Battle of Dyrrachium

October 18, 1081

Robert Guiscard's Normans, having crossed the Adriatic, crushed Alexios I's relief army outside the walls of Dyrrachium. The Varangian Guard was annihilated in the fight. Byzantine power in the western Balkans collapsed. Only the recall of Guiscard to Italy by his pope-versus-emperor crisis saved Alexios from a march east. The Varangian losses were so severe that Alexios rebuilt the unit with Anglo-Saxon refugees from Norman England.