After Faroald, the Lombard duke of Spoleto, captured Classis, the port of Ravenna, Droctulf recaptured it for the Empire in 575–76.
He was briefly imprisoned (Paul refers to a captivitas), but was released to the Empire and served as the commander (dux, duke) of the Byzantine post of Brescello (Reggio nell'Emilia), which guarded a bridge over the river Po leading to Classis, from around 584.
After his failure in Italy, Droctulf was called to the Balkans and Thrace to fend off the army of Slavs and Avars then besieging Adrianople (586).
The Byzantines granted him burial in the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, where his lengthy epitaph survived to be recorded by Paul.
Italian philosopher and literary critic Benedetto Croce referred to Droctulft's (lost) epitaph in Ravenna as ′poetry raising its head where you'd least expect it′ (′La poesia′, 1942).