Otto, leaving his aunt, Matilda of Quedlinburg,…
998 CE
Otto, leaving his aunt, Matilda of Quedlinburg, as regent in Germany, returns to Italy and retakes Rome in February 998, storming Castel Sant'Angelo (the Tomb of Hardian), the traditional stronghold of the Crescentii, in which Crescentius II has shut himself up.
John XVI had meanwhile fled, pursued by the Emperor’s troops, who capture him, cut off his nose and ears, cut out his tongue, blind him, and publicly degrade him before Otto III and Gregory V. At the intercession of Saint Nilus the Younger, one of his countrymen, Otto III spares John XVI's life and sends him to the monastery of Fulda, in Germany, where he will live until 1013.
Crescentius II is now besieged by Otto III's imperial army.
Towards the end of April, the stronghold is breached, and Crescentius II is taken prisoner and executed by decapitation.
His body is put on public display at Monte Mario.
Otto makes Rome the administrative center of his empire and revives elaborate Roman customs and Greek court ceremonies.
He arranges for his imperial palace to be built on the Palatine Hill and plans to restore the ancient Roman Senate to its position of prominence.
He revives the city's ancient governmental system, including appointing a City Patrician, a City Prefect, and a body of judges whom he commands to recognize only Roman law.
In order to strengthen his title to the Roman Empire and to announce his position as the protector of Christendom, Otto III takes for himself the titles "the Servant of Jesus Christ," "the Servant of the Apostles", "Consul of the Senate and People of Rome," and "Emperor of the World".
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