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Draft:War of the Campanian League

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War of the Campanian League

The foothills of Licosa, sloping down towards the Tyrrhenian Sea, a Saracen stronghold in Campania in the 9th century
Date846–915
Location
Southern Italy, Lower Central Italy
Result

Campanian victory

  • Muslim expansion in Italy broken
Belligerents
 Saracen and Muslim peoples (Likely led by the Arab Aghlabid and Fatimid dynasties)
Emirate of Bari
Emirate of Taranto
Commanders and leaders

The War of the Campanian League was a decisive war that took place between 842[2][9] (or 846) and 915 AD. It started after an offensive on the Muslim stronghold of Licosa by Christian forces in 846,[10] and ended with the Battle of Garigliano in 915.

Prelude

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The battle fought at Licosa in 846 was not an isolated event: it was the final act of a naval campaign that began in the spring of that same year, with which they wanted to make navigation safer on the naval routes from the ports of the Tyrrhenian Sea, threatened by the raids of Muslim pirates, whose bases were in the numerous hideouts on the coast. Among the refuges where the pirates were based, there was, in today's Cilento, the one on Punta Licosa, considered their best stronghold in Campania.[11][12][13]

Before heading towards Licosa, however, the alliance had already reconquered the island of Ponza, which had fallen into the possession of the Saracens in the early part of that same year.[14]

Chronological events

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Battle of Licosa, 846

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The battle took place in 846 between a local coalition, made up of the duchies of Sorrento, Gaeta, Amalfi and Naples and led by Sergius I of Naples, against a horde of Saracens led by a unknown commander of the Fatimid Caliphate.[10][14] The clash ended with the success of the coalition of the Campanian duchies, which was followed by other victorious naval initiatives which always saw the same maritime powers of as protagonists. The military campaigns followed one another repeatedly until 849, the year of the historic Battle of Ostia.[14]

Despite the victories of the anti-Saracen coalition, the effects of the military campaigns were not definitive: in fact, already in 851 there was a resumption and a recrudescence of piracy in Campania, favored by the traditional and never-ending rivalries that opposed the political subjects of southern Italy and Langobardia Minor. These historical divisions, at best, prevented the unity of purpose necessary to definitively defeat the piracy phenomenon. Unity of purpose consolidated over time only from the beginning of the 10th century, a period in which the conditions for more lasting anti-Saracen alliances matured, starting with the Christian League, protagonist in 915 of the Battle of Garigliano.[10][14]

Incursions in Lazio, 846–905

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Main article: Arab raid against Rome
Cesare da Napoli, an engraving by Aliprando Caprioli

In 846, Caesarius of Naples, called the Brave,[2] led a Neapolitan contingent to victory at Gaeta, besieging a Saracen stronghold.[2] Immediately after this episode, the Annales Bertiniani reported an arab raid against Rome,[13] altough the preparator isn't very clear. According to the Liber Pontificalis and the Chronicle of Monte Cassino, the raiders were Saracens from Africa who raided Corsica before attacking Rome. The Annals of Fulda, on the other hand, describe the raiders as Moors (Latin: mauri), which generally indicated Muslims from al-Andalus (Spain) or the Maghreb, as opposed to Ifriqiya. The author of the Annals of Xanten was unsure: he called the raiders "either Moors or else Saracens". It is possible that the annals, which are from north of the Alps, were using "Moors" as a synonym for "Saracens". However, no Italian source describes the raiders of 846 as Moors,[15] so the raiders were probably Saracens.

Old St Peter's, 19th-century reconstruction

A large force landed at Porto and Ostia in 846, annihilating the garrison of Nova Ostia.[16] The Arabs struck following the Tiber and the Ostiense and Portuense roads, as the Roman militia hastily retreated to the safety of the Roman walls.[2][16]

At the same time, other Arab forces landed at Centumcellae, marching towards Rome.[16]

Some basilicas, such as Old St Peter's and Saint Paul's, were situated outside the Aurelian Walls and were easy target for sacking, however the arabs couldn't march further after those and the advance was halted.[17] As a result, the raiders pillaged the surroundings of the city and desecrated[18] the two holy shrines. Some historians believe the raiders had known exactly where to look for the most valuable treasures.[2]

No contemporary account hints at any attempt to penetrate the city, but it is possible that the Romans defended the walls, while around Saint Peter's, members of the Vatican scholae (Saxons, Lombards, Frisians and Franks) attempted to resist, but were defeated.[19]

In the meantime, an army coming from Spoleto and headed by Lombard Duke Guy, attacked the Arabs, hindered by booty and prisoners, in front of the city walls, pursuing a part of them until Centumcellae, while another group tried to reach Misenum by land.[20] The Saracens were able to embark, but a storm destroyed many ships, bringing onto the beaches many corpses adorned with jewels which could be recovered.[20] After that, the Lombard army headed south, reaching the Arabs at Gaeta, where another battle was engaged.[20] On that occasion, only the arrival of Cesarius, son of Sergius, Magister Militum of Naples, decided the battle in favour of the Christians.[20]

In the aftermath, shortly after the siege, Pope Leo IV built the Leonine Wall on the right bank of the Tiber, in order to protect the Church of St. Peter. The encircled territory, defended by Castel Sant'Angelo, was named Leonine City after the pope, and was considered a separate town, with its own administration. It joined the city in the sixteenth century, becoming the fourteenth rione of Rome, Borgo. In 849, another Arab raid against Rome's port, Ostia, would be repelled; The Saracen survivors were made prisoners, enslaved and sent to work in chain gangs building the Leonine Wall which was to encompass the Vatican Hill. Rome would never again be threatened by an Arab army.[2]

In 883, on 4 September,[21] the Muslims, leaving from Garigliano, headed towards Monte Cassino. The monastery was sacked and set on fire and many monks were killed. Abbot Bertario, who escaped the massacre together with some of the remaining monks, found refuge in the city in the monastery of San Salvatore where, about a month later, following a new attack, he was killed at the altar of San Martino. This event became known as the Second destruction of Monte Cassino,[21] after the first one caused by the Lombards in 181 AD.[22]

In 898 the Abbey of Farfa was sacked by "Saracens", who burned it to the ground.[23] Abbot Peter of Farfa managed to organise the community's escape and salvaged its library and archives. In 905, the monastery was again attacked and destroyed by "Saracens".[24] Other areas of historical Saracen presence in central and southern Italy include, Saracinesco, Ciciliano and Nocera Inferiore.

Battle of Ostia, 849

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Main article: Battle of Ostia
Raphael's fresco The Battle of Ostia, an indication of the battle's legendary fame.[25]

News of a massing of Muslim ships off Sardinia reached Rome early in 849. A Christian armada, commanded by Caesar, son of Sergius I of Naples, was assembled off recently refortified Ostia, and Pope Leo IV came out to bless it and offer a mass to the troops. After the Muslim ships appeared, battle was joined with the Neapolitan galleys in the lead. Midway through the engagement, a storm divided the Muslims and the Christian ships managed to return to port. The Muslims, however, were scattered far and wide, with many ships lost and others sent ashore. When the storm died down, the remnants of the Muslim fleet were easily picked off, with many prisoners taken.[1] Among these prisoners, Kalfün, the leader of the Emirate of Bari, was taken hostage and executed.[7] In the aftermath of the battle, much flotsam and jetsam washed ashore and was pillaged by the locals, per jus naufragii. The prisoners taken in battle were forced to work in chain gangs building the Leonine Wall which was to encompass the Vatican Hill. Rome would never again be approached by a Muslim army.[26] The battle was, according to various historians, the most notable naval victory of the Christians over the Muslims before the Battle of Lepanto.[1]

Reconquest of Bari, 869–871

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Main article: Louis II's campaign against Bari (866–871)
Louis II at the capture of Bari in 871 (19th-century lithograph)

In 869, according to the Annals of Saint-Bertin, after the departure of the Byzantine fleet, the emir of Bari sent raiders into the Gargano. The shrine of Saint Michael the Archangel was plundered. In response, in 870 Louis raided deep into Apulia. Several towns were taken.[27] Following this successful raid, Louis invested Bari itself, with an army containing both Franks and Lombards.[27] He had naval assistance, certainly a Croatian fleet[a] and possibly a Byzantine one.[30][27] The Chronicle of Salerno mentions neither, while On Administering the Empire mentions a Byzantine fleet. There is no other evidence for Byzantine involvement in the campaign of 870–871.[28] Two Byzantine sources, On Administering the Empire and the Life of Basil the Emperor, refer to a Slavic contingent brought to the siege by the fleet of Ragusa.[31]

According to Andrew of Bergamo, the people of Calabria sent envoys to Louis during the siege, offering allegiance and tribute in exchange for protection from the Saracens. Louis sent a detachment to Calabria, where it defeated a Saracen army near Amantea. This provoked a reaction from Aghlabid Sicily. Sicilian Muslim reinforcements were dispatched to Bari, but Louis intercepted and defeated them.[32] The city surrendered in February 871. Emir Sawdān was led back as a captive to Benevento,[27] and was placed in prison for 4–5 years.[8] Louis immediately began preparations to besiege Taranto.[32] He placed a Lombard gastald in charge of Bari.[33]

Salerno besieged, 871–872

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Main article: Siege of Salerno (871–872)
A siege machine being destroyed, from a 20th-century illustrated history of Italy. The machine depicted, however, is not a traction trebuchet.

The Siege of Salerno was one of the campaigns of the Aghlabids in southern Italy during their conquest of Sicily. The Lombard city of Salerno had strong defences and, despite the use of stone-throwing artillery, the siege lasted a little over a year from its beginning in late 871 or early 872. Prince Guaifer of Salerno led the defence, but the siege was only lifted by the arrival of an army of Lombards and Franks under the Emperor Louis II.

The Aghlabid force under ʿAbd Allāh crossed from Ifrīqiya, landed in Calabria and marched overland to Salerno, according to the Chronicon Salernitanum.[34][35] Andreas of Bergamo, on the other hand, has them landing at Taranto.[36] The Chronicon Salernitanum pegs the force at 72,000. Erchempert puts it at 30,000. Both numbers are exaggerations, but they do indicate that the Aghlabid army was considered very large. During its march north, it captured "many towns", in the words of Erchempert.[34] It forced the Frankish army that was besieging Taranto, where the last remnants of the emirate of Bari were holding out, to abandon the siege.[37]

In late fall or early winter, possibly as late as early 872,[38] it laid siege to Salerno, which was too well defended to be taken by force. The countryside was ravaged to prevent food supplies from reaching the capital; its inhabitants either captured or slaughtered.[34] The countryside of Benevento and Capua, defended by Adelchis, was not spared.[37]

Deploying siege engines, the Aghlabids maintained a tight investment. In one of the earliest appearances of the word, the Chronicon Salernitanum calls these engines petraria. They were probably the traction trebuchets with which both sides would have been familiar. One particularly large one was used to slowly reduce a tower along the wall.[39][40] According to the Chronicon Salernitanum, a certain Landemarius went over the walls and single-handedly destroyed it with an axe, killing many enemies in the process.[41] In January 872, ʿAbd Allāh died and was replaced as commander by ʿAbd al-Malik.[42]

On several occasions, the starving Salernitans considered surrendering.[34] They were eventually reduced to eating cats and mice.[43] After several months, Amalfi smuggled supplies to the defenders. According to the Chronicon Salernitanum, this move was much debated in Amalfi, because "from the first it had made peace with the Hagarenes".[34] After over a year of pleas and entreaties, Louis II, then at Rome, sent a Frankish army reinforced by Lombard contingents to relieve the siege.[34][44] The Frankish force defeated an Aghlabid force near Capua on the banks of the Volturno, while a Lombard force defeated a separate detachment at Suessula.[44] According to Andreas of Bergamo, there were 20,000 Saracens at Capua.[36] The Frankish commander, Louis's nephew Cuntart, was killed in action.[45] Following this, Louis II himself came south.[44] At his approach, the Aghlabids abandoned the siege. According to the Chronicon Salernitanum, in the final week of the siege the Frankish army had marched using branches as camouflage and the besiegers had exclaimed "it is like a mountain comes against us".[34]

Battle of Cape Circeo, 877

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In 877, Pope John VIII, who encouraged a vigorous policy against the Muslim pirates and raiders, summoned an alliance of Capua, Salerno and Gaeta in Traetto[46] and led it, personally defeating a Muslim fleet near Mount Circeo, capturing 18 enemy vessels and freeing 600 Christian slaves.[47][46] It is said that only about 40 foreign individuals managed to hide and escape hostage, while the rest of the saracen fleet was either captured or executed.[46]

Battle of the Garigliano, 915

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Main article: Battle of Garigliano

The Battle of the Garigliano was fought in 915 between Christian forces and the Saracens. Pope John X personally led the Christian forces into battle. The aim was to destroy the Arab fortress on the Garigliano River,[48] which had threatened central Italy and the outskirts of Rome for nearly 30 years.[49][50] It was fought between a Christian force of around 50,000 against a fatimid–saracen force of 40,000 led by Alliku.[51]

The first action took place in northern Lazio, where small bands of ravagers were surprised and destroyed. The Christians scored two more significant victories at Campo Baccano, on the Via Cassia, and in the area of Tivoli and Vicovaro. After these defeats, the Muslims occupying Narni and other strongholds moved back to the main Fatimid stronghold on the Garigliano: this was a fortified settlement (kairuan) whose site, however, has not yet been identified with certainty. The siege lasted for three months, from June to August.[52]

After being pushed out of the fortified camp, the Fatimids retired to the nearby hills. Here they resisted many attacks led by Alberic and Landulf. However, deprived of food and noticing their situation was becoming desperate, in August they attempted a sally to reach the coast and escape to the Emirate of Sicily. According to the chronicles, all were captured and executed, including Alliku, commander of the saracen army.[51]

Berengar was rewarded with Papal support and eventually the imperial title, while Alberic's prestige after the victorious battle granted him a preeminent role in the future history of Rome. John I of Gaeta was able to expand his duchy to the Garigliano and received the title of patricius from Byzantium, leading his family to proclaim themselves "dukes".

Following the victory, the Byzantines, as the most important force during the battle, became the dominant power in southern Italy,[53] and the Saracen threat in the Italian peninsula vanished forever.[51]

Sources

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  • Kreutz, Barbara M. (1996). Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1587-8. JSTOR j.ctt3fhrmn.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • Lankila, Tommi P. (2013). "The Saracen Raid of Rome in 846: An Example of Maritime Ghazw". In Sylvia Akar; Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila; Inka Nokso-Koivisto (eds.). Travelling through Time: Essays in honour of Kaj Öhrnberg. Studia Orientalia. Vol. 114. Helsinki: Societas Orientalis Fennica. pp. 93–120. ISBN 978-951-9380-84-1. ISSN 0039-3282.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • Gregorovius, Ferdinand (1988). Storia della città di Roma nel Medioevo (in Italian). Vol. 3. Roma: Gherardo Casini Editore. ISBN 9788840381756.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • Pryor, John H.; Jeffreys, Elizabeth M. (2006). The Age of the Δρομων: The Byzantine Navy, ca 500–1204. Brill.
  • Purton, Peter Fraser (2009). A History of the Early Medieval Siege, c. 450–1220. Boydell Press.
  • Stevović, Ivan D. (2001). "Byzantium, Byzantine Italy and Cities on the Eastern Coast of the Adriatic: The Case of Kotor and Dubrovnik" (PDF). Zbornik radova Vizantološkog instituta. 39 (39): 165–182. doi:10.2298/ZRVI0239165S.
  • Bondioli, Lorenzo M. (2018). "Islamic Bari between the Aghlabids and the Two Empires". In Glaire D. Anderson; Corisande Fenwick; Mariam Rosser-Owen (eds.). The Aghlabids and Their Neighbors: Art and Material Culture in Ninth-Century North Africa. Brill. pp. 470–490.
  • Gay, Jules (1904). L'Italie méridionale et l'empire byzantin depuis l'avènement de Basile Ier jusqu'à la prise de Bari par les Normands (867–1071). Albert Fontemoing.
  • Musca, Giosuè (1964). L'emirato di Bari, 847–871. Edizioni Dedalo.
  • Amari, Michele (1854). Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia. Vol. 1. Felice Le Monnier.
  • Berto, Luigi Andrea (2014). "The Muslims as Others in the Chronicles of Early Medieval Southern Lombardy". Viator. 45 (3): 1–24. doi:10.1484/J.VIATOR.5.102918.
  • Chevedden, Paul (1998). "The Hybrid Trebuchet: The Halfway Step to the Counterweight Trebuchet". In Donald J. Kagay; Theresa M. Vann (eds.). On the Social Origins of Medieval Institutions: Essays in Honor of Joseph O'Callaghan. Brill. pp. 179–222.
  • Metcalfe, Alex (2009). The Muslims of Medieval Italy. Edinburgh University Press.
  • Granier, Thomas (2007). "La captivité de l'empereur Louis II à Bénévent (13 août–17 septembre 871) dans les sources des IXe–Xe siècles: l'écriture de l'histoire, de la fausse nouvelle au récit exemplaire". Faire l'événement au Moyen Âge. Presses universitaires de Provence. pp. 13–39. doi:10.4000/books.pup.5703. ISBN 9782853996723.
  • Dvornik, F.; Jenkins, R. J. H.; Lewis, B.; Moravscik, G.; Obolensky, D.; Runciman, S. (2012) [1967]. Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio: A Commentary. Dumbarton Oaks.

Notes

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  1. ^ Louis in his letter refers to "our Sclaveni with their ships".[28] Pryor and Jeffreys place a Byzantine fleet at Bari in 869, but only a Croatian fleet there in 871.[29]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c "CAMPANA, LEGA in "Enciclopedia Italiana"". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kreutz 1996, pp. 25–28.
  3. ^ Caravale, Mario (ed). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani: LIX Graziando – Grossi Gondi. Rome, 2002.[dubious – discuss]
  4. ^ Hilmar C. Krueger. "The Italian Cities and the Arabs before 1095" in A History of the Crusades: The First Hundred Years, Vol.I. Kenneth Meyer Setton, Marshall W. Baldwin (eds., 1955). University of Pennsylvania Press. p.48.
  5. ^ During the battle at the Garigliano, Cfr. Chronicon comitum Capuae in Mon.Germ.hist.Script. III,208[better source needed]
  6. ^ Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (1967) [948-952]. "29. Of Dalmatia and of the adjacent nations in it". De Administrando Imperio [On the Governance of the Empire] (PDF) (in Ancient Greek and English). Translated by Jenkins, R.J.H. Greek text edited by Gy. Moravcsik (New Revised ed.). Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks. pp. 127–135. ISBN 0-88402-021-5. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  7. ^ a b Kreutz 1996, p. 38.
  8. ^ a b Musca 1964, p. 118
  9. ^ According to the Gesta episcoporum Neapolitanorum by John the Deacon.
  10. ^ a b c Paolo Squatriti, «Battle of Licosa», in Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia (ed. Christopher Kleinhenz), Volume 2, L to Z, Index, p. 639, Routledge, 2003 ISBN 0-415-93931-3 (Volume 9 of The Routledge encyclopedias of the Middle Ages)
  11. ^ Erchempertus. Georg Waitz, ed. (1878). Historia Langobardorum Beneventanorum (in Latin).
  12. ^ Radoald of Salerno, Chronicon Anonymi Salernitani.
  13. ^ a b Annales Bertiniani, 846–847.
  14. ^ a b c d Amari 1854, p. 364.
  15. ^ Lankila 2013, pp. 98–99.
  16. ^ a b c Gregorovius 1988, p. 99.
  17. ^ Gregorovius 1988, p. 101.
  18. ^ Peter Partner (1972). The Lands of St. Peter: The Papal State in the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance, Volume 10. University of California Press. p. 57. ISBN 9780520021815. Retrieved 27 March 2021. [A]lthough it was not at this time usual for Muslims to desecrate Christian Churches for the sake of desecrating them, excavation has revealed that the tomb of the apostle was wantonly smashed
  19. ^ Gregorovius 1988, p. 100.
  20. ^ a b c d Gregorovius 1988, p. 103.
  21. ^ a b "Seconda distruzione di Monte Cassino". Facebook (in Italian).
  22. ^ See Monte Cassino.
  23. ^ Mary Stroll, The Medieval Abbey of Farfa: Target of Papal and Imperial Ambitions, (Brill, 1997), 32–33.
  24. ^ Mary Stroll, 24–25.
  25. ^ "Battle of Ostia". www.museivaticani.va. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  26. ^ Kreutz 1996, p. 35.
  27. ^ a b c d Kreutz 1996, p. 45.
  28. ^ a b Kreutz 1996, p. 173.
  29. ^ Pryor & Jeffreys 2006, p. 49.
  30. ^ Purton 2009, p. 99.
  31. ^ Stevović 2001, p. 169.
  32. ^ a b Bondioli 2018, p. 487.
  33. ^ Kreutz 1996, p. 57.
  34. ^ a b c d e f g Kreutz 1996, pp. 55–56.
  35. ^ Dvornik, p. 102, in Dvornik et al. 2012.
  36. ^ a b Amari 1854, p. 385.
  37. ^ a b Musca 1964, pp. 128–129.
  38. ^ Kreutz 1996, p. 176 n4; Dvornik, p. 102, in Dvornik et al. 2012, puts the start of the siege in September 871 and its end in the summer of 872. Granier 2007 adopts the same timeline, arguing that Adelchis may have agreed to Louis's release by the arrival of the Aghlabid army. He puts the relief of the siege in August 872. Metcalfe 2009, p. 21, calls it "a twelve-month siege [that] began late in the same year [871]".
  39. ^ Chevedden 1998, p. 195.
  40. ^ Purton 2009, p. 100.
  41. ^ Amari 1854, p. 386; Berto 2014, pp. 19–20, however, distinguishes Landemarius, who helped defeat the son of a Saracen named Elim, from the Salernitan who destroyed the siege engine.
  42. ^ Musca 1964, pp. 128–129; per Amari 1854, p. 353, his death occurred between 17 December 871 and 15 January 872. His brother Ribbāh had already died between 17 November and 16 December.
  43. ^ Berto 2014, pp. 19–20.
  44. ^ a b c Gay 1904, pp. 105–106.
  45. ^ Amari 1854, p. 387.
  46. ^ a b c "Battaglia di Capo Circeo".
  47. ^ Rendina, Claudio (2005). I Papi - storia e segreti. Rome: Newton&Compton editori. ISBN 8822738365.
  48. ^ Roger Collins (1 Jan 2009). Keepers of the Keys of Heaven: A History of the Papacy. Basic Books. p. 175. ISBN 9780786744183.
  49. ^ Gustav Edmund Von Grunebaum. Classical Islam. p. 125. ISBN 9780202364858.
  50. ^ Christopher Kleinhenz (8 Jan 2004). Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 813. ISBN 9781135948801.
  51. ^ a b c Marco Di Branco, 915. La battaglia del Garigliano, Cristiani e musulmani nell'Italia medievale, Il Mulino, 2019, ISBN 978-88-15-28015-2
  52. ^ Peter Partner (1 Jan 1972). The Lands of St. Peter: The Papal State in the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance (illustrated ed.). University of California Press. pp. 81–2. ISBN 9780520021815.
  53. ^ C. W. Previté-Orton (4 Jul 2013). Outlines of Medieval History. Cambridge University Press. p. 157. ISBN 9781107627116.
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