Otto II was crowned co-emperor by his father in 967, but these Pavia deniers belong to his sole reign following Otto I's death in 973. Pavia functioned as the traditional capital of the Lombard and then Carolingian Italian kingdom, and its mint held particular political weight — striking coin there was an explicit assertion of royal authority over the peninsula, contested as that authority perpetually was.
Otto II spent much of this reign fighting on two fronts: asserting control over southern Italy against the Byzantines and Saracens, a campaign that ended in catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Stilo in 982.
Otto II was crowned co-emperor by his father in 967, but these Pavia deniers belong to his sole reign following Otto I's death in 973. Pavia functioned as the traditional capital of the Lombard and then Carolingian Italian kingdom, and its mint held particular political weight — striking coin there was an explicit assertion of royal authority over the peninsula, contested as that authority perpetually was.
Otto II spent much of this reign fighting on two fronts: asserting control over southern Italy against the Byzantines and Saracens, a campaign that ended in catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Stilo in 982.