Battle of Stilo 982
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 982 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Medieval (500–1499) | derived from year |
| Location | Italy | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Muslim invasions of Italy | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Duchy of Benevento, Holy Roman Empire, Muslim Sicily, Principality of Salerno | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 39.0254, 17.2022 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Stilo (also known as the Battle of Cape Colonna and the Battle of Crotone) was fought on 13 or 14 July 982 near Crotone in Calabria between the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Otto II and his Italo-Lombard allies and those of the Kalbid emir of Sicily, Abu'l-Qasim, who had declared a holy war against the Germans.
German forces of the Holy Roman Empire had been moving south in Italy nominally to repulse the Arab threat to the Byzantine provinces, after a short pause for reinforcements from Germany, but some historians argue it was mainly to seize Byzantine territory in the region, and some sources even say he moved to attack both the Arabs and Byzantines at once: it appears virtually every Bishop and Noble in Germany had joined Otto in his attempt to repulse the Arabs. Abu’l-Qasim had recently captured the last areas in the vicinity of Messina still controlled by the Byzantines, who were forced to cross the Strait of Messina to the Italian mainland. Abu’l-Qasim sent a raiding force into Byzantine Apulia to pursue the Byzantines, which clashed with Otto II’s advancing German force and the Muslims were forced to retreat. The Germans received news that the main Arab force had landed in Calabria and moved to fight them.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Stilo (revision 1381349439), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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