Abu'l-Qasim was not far from Rossano Calabro when he noticed the unexpected strength of Otto's troops, and retreated. Tipped off to the retreat by ships[clarification needed], Otto left his wife Theophanu and their children in Rossano, along with the baggage and the imperial treasure, and set off to pursue the enemy. When Abu'l-Qasim recognized that he would not be able to flee, he readied his army for a pitched battle at Capo Colonna, south of Crotone. After a violent clash, a corps of German heavy cavalry destroyed the Muslim centre and then pushed towards the emir's guards. Abu'l-Qasim was ultimately killed during the battle, but his troops were not shaken, going on to surround Otto's forces with a hidden reserve of approximately 5,000 cavalry and[1] inflicting heavy losses. According to Ibn al-Athir's history, casualties numbered around 4,000, among them Landulf IV of Benevento, Henry I, Bishop of Augsburg, Günther, Margrave of Merseburg, the Abbot of Fulda, and 19 other German counts.[2] Otto was forced to flee the battle, ultimately securing shelter only by swimming out to a Byzantine merchant ship.[3][4] He then rested in Rossano, only returning to Rome on 12 November 982.
Election of Otto III
After fleeing northward, Otto held an assembly consisting primarily of local magnates in Verona. There, he secured the election of his son as King of Italy and called for reinforcements from Germany. Saxon losses in the battle had been the most severe, and Duke Bernard I of Saxony had been heading south to Verona for the assembly, but raids from Danish Vikings forced him to turn back. Otto had sent his nephew Duke Otto I of Swabia and Bavaria north to Germany to deliver the news of the battle at Stilo, but the Duke perished en route. Nevertheless, word did travel, reaching as far as Wessex—a testament to the magnitude of the disaster. Ultimately, Otto would die the next year before being able to resume the campaign in southern Italy.
Succession in Capua, Benevento, and Salerno
The Mezzogiorno was shaken by the battle. With Landulf and his brothers Atenulf and Pandulf II of Salerno having died fighting, the holdings of Capua and Benevento passed on to cadet branches of the Landulfid family—with Salerno ultimately being snatched up by Duke Manso I of Amalfi.
Consequences in Southern Italy and the Elbe
Although the Kalbid troops had been forced to retreat back to the island of Sicily, the Muslims retained a presence in southern Italy, continuing to harass local Greeks and Lombards. Additionally, when the Slavic peoples living on the Elbe heard of the emperor's defeat, they immediately rose up against imperial suzerainty in what would ultimately prove to be a decades-long setback for efforts to Germanise and Christianise them.
↑ The Place of Byzantium in the Medieval World, Steve Runciman, The Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. IV., Part II, ed. J.M. Hussey, (Cambridge University Press, 1967), 361.
The 960s decade ran from January 1, 960, to December 31, 969.
The 980s decade ran from January 1, 980, to December 31, 989.
Year 961 (CMLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Otto II, called the Red, was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy.
Saracen was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Petraea and Arabia Deserta. The term's meaning evolved during its history of usage. During the Early Middle Ages, the term came to be associated with the tribes of Arabia.
Year 982 (CMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.
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Pandulf I Ironhead was the Prince of Benevento and Capua from 943 until his death. He was made Duke of Spoleto and Camerino in 967 and succeeded as Prince of Salerno in 977 or 978. He was an important nobleman in the fight with the Byzantines and Saracens for control of the Mezzogiorno in the centuries after the collapse of Lombard and Carolingian authority on the Italian Peninsula. He established himself over almost the whole of the southern half of Italia before his death in March 981.
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Pandulf II was the prince of Salerno (981), the second of such princes of the family of the princes of Capua. He was originally appointed heir to the childless Gisulf I of Salerno, who had been reinstated on his throne by Pandulf's father, Pandulf Ironhead. On the former's death in 977, he succeeded him as co-prince of Salerno with his father. On the latter's death in March 981, the Ironhead's great principality was divided such that he inherited only Salerno, while Capua-Benevento went to his elder brother Landulf IV.
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John III was the longest-reigning Duke of Naples (928–968). He was the son and successor of Marinus I.
The Principality of Capua was a Lombard state centred on Capua in Southern Italy. Towards the end of the 10th century the Principality reached its apogee, occupying most of the Terra di Lavoro area. It was originally a gastaldate, then a county, within the principality of Salerno.
The history of Islam in Sicily and Southern Italy began with the first Arab settlement in Sicily, at Mazara, which was captured in 827. The subsequent rule of Sicily and Malta started in the 10th century. The Emirate of Sicily lasted from 831 until 1061, and controlled the whole island by 902. Though Sicily was the primary Muslim stronghold in Italy, some temporary footholds, the most substantial of which was the port city of Bari, were established on the mainland peninsula, especially in mainland Southern Italy, though Muslim raids, mainly those of Muhammad I ibn al-Aghlab, reached as far north as Naples, Rome and the northern region of Piedmont. The Arab raids were part of a larger struggle for power in Italy and Europe, with Christian Byzantine, Frankish, Norman and local Italian forces also competing for control. Arabs were sometimes sought as allies by various Christian factions against other factions.
The Norman conquest of southern Italy lasted from 999 to 1139, involving many battles and independent conquerors.
The Emirate of Bari was a short-lived Islamic state in Apulia, in what is now Italy, ruled by non-Arabs, probably Berbers and Black Africans. Controlled from the South Italian city of Bari, it was established about 847 when the region was taken from the Byzantine Empire, but fell in 871 to the army of Emperor Louis II.
Abu'l-Qasim Ali ibn al-Hasan al-Kalbi, known to the Byzantine Greeks as Bolkasimos, was the third Emir of Sicily. He ruled from June 23, 970 to his death in battle on July 13, 982.
The Frankish emperor Louis II campaigned against the Emirate of Bari continuously from 866 until 871. Louis was allied with the Lombard principalities of southern Italy from the start, but an attempt at joint action with the Byzantine Empire failed in 869. In the final siege of the city of Bari in 871, Louis was assisted by a Slavic fleet from across the Adriatic.
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