Otho
Otho names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Otho or Otto I (912-973)
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
or Otto I (912-973), one of the great rulers of Germany. His father was Henry I. He was crowned king of Germany at Aix-la-Chapelle in 936. When he came to the throne Germany was a country lying along the Rhine. It was Otho who developed the policy of extending Germany eastward to include its present territory. He added Bavaria, Bohemia, northeastern Prussia, and other territory to his dominions. He repelled the Bulgarians, driving them permanently into the valley of the Danube where they still dwell. He instituted many reforms within his dominions. He reduced the powerful dukes to at least nominal obedience to the crown. Taking advantage of the troubles of Italian rulers, he crossed the Alps with an army, and in time brought about his own coronation as king of Italy. Still later, in 962, through the influence of the Catholic clergy to whom he had ever been a fast friend, he was crowned emperor by the pope at Rome. This combination of Germany and Italy is known in history as The Holy Roman Empire of the German People. It was a revival of the empire of Charlemagne,--a recognition of the notion prevailing at the time that the world should have two heads, one spiritual, one temporal, that all Christians, through their churches, should be united under the spiritual leadership of the pope, and that all peoples, through their rulers, should be united under the temporal leadership of an emperor. Theoretically, any Christian might aspire to become pope, and any Christian might hope to be elected emperor. As a matter of fact, the imperial office became for centuries a perquisite of the German kings.
Otho KING OF GREECE, 2d son of Louis I
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
KING OF GREECE, 2d son of Louis I., King of Bavaria; born in Salzburg, July 1, 1815. At 17 years of age he was invited by the Greeks to become their monarch, and this proposition being acceded to by the governments of Great Britain, France, and Russia, in a treaty concluded in London in May, Vol. VII-Cyc revolted the Danes vassal,, 1832, Otho was accordingly declared and King of Greece in January, January, , . He was then in June, 1835, on his attaining the age 1833, and engaged for in war with the of 20, he assumed the reins of governdefeated them ment. Otho, however, soon became unusurped the popular with his subjects, owing to his , Otho entered selection of Bavarians as his cabinet ad- Emperor by visers, and, also, to the strong pro - Gerpontiff afterward man sympathies he continually manifested. After a stormy and inglorious reign of 30 years, Otho abdicated the throne, Oct. 20, 1862, and fled the country, which was then in a state of insurrection against the royal authority. He died in Bamberg, Bavaria, July 26, 1867.
Otho MARCUS SILVIUS, a Roman emperor
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MARCUS SILVIUS, a Roman emperor; born in Rome, A. D. 32. After Nero's death, he attached himself Galba, but that emperor having adopted to Piso as his heir, Otho excited an insurrection, murdered Galba and Piso, and ascended the throne in 69. He was opposed by Vitellius, who was supported by the German army, and in a battle between the two rivals near Bedriacum, Otho was defeated, on which he slew himself, after reigning three months.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
All three men are still described much as they are here, but two details have been tidied up. Aiton's 1910 claim that Otto I "repelled the Bulgarians, driving them permanently into the valley of the Danube" confuses them with the Magyars, whom Otto crushed at the Lechfeld near Augsburg in 955, a victory now treated as the making of his reputation; modern accounts also spell him Otto rather than Otho, and are far more cautious about his supposed conquests of Bohemia and Prussia, which were tributary or missionary ventures rather than annexations. Collier's Roman emperor of 1921 is now always given as Marcus Salvius Otho, not "Silvius", though his three-month reign in 69 and his suicide after Bedriacum stand exactly as written. Historians today also stress that the phrase "Holy Roman Empire" was not used in Otto's own lifetime, so his coronation of 962 looks less like a founding act than it did to the writers above.
Written for this edition, 2026.