Death of Otto III in Italy

January 23, 1002

The young emperor who had dreamed of reviving Rome itself as the capital of a universal Christian empire died of fever in a Lombard village, not yet twenty-two years old. His corpse was carried north over the Alps through territory in open revolt, and buried at Aachen beside Charlemagne. With him died the last serious attempt to fuse German and Roman imperial traditions into a single governing vision.