Battle of Dyrrhachium

Overview

The Battle of Dyrrhachium took place on October 18, 1081 between the Byzantine Empire, led by the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, and the Normans of southern Italy under Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria. The battle was fought outside the city of Dyrrhachium, the major Byzantine stronghold in the western Balkans, and ended in a Norman victory.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Dyrrhachium on 24 October 1081 was a major engagement in the Byzantine–Norman Wars between the forces of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and the Norman army of Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria. Byzantine casualties recorded at 5,000 against a force of 20,000–25,000 indicate a substantial defeat for Alexios, who commanded a numerically superior army against Guiscard's approximately 15,000 troops. The outcome at Dyrrhachium bore directly on Norman ambitions to penetrate Byzantine-held territory in the Balkans, with Dyrrhachium serving as a critical Adriatic gateway into the empire's western provinces.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (9)