 After this failure, the prestige of Ratchis collapsed and the dukes elected as the new king his brother Aistulf, who had already succeeded him as duke in Cividale and now, after a short struggle, forced him to flee to Rome and finally to become a monk in Monte Cassino.Aistulf expressed the more aggressive stance of the dukes, who refused an active role for the Roman population.For his expansionist policy, however, he had to reorganize the army to include, albeit in the subordinate position of light infantry, all ethnic groups in the kingdom.