First full-length analysis of Norman military organisation in the
Balkans: events, strategy, and tactics.
The Norman expansion in eleventh-century Europe was a movement of
enormous historical importance, which saw men and women from the duchy
of Normandy settling in England, Italy, Sicily and the Middle East. The
Norman establishmentin the South is particularly interesting, because it
represents the story of a few hundred mercenaries who managed to
establish a principality in the Mediterranean that would later develop
in to the Kingdom of Sicily.
In thisbook the author examines the clash of two different "military
cultures" - the Normans and the Byzantines - in one theatre of war - the
Balkans. It is the first study to date of the military organization of
the Norman and Byzantine states in the Mediterranean, and of their
overall strategies and their military tactics in the battlefield. It is
also the first to examine the way in which each military culture reacted
and adapted to the strategies and tacticsof its enemies in Italy and the
Balkans. The author closely follows the campaigns conducted by the
Normans in the Byzantine provinces of Illyria and Macedonia and their
battles against Imperial armies commanded by the Byzantine Emperor. He
also examines the ways in which the Italian-Norman and Byzantine
military systems differed, and their relative efficiencies.
Dr Georgios Theotokis is Assistant Professor of European History at
Fatih University, Istanbul.
