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Invasion of the Byzantine city by the Normans
The
sack of Thessalonica
in 1185 by
Normans
of the
Kingdom of Sicily
was one of the worst disasters to befall the
Byzantine Empire
in the 12th century.
Siege
[
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]
David Komnenos
, the governor of the city, had neglected to make sufficient preparations for the siege and even forbade sallies by the defenders to disrupt the Norman siege works. The Byzantine relief armies failed to coordinate their efforts, and only two forces, under Theodore Choumnos and John Maurozomes, actually came to the city's aid. In the event, the Normans undermined the city's eastern wall, opening a breach through which they entered the city. They slaughtered the defenders and proceeded to sack the city. The conquest degenerated quickly into a full-scale massacre of the city's inhabitants, some 7,000 corpses being found afterwards. The siege is extensively chronicled by the city's archbishop,
Eustathius of Thessalonica
, who was present in the city during and after the siege.
Aftermath
[
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]
The Normans occupied Thessalonica until mid-November, when, following their defeat at the
Battle of Demetritzes
, they evacuated it. After emperor
Andronikos Komnenos
's
massacre of the Latins
in
Constantinople
in 1182, the massacre of the Thessalonians deepened the rift between the
Western Christianity
and
Eastern Christianity
. It also directly led to the deposition and execution of the unpopular Emperor Andronikos and the rise to the throne of
Isaac II Angelos
.
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40°39′N
22°54′E
/
40.650°N 22.900°E
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40.650; 22.900