ASTOLFO, king of the LONGOBARDI. — He succeeded his brother Rachis in 749. Resuming his predecessor’s anti-Byzantine policy, before July 751 he had Ravenna occupied, thereby bringing the exarchate to an end, and then advanced toward Rome (752). Stefano II succeeded in concluding a forty-year peace with him, but A. broke it less than four months later, demanding that the Romans be subjected to an annual tribute of one gold solidus per inhabitant and that Rome and the surrounding cities be placed under his jurisdiction. This time, no agreement was possible with the Longobard king: on 14 October 753 the Pope made one last attempt with him, going personally to see him at Pavia, accompanied by the captain of the imperial guard from Constantinople and by two Frankish ambassadors; but A. refused every concession.
Stefano II then continued from Pavia to Paris, where Pipino, invested by the Pope with the title of patrician and thereby made defender and protector of the Church of Rome, after repeated and fruitless attempts to resolve the matter peacefully, decided to wage war against the Longobardi.
After crossing the Cenisio, the Franks clashed with the Longobard army at the Chiuse, near Susa, and defeated II. A., besieged in Pavia, was forced to come to terms (755), which were: the restoration of Ravenna and several other cities, and the promise not to molest the Roman duchy again. The lands thus obtained were ceded by Pipino to the Pope. But after the Franks withdrew, A. once again advanced with his army toward Rome and on 1 January 756 laid siege to the city. Three months later, however, he was forced to return to northern Italy to confront a second time the Frankish army, which had again come to Stefano II’s aid. The Longobardi suffered a new defeat (spring 756). This time A. had to surrender under terms far harsher than those of 755: he had to restore a greater number of cities, namely the Exarchate and the Pentapolis as they had been reduced after the Longobard conquest (Comacchio, Ravenna, and the entire territory between the Apennines and the sea, from Forlì to Senigallia, excluding Ancona, Faenza, Imola, and Ferrara). The keys to the cities were handed over to the Pope together with the deed of donation «a s. Pietro, alla S. Repubblica Romana e a tutti i successivi Pontefici», which was then placed in the Confession of S. Pietro.
A. died in 756, a few months after Pipino had withdrawn to France.