Battle of Cephalonia
Battle of Cephalonia | |||||||
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Part of the Arab–Byzantine wars | |||||||
Map of the Arab–Byzantine naval conflict in the Mediterranean, 7th–11th centuries | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Byzantine Empire | Aghlabids | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Nasar | Unknown | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown; ships from the Imperial Fleet and troops from the Theme of the Peloponnese | 60 "exceedingly large" ships | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown | Very heavy |
The Battle of Cephalonia was a naval battle fought between the
In 880, a fleet from the
The Aghlabid fleet had also learned of the Byzantine fleet's reluctance to engage them, and had grown overconfident. The crews left their ships and pillaged the coasts heedlessly, so that when Nasar arrived with his fleet, they were caught unawares and were annihilated in a night attack. According to the report of Skylitzes, many perished on board their ships when they were set on fire.[4] As the historians John Pryor and Elizabeth Jeffreys write, Nasar's decision to attack at night was an "extremely bold" one, as darkness "made tactical manoeuvring impossible and outcomes unpredictable". Consequently, night battles at sea were very rare.[5] Following his victory, Nasar sailed to southern Italy to assist the army operating there under generals Prokopios and Leo Apostyppes. There he raided Sicily and scored another great victory over an Aghlabid fleet at the Battle of Stelai before returning to Constantinople.[1][4]
References
- ^ a b PmbZ, Nasar (#25490).
- ^ a b Wortley 2010, p. 149.
- ^ Wortley 2010, pp. 149–150.
- ^ a b Wortley 2010, p. 150.
- ^ Pryor & Jeffreys 2006, p. 66.
Sources
- Eickhoff, Ekkehard (1966). Seekrieg und Seepolitik zwischen Islam und Abendland: das Mittelmeer unter byzantinischer und arabischer Hegemonie (650-1040) (in German). De Gruyter.
- Lilie, Ralph-Johannes; Ludwig, Claudia; Pratsch, Thomas; Zielke, Beate (2013). Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nach Vorarbeiten F. Winkelmanns erstellt (in German). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.
- Pryor, John H.; Jeffreys, Elizabeth M. (2006). The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ: The Byzantine Navy ca. 500–1204. Leiden and Boston: Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-15197-0.
- Wortley, John, ed. (2010). John Skylitzes: A Synopsis of Byzantine History, 811–1057. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-76705-7.