For the battle called "Punta Stilo", see Battle of Calabria

Battle of Calabria

The Battle of Calabria, was a naval battle during the Battle of the Mediterranean in World War II. It was fought between the Italian Royal Navy and the British Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. The battle occurred 30 miles to the east of Punta Stilo, the "toe" of Italy , on 9 July 1940...

.

The Battle of Stilo or Cape Colonna was fought on 13 or 14 July 982 near Crotone

Crotone

Crotone is a city and comune in Calabria, southern Italy, on the Ionian Sea. Founded circa 710 BC as the Achaean colony of Croton , it was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages until 1928, when its name was changed to the current one. In 1994 it became the capital of the newly established...

 in Calabria

Calabria

Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....

 between the forces of the Emperor Otto II and his Italo-Lombard

Lombards

The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...

 allies and those of the Kalbid emir of Sicily, Abu al-Qasim. Some sources claim that the Muslims received support from the Byzantines

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

, in retaliation for Otto's invasion of their province of Apulia

Catapanate of Italy

The Catepanate of Italy was a province of the Byzantine Empire, comprising mainland Italy south of a line drawn from Monte Gargano to the Gulf of Salerno. Amalfi and Naples, although north of that line, maintained allegiance to Constantinople through the catepan...

, but this is unconfirmed.

Al-Qasim, who had declared a Holy War (jihad

Jihad

Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

) against the Germans, retreated when he noticed the unexpected strength of Otto's troops when he was not far from Rossano Calabro. Informed by some ships of the Muslim retreat, Otto left in that city his wife and children with the baggage and the imperial treasure, and set to pursue the enemy. When al-Qasim recognized that his flight had no hope of success, he fielded his army for pitched battle south of Crotone at Cape Colonna

Capo Colonna

Capo Colonna is a cape of Calabria located near Crotone....

. After a violent clash, a corps of German heavy cavalry destroyed the Muslim centre and pushed towards al-Qasim's guards. The emir was killed, but his troops were not shaken by the loss: they even managed to surround the German troops, slaughtering many of them. According to the historian Ibn al-Athir, casualties were around 4,000. Landulf IV of Benevento

Landulf IV of Benevento

Landulf IV was the prince of Capua and Benevento from 968, when he was associated with his father, Pandulf Ironhead, and prince of Salerno associated with his father from 977 or 978...

, Henry I, Bishop of Augsburg

Henry I, Bishop of Augsburg

Henry I was the Bishop of Augsburg from 973 to his death. He succeeded Saint Ulrich. Unlike under Ulrich, the diocese suffered under Henry's bellicose episcopate....

, Günther, Margrave of Merseburg

Gunther, Margrave of Merseburg

Gunther was the Margrave of Merseburg from 965 until his death, upon which the march of Merseburg was united to that of Meissen....

, the Abbot of Fulda and numerous other German counts were among them.

The defeat forced Otto to flee north, where he held an assembly of primarily north Italian magnates at Verona

Verona

Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...

. He sent his nephew Otto I, Duke of Swabia and Bavaria, back to Germany with the news, but he died en route. News of the battle did reach as far as Wessex

Wessex

The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...

, which is significant of the magnitude of the disaster. Bernard I of Saxony

Bernard I, Duke of Saxony

Bernard I was the duke of Saxony , the second of the Billung dynasty, a son of Duke Herman and Oda. He extended his father's power considerably....

 was heading south for the assembly when Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 Viking raids forced him to return. Saxon losses at Stilo had been most severe. At the assemblage, Otto secured his son Otto III's

Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto III , a King of Germany, was the fourth ruler of the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. He was elected King in 983 on the death of his father Otto II and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 996.-Early reign:...

 election as King of Italy

King of Italy

King of Italy is a title adopted by many rulers of the Italian peninsula after the fall of the Roman Empire...

 and a call for reinforcements from Germany. He died the next year before continuing his campaign in the south.

The state of the Mezzogiorno

Mezzogiorno

The Midday is a wide definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the southern half of the Italian state, encompassing the southern section of the continental Italian Peninsula and the two major islands of Sicily and Sardinia, in addition to a large number of minor islands...

 was shaken up. Besides Landulf IV, his brothers Pandulf II of Salerno

Pandulf II of Salerno

Pandulf II was the prince of Salerno , 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...

 and Atenulf, also died in battle. Though the Kalbid troops were forced to retreat afterwards to Sicily, the Saracens remained a presence in southern Italy, harassing the Greeks and Lombards. Capua and Benevento meanwhile passed to younger branches of the Landulfid

Landulfids

The Landulfids or Atenulfings were a noble family of Lombardic origin in the ninth through eleventh centuries. They were descended from Landulf I of Capua, whose own ancestry is unknown and who died in 843...

 family and Salerno was snatched by Manso

Manso I of Amalfi

Manso I was the duke of Amalfi and prince of Salerno . He was the son of Duke Sergius I and the greatest independent ruler of Amalfi, which he controlled for nearly half a century...

, Duke of Amalfi.

In Germany, the Elbe

Elbe

The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...

an Slavs

Slavic peoples

The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...

, upon hearing news of the emperor's defeat, rose against their German suzerains under Mstivoj

Mstivoj

Mstivoj was an Obodrite prince from 965 or 967 until his death. He inherited his position along with his brother Mstidrag from their father Nako in an unknown year.-Name:...

in a great revolt known as the Slawenaufstand. The Germanisation and Christianisation of the Slavs was put back for decades.

Sources

• Reuter, Timothy. Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056. New York: Longman, 1991.