Invasion of Dyrrhachium

Date: October 18, 1081 • Location: Durrës, Albania

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1081–1082.

Byzantine–Norman wars: Robert Guiscard led an invasion of the Byzantine Empire, capturing Dyrrhachium in present-day Albania.

The Byzantine–Norman wars were a series of military conflicts between the Normans and the Byzantine Empire fought from c. 1040 to 1186 involving the Norman-led Kingdom of Sicily in the west, and the Principality of Antioch in the Levant. The last of the Norman invasions, though having incurred disaster upon the Romans by sacking Thessalonica in 1185, was eventually driven out and vanquished by 1186.