The defeat at Stilo forced Otto II to flee north to Rome. He then held an Imperial Diet at Verona on Pentecost, 983. He sent his nephew Otto I, Duke of Swabia and Bavaria, back to Germany with news of the defeat and to call the German nobles to the assembly, but his emissary died "en route" on November 1, 982, in Lucca. News of the battle did cross the Alps, however, reaching as far as Wessex in England, signifying the magnitude of the defeat. Duke Bernard I of Saxony was heading south for the assembly when Danish Viking raids forced him to return to face the threat.