Otto, the son of Saxon Duke Henry the Fowler and Matilda of Ringelheim, had succeeded his father as king of the Germans in 936.

The ancient case for bringing together the Eastern and Western parts of the former Roman empire had been dramatically altered when Otto had been crowned emperor of the Romans in 962, for this was a direct affront to the unique position of the emperor at Constantinople.

Otto has tried, and failed, to establish his claim, either by force in Constantinople’s province in Italy or by direct negotiation in the imperial capital.

His ambassador Liutprand of Cremona writes an account of his mission to Nikephoros Phokas in 968 and of the Emperor's scornful rejection of a proposed marriage between Otto's son and an imperial princess.

The unwise reference by the pope to the ruler in Constantinople as "Greek" in a letter while Liutprand had been in Constantinople had destroyed the first round of negotiations.

The incident vividly demonstrates, if not the superior attitude of Constantinople toward the West in the tenth century, an insistence on the imperial Roman pedigree.