Bernd 08/19/2018 (Sun) 09:54:02 No.18572 del
I looked into this >>18561 battle some more in these books (I think all available via libgen):
- Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire - Peter H. Wilson, 2016
- The History of the Western Empire Vol 1. - Robert Comyn, 1841
- Germany in the Middle Ages c.800-1056 - Timothy Reuter 1991
- The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol 3. 900-1024 - Byzantium and the west - Jonathan Shepard, 2008
They all say Otto lost that battle.
He married Theophanu, a second rate Byzantine princess of not too clear ancestry, and as he was very much interested in polishing his nimbus of Roman emperor so he launched a campaign into southern Italy. Comyn claims he led the campaign against the Byzantines on basis of his wife's claim on that region - and the Byzantines used/payed the Saracens to cool his ambitions -, contemporary writers however see it as an effort to clear the Saracens out from there. All claim his army was destroyed, Shepard adds he escaped by swimming to a Byzantine ship. Reuter says the Saracen emir was killed as well and they have to leave Italy. However the battle itself put an end to Otto's campaing for sure.
Not one of these books line up primary sources clearly, not in foot- or endnotes at least. Reuter begins his book with the introduction to the sources in general to his topic, and The New Cambridge Medieval History usually does similarly in it's volumes.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle line that the:
>emperor gained the field of battle
is based on a formula used for many entries, so it would be wise not to take it too seriously.
It would be nice to find and look into other primary sources but I've no time or energy for that, maybe if another Bernd could look into it... at least gather some... who knows.