Arechis I, duke of Benevento, had conquered Capua and Venafro in the Campania and areas of the Basilicata and Calabria.

He had failed to take Naples after a siege (his predecessor Zotto had failed likewise), but he took Salerno by the late 620s.

He has spent the last years of his reign establishing good relations with the Roman Catholics of his duchy and making his son his successor.

He dies after a fifty-year reign and is succeeded by his son Aiulf I, who is, however, mentally unstable; his adoptive brothers Radoald and Grimoald, the younger sons of the late Gisulf II of Friuli, are regents for him.

Slavic plunderers land near Siponto on the Adriatic in 646.

Aiulf personally leads his forces against the intruders, but his horse falls into a pit dug by the Slavs around their camp and he is surrounded and killed.

Radoald, who succeeds him with the support of King Rothari, knows the Slavic language and induces the invaders to depart.