charged him with prosecuting the war against the Byzantine Empire. Pandulf and Landulf introduced Prince Gisulf of Salerno to the emperor at this time. They then took part in the imperial campaign of 968, but Landulf retired in illness and died at Benevento leaving two sons: Pandulf and Landulf. Even though Pandulf was with the emperor on the border of Calabria when news of Landulf's death reached him, he quickly returned to Benevento and associated with him his own eldest son Landulf, who was crowned prince in the church of Sancta Sophia, before rejoining the imperial campaign. In that year, Otto left the siege of Bari in the charge of Pandulf, but the Lombard was captured in the Battle of Bovino (969) by the Byzantines and jailed in Constantinople. In 970, during his absence, the Byzantines besieged Capua and Marinus II of Naples ravaged the countryside. He was released later in the deal in which the Byzantine emperor John Tzimisces gave Theophanu in marriage to Otto's son Otto II. During his absence, the great principality had been administered by Landulf I, Archbishop of Benevento, and the young Landulf, with help from his mother, Pandulf's wife, Aloara. Benevento had been made an archdiocese in 969. In the 960s, Byzantium had been trying to supplant German influence in Salerno and to this end may have engineered the rebellion which temporarily unseated John XIII, a pro-German pope. Prince Gisulf of Salerno, however, was allied both to the Greeks and to his Lombard neighbour Pandulf, whom he had rescued some years before and who was, in fact, staunchly pro-German and anti-Greek. When Gisulf was deposed and removed from office by Pandulf's cousin, Landulf of Conza, in 973, Pandulf restored Gisulf as his vassal. When Gisulf died childless in 977 or 978, Pandulf succeeded in Salerno as per their prior agreement. The policy of the Greeks was a thorough failure and Pandulf (and his Germans) was the winner in southern Italy. He had united all three of the Lombard principalities – Benevento, Capua, and Salerno – and had even gained Spoleto and Camerino. He ruled a large bloc of territories that stretched as far north as Tuscany and as far south as the Gulf of Taranto. In 978, Pandulf confirmed that the Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo sul Gargano belonged the archbishopric of Benevento. This act was witnessed by two Byzantine officials. Pandulf's lands were partitioned