

OTHO L 



OTHO IV. 



.... 



'am ; a t*p which tended, u Tacitus has observed, to occasion 

 iik defeat, When he was informed of the result of the battle, he 

 rt/ased to make any farther efforts for the empire, and put an end to 

 his own life by fulling upon his sword, at the age of thirty-seven, 

 eeording to Tacitus (' Hut,' ii. 50), or at thirty-eight, according to 

 Suetonius ('Otho,' c. 11), after reigning 95 days. Plutarch relates 

 that the roldien immediately buried his body, that it might not be 

 exposed to indignity by falling into the hands of his enemies, and 

 erected a plain monument over his grave with the simple inscription, 

 To the memory of Marcn* Otho.' (Tacitus, 7/ut, books i. and iu ; 

 Life of Otho, by Suetonius and Plutarch ; Dion Cassius, lib. Ixiv. ; 

 Tillrmout, Ilia. <!ti Smpcnun, vol. iii) 



Coin of Otho. 



liiiluh Museum. Actual *izc. 



Copper. 



OTHO I., son of the Emperor llenry I., and duke of Saxony, was 

 elected, after his father's death, A.D. 937, his successor on the throne 

 of Germany. His reign was long and eventful; a great part of it was 

 occupied in quelling the turbulence of the great feudatories, the dukes 

 of Bavaria, Franconia, and Lorraine, the archbishop of Mainz, and of 

 his own son and son-in-law, who had rebelled against him. lie waged 

 also a long and successful war against Boleslas, duke of Bohemia, who, 

 having murdered his own father, had abolished Christianity and 

 thrown off his allegiance to the empire. He conquered the Slav! of 

 the region bordering on the Oder, and founded two bishoprics, Havtl- 

 Imrg and Brandenburg, in order that they might furnish missionaries 

 f..r the conversion of the Slavi to Christianity. Otho defeated also the 

 Danes, for whose conversion he founded bishoprics in Holstein and 

 Scbletwig. In the year 955 he gained a great victory over the Huns. 

 In Italy ho appeared first as the champion of Adelaide, the young 

 widow of King Lotlnriufl, who had been imprisoned and otherwise 

 ill-uned by Berengarius, who, after poisoning Lotharius, had usurped 

 the Italian crown. Otho liberated Adelaide, whom he married at 

 I'uvia, in the year 951, and forgave Berengarius, and allowed him to 

 retain the sovereignty of Italy, but as his vassal. Otho then returned 

 to Germany. After some years, fresh complaints of the tyranny of 

 Berengariu* induced Otho to recroes the Alps : he defeat, d Berengarius 

 and his son and colleague Adalbert. He wes himself acknowledged by 

 a Diet held at Milan as King of Italy, and crowned by the archbishop 

 with the iron crown of the Longobards in the church of St. Ambrose, 

 at the cloM of 961. In the following year Otho repaired to Rome, 

 where Pope John XII. crowned him Emperor of tho Went, as being 

 the succeuor of Charlemagne. Berengarius, who had still some fol- 

 lowers, defended himself obstinately in the fortress of St. Leo, in the 

 Romagna; but being taken, was cent prisoner to Bamberg, whore he 

 died. 



Meantime Otho, having received numerous complaints against Pope 

 John, whoso licentiousness and tyranny had become insupportable to 

 the people of Rome, and who moreover maintained secret intelligent 

 with the partisans of Berengarius, (gain visited Rome, and assembler 

 a council, in which John was deposed, and Leo VIII. elected in his 

 place. John however, after Otho's departure, re-entered Rome 

 obliged Leo to run away, and committed many acts of cruelty again* 

 those who had favoured tho exaltation of bis rival. [JOHN XII.] John 

 toon nfler died, in 964, and the 1 toman clergy, disregarding the forme 

 election of Leo, appointed another pope by the name of Benedict V 

 This brought Otho again to Rome, which he besieged and took. He 

 banished Benedict and re-instated Leo, who however died the year 

 afUr, when John XIII. was elected with Otho's approbation. But tho 

 Romans, revolting against the new pope, banished him into Campania. 

 Upon this Otho again entered Rome, and having put the leaders of the 

 insurrection upon their trial, hanged thirteen of thorn, and condemned 

 the others to various punishment*. The historian Liutprandus justifies 

 the conduct of Otbo on this occasion, saying that he merely exercised 

 his imperial prerogative, like hi* predecessors of the Byzantine and 

 . ingian dynasties, ngainst men who had violated their oath* and 

 belled against his authority. Thi* shows that at that time the duchy 

 ' Rome was still considered a* subject to the emperors. 



of Rome 



In the year 967 Otho had hi* son Otho II. crowned emperor and 

 his colleague, at Rome, by Pope John XIII. In the following year 

 Otbo sent Liutprandns on a mission to Nicephorun I'hocas, rmperor of 

 Constantinople, hich however produced no friendly result. [Liur- 

 riiAM.cs.] Otho accordingly invaded the provinces of Campania, 

 Apulia, and Calabria, which wore subject to the Byzantines, and laid 

 liege to Bari, which however he did not take. Kioephorus in the 



meantime being murdered, hi* ruccesnor Xii::i.*cos made peace with 



Otho, and gave the princess Theophania in marriage to his son in 



Otho returned to Germany, where he died in May, 973. < >tho ha* 



been styled < the Great,' a title which he deserved for his abilities, his 



success, and his love of justice. His policy towards the see of Rome 



is worthy of notice; for whilst he showed himself zealous for the 



interest* of the church, endowed abbeys and convents, and honoured 



deserving men among the clergy, yet he always asserted his sovereign 



riant in temporal matters, and in the elections of the popes, a right 



vhich his successors continued to exercise for a long time afterwards 



until the pontificate of Gregory VII. In Italy he established the 



upremacy of the German emperors over the greater part of the penin- 



iilo, with the exception of tho southern provinces, which remained 



ubject to the Eastern empire. 



OTHO II., son of Otbo I., wag engaged after his father's death in a 

 war with Henry, duke of Bavaria, whom hu defeated, and whose fief 

 e bestowed on tho Duke of Suabia. He bad also to contend against 

 jothariua, king of France, for the possession of the great fief of Lotha- 

 ingia, or Lorraine, which hod been a subject of contention between 

 "r.uico and Germany ever since the separation of the two crowns. 

 Otho divided Lorraine into two fiefs, upper and lower, the latter of 

 hich ho left to Charles, Lothariua's brother, on condition that 

 ie should pay allegiance to the German crown. In the year 979 

 Otho repaired to Italy, where things were, as usual, in a state of great 

 confusion. At Home he repressed sedition, and punished several of 

 he leaders. From Homo he proceeded into Campania, and interfered 

 n the interminable quarrels of the various princes of Capua, Bcnevento, 

 and Salerno ; and thence advanced into Apulia aud Calabria, where he 

 ought against the Saracens, who had landed in those provinces, and 

 who were encouraged, as it was said, by the Byzantine emperor, who 

 was afraid of losing his Italian dominions through Otho's ambition. 

 Mho occupied Tarentum, and at first was successful against the 

 Saracens ; but he afterwords wag defeated by them with great slaughter. 

 Sigonius; Ditmar; Muratori.) Otho, returning to Northern Italy, 

 issembled a general diet of the feudatories of Germany and Italy at 

 Verona, in the year 983, at which his son, then four yean old, after- 

 wards Otho III., was acknowledged as his successor. At that diet 

 several laws were added to the Longobard code, and Otho confirmed 

 the franchises and privileges of the republic of Vi nice by a diploma, 

 n which are enumerated the provinces that were subject to the 

 kingdom of Italy as distinct from those belonging to Venice. The 

 former are Pavia, Milan, Cremona, Vicenza, Couuda, Verona, Frinli, 

 I* trio, Ferrara, Ravenna, Comacohio, Rimini, Pcear.i, Cesena, Kino, 

 Siuigaglia, Ancona, Umana, Fermo, Pinna, and Gabrlla, a statement 

 which contradicts the pretended grant of the Kxarchate and I'euta- 

 polis, said to have been made by Otho I. to the see of Rome. From 

 Verona, Otho proceeded to Ravenna, and afterwards to Capua and 

 Benevento, intent upon collecting a large army against the Saracens, 

 whom he wished to expel from Sicily. But in the month of December 

 983 he fell ill at Rome, where he died, and was buried in the atrium 

 of the Vatican Ha-ilico. 



OTHO III. spent his long minority in Germany, whilst his grand- 

 mother Adelaide, his mother Theophania, and the Archbishop of 

 Cologne administered his dominions in Germany and Italy. In tho 

 year 996 Otho entered Italy with a large army, and was crowned 

 Emperor of Germany at Rome by Pope Gregory V., who was hi* 

 relative. On his return to Germany he defeated tho Slavi, with 

 whom he was engaged in a war, and forced MicUlas, duke of Poland, 

 to do him homage. He afterwards conferred upon his successor, 1 >uke 

 Boleslas, the title of King of Poland. At the end of 997 Otho 

 returned to Italy ; and after staying awhile at Pavia and Ravenna, 

 being desirous of seeing Venice, a city then already celebrated for its 

 wealth and power, be repaired thither incognito with six attendants. 

 The doge Pietro Orseolo II. entertained him splendidly by night, but 

 left him to enjoy his assumed disguise during the day. The doge had 

 just effected the conquest of Dalmatia from the Croatian?, with the 

 islands of Cnrzola and Lcsiua, and had assumed the title of Duke of 

 Dalmatia, Otho held a daughter of the doge's over the baptismal 

 font, and on that occasion he exempted the Venetians from tho 

 pallium, or annual tribute, which they used to pay to the kings of 

 Italy. Having returned to Ravenna, he collected his army and 

 marched upon Homo, from whence Pope Gregory V. had been expelled 

 by the patrician Crescentins, styled consul of Rome ; a remarkable 

 character of the dark ages, who aspired to re-establish the Roman 

 republic under a nominal allegiance to the Eastern emperors. Ores- 

 ccntius caused John, a Calubriau Greek, to be proclaimed poutitl', 

 under tho title of John XVII. On the arrival of Otho, John ran 

 away ; but being seized by those of the advene party, ho was cruelly 

 mutilated ; and Crescent! UH, after defending himself in the castle of 

 St. Angelo, was also made prisoner and beheaded, with twelve of his 

 followers. Otho returned to Germany, but in tho year 1001 he was 



again in Italy. He fought several battles in Campania, besieged 

 Benevento, and afterwards quelled some fresh disturbance in Rome. 

 In the following year (1002) he was taken ill near Civita Castellana, 

 and died. HU body was taken to Aquisgrana to be buried. 



OTHO IV., Duko of Brunswick and son of Henry the Lion, was 

 elected king of the Germans in 1208 and wax afterwards crowned 

 emperor at Rome by Innocent III. But he soon quarrelled with that 



