Byzantium and the Norman threat in the 11th and 12th centuries
This essay wants to present how the relations between the Byzantine empire and the Normans degenerated into bloody wars in the 11-th and 12-th centuries. From mercenaries hired by the Byzantine emperor, the Normans became with the passing of time the most dangerous and terrifying army that attacked the Eastern empire teritories in the 11-th. and12-th centuries. We can definetly say that the Normans were the forerunners of the antibyzantinic attitudes in Western Europe. The military actions of the Russian Normans as those of their cousins from southern part of Italy showed to the Western world the internal weakness of the Byzantine world. The clergymen from southern Italy were the first scholars who began the mental preparations of the Western world for the future attacks over the Byzantine empire. William from Apulia and Amatus de Monte Cassino underline for example the cowardness, treachery, duplicity, weakness and corruption of the Byzantines.
Keywords: Byzantium, Alexios the I-st., Bohemund, Guiscard, Manuel Comnenos, Roger the IInd, Thessalonik, Constantinople, Dyrrachion, crusades, Aimé, William from Apulia, Eustathios
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4. Leon Diaconus, Historiae VI, Bonn, 1828, p. 105, cf.
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5. S. Kindlimann, op. cit., p. 23.
6. Stelian Brezeanu, O istorie a Bizanţului, Bucureşti,
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7. S. Kindlimann, op. cit., p. 23.
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8.
11. Gaufredus Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii
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25. Ibidem, p. 156.
26. Ibidem, p. 156.
27. William de Apulia, op. cit., p. 243.
28. Ibidem, p. 244.
29. Gaufredus Malaterra, op. cit., p. 49.
30. Aimé du Mont Cassin, op.cit., p. 199.
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36. Gaufredus Malaterra, op. cit., p. 71; William de
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37. Aimé, op.cit., p. 167, 196.
38. Ibidem, p. 53.
39. Gaufredus Malaterra, op. cit., p. 9.
40. Hanawalt, Emily, William of Apulia’s Gesta Robert
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41. Stelian Brezeanu, op. cit., p. 207.
42. Walter Norden, op. cit., p. 52.
43. Stelian Brezeanu, op. cit., p. 208.
44. Sibyll Kindlimann, op. cit., p. 115.
45. David Douglas, op. cit., p. 159-160.
46. Stelian Brezeanu, op. cit., p. 208.
47. Sibyll Kindlimann, op. cit., p. 119.
48. Ibidem, p. 120.
49. Walter Norden, op. cit., p. 63-64.
50. Stelian Brezeanu, op. cit., p. 208.
51. Walter Norden, op. cit., p. 64; Stelian Brezeanu,
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52. Stelian Brezeanu, op.cit., p. 208-209.
53. Sibyll Kindlimann, op. cit., p. 135.
54. Charles Brand, op. cit., p. 144; John Godfrey, op.
cit., p. 12-13.
55. Stelian Brezeanu, op.cit., p. 144.
56. Sibyll Kindlimann, op. cit., p. 174.
57. Walter Norden, op. cit., p. 69.
58. Stelian Brezeanu, op.cit., p. 208.
59. Ibidem, p. 209.
60. John Godfrey, op. cit., p. 12.
61. Stelian Brezeanu, op.cit., p. 209.
62. Charles Brand, op. cit., p. 160; Stelian Brezeanu,
op.cit., p. 209.
63. Sibyll Kindlimann, op. cit., p. 197.
64. Walter Norden, op. cit., p. 115.
65. Eustathios, Die Normannen in Thessalonike. Die
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66. Nicetas Choniates, Historia, Graz, 1959, p. 119.
67. Eustathios, op. cit., p. 89-91.
68. Ibidem, p. 119-121, 122.
69. Ibidem, p. 140.
70. Nicetas Choniates, op. cit., p. 114.
71. Charles Brand, op. cit., p. 174.
72. Nicetas Choniates, op. cit., p. 180.
73. Walter Norden, op. cit., p. 116.
74. Stelian Brezeanu, op.cit., p. 210.
