>>18584
The other way around. Kinda.
Southern Italy was in the possession of Byzantium, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle calls it Greece despite it's Italy because of this reason. Comyn claims Otto went there to conquer it and the Byzantines hired the Saracens who owned Sicily at that time.
The question is what Otto's intentions were, what the fuck did he do with an army on lands which wasn't under his suzerainty? He married a Byzantine princess and Comyn adds 1 and 1 and concludes he wanted to take over the place on the right of his wife. He did started to pursue imperial ambitions. His Italian chancery just adopted the title of imperator Romanorum augustus in 982 which also could be used as a basis for claiming the whole peninsula.
Modern authors say he went there to drive away the Arabs - on the same basis (he was the Roman emperor that was his land). Comyn wrote his book in the middle of the 19th century modern authors can have far more sources to evaluate than he had, it would be nice to read those but that's not a short work.
Without further research the topic I'm not sure who owned what in Southern Italy at that time. I know Arabs raided the region many times, Byzantines - who really owned places there - had problems with them all the time.
I can also make sense liek this: Byzantium had the claim of the land and normally it was theirs but Arabs overrun places then Otto came and tried to make these places - but not those which were still under Byzantine control - his own by chasing away the Saracens and occupy them with his own men, legitimizing the whole move with his imperial title and maybe with his wife's rights.