was said to have surrendered. The north of Italy was now entirely in the hands of the Lombards, except the district of the Lagoons and the towns of Istria. Aistulf turned to central Italy, where Duke Lupus had died, and took into his own hands the government of Spoleto, the key-city of Rome. His next assault was of course directed to Rome. He stood before the walls of Rome in June 752 and received a papal embassy; it is alleged that he promised peace for forty years but broke the armistice after four months. His conditions were very hard: tribute paid by the inhabitants of the ducatus Romae and acknowledgment of his sovereignty. He ordered the abbots of Monte Cassino and St Vincenzo, who had appeared as the pope's envoys before him, to follow his commands as Lombard subjects, and return to their monasteries without entering Rome. The Emperor's embassy, which was conducted to Ravenna by the pope's brother, only so far succeeded that Aistulf sent an envoy to Constantinople with proposals that seemed unacceptable, at least to the pope. But the two envoys returned to Italy without having effected their object, while the Lombards had taken the castle of Ceccano, which belonged to the Church. Now Pope Stephen obtained a safe conduct and at the Emperor's command marched himself to Aistulf's court at Pavia (autumn 753). The king sent to meet him with orders not to venture a word about restoring the conquered territory. But the pope was not to be deterred, and fervently entreated the king to fulfil the conditions contained in a letter which an imperial envoy had brought. But it was in vain. Then the Frankish ambassadors, who had accompanied the pope, intervened and required Aistulf to let the pope go to Gaul. When the pope, at his next audience, declared that it was actually his intention to cross the Alps, Aistulf, it is said, roared with rage like a wild beast. But after vain endeavours to change