Otto, in his attempt to consolidate his authority over the papacy, has unsuccessfully campaigned in southern Italy on several occasions from 966 to 972.

His son by Adelaide of Italy, Otto the Red, at first only co-reigning with his father, had been chosen German king at Worms in 961 and crowned at Aachen Cathedral on May 26, 961, and on December 25, 967 had been crowned joint emperor at Rome by Pope John XIII.

Earlier in 967, Otto had given the duchy of Spoleto to Pandulf Ironhead, prince of Benevento and Capua, a powerful ally in the Mezzogiorno.

In the next year, Otto had left the siege of Bari in the charge of Pandulf, but the allied duke had been captured in the Battle of Bovino by imperial Greek troops.

The emperor John I Tzimiskes recognizes Otto's imperial title in 972 and agrees to a marriage between Otto's son and heir and his twelve-year-old niece Theophanu, thus establishing dynastic ties between Constantinople and the West.

Pandulf is released from captivity, and the marriage ceremony takes place on April 14, performed by Pope John XIII.

(Though Otto had requested an imperial princess, it is unlikely that Theophanu was the daughter of any emperor: the current theory is that her father was Konstantinos Skleros, brother of the pretender Bardas Skleros, and her mother was Sophia Phokaina, niece of Emperor Nikephoros II, and sister of Maria Skleraina, Tzimiskes' first wife.

Accordingly she was of Armenian descent.

Theophanu is credited with introducing the fork to Western Europe; chroniclers mention the astonishment she caused when she "used a golden double prong to bring food to her mouth" instead of using her hands as was the norm.)