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The Byzantine Invasion of Sicily was an armed conflict fought primarily between the Byzantine Empire and the Norman County of Sicily, the Papacy and its allies. The war began as a conflict between the Byzantine Empire and the County of Sicily before the intervention of Papal allied forces turned the war into a broader conflict between an allied Italian coalition led by the Papacy and the Byzantine Empire. Beginning as a surprise invasion, the Byzantine Empire initially scored a number of victories, capturing the city of Syracuse from the Italian Coalition and obtaining naval supremacy. However, the Byzantines lost the initiative following their failed attempt to capture Messina, and from then on found themselves unable to press their advantage, being effectively countered by the allied coalition. As the war turned against the Byzantines, the Emperor John II Komnenos, determined to capture the island, deployed nearly 30,000 Thematic forces from Anatolia, which ultimately was not enough to regain the initiative. Following repeated failures to capture the Norman capital of Palermo and with additional Byzantine reinforcements blocked by the Norman fleet, the commander of the Byzantine forces, Strategos Theodore Vatatzes, realized the Emperor’s goal of annexing Sicily was impossible, and unwilling to risk the entire Byzantine Army in Sicily for the Emperor’s delusional goals, made peace with the Italian forces, being allowed safe passage to leave Sicily. Faced with his strategos’ disobedience and with the Emperor’s authority significantly weakened by the expenditures of manpower and funds to fight the war, Emperor John II had no choice but to make peace, ending the war.

Background

The Byzantine Empire, under the Komnenos Dynasty, had begun a resurgence following the successful First Crusade. Taking advantage of the Normans preoccupation with Africa and Anatolia, the Byzantines had successfully recaptured much of Norman-occupied Albania. Additionally, with the weakening of the Seljuk Empire, the Byzantines had begun to reassert their authority across Anatolia. Following the short but decisive Byzantine-Armenian Conflict, the Byzantines had also decimated their only remaining rival in Anatolia and reconquered the entire peninsula.

With Anatolia secured and the Seljuks and Armenians removed as a viable threat, the Emperor John II turned to the age-old enemy of the Byzantines, the Normans. Specifically, the most powerful Norman realm, the County of Sicily. Despite Roger II’s attempts to improve relations with the Empire and his focus on conquering Africa, the Emperor still mistrusted the Normans, and planned to ensure they could never again threaten the Byzantine’s heartlands in Europe. As such, John II planned an invasion of Sicily to conquer and annex the island and reclaim it for the Romans.

Military Conflict

The Invasion Begins

John II had reached out to Roger II requesting permission to use Sicily as a base for a Byzantine reconquest of Africa. However Roger, distrustful of the Byzantines following their betrayal of the Armenians and their betrayal of the Normans during the First Crusade, had refused John’s requests. John II forced the matter however by sending a large fleet of nearly 200 warships and more than 200 transports carrying 40,000 men to Sicily, requesting to enter the harbor of Sicily to resupply before an alleged invasion of Egyptian North Africa. The Norman Lord of Syracuse, Auber Grosvenor, was serving as Roger’s Chancellor in Palermo, leaving governance to his wife, who refused to allow the Byzantines entry and sent word of the fleet to Roger. Roger, already alerted to the large Byzantine fleet headed to Sicily by scouts and ships in Southern Italy, had rallied most of the fleet to Palermo intending to intercept it. The overwhelmingly large Byzantine fleet, combined with their shocking speed, had prevented Roger from intercepting it before it reached Syracuse however.

With the Byzantines rejected from entering Syracuse, the commander of the expedition, Nikepheros Byrennios, ordered an immediate assault, with the fleet disembarking its troops outside the city before attacking the harbor itself and landing marines within the city. With the city’s garrisons clearly outmatched, overwhelmed and outmaneuvered, Syracuse fell easily to the Byzantine’s surprise attack, and the city was secured as a Byzantine foothold.

The Byzantines simultaneously launched a massive attack on Sicily’s North African territories as well with a second large but slightly smaller fleet, razing the island strongholds of Djerba, Kerkennah, and Zembra.

With word reaching Roger that Syracuse had fallen and the Byzantines had begun a massive invasion, Roger immediately rallied his soldiers, summoning Norman lords, Muslim qadis and Greek commanders from across Syracuse to defend the island.

The Pope Intervenes

As the Byzantines invaded Sicily, Pope Honorious II began to worry about the implications of a Byzantine resurgence in Italy. Feeling threatened by a large Imperial power who had claims to all Italy and who did not recognize Papal supremacy invading Sicily, and faced with the loss of the Normans in Italy, who by now had contributed significantly to the Pope’s crusading cause, Pope Honorious II decided to act. The timing could not have been better for Honorious, as he had been planning to launch a Third Crusade against the remaining Muslim forces in Syria. With a large crusader army assembled in central Italy, the Pope decided instead to redirect these forces to Sicily to participate in the defense of the island. The Pope denounced the Byzantine’s invasion for distracting Christendom from fighting the Muslim infidels and for attacking a loyal ally, and dispatched his forces to Sicily to help defend against the Empire.

Battles of Simento and Messina

Italian Counter-Attack

Siege of Palermo

Byzantine Withdrawal

Aftermath

The Byzantine invasion of Sicily left both the Normans and the Byzantines militarily exhausted and financially drained, with both sides suffering more than 80,000 casualties altogether. The invasion had decimated Sicily, which before had been a place of thriving commerce and agriculture, all but destroying two of its major cities and causing widespread famine and death. Additionally, the North African Sultanates had taken advantage of Sicily’s distracted state to seize all of Sicily’s North African holdings, undoing two decades of conquest in less than five years.

For the Byzantines, the loss of so many soldiers, including most of the Emperor’s professional forces and a large portion of his Themata defensive forces, significantly weakened the Emperor’s authority. As word spread of the Byzantine’s losses, many regional governors, vassal kings and duxes began to exert more autonomy, emboldened by the Emperor’s commitment of so many men overseas, with some even beginning to rule their territories more like independent rulers than vassals. With the Emperor financially and militarily unable to respond, the Empire faced large-scale destabilization as its central authority collapsed and power dispersed to local rulers.

The war had however greatly improved the Papacy’s status throughout Southern Italy. With the Normans only saved by Papal intervention, a grateful Roger II pledged eternal fealty to the Papacy and became a willing vassal, swearing that the Italo-Normans would serve the Pope as faithful servants. With Roger II now Duke of Sicily along with Calabria and Apulia, his willing vassalage to the Pope essentially made the Pope the overlord of all of Southern Italy. With the Italo-Normans now serving the Pope as willing and loyal servants and with all of Southern Italy and Sicily now under Papal dominion, the Pope’s influence increased dramatically.

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