The Norman Campaigns in the Balkans, 1081–1108 by Georgios Theotokis (review)

This volume is a published version of the author’s 2010 University of Glasgow doctoral thesis, “The campaigns of the Norman dukes of southern Italy against Byzantium, in the years between 1071 and 1108 AD.” No radical interpretation is offered here, but instead the book is a very solid introduction and narrative study of the respective Byzantine and Norman military establishments and their conflicts. The book’s greatest strength is as a piece that provides context and an extensive introduction to the respective Norman and Byzantine military situations. Although the actual material devoted to Norman campaigns in the Balkans is quite brief (137–164, 200–214), the rest of the book serves as a useful contextual piece for these wars. This book has particular value as a thorough and well-argued replacement of Alexios G. C. Savvides’s Byzantino-Normannica: The Norman Capture of Italy (to A.D. 1081) and the First Two Invasions of Byzantium (A.D. 1081–1096 and 1107–1108) (Leuven 2007).

The book is set up in such a manner that it introduces the material and the two sides before getting to the actual Byzantine-Norman wars. The introduction lays out the structure of the study and the main question concerning how the two sides modified their respective military traditions when they came into contact with each other. The use and practicality of Byzantine military manuals is also introduced as one of the key points in the book. Although no chapter is devoted to this, Theotokis’s insights on the practicality of the manuals are thought-provoking and the arguments for their pragmatic nature will need to be considered by those working with them in the future. The first chapter is a good discussion of sources. Over half a dozen major narrative sources in both Latin and Greek receive and introduction and a discussion. The bulk of the chapter is made up of an interesting and thoughtful study of how these sources can be used to write military history. The second chapter is an introduction to Norman forces in Italy. Here Theotokis accesses a wide range of scholarship looking at Norman institutions in France and England as well in order to better understand those in Italy. While at times this can feel like a digression, the overall product works and the reader is left with a sense of how the Normans in Italy functioned.

Crossing the Adriatic, the third and fourth chapters provide a solid introduction to the Byzantine army and the navy of the tenth and eleventh centuries. The material used for this is a good mixture of primary and secondary texts and shows a detailed understanding of the period. Moreover, though, Theotokis provides a vivid and evocative picture of an army struggling with internal issues of center and periphery amidst numerous external foes. Foreign elements in the Byzantine military hierarchy receive a good deal of attention here and these sections are particularly well done. The attention granted to the numerous military manuals of this period is greatly appreciated.

The fifth chapter sets the scene for the invasion of the Balkans and discusses the Byzantine-Norman wars in Italy. The campaign narratives here are easy to follow and the occasionally complex politics surrounding them rendered understandable. The promise of the title is finally delivered in the sixth and seventh chapters. The sixth focuses primarily on Robert in the Balkans, with the siege of Dyrrachion and the attempted relief by Alexios I Komnenos forming the core of the material. The seventh chapter begins with the Byzantine defeat at Dyrrachion and then goes on to narrate and study the campaigns of Bohemond in Greece. Notable here is the discussion of Bohemond’s motives and strategy, with Theotokis suggesting a range of explanations for his movements. The eighth chapter feels a little out of place since it discusses the Normans and the First Crusade. It is a good chapter, but its overall place in the book seems somewhat odd and mainly serves to...